Social networking sites - are they worth the effort?

If you read any of the writing magazines, they all emphasise the importance of networking with other authors and those within the publishing industry in order to make contacts and increase your profile. It used to be the case that in order to do this writers needed to attend seminars, summer schools and the like, but the arrival of the various social networking sites has opened up a whole new arena of possibilities. Is it though worth the time and effort that it entails in order to not only join, but retain an active membership of such sites, and what are the benefits?

I am no stranger to such sites, having been involved with various types of forums for around 8 years now. I started as a member Healthy Pages, one of the largest and best known complimentary health networks, where I worked as a moderator for several years. I made some good friends there, at least one of whom I am still in contact with, but chose to leave for personal reasons, when I set up my own site with a group of friends. The site was besieged with problems due to hackers and personality clashes between the different partners, so I left them to their own devices, and went back to being a member.

I have been a member of many different sites over the years - some on complimentary health, some on various aspects of religion, and some on writing, but the writing ones have been by far the most useful in terms of the contacts I have made, not to mention the support, from like minded individuals, so from my point of view, yes it has been worth the time and the effort involved, but whether it will be for you depends upon your motives.

For the benefit of those who do not know (and have been living on Mars), a social network is an Internet based community where you can communicate with others on various different issues. In order to join, you must open an account and agree to abide by certain rules, which vary from board to board, some for example frown on advertising, so it is best for the would be writer to steer clear of these. Some are okay with advertising, as long as you are an active member and are not joining just for this purpose, posting once and then disappearing.

When you open an account, you need to fill in what is termed as your profile - this is fairly standard stuff about who you are and what you do for a living, and the usual common sense rules regarding the posting of personal information apply. You also have the option to display a picture of yourself, or to choose an avatar in the form of a picture that you want to represent the real you - a cartoon character perhaps, or a picture of your favourite place. It is easy to do with almost anyone with basic skills and takes less than five minutes to do.

The big question is though - will joining these sites translate to valuable sales - it is impossible to say, but I personally have sold at least twenty books through the various sites I am member of, many of which have been outside of the UK.

Larry Barkan says that the best way to think of these forums as a date with prospective readers, by introducing them to your work, and hopefully persuading them to buy, and I must say that I like this analogy. After all, if people can meet their partners online then why not form a partnership with an author in the same way and the author with their readers?

I don't think that these sites will ever take the place of bonafide face to face contact, but they are and will become increasingly important in the modern world, and are the best way I have found to reach out to those outside of your immediate area. If people use the Internet to find information on television sets and holidays, then why not use it to find information on books?

These sites offer many advantages, which the wise author will choose to utilise not least of all the opportunity to meet others of like mind and share experiences. You can use these communities in order to help promote your work, by asking members to write reviews, or post on other sites publicising book signings and talks etc, knowing that such posts also attract the attention of search engines. You can also link to your own site and any blogs that you have.

The downside is that these sites can become addictive and a substitute for real life, if you are not careful you can end up spending hours on them and not writing at all. An hour a day seems a sensible time limit for me - spread between all the various sites that you may or may not choose to join.

I am member of several, visiting some every day and others just occasionally. The ones that I particularly recommend are as follows:

http://www.mywriterscircle.com/index.php?board=1.0

This is an international community of writers from around the world, with boards on both fiction and non-fiction.

http://www.writersnews.co.uk/writers_talkback/

This is the forum linked to the British based Writers News magazine, with mostly British members, but some from overseas.

http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/

This site as the name suggests, is aimed more at readers than writers, but they are a friendly bunch who welcome writers (especially fiction) from all around the world, so long as they actively take part in the community and are not there just to promote your work.

Some facts about distribution

Distribution is possibly the most misunderstood term in publishing, and one which is particularly misunderstood by self publishers, especially those who choose print on demand. Certain of the less scrupulous companies play on this by advertising that books published by them will be distributed by such and such companies and available through up to 10,000 retail outlets. This is a myth that the wise self publisher will see through. Education and self responsibility are as always the key.

Most print on demand providers offer distribution in the UK through Bertrams and Gardners and in the US through Ingrams and Baker and Taylor. What this means in practical terms is that the publisher has accounts with each of these distributors to supply their books to the retail trade - it does not mean that the books will be on the shelves, but simply listed on a database to which retailers have access. The aforementioned retailers, who also have accounts with these distributors, can then order the books.

This is well and good, but what the majority of self publishers do not realise is that unlike the major publishers, who bring out hundreds or even thousands of books each year, self publishers books do not have access to sales reps that hawk the books around the stores, neither will they in the majority of cases, be warehoused, but sold as what are termed "special orders", i.e. books are supplied by the publisher to the distributor on an ad hoc basis as and when required rather than being kept in stock. This is largely because such books tend to sell in very small numbers, but also because print on demand companies in the main cannot accommodate the risk of returns, not to mention, stretch to the extra discount that would be required.

