Online content creation and self-promotion

[HareBrain]

I think the worst though are writers who start a youtube channel with 'how to write' content/ reviews, who eventually produce a novel (usually with videos going through the 'journey' - it's content, no?) and it completely bombs, because it is bad and doesn't even take their own advice, and hence wipes out their channel at the same time. Seen loads of these types of channels.

Yes, I was thinking of mentioning this possibility.

In fact, a lot of your excellent post is what i might have written had I been less lazy.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

I think my conclusion would be that as a way of raising author profile, writing thoughtful things is kind of lousy. Jo Walton's What Makes This Book Great is great, but I don't hear a bunch of people talking about Jo Walton. RJ Barker posting weird stuff and taxidermy on twitter is a better publicity gambit. If you enjoy it and have time why not, but if you're crunched for time, well...

Thanks for that. I think the precious gift of limited time is the biggest factor, and making where I should focus it clearer and clearer.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Only if you want to be known as a Star Wars commentator. As a writer it's not useful to you because it's not a targeted audience - these people want Star Wars content, and are not interested in anything else such as your own writing.

Right, that was my concern. Even if you become a great Star Wars reviewer, then that's all anyone will want from you.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

I follow some of these on YouTube, and I often wondered about the "conversion rate" from YouTube follower to book reader. I looked up one book, wasn't that impressed with what I saw, and never bothered checking out any others, but maybe I'm not typical. I think a lot of people buy books on the basis of some kind of recognition (they've heard of the author, their friends have mentioned it) so it might be a good strategy.

Right that's what I'm wondering. But then maybe having a laser focus on an existing property is not a good idea. Doing general reviews across many genres might be a better strategy.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Furthermore if it's blatant that the social media channel is really just being used as a sales channel, that will put many off you - me included. You should have a clear and concise idea of what your social media represents and grow it organically along those lines. Perhaps eventually you could sell your work via the channel if you are lucky, but beware the pitfalls.

This is a great point.

Essentially, you're saying don't force it.

If I want to make online content, I should be talking about things I love to talk about. If people want to join the discussion, great; these are now sincere connections with potential colleagues, readers, customers, etc. Better to be small-time, and grow naturally than waste all my time trying to shoehorn something less than beloved into an already saturated space.

Make art, not "content," even if the art doesn't get nearly as much attention.

 

[Culhwch]

I have my own idea on a social media channel, but I'm not telling anyone here what the idea is. Can't have loads of people doing the same thing and taking away the shine on mine...

OnlyFans?

 

[msstice]

I think my conclusion would be that as a way of raising author profile, writing thoughtful things is kind of lousy. Jo Walton's What Makes This Book Great is great, but I don't hear a bunch of people talking about Jo Walton. RJ Barker posting weird stuff and taxidermy on twitter is a better publicity gambit. If you enjoy it and have time why not, but if you're crunched for time, well...

Why must we speak of human existential angst this fine morning?

In social media, which I _believe_, at the end, despite the "algorithms" and the Russian and Chinese troll farms, is merely a reflection of our real life flawed selves, we tend to promote and make more visible the junk rather than the gold.

I went off twitter (and facebook, and feel so much better, by the way) because I saw so much garbage on it that was coming into my feed. I _knew_ there were good posts by good thinkers but I got none of it. TikTok has leaned completely into the "crap sells" aspect of humanity and that's what it is flooded with.

I have no solution to this globally, but we can use three ingredients to change this for ourselves personally

1. Time. Time to create good content and time to find people who are creating good content
2. Persistence + Consistence. Persistence on the part of ourselves and others to keep putting out and searching for good content.
3. Faith/Patience. Like all good things, it will take time to bear fruit

Peat's blog is an example. I have it on my reader. Not all of the articles interest me personally, but they are all written from the heart and are genuine things Peat puts out. That is enough for me. I try to do the same. I have very few readers, but that's fine. In the end a good website or blog, I think, is one you would do even if no one else were reading, because it is in the end, a communion with your own soul and to the extent that souls are universal, it will resonate with others.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

I've been publishing on the online platforms for a few years, branded under 'Irish Science Fiction'. I've created about 500 clips, stories and sketches. My thinking is that if by chance someone hits on a story they like, then there's a body of other work for them to get stuck into ...my anecdotal based rating of the platforms is:
TikTok, Usefulness: Low. I got a bit of random abuse to begin with but then nothing, most clips get zero views. Am not sure how it would help writing but it takes seconds to upload and no harm to have a footprint there.
Facebook & Instagram: Usefulness: Low to Medium. Like @Phyrebrat I'm Gen Z so missed the whole setup to these and am not sure how they work (friend, defriend, share ...eh?!?) Though my brain doesn't work that way anyway so age might not be the problem. Some of the FB groups are good for advice and collaboration but the constant churn negates a lot of it.
X/ Twitter: Usefulness: Medium. The writers seem to hang out here, useful because of the links and good for seeing what folk are creating (the site editing is horrendous though).
YouTube: Usefulness: High. The indexing seems to be as good as it gets and a quick search will grab all your content and it also seems to put it in with similar type work.
Spotify: Usefulness: High. The indexing is not as good as YT but you have a (in theory) library of your work available -the metrics are good and it's nice to see when someone hits on a book they follow it through chapter by chapter, which is a help to motivation.
Wordpress: Usefulness: Medium. @msstice and @The Big Peat make great use of this. It keeps a nice record and indexed archive of work -I've classed it as medium as I'm more audio based but def worth keeping a page here.
SFFC: Usefulness: High. Write/ learn/ practice/ collaborate. Does it all and the editing knocks all the above out of the park

Good luck, I think it's worth remembering that you are hosted on the platforms at the pleasure of their owners and editors so having a broad spread across them all is no harm (it only takes seconds to hit them all).
*all that written, I'm no expert so just a random punter's thoughts.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Interesting that you put YouTube as high.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Interesting that you put YouTube as high.

