The subject came up when I was on a writing panel at the Medina library this past Saturday, and I thought I might codify it into some general rules of thumb for writers (aspiring and pro) using the interwebs. This can be considered a companion to my earlier post of what NOT to do:
- Write first! Using the web to promote your writing if you aren’t actually writing is, to put it bluntly, a damnfool thing to do. Nothing wrong with using the internet for its own sake, but don’t rationalize it as something akin to actually writing. It ain’t. (This also includes blogging, at least until you turn that into an income stream.)
- You only need to have enough of an internet presence so that when someone Googles you and/or your work, the first hit is something you control. Everything else is optional.
- Make sure your site/blog/Facebook page has links to things about you that you want to promote but aren’t under your control (Amazon pages for your book, your publisher, nice reviews and articles &c.)
- Make your presence on the web about YOU as an author first, then about the work. i.e. when you get a website/domain, it should be BIGNAMEAUTHOR.com rather than KICKASSBOOKTITLE.com because, when you get the next contract it will be something else, and you have to start from scratch. Look at my site as an example of how to organize things like this.
- Whenever you’re out commenting on blogs and forums and so on, try to have a consistent identifiable persona as an author. Even if you aren’t pimping your work (and you shouldn’t when uninvited) if you have a consistent identifiable YOU, across multiple sites that’s at least as valuable as being on a panel at a con somewhere.