The true definition of distribution is not that the book is simply listed on a database, but that that it is offered alongside other titles on a seasonal list of titles prepared by the distributor to be presented to retailers about six months prior to publication. Because of the short lead times (it takes an average of three months for a typical print on demand book to go through the various processes of publication) for most print on demand books, this is impossible, not withstanding the reasons already mentioned above.

The distributor will of course require a discount for providing such services (they are after all in business to make money, just like you are). Such discounts are not negotiable and are typically between 40 and 60 percent depending upon the level of service requested.

It is crucial that the self publisher understands and gets to grips with the supply chain if they are to have any level of success at all and there is no excuse for ignorance - it is definitely not bliss. Ignore this advice at your peril.

Life before writing

There is an interesting article today on The Guardian Book Blog bemoaning the fact that so few modern authors seem to have a life before they began to write. They cite the case of JG Ballard who died recently after a long battle with cancer.

I am not familiar with Ballard's work but the article states that there was a stark contrast between the suburban world of Shepperton (not that far from us) where he lived for 50 years and the darkness of his writing. Ballard seems to have led an interesting life. He survived the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, a city I was priviliged to visit in 1986, life as a prisoner of war and in the Canadian armed forces, and worked among other things, as an enclyclopedia salesman and as a porter in Covent Garden.

Contrast this with the life of the average modern writer - go to university, read English, start writing first novel, have a few peices published in various magazines, move to London or some other city, write a few more pieces and eventually get published - and sell if you are lucky, around 300 copies.

Is it really like this though - it certainly hasn't been for me, and when I think about it, I did and continue to have a pretty interesting life long before I became a published author. I may not have lived in war zones or served in the armed forces, but I have survived years of school bullying, the death of both parents (my father at the age of 15), several redundancies and changes of career, and a 12 year relationship with a borderline transsexual. I have also travelled half way round the world on my own. My jobs have included travel agent, supermarket cashier, and complimentary therapist, among others. You cannot do any of those three jobs wthout learning a thing or two about human nature.

I left school aged 17 with three O'Levels to my name (admittedly two of which were in English - in those days an O'Level meant something, and anything less than a Grade C was not considered a pass). There is no university degree for me (although I have done several part time course with Birkbeck), and no home in London, which is the last place I would want to live. Neither is there a first novel, since I write non fiction, but there have been a few pieces in various magazines (mostly unpaid). And just for the record, the one book I have published has sold a lot more than 300 copies, because of my own hard work.

If this is indeed a portrait of the average modern writer, then I am way off the mark. It goes to underline the importance though of having a past and a life and how we can use those experiences both good and bad to help our writing. It is about seeing the value in all things. Those experiences have shaped me into the person that I am, and are reflected in the way that I write, which mirrors my own life, in all its glory. I would not have it any other way.

First Self Publishing Book Expo planned in New York

Whether print on demand can truly be called self publishing is to some a contentious issue - but, love it or loathe it, where traditional presses are making cutbacks on both sides of the Atlantic, this aspect of the publishing industry is booming.

To this end, publishing veterans Diane Mancher and Karen Mender are launching what they term as Self-Publishing Book Expo, an event that will focus on self-published books and the companies that produce them. Unlike exhibitions such as the forthcoming London Book Fair, which are closed to the general public, SPBE will offer attending authors a place to exhibit and sell their books to the book buying public, as well as agents and publishers whom the organisers hope will attend. In this way, the expo will serve as a showcase for both authors and publishers to showcase their work.

Mancher is working with Mender, a former Vice President, Associate Publisher and Marketing Director at Atria Books, Dell/Delacorte and HarperCollins, to produce and develop the Expo. In addition to acting as a showcase for self published books, the SPBE will include panel discussions and lectures on the challenges of self publishing, and an “Open House” for would-be authors, which will be open to the public and hosted by representatives of various self-publishing companies.

The Expo is scheduled to take place in New York on Saturday, November 7 and if successful, will become an annual event. Authors may register at http://www.selfpubbookexpo.com/.

Some quotes about writing

In the same way that a woman becomes a prostitute. First I did it to please myself, then I did it to please my friends, and finally I did it for money.

Ferenc Molnar ... after asked about how he became a writer

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to those who are not yet born.
Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, English Essayist

Books are the quietest and most constant friends, they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W Elliot, 1834-1926, American Educator

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
Ursula LeGuin, b 1929, American sci fi writer

All that mankind has done, thought or been is lying in magic preserved in the pages of books.
Thomas Carlyle, 1785-1881, Scottish Essayist, Historian and Philosopher

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.
George Simenon, 1903-89, Belgian novelist

The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yoghurt.
Calvin Yrillin.

Life, the universe and everything in between

The April edition of the village newsletter that I edit, contained an insert from the PCC (Parochial Church Council), in the form of a questionaire, to try to get to the bottom of why so few people in our village go to church. I cannot speak for others, but for my part, it is because there is nothing there that really interests me - the Christian concept of God as a being which is outside of oneself is totally at odds with my own more Gnostic beliefs.