They seem good for keeping content over time. So in theory if you publish something it is accessible in years to come (as opposed to flushing it down the toilet of general social media churn). I've also found their recommendations to be pretty good -as with everything it's a bit of a lottery if/when your work gets promoted, but I see it as a worthwhile place to park an audio story.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Why must we speak of human existential angst this fine morning?

In social media, which I _believe_, at the end, despite the "algorithms" and the Russian and Chinese troll farms, is merely a reflection of our real life flawed selves, we tend to promote and make more visible the junk rather than the gold.

I went off twitter (and facebook, and feel so much better, by the way) because I saw so much garbage on it that was coming into my feed. I _knew_ there were good posts by good thinkers but I got none of it. TikTok has leaned completely into the "crap sells" aspect of humanity and that's what it is flooded with.

I have no solution to this globally, but we can use three ingredients to change this for ourselves personally

1. Time. Time to create good content and time to find people who are creating good content
2. Persistence + Consistence. Persistence on the part of ourselves and others to keep putting out and searching for good content.
3. Faith/Patience. Like all good things, it will take time to bear fruit

Peat's blog is an example. I have it on my reader. Not all of the articles interest me personally, but they are all written from the heart and are genuine things Peat puts out. That is enough for me. I try to do the same. I have very few readers, but that's fine. In the end a good website or blog, I think, is one you would do even if no one else were reading, because it is in the end, a communion with your own soul and to the extent that souls are universal, it will resonate with others.

This drives home the conclusion I've gleaned from all these discussions here and elsewhere. You have to make art, not content. And it has to be something you love creating. If certain platforms lend well to your creations, then great. If not, find the platforms that facilitate your love of your art.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Spotify: Usefulness: High. The indexing is not as good as YT but you have a (in theory) library of your work available -the metrics are good and it's nice to see when someone hits on a book they follow it through chapter by chapter, which is a help to motivation.
Wordpress: Usefulness: Medium. @msstice and @The Big Peat make great use of this. It keeps a nice record and indexed archive of work -I've classed it as medium as I'm more audio based but def worth keeping a page here.

Thanks,

I didn't even think of Spotify. I'll have to check that out. I didn't consider wordpress either, since my blog is just on my website, but I'll check it out as well.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’m moving away from Twitter for one reason or another (you can guess I’m sure), and spending a bit more time on bookstagram and TikTok.

One thing that has me insta blocking is (I hate to say this but…) young girls who like reading but only post pics of their arse, breasts or abs in skimpy or skintight apparel.

This is one of the more hateful evolutions of social media and ‘influencers’. No relevance to the thing they’re meant to ‘represent’ but just pics of tits and ass to try and get traction.

It’s the whole algorithm trap. Just because you’re an author and have the relevant hashtags on your pages doesn’t mean you’re offering any viable content.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

This is one of the more hateful evolutions of social media and ‘influencers’. No relevance to the thing they’re meant to ‘represent’ but just pics of tits and ass to try and get traction.

Yes, I've noticed that. (Who hasn't?) In defense of tits and arse though, a scantily clad chess influencer posted one video helped me bring my game from pathetic all the way up to mediocre.

 

[msstice]

One thing that has me insta blocking is (I hate to say this but…) young girls who like reading but only post pics of their arse, breasts or abs in skimpy or skintight apparel.

<your book cover here> or rather (.) <your book cover here> (.) I'm gonna get banned, aren't I?

 

[The Big Peat]

I’m moving away from Twitter for one reason or another (you can guess I’m sure), and spending a bit more time on bookstagram and TikTok.

One thing that has me insta blocking is (I hate to say this but…) young girls who like reading but only post pics of their arse, breasts or abs in skimpy or skintight apparel.

This is one of the more hateful evolutions of social media and ‘influencers’. No relevance to the thing they’re meant to ‘represent’ but just pics of tits and ass to try and get traction.

It’s the whole algorithm trap. Just because you’re an author and have the relevant hashtags on your pages doesn’t mean you’re offering any viable content.

... it's wrong to say could you tell me their user names before you block them, right? Right.

This drives home the conclusion I've gleaned from all these discussions here and elsewhere. You have to make art, not content. And it has to be something you love creating. If certain platforms lend well to your creations, then great. If not, find the platforms that facilitate your love of your art.

I don't think there's anything wrong with creating content per se. You've just got to be pretty solid on what content is and realistic on what might come from it.

It should also be noted that most people making funny eye-catching content are just doing what they like to do anyway.

 

[Toby Frost]

This is one of the more hateful evolutions of social media and ‘influencers’. No relevance to the thing they’re meant to ‘represent’ but just pics of tits and ass to try and get traction.

I think it's a law of social media that, given enough time, everything turns into either porn or cottagecore. (Or both?)