social media to advertise

[Jo Zebedee]

I suspect that’s privileged information and unless you’re writing historical non-fiction on the same time period the name would be little use.

I think the point being made is you have to custom make your own publicity campaigns. This takes a great deal of preparation and comprehensive knowledge of your audiences.

Non fiction is very reliant on expertise and a targeted market though - more so than fiction

 

[Phyrebrat]

Non fiction is very reliant on expertise and a targeted market though - more so than fiction

I don’t think we’re disagreeing are we?

 

[JohnM]

His name is Calum Douglas.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I don’t think we’re disagreeing are we?

Darn it, said Calamity.

 

[autodidact]

His name is Calum Douglas.

Thanks a lot for that. I know I'm probably sounding a little pushy, it's just that theory and generalisations mean very little to me, but with his name I've now matched your words with his implementation, and that makes a lot of sense.

His website looks good and the subject of his book is very interesting. I'm quite well read on Spitfires, and the improvement in engine technology from the MK I through to the MK 24/47 was an incredible feat of engineering under wartime conditions, and also a testamanet to the advanced design of the Spitfire itself in that it allowed for major modifications beyond just fitting more powerful engines. Calum's book covers the stuff I know very little about, namely the intelligence side and the German perspective. I agree with Calum that piston engine technology did dictate the course of the war to a large degree, but even if things had progressed to jet engines, I think, based on how quickly we improved the Meteor jet fighter after the war, the same pattern would have emerged, although Calum might know enough to contradict that view. I'm now considering buying his book because he seems to know what he's writing about. He's clearly put a lot of effort into his research.

His planned book on turbo charger design, while niche, will definitely interest some people, myself included. A lot of aeronautical engineering literature was published after the war and well into the fifties, which shows how Britain was once right at the forefront of aircraft design. Perhaps he could do a book that explores how we let that slip. One could blame commercial pressure from the Americans, but I've always felt there was more to it than just that.

As for his website, it's clear, well laid out, and the links to where to buy the book were easy to find. And I think he's right not to support pod or ebook formats. Quality is everything for this kind of book, and those formats wouldn't do it justice.

Thanks again.

 

[autodidact]

I suspect that’s privileged information and unless you’re writing historical non-fiction on the same time period the name would be little use.

I think the point being made is you have to custom make your own publicity campaigns. This takes a great deal of preparation and comprehensive knowledge of your audiences.

I don't see why an author's name or, alternatively, a pen name or 'brand' name, should be privileged information since that relates directly to the marketing campaign which is public by its very definition. And the broad subject doesn't matter— books are books, and readers are readers, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. It's all the same underneath in that there's a story of some kind, except for text books, obviously. That's how I've always seen things, anyway, so I've always assumed most people are similar. But maybe they aren't, perhaps?

I agree that prep and knowledge are vital, and the best way to understand that sort of thing is with real world case studies. That is, understanding something that somebody is actually doing for real.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I agree that prep and knowledge are vital, and the best way to understand that sort of thing is with real world case studies. That is, understanding something that somebody is actually doing for real.

Only if you are a pragmatic learner

 

[Phyrebrat]

I'm no expert @autodidact but I thought it might be flying a bit close to the wind if the agent/publisher/rep were to start freely talking about campaigns and techniques and name the author specifically.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I may be out of date, as I have taken a break, but in terms of driving people to my site, I found Twitter and Instagram my friends - Facebook was quite good in terms of trading likes, shares and advertising. I found having a blog about me and my interests really useful. It allowed me to bring up a blog post I had written in a variety of places without looking like I was spamming anyone as it was relevant to the discussion.

At the point at which I had to take a break my site and my stories were getting around 850 to a 1000 readers a week and was growing at about 20 a week. It had taken me less than a year to get to that point.

Things that I know brought people to my site from Twitter and Instagram:
My wife is trans
A very successful vegan cupcake recipe.
I home educate (I should imagine that would do even better these days)
Stray dogs and cats (just resharing local ones) - now this one is particularly good because even though my book hadn't been released, that was bringing me local groups that wanted me to speak to them or do workshops (some were willing to pay)
A discussion about John Barrowman's bum was particularly successful and brought it to the attention of a better known author who shared my blog every week. Her patronage alone brought me about 350 readers most of whom showed up after she shared one of my posts.
I was also lucky that my story was called Mayhem at the time Theresa May's government was #mayhem - that worked quite well.

Keeping an eye on trending hastags and working out how to work them into my posts was doing quite well, I'd started to get people following me that I didn't know and hadn't had to follow in return.

Had I managed to sell a book to around half of those coming to my site, even a quarter, I would be on my way to getting on Scottish Book Trust list and that in turn is a good revenue stream.

Joanna Penn and Ben Galley are both worth following on social media. Both of them are very generous with their time and new authors, and they make a living from a variety of writing related income streams. I'm using them at the moment as my kids and I are setting up a podcast which I hope will help writers, musicians, filmmakers etc in my area.

I also recommend getting social off the internet after covid. Join writing groups, go to your nearest creative industries festivals, book festivals, author talks etc The one thing dragging my heals for 11 years has given me is the most awesome network of people and resources. That brings better known writers to your social media and when they share your tweets or you comment on their tweets and they comment back, it brings people to you.

 

[autodidact]

I'm no expert @autodidact but I thought it might be flying a bit close to the wind if the agent/publisher/rep were to start freely talking about campaigns and techniques and name the author specifically.

