Do you need to be an Author Online?

Once upon a time, all you needed as a new author was an email address. But that was the 90s and while in some ways publishing is super slow to change, let alone update, they are absolutely down with social media. Though ‘down with’ is such a cringy phrase to me, I fully believe a lot of them thinks it still sounds cool, though let’s hope mainly ironically.

And now, what do you need? Nothing. What might a publisher want you to have? Something is probably the answer. Especially it, like me, you write for the young people.

A website? This is nothing like as important as it once was and, as you might notice, it is one reason I don’t post much here anymore. This website is a bit of a place holder now. I hope to ‘need’ one day, but it’s not really necessary. I have a limited amount of time to give to a public facing me and my time is better spent elsewhere.

Twitter? Twitter is … what you make it. You’re never going to sell books via Twitter. Not the way it is structured currently. Go find some writer types for community and support. Follow agents or editors you’re interested in. Otherwise, turn back before it’s too late.*

FB? This depends on your genre. Women’s fic, literary fic, non-fic, book club fic, biography – yes, you should probably have one. If you as an author wish to interact with readers over 40, fb is probably needed. Everyone else, meh. I have an author fb page but that’s because I’m in a couple of author groups to learn and share info about other social media.

Insta? This may well depend on Instagram in the near future. A year ago, I’d have said you absolutely need it. But it’s become muddle and bogged down by meta’s attempts to make it like TikTok. The exception I’d say is if you are putting big efforts into posting and creating almost daily and wish to make any money from it. Insta pays better even if no one knows whether it’s reels or stories that will get you more attention this week.

TikTok? Don’t do it unless you’re willing to learn how to do it properly and perhaps fail a lot publically in the process.** I see a lot, oh boy A LOT, of terrible content from authors, pubs, reviewers and more. The people who do it right are there and if you can find a way to emulate them with a personal twist that’s honest, go for it. Note they are constantly changing how to post, edit, and share. If you’re not willing to spend some time learning, or if you’d don’t have that time, better not to bother.

What else? Truthfully, no social media works if you’re not genuine about it. And no publisher will care about your social media unless you’ve got a minimum of a few thousand followers. I have nearly 1k on Twitter and that’s years of networking and actual friendship making. Though if I did that whole follow-everyone-back thing, I’d probably be a many thousands by now.

*I’ve been on twitter since 2008. I blame Hank Green. But I also have changed accounts twice from stalkers and have now cultivated my feed and blocked so many people it’s mostly an ok space. But it took, *checks watch*, too many years to build.

**My early tiktok are, wow, really bad. I got a lot better at it. Then they changed it. I got better. Then they changed it. I’m going to be giving it another try as I think I’ve got a better idea of how I want to interact with folks now, but lordy. It’s a whole thing. And it is super addictive.