‘”TASTES GREAT!…LESS FILLING!”’

I’m going on a social media diet.

Why? 

Because social media can be a huge time suck and scrolling through posts often leaves me feeling blue whether it’s because I feel inadequate or I’m just plain overwhelmed.

That said, there’s an incredible author community on FB and Twitter and through it I’ve forged strong friendships with people I probably would not have otherwise met. 

For that reason, I am not “quitting” or “going cold turkey” on social media, nor do I plan to. But I’m scaling back a lot. I’m going social media light. 

What spurred me to go on this diet? 

It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and a blog post by Carol Michel (How to Market Your Book Without Social Media) convinced me to try it.

Carol’s post was the most popular blog on Jane Friedman’s site last month which didn’t surprise me. I imagine there are other authors who, like me, want to step back from social media but are afraid to for obvious reasons.

So how does Carol market her books without social media? Her post has lots of ideas. For now, I’m focusing on these:

• Author website
• Newsletter
• Professional organizations
• Guest blog posts.

Here’s why I chose these actions and where I stand on each of them:

Website: It’s easy to set up a site and it never hurts to have a hub for all things related to you, your books, and your writing. My author friend Suzanne Lenoir just rebuilt my website and she did a bang-up job. It’s now more functional and it looks professional.

Newsletter: During the process of rebuilding my website, Suzanne laid the foundation for me to start a newsletter. I have yet to send one out…baby steps.

Until recently, I never even considered creating an author newsletter. In fact, I poo-pooed the idea. But two things changed my mind. First, my amazing classmates in the GCLS Writing Academy helped me see the merits in having a newletter. And second, Carol’s blog post.

Developing a newsletter (I plan to do it quarterly), will take a fraction of the time I used to spend on social media, and it might be a more effective way to market my books. My newsletter may only reach a small audience, but at least I’ll spend my time creating something that will go out to a core group; people who’ve voluntarily signed up for my newsletter.  

Professional Organizations: Carol writes about gardening and there are probably loads of groups she can speak to. I, on the other hand, write about lesbian art thieves and, as far as I can tell, they don’t have a professional organization. If you’re aware of one, please let me know. I’d love to attend their next convention!  In the meantime, I remain a devoted member of GCLS and look forward to their next conference in July.

Guest Blog Posts: I need to do a lot more in this area, but in the past, I’ve done guest posts for I Heart Lesfic, the Bella Media Channel and, before it went on hiatus, Woman & Words.

If you’re intrigued by lesbian art thieves, check out my new release, On the Fence, now available at Bella Books or Amazon.