Yeah, I can understand that would be a problem if a marketing campaign, or whatever, is still in development. I just think, and maybe I'm being very naive, that if a campaign has already started then it would seem odd not to discuss it openly. I don't think @JohnM has given away anything particularly specific or secretive, so it's useful to see how his comments relate to what's actually been done. That seems to me to be a good way to mitigate to some extent a lack of experience.

@AnyaKimlin 's post is also very interesting in that it shows that while luck can be a significant factor, it's also fair to say that you make your own luck in that nothing happens if you don't keep plugging away.

But what happens when plugging away isn't enough? Is it because you're doing something wrong or have you just not got 'it', whatever 'it' means. That's the big question for me, and I don't think there's an answer. Why are some actors good and others excellent? Why are some people clever and others not? How are some peope able to breeze relatively easily through life while others struggle? While talent and energy are important, there's something else, an ability to connect with others in some undefinable yet fundamental way that's not quantifiable. I guess it's a zeitgeist thing, at least to some extent.

 

[autodidact]

Only if you are a pragmatic learner

Isn't everybody? I'm intrigued. What other methods of learning are there?

 

[CupofJoe]

Isn't everybody? I'm intrigued. What other methods of learning are there?

I learnt that there are 7 was of learning; Aural (auditory), Logical (mathematical), Physical (kinesthetic), Social (interpersonal) and Solitary (intrapersonal), Verbal (linguistic) and Visual (spatial) Learning.
Personally, I'm a mix of Solitary and Physical. If you want me to learn something, give me a goal and let me working out for myself alone.

 

[autodidact]

I learnt that there are 7 was of learning; Aural (auditory), Logical (mathematical), Physical (kinesthetic), Social (interpersonal) and Solitary (intrapersonal), Verbal (linguistic) and Visual (spatial) Learning.
Personally, I'm a mix of Solitary and Physical. If you want me to learn something, give me a goal and let me working out for myself alone.

Interesting. Where does learning to read come in? Is that a mix of Aural, Logical, Physical, Social, Verbal, and Visual?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Isn't everybody? I'm intrigued. What other methods of learning are there?

There are several models - the one Cup of Joe refers to is an extenstion of the VARK model, which actually deals with how we prefer to take in information, rather than how we learn doing so - but the better we take in information, the more likely it is to have an impact on the effectiveness of the learning.

The pragmatic comes from a different model, called the Honey-Mumford (there are more nuanced models out there. but this is one of the most widely used) which deals with how a person learns in terms of what they do with the information. There are activists, pragmatists, theorists and reflectors. In the case of pragmatists, they learn strongly by doing things, trying learning out and seeing where it takes them. It's why I occasionally get narky when writing books are seen as a great way for everyone to learn - they are, but most effectively by theorists and reflectors (who can learn any way - it's about having time to reflect so that the activity has become embedded). Pragmatists might read a writing book - but they'll only learn from it by actually writing and trying its concepts out.

So, yeah, learning through writing is a pragmatist's preferred learning methodology. It's why I haunted the critiques board here in my early days.

 

[autodidact]

There are several models - the one Cup of Joe refers to is an extenstion of the VARK model, which actually deals with how we prefer to take in information, rather than how we learn doing so - but the better we take in information, the more likely it is to have an impact on the effectiveness of the learning.

...lots of interesting stuff...

So, yeah, learning through writing is a pragmatist's preferred learning methodology. It's why I haunted the critiques board here in my early days.

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[StilLearning]

There are several models - the one Cup of Joe refers to is an extenstion of the VARK model, which actually deals with how we prefer to take in information, rather than how we learn doing so - but the better we take in information, the more likely it is to have an impact on the effectiveness of the learning.

The pragmatic comes from a different model, called the Honey-Mumford (there are more nuanced models out there. but this is one of the most widely used) which deals with how a person learns in terms of what they do with the information. There are activists, pragmatists, theorists and reflectors. In the case of pragmatists, they learn strongly by doing things, trying learning out and seeing where it takes them. It's why I occasionally get narky when writing books are seen as a great way for everyone to learn - they are, but most effectively by theorists and reflectors (who can learn any way - it's about having time to reflect so that the activity has become embedded). Pragmatists might read a writing book - but they'll only learn from it by actually writing and trying its concepts out.

So, yeah, learning through writing is a pragmatist's preferred learning methodology. It's why I haunted the critiques board here in my early days.

That's interesting - when I did my aborted teacher training we were told that, while people do come with preferred learning styles, empirical studies show that it is only a preference: Well motivated students learn equally well in styles other than their preferred one, unless they suffer from a full blown learning disability. I was not 100% convinced, but I ended up leaving the course so perhaps I shouldn't be too critical.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That's interesting - when I did my aborted teacher training we were told that, while people do come with preferred learning styles, empirical studies show that it is only a preference: Well motivated students learn equally well in styles other than their preferred one, unless they suffer from a full blown learning disability. I was not 100% convinced, but I ended up leaving the course so perhaps I shouldn't be too critical.

Yes, it's a much disputed model and there is a lot you can do to mitigate your natural preferences - and motivation plays a key role in that. But good teachers will always try to deliver across the learning styles to ensure each preference is given an equal opportunity to learn. Over 20 years as a tutor, I find for some people it is very marked, for others less so.

 

[Lafayette]

Man oh man. I've read only half of these comments and it is discouraging. I really don't want to do all of this garbage in marketing, I just want to write good stories.

I know I'm being a sour puss, but I feel I have good reason to be. In May, I will be seventy years old and I'm not sure if God will allow me to live another ten or twenty years to become a successful author.