Fiction writers often feel that they don’t need to network with others, on- or off-line. Nothing could be further from the truth! Whether you’re self-publishing or hoping to get picked up by a major publisher, you need to establish relationships with others, both in cyberspace and face-to-face. You also need a place where fans, potential customers and potential editors and agents can get a good sense of who you are and what you write.
Today I will concentrate on those of you who are publishing and distributing for yourselves. If this is your goal, you need to connect and interact with the following people (genre depending):
Book clubs and individual book club members
Example of where to meet them: a list of book club Meet-Ups in the Phoenix area.
Fans of your genre
Example of where to meet them: “The fifty best blogs for crime and mystery book lovers.”
Individuals and groups with an interest in one or more aspects of your book
Example of where to meet them: ihorsebook, a boutique social network for horse lovers.
Fellow authors in your genre
Example of where to meet them: The members’ section of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website.
Fellow authors in your city
Example of where to meet them: The Phoenix chapter of Romance Writers of America.
Teachers and teachers’ associations
Example of where to meet them: Search Twitter using a combination of the hashtags #teachers, #teaching, #ed, #writing, #k-12 and any other tags you can think of.
Parents and parents’ associations
Example of where to meet them: Search Twitter using a combination of the hashtags #parenting, #mothering, #twittermoms, #twitterdads and any other tags you can think of.
Freelance editors
Example of where to meet them: LinkedIn discussion groups
Remember: If you are self-publishing, you are the advertising, marketing, public-relations and customer-service departments for your product, and your product isn’t just your book, it’s yourself as well.
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Thanks for this great consolidated list/reminder! –Cheri
Great tips. It seems as if once the manuscript is written, the real “work” begins…