Social Media and the Publishing World

A new trend among authors right now is to generate buzz before their book is published, that way, you can show agents and publishers that people will want to buy your book. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are all great ways to exploit oneself to the web world.

I'm not a fan of MySpace, which is more media centric anyway. As for Twitter, I have an account (@shawnapiranha) but to be honest, I still don't really understand the whole concept behind it.

So I took to Facebook. The other day I created a fanpage for myself (I didn't want one just for Force because i wanted to be able to update it with the sequels when the time comes). It was very weird trying to create a fan site based on me. I don't really know what people would want to know!

But, after a few hours (yes, hours!) I came up with a barebones site. I posted the first three chapters of Force as well as a few discussion topics, some of which were started by the characters from the story as well (hmm... how did they get on facebook, I wonder?)

Anyway, after five days, I have 79 fans! The more exciting thing is that at least 20 of them are people I don't know! They aren't even in my extended network! It's pretty exciting to have complete strangers writing positive reviews about a book they've only read the beginning of.

So I guess the big experiment will be seeing how this pans out in the long run. Fingers crossed!

No, I'm not a slacker, I've just been preoccupied.

I guess it looks bad when someone starts a blog about writing, and then doesn't write in it for over a month.

What can I say, I've been busy!

I just closed on a condo, and the past three weeks I've spent organizing moving and inspections and the like. Needless to say, writing has kind of fallen off the table.

At first I was a bit disappointed in myself for not writing recently, but then I remembered a promise I made to myself upon finishing the sequel to Force: Take a break!

So, after taking a break from writing to enjoy summer, and pursue agent representation, I've decided to pick it back up again. I'm not yet writing the third and final story related to Force, but instead, I've started a new, completely different tangent.

I've tentatively titled it After... Life. It follows a girl who wakes up one morning not with amnesia, but instead with entirely different memories of what her life has been. Alternating chapters are from her husband's point of view as he struggles to deal with the new person his wife has become.

I'm really liking the way the plot is forming in my head, but unfortunately, I may have bit off more than i can chew with this one. It's hard to write two identical chapters from two separate points of view, especially when i don't happen to write them together on the same day.

Anyway, that's my update. Still pursuing agents for Force, but not aggressively at the moment.

Oh! And I had someone finally read my still-untitled sequel, and she loved it! And she's not related to me, so that makes me believe her opinion more :)

I think the compliment may have been the push I needed to start up again.

Kudos

I received this email the other day from my boss, who is the most recent person to read my manuscript. It made me gleeful so i had to post it:

I’m on page 7. I can’t wait to read the rest...that’s the highest accolade I can give a book. There are books that grab you from the beginning and this is one of them. Who is this mysterious stranger?! There are others that don’t grab you until considerably later. I’d hate to think how many of those I’ve missed over the years because I just couldn’t force myself back into it...this one won’t be a problem. Uh oh. I can see myself bleary eyed and lying there frozen stiff at 1:00 am again, so’s not to disturb the sleeping grizzly by any tell-tale Ah HAH!’s or shifting to get more comfortable...it’ll be all your fault, you know.

Since I'm tooting my own horn, I might as well include some others. Re-reading them gives me motivation to keep writing!

Ok, so I finished your book this morning :) I totally enjoyed it a lot. I don't think I've read a book so quickly before or spent so much time just sitting and reading (well maybe besides Harry Potter lol). I really like how you wrote so that there was such a vivid picture in my mind of what was going on. You alluded to many places that I knew of and so this helped a lot (ie. French beach, inner harbour, the blue bridge etc). Anyways, loved it a lot and can't wait for the sequel. I'll see you in a lil over a week! Love you lots, Shar

And from my mom:

Hi Shawna- Your book was wonderful, I just finished reading it! And it's definitely set the stage for a few more adventures for the happy couple. I really enjoyed it and am so honoured that I got to read it (first, i think) I love you very much and am so proud of you.

Aren't moms great? She definitely was the reason i finished the first book so quickly. She kept pushing me for more chapters.

I'm still working on the untitled sequel. Just wrapping up a few loose bits, and it's driving me bananas!!

Mmm... bananas....