Facebook and Authors

http://conniebretes.weebly.com


Occasionally, I see a message on facebook, where an author is saying he/she is going to go through their ‘friends’ list and eliminate those people who just use the friendship to promote their books. I have also seen messages where authors unfriend someone because it seemed like once you friend someone, it gave them the right to ‘spam’ the author’s inbox with promotional materials.

I have over 600 ‘friends’ in facebook, and a good significant of them are authors. Do I know them all? No. Why would I friend so many authors, is it just to promote my books? Partly.

Let’s be honest here, each friend that we make on facebook, whether it be a reader, or an author, we hope that we’ve interest them in our books enough to buy it. But, in addition to hoping I get sales, I also like to give back to those friends, what I hope they do for me. Here’s what I mean.

1. I read through all the chatter that is posted in my facebook from everyone. Occasionally, I may make a comment, or ‘like’ something. Not very often, but I do ‘chatter’ with my family and close friends.
   
   
2. I look at the book covers my friends share. I look at blogs. I look at the Amazon links, etc. If I see a book I want to read, I purchase it. I don’t always let the author know that I purchased their book, but I do leave a review when I finish the book. If I get a free book in exchange for a review, I’ll do it.
   
   
3. I try to promote other authors any way I can. I will twitter – which is automatically linked to my facebook page too. I google+, I host authors on my blog through an author spotlight or a book spotlight. I am in 35 different facebook romance groups. Some private, and some public. I take the time to share updates in these groups not only about my own books, but others that I am hosting on my blog, or simply, because someone has taken the time to ask me to please do it.
   
   

While I too, don’t really like spam. I take it with a grain of thought. Everyone is trying to get their name and their books out there.

I don’t communicate with everyone I’m friends with, but that doesn’t mean I’m not doing something for them to support them and help promote their books.

So, beware. If you’re thinking you might drop a friend because you think all they want is to promote their books, remember that they may be supporting you behind the scenes and you may not know it. Like me, they may be anonymous and one of your biggest supporters.




 




 

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