As authors, our soul desire is to communicate.
Communication, however, is actually a two-way street. I have something to say and so you are sitting here reading. You can then speak back to me – by commenting on this blog or responding to me through the social media.
If all I do is write or speak and nobody reads or listens, it’s like that question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, is there actually a sound?”
When I entered the Tom Bird Publish Now Program headed by Ramajon Cogan, I began listening to a series of webinars hosted by Rama as well as my writing coach Tom Bird.
Tom Bird talks about the New Age of Publishing.
I had published my first book 18 years ago during the Old Age of Publishing and had been so turned off by what I experienced that I didn’t write another book until I found out about Tom Bird.
I had worked on my first book for three years. It became the best-selling book of the original publisher in 1997 but I made $3,000 for thee years of work.
When it was translated into Chinese, nobody even bothered to tell me. I did not own the copyright and failed to make another dime. I decided that since I am an adult with actual responsibilities I needed to focus on working another way in order to make a living.
It wasn’t until one of my clients in Los Angeles happened to be at the LA Library and found the Chinese translation of my book that I decided that if I had written a book good enough to be translated for readers in a large foreign country, maybe I should get back to my writing.
Tom Bird explains that in this New Age of Publishing, we as authors are actually only one step removed from our readers.
By connecting with our readers through the social media, we can communicate our soul messages even more directly and even more easily than ever before.
Here are a few reasons why we as authors need to take the time to create a social media platform:
- To communicate directly with the people who need to hear our message.
- To build our businesses, as writing a great book is one of the best ways to build your business and recruit new clients. When you write a book, you create the best business card you will ever own.
- To connect to other media outlets, such as radio and TV shows as well as other websites and blogs, who can help us share our messages.
- To connect with like-minded people, since social media allows us to create virtual communities who share the same values that go beyond cities, countries or even continents.
- To get you to No. 1 on Google. Beginning I believe in January 2014, Google changed the way it ranks websites and in order to show up high on Google, you have to do a good job in the social media. It is no longer enough to have a website or have a highly connected website. That means that you want to have a widespread presence throughout all the major social media outlets. I got to No. 1 on the front page of Google as a medical intuitive through a post on Google+.
- You want to connect and actually interact with people. It’s not enough to just put up a post on your blog or social media account. Many people will look you up not only through Google but also through something called Klout, which provides a numerical number on a scale of 0 to 100 of how well you are succeeding at social media. My Klout number is currently 65 even though I don’t have hundreds of thousands of followers because I interact with people who take the time to communicate with me. When you are at 63 or above, you are supposedly in the top 5 percent of all internet marketers. In order to succeed at Klout, bottom line, you have to interact with people, which means you will want to respond to the people who comment on your posts.
- U.S. adults spend 11 hours a day with digital media. People spend more time on the social media than on any other activity on the internet. We need to go to where people are in order to communicate with them.
- Big picture, as you build your social media presence you are building your audience for your books and your business and letting people know how you can serve them.
Tom Bird says that many people think that writing a book is the hardest part but are surprised to discover that publishing, which has even more steps, is even more challenging (if we are going to be truthful here) than writing.
I would say that to be successful as an author there are actually three steps:
- Writing a really good book
- Publishing your book
- Marketing your book so that people who need your message will listen.
If all you do is write and publish a book, the souls who really need to hear your message may never find out about it unless you actually do the work to market it.
In this day and age, the best way to do that is through the social media.
Resources:
Ramajon Cogan, Tom Bird Publish Now Guru, (928) 514-1616, rama@tombird.com
Catherine Carrigan, Medical Intuitive Healer and Amazon No. 1 Best Selling Author of What Is Healing? Awaken Your Intuitive Power for Health and Happiness and Unlimited Energy Now, 678-612-8816, catherine@catherinecarrigan.com
Tom Bird, Writing Coach, (928) 203-0200, tom@tombird.com
Greg Keesey, Website Genius and All-Around Great Guy: (717) 819-1049, greg@silverknightauthorwebsites.com
Scott D. Smith, SEO Guy in London: scott@scottdsmith.co.uk
Robin Charlsen, Twitter Guru: (256) 432-4499, rcharlsen@gmail.com
Denise Cassino, Amazon Marketing Genius: (303) 838-3399, dencassino@gmail.com
Website where you can see how well you are doing on your social media: www.klout.com
Website where you can sign up to create a monthly newsletter: freeemailmarketing.solutions or http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=silverknightsolutionsllc
Website where you can take online courses to learn just about anything to do with computers: www.lynda.com
Artist who designs beautiful logos and book covers: Mynzah Osiris, (928) 239-9328, mynzah@hotmail.com
Jared Doles, Social Ally Dashboard: (480) 878-5947, jared@socialallyusa.com
