Sci-Fi Social Media

On Mondays I usually talk about writing, but…well…today I’m not. Today I’m going to share what I learned this weekend about social media.

[insert raucous applause here]

If you haven’t gathered yet from my recent posts, I attended the Phoenix Comicon. One of the panel sessions I attended was called “Sci-Fi Social Media”. The blurb in the program read:

Is your favorite author a Facebook friend? We look at how Sci-Fi notables are using social media tools — Twitter, podcasting, blogging, Facebook, Myspace, etc. — to build fan connections and communities around themselves and their works. Panelists: Jack Mangan, Michael Stackpole, John Scalzi, Aprilynne Pike, Leanna Renee Hieber, Sam Sykes.

Only good things could come from such a lineup, right?

Here are the bits of wisdom each author shared on all things social media. Hope you find them as useful as I did.

Jack Mangan

  • Use social media to make connections, not just promote
  • Be professional
  • Don’t feed the trolls
  • If you don’t want to share the names of your kids for safety reasons, make up online names for them
  • Buy a domain name for every book you write

Michael Stackpole

  • Sampling your work online is vital
  • Don’t be the depressingly honest author, sharing all your rejections and hardships; the audience wants to hear the romantic side of being a writer
  • If you read like a loser on your blog, you’re going to make your readers feel like losers for reading your blog
  • The only time to respond to critics is if a reviewer projects your thoughts (e.g., “this is what the author meant”); you can respond to set the record straight
  • If you respond to criticism, write your response and have it reviewed by someone else before posting; then remain professional and detached
  • Own what you do; know the trouble you might cause and what your response will be
  • If you’re concerned about privacy, set up separate personal and fan pages at Facebook
  • Ask others to help promote what you’re doing on your site
  • Have your own website and blog there
  • Get store software to sell your work
  • If someone plagiarises your work , contact the ISP hosting the site and have them deal with the infraction of their policies

Aprilynne Pike

  • If you obsess about the number of followers or friends you have on Twitter and Facebook, control is not in your hands
  • Set boundaries
  • You can’t do everything and do it well; choose which social media outlets you want to focus on and don’t worry about the others
  • Social media can be a time suck; decide how much time you’ll devote to it, how much you’ll interact, how many people you’ll follow

John Scalzi

  • Don’t have that desperate freaky new-author smell online (Buy my book! Buy my book!) or be self-congratulatory; instead, include information that is not related to books to make your audience feel comfortable; this leads to hand selling
  • Set boundaries
  • Be personable, but not personal; leave out the intimate details
  • If you talk about someone else on your blog, get their permission first
  • If you do something wrong, just say you were wrong and apologize
  • “Don’t fling poo at the monkeys, they’re better at it”
  • You’re not responsible for the fantasy version of you that lives in the reader’s head
  • Write the fictionalized/idealized version of your life
  • Make it clear there is zero tolerance for trolls on your site; set yourself up as the grownup
  • It takes years to build a following
  • Do the thing you’re comfortable with, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc.; there’s nothing worse than an uncomfortable blog
  • When you use social media, have fun and be smart about it

Leanna Renee Hieber

  • Contact book blogging communities and ask them to review your book
  • Karma in all things: don’t spew your vitriol into the world; don’t respond to bad reviews
  • Set boundaries for what you’ll share as well as what you’ll take in
  • Just starting out, you’re building a following; don’t gets caught up in the numbers

Sam Sykes

  • In today’s market, debut authors must have an internet presence
  • The best reason not to respond to reviews is the readers read your response as well
  • Be genuine; if you’re not genuine, the real you will come out eventually
  • Satisfied readers are quiet; if people are angry with you, they’ll tell you
  • Don’t be intimidated; if you have something to say, say it

The  panelists agreed on Michael Stackpole’s final piece of advice:

When using social media, be passionate and be sincere.