In Which I Join LibraryThing and Shelfari, And My Head Explodes From Social Networking

[dr_pretentious]

My publisher's promotional guide is going to be very useful. When I have uninterrupted computer time but not enough free brain cells for writing, I work my way through the more mechanical of its suggestions. I don't need the full range of my abilities to create a username and password for yet another social networking site.

What I'm going to do with all these social networking sites once I've caught them is another question entirely. Fortunately, there's some lead time before the book comes out, so I have a chance to find my footing.

Are any of you on LibraryThing and/or Shelfari? Any suggestions for how to make the best use of them? For that matter, I've had an account on GoodReads for a couple of years, and haven't used it since about the second week I had it. With all these apparently obligatory forms of promotion, I must be the one using them. I absolutely cannot afford for a dozen or so networks to be using me.

The more strategic of the promo guide's suggestions will require more full engagement of my brain. Those will have to wait until the manuscript is delivered. Soon, soon! The manuscript is so close to done now. I will try not to think about how long it's taken me to get this far, or how much faster I could write before the kids were born, or any of that counterproductive stuff. Full speed ahead!

Comments

[showingup.livejournal.com]

My understanding, from friends who use social networking professionally, is that it's better to stick to one or two platforms you really like and which do you good service than to spread yourself across lots; it's the "go deeper, don't spread thinner" idea that meaningful engagement with others just can't be done across too many platforms, and that having meaningful engagement in a couple of places wins more enthusiasm and loyalty.

I know you're on the tweeties (I am turning into Craig Ferguson...). So is my friend Erica Friedman (@Yuricon - she tweets... well, a lot). She's a specialist in manga and "social optimisation" - using networks really effectively for your business. She's clever, honest, and an ADF Druid: http://socialoptimized.blogspot.co.uk and http://www.yuricon.com Her public email address is anilesbocon01@hotmail.com If you want to discuss how to use social networking, tell her T and I sent you :)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

The depth-not-breadth approach made sense to me, too, and it was what my former publisher recommended. On the other hand, my new publisher is way more successful than my old one was, and is paying its people a lot more regularly. As much as I'm not crazy about the time sink of even more social networking, I'm going to allow for the possibility that their publicity person knows her stuff.

Thanks for the contact. I don't yet know what questions to ask, but when I have enough clue to know what I don't know, I'll track her down.

I'm not so much on the tweeties as tangentially, second-handedly forwarding stuff to the tweeties. Once I got Livejournal to forward links to my blog posts there automatically, I almost completely stopped using Twitter.