Putting the "Networking" into Social Networking

Twitter.

LinkedIn.

MySpace.

Authonomy. Digg.com. Luscious.com. Facebook pages galore. Yahoo Alerts... etc, etc, etc.

Here's the deal, folks. In order to sell a book, one must have a platform. This means, basically, that one must go about getting an audience BEFORE the book goes out, not afterward. Agents and publishers like authors that already have interested readers because that means the book will sell. For this reason, college professors who have an interesting subject matter, and politicians running for office, have a great chance of getting published.

This is not the case for someone like me who writes fiction, especially when I'm writing something that isn't a particular genre like Indian Summer. In my case, I need to go about building up reader interest, and the most basic tool for this is social networking. Now, rather than just looking at the social side of things, I need to look at social networking as a business and advertising tool, something that is a huge paradigm shift for me, since I usually just have fun on Facebook catching up with friends.

Here's a few tips for good social networking:

1) Let the base you already have know what you're doing. I'm pretty sure that not everybody on Facebook knows I've got a book coming out in July, but in the next several weeks, particularly after I get a cover, that will change. I'll still do the fun posts, but I'll also be making my book be known.

2) Join several social networking sites.

3) Get your own blog and Webpage and create links/badges to your major social networking sites.

4) Comment on other blogs and forums that seem to have a lot to do with your topic. For example, my novel's got a Bollywood theme but in an American context, so I'm going to make a lot of posts on bollywhat.com, which is run by Meredith McGuire, an American who loves Bollywood, and also has her own book out called Bollywood Becomes Her. (I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been searching out sites!)

5) Search out the books that are like yours in theme, tone, and genre. Look at the big ones and small ones. Make friends with the authors if you can because you share a base, and if you talk each other up, it's definitely a mutually beneficial arrangement.

6) "Make three intelligent blog comments a day." In other words, read blogs that deal with your subject matter, or writing in general, and make comments on them that are helpful, interesting, and/or move the conversation forward. Don't just blog little meaningless comments. This idea comes from Jason Matthews' excellent book How to Make, Market, and Sell Ebooks, which has been a godsend to me. In fact, many of the ideas I have here come from him, so please buy his book. I'll be blogging more about how awesome he is later.

7) Include a link (or at least paste the URL) to your Website or blog or whatever represents you on the Web when you post a comment anywhere. (Note: People will only click on the link if you've said something that shows you're worthwhile. If your comment is something like "Yeah! Me, too!!!" nobody will take you seriously, and worse, they'll think you're just trying to sell them something.)

8) Always be polite and professional. Not everybody will be. There will be those who are rude to you. There will also be those who are trying to be helpful, but whose advice rankles. Be the rock in the river. Let the water flow around you. Never respond with an angry, rude comment.

There you go. Eight ideas on using social networking. I'm just getting started with all this myself and finding it difficult to balance everything. However, once you've checked everything out, you can choose a few social networking and blog sites that you really like and focus in on them. You don't have to be going to a hundred different networking sites a day, just three or so. My suggestion: Jump fully into the social networking scene and then find out which places are best for you.