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| photo by Marek via Dollar Photo Club |
All the publishing pros will tell you that having an active online
presence is an author's most important asset. How else will readers discover
your work? How will those interested in what you have to offer locate you? How else will you stand out from
the rest of the crowd? I recently experienced firsthand how imperative it is
for an author to be available to an audience online. I consider myself to have
a solid online presence and what I saw when I researched other authors baffled
me.
A few weeks ago while at work at a
community college in upstate New York, I got a call from Dorene who works in our continuing adult education program. She
asked me to help her locate the author of a book she wanted to purchase for a class. She wanted to buy the books directly from him. I teach a few classes in self-publishing at the college, so although I am officially a campus nurse Dorene figured I'd be able to
help.
"Did you look him up on
LinkedIn?" I asked.
"No," she said. "Great
idea."
We looked for him on the site and came up
with nothing. We checked his Amazon page, but there was no author profile and
no contact information listed. We looked for him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
all the usual places authors set up an online presence, but did not find
him. We did a Google search and came full circle back to the Amazon page with
no info.
Stumped, I apologized and said, "I
guess he doesn't want to be found."
She was disappointed. "We're looking
at another book, and that author is approachable, so I guess we'll go with
him."
I felt bad for the author who lost the
opportunity to put his book into the hands of a classroom of students. If he
had simply set up an author profile on his Amazon page with contact info, he would have made a nice sale.
Not long after that I was talking to Gail,
my contact at Thrall Library who works with me to coordinate the library’s
Local Authors & Illustrators Showcase, coming in September. She had an author she wanted me to
invite to the event. She gave me a slip of paper with his name and phone number.
Before I contact an author for this event,
I check him out online to make sure he fits with the program and to see what he
can offer to our patrons and the other
authors attending. And although I had a phone number for this guy, I wanted an
email address, my preferred method of communication for this event. As you
can imagine, coordinating 20+ authors can become confusing and overwhelming. An
email trail keeps me organized and sane.
So I did my research on all the usual
sites and discovered this author had no online presence other than his Amazon
page with no author profile. Bummer. I resorted to calling him, and after we played some telephone tag he agreed to participate. He gave me an
email address, and we are now
communicating online, although he says he does not have internet service at
home and visits his local library once a week to take care of his email.
After our initial conversation, I shook my head, amazed that the author of five print
books would opt out of an online presence. We live and
work in a global market. There's no telling who might be interested in what
this author has published or who might want to invite him to an event where he
can share his work with an audience and perhaps sell a few copies. Again, a
profile on his Amazon page including contact info is all he needs to avail
himself of opportunities.
A year ago, I attended a local author
event at another library (it's where I got the idea for the event in my hometown).
I met a few authors of children's books. I'm in need of these authors to round
out my program so I thought I'd invite them to join us. I had the event program
and lots of info I'd collected (bookmarks and postcards) from these authors and
sat down to do some investigating.
I was shocked to find
that although many of them had some online presence - a Facebook or Twitter
page, a website - many of them were inactive and had not posted
or updated their sites in months. What was going on? Were they interested in getting out there with their books? None of them had listed an email address. Of the five I checked
out, two looked promising, so I reached out to them via their Facebook
accounts, but we are not friends, and
such messages get sent to a secondary inbox. I learned this when I reached out
to a blogger for a possible interview and didn't get a reply for months because
she didn't realize she had mail waiting for her in this box. I imagine my
messages to these authors will lie undiscovered,
and they will miss out on an opportunity to connect with readers and other authors,
and sell books.
One more story regarding my locating
authors for this event: I learned of a
local guy with a new book and decided to invite him. He had a great online
presence - Amazon profile, and Facebook, Twitter, and About Me pages - but I
couldn't find an email address. I decided to contact him via Twitter and he
responded! Happy ending! But I shouldn't have to work so hard to get in touch
with someone who has recently published a book.
What's the moral of these stories? If you're serious about your career as an author, indie or otherwise, it's imperative you establish an online presence. You can do this for free. At the very least, build an Amazon author profile. Then start a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, About Me, or Google+ page (one or all, your choice, but at least one.) Create a webpage, your home on the web. On every site, include an email address. If you don't want to use your personal email address establish a new account specifically for your author activities. Remember to check it daily. Update your Amazon page and social media pages frequently. It's important to look active and engaged to potential readers and those looking to establish a relationship.
Publishing is a competitive business. Discoverability in a field of millions is
difficult. Don't make it hard for people to find you. Not everyone will be as
patient and determined to track down an author as I am.
Find me on Amazon!
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