In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Topic: Direct Interaction with Readers
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“If you’re in a spiritual group and ask what essential oils will help you get rid of a person, don’t block me when I answer ‘formaldehyde’. Sheesh.” Anonymous, forwarded from Facebook
Topic: Direct Interaction with Readers
A few days ago in a post on promoting your work, I recommended
https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/tkz-marketing-survey-part-2.html. In that post, one author suggested you should “Pick one [social media] platform to specialize in.”
Yesterday, I received an interesting note and suggestion from Alexander Teut, a friend and writer who lives in Eurasia and for whom that suggestion stood out. Here, Alex takes over:
“But which platform? I guess it should be a platform popular among readers.
“For example, musicians use Facebook or Twitter, but the main platform for any band will be SoundCloud or BandCamp. Because people interested in new bands and rare genres are there.
“So writers [need a] platform where [there are] a lot of readers, [a place] with basic stuff like a blog, contact with readers and a list of your books.
“I’ve found such a platform. It’s Amazon.
“It has a blog. It has your books. It has your profile. It recommends your books to people who read books like yours. And tons of readers visit it every day. What else should you expect from a good social network?
“Now it happens that even some authors don’t have their own site, only an Amazon profile.” For just one example, Alex suggests you visit the Amazon author page of “Michael Anderle, a super-prolific author, at https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Anderle/e/B017J2WANQ.”
Thanks, Alex! Being more interactive with readers on Amazon seems like a good idea to me. I have not personally taken advantage of their blog feature, but I might look into it. It seems the perfect place to write a blog aimed at readers. Duh.
Does anyone else have practical experience interacting with readers on Amazon? If so, please share your thoughts. To do that, visit https://hestanbrough.com/the-journal-direct-interaction-with-readers and scroll down to the end of the post to leave a comment.
I also wonder whether Kobo, Barnes & Noble and other large stores have a similar platform through which writers might interact with readers. If anyone has any information on that, please also leave a comment on this post.
Of course, if you’d rather not leave a comment you can still email me directly at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Spring Workshop Sale” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/spring-workshop-sale/.
See “A Disturbing New Trend” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/04/a-disturbing-new-trend.html.
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.