I cannot miss the opportunity to comment in today’s post on the social networking session yesterday morning at the London Book Fair. First, may I thank the very many people who attended and made the event very special indeed; you were a lovely, attentive audience and we all valued your interest and contributions.
Secondly, I should like to thank Elaine Aldred (@EMAldred, Strange Alliances blog), who very generously agreed some time ago to chair this session and, with her characteristic attention to detail, introduced the panel and provided a succinct summary of the key points arising, as well as modestly managing us and our timekeeping!
I was very pleased to meet and honoured to join my much more experienced social networking fellow panellists, Katy Evans-Bush @KatyEvansBush) and Elizabeth Baines (@ElizabethBaines), and to be able to listen to the social networking supremo, Chris Hamilton-Emery, Director of Salt Publishing (@saltpublishing), all of whom provided different perspectives from my own. However, though we may have addressed in various ways the topic of how to make the most of the best of social networking, I felt that we were unanimous about the terrific value of what Chris called ‘the confluence’ of such media as Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs in creating author presence and profile. I believe that we also affirmed the essential need to be ourselves (however uncomfortable it may initially feel to present our private side, as Elizabeth very pertinently explained) and to interact with the people we ‘meet’ in a genuine way. We shared the view that ramming our books down the throats of our online audience in a ‘hard sell’, as some people do, is counter-productive; it is much better for us to engage with others in discussion of the things which matter to us, such as the business of writing, literature, topical issues and so on. Katy pinpointed the effectiveness of social networking in creating a global family of friends and followers, something we also all felt.
All in all, the session emphasised that participation, helping others, reciprocating generosity and showing real interest in people whom we come to know online are crucial to creating a lasting author presence. It is really important that authors recognise that they need to have such a profile; with it, books certainly do sell and, as Chris put it, without it they don’t.
Finally, we all accepted the inevitable consequence of managing all of the personal interactions online: it is extremely time-consuming and we have to find our own ways of handling that; if we succeed, the benefits are very clear to see.
My thanks again to all concerned in what was for me a very memorable occasion.
I think the benefits of social networking for writers, agents and publishers has been underestimated. The relationships you build are incredibly enhancing and the ability to share knowledge now is unprecedented. I had a great chat with the lovely Elaine Aldred recently. Well done to all of you for giving up your time to share with what I hear were very keen listeners.
Thank you, Fiona. ‘Enhancing’ is exactly the right word; social networking is a constantly-expanding thing, from my point of view, with a life of its own. It’s astonishing how complex the networks are and how they take you ever further, right around the globe. It’s all rather awe-inspiring, but also a lot of fun! 🙂
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Thank you all for a fascinating seminar… one of the most useful, & fun, attended…
Hello, and thank you! We enjoyed the occasion and your comments are both kind and helpful. I hope that you enjoyed the Book Fair in general. Best wishes and welcome here! 🙂
This was one of the best seminars I attended during the fair. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on using social media as an author.
I was wondering if you have ever considered doing live online book readings via a tool like Google hangouts or similar? It would be like a webinar.
Hello and thank you on behalf of all of us for these very complimentary comments. As for live online book readings, I am now interested in the idea, though I have not previously considered it! 🙂
I echo all the previous comments. A thoroughly delightful, informative and I have to say, inspiring seminar. Thanks Christina and everyone on the panel for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Thank you very much indeed for this kind response. As you have seen, it appears that people found the session very useful and we are delighted about that! We certainly enjoyed it. 🙂