There is evidence to suggest that Gnosticism, which along with modern spirituality teaches that God is within, and that we ourselves are aspects of God, was the original form of Christianity that Jesus (if he existed - that is a whole other subject) taught, and this is one of the main tenets of my own book, Genesis of Man, orginally published in 2006. Yesterday, when I was tidying up my work room, it occured to me that it has been well over a year since I picked up my own book and actually read it, but when I tried I could not bring myself to even open it. This led me to ponder on why this was.

The conclusion I reached was because I have changed so much as a person since I wrote those words (the book may have been published in 2006, but I began work on it back in 2001), that a large chunk of it no longer represents who I am. It is not the message behind the words, but the way in which they are presented - there is a lot of anger in there, and therefore ego.

On Wednesday, my partner and I went to the Inner Journey group that we attend each week, where we discussed the questionaire regarding church attendance in more detail. One of the ladies that was there commented that she felt the church was being under used and should be for everyone - not just Christians, and that it would be the perfect venue for our own little group were those who run it (the aforementioned PCC) not so closed minded. Whether or not this is the case, when I thought again about my own book and the words that it contains, and where I was at the time that I wrote those words, I detected a large amount of mirroring.

I have observed that many on the spiritual path become quite irate when discussing mainstream religion, stating as my friend did, that if only they could see beyond their beliefs, they would find a whole new world that would expand their minds to take in so much more. This may be true, but it comes across as a critisicm, and criticism is nearly always borne from ego. The ego, in its fight for survival, has to have an identity, and for many that includes our belief systems - hence we label ourselves as Christian, Muslim or in my case, Gnostic. This is fine as long as recognise it for what it is, but most people do not; they become so completely identified with the mind and the labels that it attaches to the various things it identifies with, that we believe that we are those things, and so when those things (in this case, our beliefs) are attacked, we believe that we are being attacked. This is the reasoning behind nearly all the atrocities to have committed against humanity, since history began. Belief and identification with a particular set of beliefs, are seen as more important than life itself.

There may be different degrees, but when my friend made those comments, they were really no better (or worse) than Christians stating that it is their duty to "save souls" so that non believers will not spend eternity in hell. They do not see the inherant goodness that goes beyond belief, but only that which seperates, where in reality, it is comments such as these that cause (and maintain) the real seperation.

This is not meant to be a judgement, but is really more of an observation. There is a lot of ego in me, and in the words that I wrote back then - but those thoughts no longer reflect who I am. As I began to research and learn more and more about Church history (particularly after I attended an Alpha course - the anger is rising just thinking about this), this brought up a lot of anger, which comes across in the words. Where this comes from I do not know - possibly from past lives where I was persecuted and killed for my supposedly heretical beliefs (I am almost certain that I was one of the 200 plus burnt at the Cathar fortress at Montsegur, and may also have been an Inquisitor), but wherever it does come from, it is in the past, and needs to remain there.

Part of the process of letting go will involve re-reading that book, which contains a vast array of information on a myriad of fascinating subjects - Atlantis, Ancient Egypt, Mesoamerican civilisations, crystal skulls, and of course religion - as the subtitle says - life, the universe and everything in between ... It will be an interesting journey.

Author Solutions buys Trafford Publishing

I read yesterday in the regular Book2 Book newsletter that I receive that Author Solutions, the US based print on demand publisher had acquired Trafford Publishing for an undisclosed sum.

Trafford was a relatively small but well known operation, set up in 1995, with offices in both Canada and the UK, and accordingly to The Bookseller, the world's first print on demand provider. My own publisher, Authors OnLine Ltd was established not long after, since this is their 12th year of business. Trafford may have been the first POD provider in the world, but AOL were the first in the UK - the original, and in my opinion, still the best.

Author Solutions, who own several POD imprints including AuthorHouse and iUniverse, are rapidly becoming the MacDonalds of the print on demand world. This comes on the back of their acquisition, just a few months ago, of Xlibris.

During 2008, they claim to have published over 21,000 titles from over 90,000 authors. Look closely however and you will see that the average sales for one of their titles was hardly more than 200 copies. Although it is true that this is largely due to the efforts (or lack of) on the part of their authors, to me it is not exactly a glowing advertisement. I suppose it depends on what your motivations for publishing are in the first place.

The news of this acquisition is to me a very sad day for the POD world. When you look at the history of the traditional non POD sector, and see how the smaller independent presses have been gradually swallowed up by the big boys, you will see that the power is concentrated in the hands of four or five large companies, who effectively have control of close to 75 percent of the market. This means less choice all round, and provides no incentive for the companies to compete with each other by offering better or different products, leading to less choice and less innovation. This is where the smaller companies, like the aforementioned Authors OnLine come in, who offer a real alternative with different options to suit different budgets without the 'pile em high and sell em cheap mentality that seems to emanate from these larger, less personal companies.