Platforms, networking, blogging and Twitter for authors - resources

I'm doing an event on Twitter for the Society of Authors in London today. And a talk about blogging and Twitter for authors at a conference in Peterborough at the weekend. And one about Twitter and blogging at a dinner for senior people in publishing a couple of days later. For the benefit of the participants at those, and also any of you who would like all this info in one place, I have made a

Blogging for writers - make your blog work

I'm supposed to talk mostly about writing and publishing on this blog, but I seem mostly to be talking about networking, Twitter and blogging these days. Thing is a) this platformy stuff is becoming ever more important b) writers are worrying a LOT about how to do it and how to do it better and c) I'm doing loads of talks about it at the moment and it's quite useful to have some posts where

AUTHOR PLATFORMS - MY SOCIETY OF AUTHORS CONF PRESENTATION

During the conference event that I mentioned here, I said I would make my powerpoint presentation available to anyone who wanted to see it. So, I include the link below.

Please note - it can't make full sense without me there to talk about it. This was just the bare bones and there was a great deal of explanation about each slide. Also, the formatting has disappeared in the transition to Google

RESOURCES FOR ONLINE PLATFORM-BUILDING

Today I'm speaking at the Society of Authors conference in Edinburgh. My topic is Building an Online Platform and I will first be explaining to the audience that in forty minutes it is impossible to say even a decent fraction of what they need to know, and therefore that I will be putting a small resource list on my blog.

So, here it is! It is only supposed to be a starting point for beginners

WORKING AS A WRITER IN THE 21st CENTURY

This is the title of an event I'm involved in today. The event is organised by the Association of Scottish Literary Agents for their clients and I'm chairing a panel of three authors with a wide range of published work and a variety of promotional methods to propel their books and careers to success. I have specifically been asked to add my own experience and comments, rather than simply chairing

TWITTER FOR AUTHORS - PART 5: HASHTAGS and #FF

This is one of my temporarily removed and now temporarily reinstated posts giving tutorials on Twitter. Please note that my forthcoming short ebook will do this much better and more conprehensively and more clearly! If I were you, I'd wait...

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After my post on Sept 11th, I hope you've all got lots of followers now. Or at least a small but perfectly-formed

TWITTER FOR AUTHORS - PART 4: NEW FOLLOWERS

This is one of my temporarily removed and now temporarily reinstated posts giving tutorials on Twitter. Please note that my forthcoming short ebook will do this much better and more conprehensively and more clearly! If I were you, I'd wait...

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Just a quick one - me doing you a favour rather than trying to tell you anything. I have removed my teacher hat for a

TWITTER FOR AUTHORS - PART 3: TWEETING IN THE VOID

This is one of my temporarily removed and now temporarily reinstated posts giving tutorials on Twitter. Please note that my forthcoming short ebook will do this much better and more conprehensively and more clearly! If I were you, I'd wait...

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If you've read my first Twitter post, you'll know WHY you might want to be on Twitter if you're a writer. And if you've

TWITTER FOR AUTHORS - PART 2: BEGIN TO FOLLOW

Please note that Tweet Right will be published as an ebook very soon and will cover this information much more clearly and elegantly and in much more detail. Details at the top of the blog.
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I wasn't planning to do this but so many of you joined Twitter after my earlier post today that it seemed to me that the best way to do a quick and useful follow up would be to

TWITTER FOR AUTHORS - PART 1: WHY?

My blog posts about Twitter are now best covered in the ebook, Tweet Right. 
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I have removed the content of this blog post because the free sample of Tweet Right covers the ground. Download it here.

NETWORKING / PLATFORMS FOR AUTHORS

To all those who came to my networking/blogging/Twitter workshop/talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival today, and to those who couldn't get tickets - I plan to blog coherently and properly about each of the aspects of the topic over the next couple of weeks. It was impossible to cover everything in the time, and I'm sure lots of you went away wanting to know more about how to apply what I said to

INTERVIEW WITH A FAB BLOGGER - TALLI ROLAND

As you may know, on August 22nd, I am doing an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival on internet presences for authors. I'm not plugging this, since it's fully booked, but I thought I'd share some of the research with you.

When I was planning the talk, I contacted several bloggers and Facebookers that I know amongst authors and asked for their experiences. When I asked Marsha Moore / Talli Roland

IN WHICH I HIJACK MY OWN BLOG

Indulge me while I hijack my own blog briefly, please. See, it's that time of year again: book promo time. As in mine. Not the one I mentioned yesterday - I haven't written that yet. (Note to self: DEADLINE.) But the one that's published on May 3rd.

All I'd like to say to you today, in a calm, subtle and measured way, is that some of you may not know (if you've been asleep) that I have a new

AUTHOR AGE MATTERS - PS RE KIDS/YA

I'm going to add an addendum (what else?) to yesterday's post about whether the age of an author matters.

It seems to matter much more in children's / YA writing. This is borne out by conversations yesterday with children's agents.

Of course, there are many successful older writers for children. One of my closest friends is Vivian French, who is older than she looks (Viv, if you read this, we

TOO OLD TO DEBUT???

Last month, I blogged about whether publishers would look askance at middle-aged heroines and I asked you to put your thinking caps on and come back with lots of examples of commercially successful books with heroines between the ages of 45 and 60. Tremendous response! I think we were reassured (those of us who wanted to be) that age is no bar to being a heroine - even though statistically we may

WHAT TO EXPECT AROUND PUBLICATION

Let's get positive today. Imagine you're about to be published  -  hooray! I see the frisson of excitement rippling across your face. You can't stop grinning!

Of course, you'll grin when it happens. You may well do some leaping too, but ideally in the privacy of your garret, since an author leaping is not usually a pretty sight. But what else can and should you expect on P-Day? Specifically,

TWITTERING IS NOT JUST FOR BIRDS

It would be possible (though not for me) to write a book about Twitter. However, it would be pointless, because it changes so fast. There's also plenty of help on the internet, so I'll just select salient points from an author's perspective. I am a fairly new Twitterer, or at least newly converted to its value, and I am sure there are other ways to use it. But I don't want Twitter to take over

REASONS TO BE BLOGGING

Two days ago, I talked about whether and when authors need "platforms"  -  see here. And I explained what I meant by that prosaic and commercial word. Don't shy away just because you don't like the word. That would be ostrichesque.

There is no doubt that a very good way to start to build a platform is to blog. Many of you already do. Many of your blogs were mentioned and visited during the

NETWORKS AND PLATFORMS - MUST I?

The more you talk to people, and listen, the more you know and the more you think. And that  -  knowing and thinking more  -  is the real reason why "social networking" is much, much more about the rather self-centred notion of "building a platform to improve your career." It is about making contacts, and making contacts is about being human. We are social creatures and we rely on networks,