OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
But if you are serious about your career as a writer/author, think about these 5 reasons you need to embrace technology (by which I primarily mean the internet!).
- People are online. Those people could buy your book. Even if you don't like consuming ebooks or on mobile devices, millions of other people do and more join the fun every day. You want to reach them so you need to be online or at least have your information available to be found. If you are engaging on social network sites, providing information on your blog or producing your work in podcast audio format, you are more likely to get readers of your work than if you just wait for a publisher to find you, or bookstores to stock your book.
- It is the best way to build an author platform. The author platform is now critical for everyone except the top authors and famous celebrities. It means people will find you, hopefully engage with you and then be interested in your writing/books or business. The old way of building a platform was through traditional media and PR (which costs money), or through 1:1 contact/networking as well as speaking. All of this is still relevant, but if you also have an online presence you will reach people globally when they are searching or browsing. You can also utilize word of mouth online which can boost your platform much faster and much further.
- The tools have never been easier and they are free. You don't need to know how to program to have a website or blog now. You don't need $20,000 to have a website. You can have one for free. You don't need to know much except how to drive a mouse. Point and click is all you need for most of these tools plus the confidence to try them out. The recent list of the most influential websites in the world included Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, all of which are great tools for platform building and all very easy to use.
- Publishing is changing and ebooks are exploding. Ebooks and ebook readers will become far more common in 2010 as prices come down and people realise how brilliant they are. Readers are avid consumers of books and ebook readers enable faster consumption. You need to get in on the act (even if you don't want one yourself). Enable people to buy your book in any format they like. Check out Smashwords.com if you already have a book, and also author Joe Konrath's Kindle predictions and success. Also check out what publisher Michael Hyatt has to say about the end of publishing as we know it.
- Mobile devices are exploding and the internet is going mobile. You may not know people with an ebook reader, but how many of your friends and family have a mobile device? Most of them? All of them? In fact, 1 billion mobile web users are predicted in 2010. Some of these people absolutely love what you do. They want to know you, connect with you and read what you produce. You need to be online to connect with them. The exciting thing is that this opens up the market to millions of people in countries who can't afford a computer but who can surf the web on a mobile device. Wow! A whole new world of readers.
Check out this video if you need convincing, it's a brilliant look at this mobile, connected world.
How can you embrace technology and not go mad?
Pick a site and start somewhere. Grow from there. That's it! Here are the most influential websites online – they include some great sites to start playing with technology including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
If you are overwhelmed, start with these 3 : Decide on your goals. Set up a blog. Start on Twitter. [Read the whole article here].
Yes, you will get frustrated. You will find it a bit hard to get started. You will have to play around, spend some time with it, and you may get it wrong. But the rewards are endless!
Please do let me know any questions you have on this. I'd like to help you!
Personal note: I am an IT consultant, but not a programmer. I am Gen X and was not brought up with the web or computers in general. I got my first email account at 21. My degrees are in theology and psychology, not IT. I am a geek but I have learnt this stuff, it doesn't come naturally. So this is something I am still learning myself! Come and join me!
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1 2 3 Next »This entry has been really helpful and confirmed my fears that in order to spread my wings and create a wider range of followers I will eventually need to re-address my technological skills and update my own blog. Not only that creating spreadsheets in order to keep track of my work and submissions, and researching for articles and short stories etc.
Thank you for sharing and making me want to step it up a gear :-)
Take care
Kate Collings
xx
Your first three bullets deal with the web, which is misleading to me when your headline is about technology. Sure, the internet is part of technology; but why not more bullets about ereaders and less about websites and tweets?
How about a bullet on ways a writer can save paper, by writing on certain software programs over others? Or examples of authors who use typewriters and not computers because they like that crunkle of paper?
Great post! I think this also applies to anyone who wants to succeed in business. Technology is here to stay and those who make excuses will get left behind.
Thanks all.
Ari - you're right. I need more on technology as a whole. I will consider your points in another post. I have started investigating the various writing software, but have yet to find one that suits.
