Make everything as simple as possible. Not simpler.
-Albert Einstein
If there could be one magic wand that simplifies the process of publishing, it is technology, providing that bare bone minimalist approach to traditional ways of authoring, reader management and distribution. Web 2.0, in the form of social media, user-generated Video content(YouTube) and blog, has provided powerful avenues for authors to directly engage with readers to get real-time feedback. Author can also discuss their body of work through a myriad of social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter.
THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Sorav jain ,Founder of the social media company EchoVme ,says the impact of social media has had a big influence on marketing ,apart from publishing and journalism. He says, I believe all the three channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) are important .”He adds, “You as an author can became a credible thought leader on Twitter by sharing your thoughts in just !40 characters. Authors like Chetan Bhagat, Chris Brogan and Jessie Paul use Twitter as a medium to create thought leadership.
“Facebook is important to reach and engage the target audience and create a community that helps the author to share his views on a daily basis,” explain Sorav. He also says that a YouTube video can aid the sales campaign for the book. For budding authors ,blogs are good places to start. There have been interesting instances on how blogs have been used by authors to market and sell their books.
AUTHORING
The iron curtains around authoring are slowly falling apart .Alan Rusebridger, Editor of The Guardian, acknowledged the power of social media as decision-making forums. For The Guardian, Twitter has became the level-playing platform for journalists and readers to share opinion, thereby respecting the readers’ voice that was unheard before.
Blogs have transformed the process of authoring. Kiruba Shankar, a popular social media expert ,
uses blogs to author his books. Kiruba says, “When I wrote a chapter, I used to upload it on my
blog(www.kiruba.com) to seek comments and suggestions.” He adds that this process of soliciting
opinion from the crown or crowdsoursing helps him get new ideas as well as a broader set of people to connect to. While people don’t criticize outright, they do offer critical comments that help Kiruba repurpose his chapter by 30% from the original .In his three books he has used his blog to great effects to refine his chapters. Encouraged by the success of his experiment, he feels, “going forward, this is the best way to do it.”
Another option that Kiruba used for his latest book, Copy left and right was setting up a Wiki ,Wiki is a website that allows you to upload content that others cad edit. Kiruba explains , “I used Media wiki. It uses the same software as Wikipedia and can be Installed free”. Kiruba is of the opinion that authoring is a very lonely exercise and getting the crowd in the process that helps you stay motivated as well as have a fun.
Shel Israel, write on social media issues and author of books Naked Conversations (coauthored with Robert Scoble), How Blogs are changing the Way Business Talk with Customers and Twitterville , used a blog(Global Neighborhoods ; global neighborhoods .net) to complement his writing process.
A popular blogger and best selling author with a religious following of thousands of nerds and
geeks ,Seth Godin (sethgodin,typepad.com) also uses a blog. He carefully chooses to write a blog post on topic that has high impact. Then every six months he converts the best of his blogs into a book. Most of his followers buy the book and it to the bestseller list. All 13 of his books have been translated widely.
Technological tools thus have a definitive role in authoring ,either in the form refining content, adding interesting information or creating a whole new book.
MARKETING AND SELLING
Kiruba feels the marketing effort for a book should start much before the author starts writing it rather than after the book is launched.”Constantly updating the audience about the progress of the book generates interest,” points out Kiruba. He mentions Derek Silvers, author of Anything You want, who started to talk about his book on Twitter(@sivers) much before he began to write it. A short update on Twitter helps the author stay in Touch with his readers.
YouTube is another great marketing tool. Authors sometimes use short videos to publicize some
interesting aspects of the book. Derek sivers used two minute animated videos on you tube about the 40 entrepreneurial lessons he talks about in the book. The impact was high. Amish Tripathi, author of Shive Triology (The second book secret of the nagas is out now), also used YouTube. Videos of his book, a marketing gimmick in Indian context, helped ring in sales, Ashwin sanghi, author of bestseller Chanakya’s chant, used a captivating video with music. Needless to say , the sales of the book have trended north.
Another Instance of a YouTube video helping sales ,as sorav jain explains, is Erick Qualman’s video
called “Social Media Revolution”/“Social Media ROI” with all the interesting facts presented in a Flash-based video model with foot-tapping music in the background. His book Socialonomics is one amongst the most sold social media books
The success of Jessie Paul as an author is attributed to her social media presence, according to Sorav. Her book No Money Marketing is still selling because of the author’s extensive presence on
twitter(@jessie_paul). Sorav says , “she started off with a contest on twitter: ‘Give Frugal Digital
Marketing Tips’ to sell my book off and the best tips get free signed copies of my book (this helped her crowdsource best ideas to promote her books for no cost)”. She also had created a page for her book on facebook and extensively used hash tag #NMM on twitter and list of #NMM reader base to interact and engage with the audience.
An interesting case of a love story developed daily as a facebook update by journalist Ravish kumar, Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, an independent publishing consultant and literary critic, says, “He is also a writer and has a very popular blog in Hindi .he began to write a love story ,using the space allotted in the facebook status updates. it has turned out to be huge hit .Hindi newspapers are lifting it off as is and then sending him cheques for reporting”.
Blog YouTube, Twitter and facebook have opened up new vistas for marketing and selling a book and the responsibilities shown by authors using them to create interest in their book ,thereby ticking sales. This has all been possible due to new media.