Hi Joanna,
I actually am a computer guy, although I'm "old school". I know more about things like database management and small-office networking than about social media - although I have some exposure.
Recently I have become an aspiring YA novelist. I've thought a lot about going online with perhaps a blog, and/or a character blog. The thing that has stopped me is this. The Internet is vast, and it's easy to get lost in the crowd. The information overload facing a potential audience and the difficulty one has in being noticed by that audience has been memorialized in phrases like "Everybody will be famous to 15 people". "Drinking from a firehose", "A needle in a needlestack" and my own contribution "Finite human bandwidth".
Yes I could build it. But would they come? Creating an online presence is easy to do badly. If I were to do it, I'd want to do it well. which requires a substantial time investment. What assurance do I have that anybody would even notice? Looking at stats for number of blogs, etc. the odds would seem very against any one effort being noticed.
The rock is thrown into the pond. . It sinks, without a trace. The waters close over it. The ripples die out quickly. How do I avoid such a fate.
Anxious to hear your thoughts,
-Steve
Hi Steve, there is of course no guarantee that you will be found online but you definitely stand a better chance than if you are nowhere to be found at all!
I have written a lot on this as I am a convert myself. I was where you are 18 months ago - with a book and no audience, and now my blog is getting some attention and I have readers (and listeners to my podcast). Yes, I put in a MASSIVE amount of time, but I have a day job so this blog doesn't need to pay and I am investing in my writing future.
I have a lot more books in me and I am building over time - this is my year of the novel and I have a much better chance of getting published, or getting readers for my self-pub book if I build a following here. It is the same for you!
But don't just take it from me - here are some posts from agents and publishers who work the business.
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/07/the-importance-of-building-your-platform.html
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/06/dreaded-author-platform.html
I hope that helps. The best advice I have is to start - get a blog, get tweeting as well as writing and persist and it will build. No guarantees but after a year, you will definitely have more of a platform that someone who doesn't start now!
Thanks, Joanna
Hi Joanna,
Thanks for the response. Hope you don't mind a follow-up. I'm wondering if anybody has studied the question of how a blog (or other online presence, but I want to focus on blogs because that's probably what I would do first) - how a blog is discovered by its audience. Are there any tips out there that are aimed at the question of how to grow an audience of blog readers?
I could see getting maybe 3-10 casual visitors just by mentioning in other online locations that the blog exists, and good content would bring those people back. I could also see getting from (say) 50 to 200 through virality. Those numbers may be off, but somewhere around 50ish feels like a good critical mass for the jump into the low hundreds. (Again, assuming great content). But the first few casual visitors may well not include anybody that would refer others to the blog, even if they themselves like it. So how do you make it to 50?
Admittedly, I'm throwing around numbers and assumptions here without knowing what I'm talking about. But I'm wondering if anybody out there actually knows - and if they're talking :)
Any resources that you can suggest?
-Steve
Hi Steve, re growing traffic and subscribers, there are lots of great sites out there that can help with this.
My favourite sites for blog tips are:
http://www.problogger.net/
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/
Both these sites have loads of information on these topics, including a ton of case studies as well as podcasts on Entrepreneurs Journey hosted by Yaro Starak. (Yaro is my blog mentor!)
If you like video, I recommend Traffic Cafe for blog traffic tips http://trafficcafe.tv/
I hope that helps, Joanna
@Joanna - As I'm sure you know, I couldn't agree more, and I look forward to the technology follow-up!
@Steve - There's tons of great advice out there. The best thing is just to go and and do it! You will learn by doing and get better as you go. As Joanna said, it will take time, but it will come back to you if you're diligent.
Best of luck!
Hi Joanna,
I am curious as to your thoughts on products such as Dragon's Naturally Speaking that allows the user to speak rather than type to author their pieces. I have seen this advertised and am curious as to others' opinions prior to purchasing. I struggle the most with writing dialogue, and I am considering this product for this reason as well as efficiency.
I just found your site - great posts!
Lisa