To say I was a social media neophyte when I started self-publishing my books would be a gross understatement. I pretty much had the smallest social media presence on the planet. On Facebook I had as friends my girls and a few people on I enjoy talking to~~I won't tell you how many friends. That would be embarrassing~~ I didn't know about groups, google, twitter, instagram, pinterest... well basically anything social media related and popular from this century. I'm a one on one, lets be live kind of girl, and it used to frustrate the hell out of me to have family movie night and see my girls hunched over their phones always texting. Nope, didn't want to be like that.
It's not that technology is something intimidating to me. I participated in software company start ups in the Silicone Valley for about 6 years. It's just, it didn't serve a purpose in my life so why plug in and learn. Then I released my first book on Amazon, had some sales, but started to wonder how the heck are some of this Indie's burning up the sales charts. I hadn't heard of most of the authors, couldn't imagine how they were reaching readers, and felt there was a party going on somewhere, I don't know where, but I hadn't been invited.
That's when I stumbled, quite by chance across Rachel Blaufeld (author of Electrified and Smoldered). I'm not really sure how we connected. Cyber land always ends up a touch of a fuzzy memory for me. But we did, and Rachel is all things social media and new economy. Writer, blogger, and willing to take on an old lady clueless in the new world as a charity educational project.
She grabbed me by my dye covered gray roots and dragged me into the new world. In the beginning it was, "Just do this, Susan. Point! Click! Post! Like!" I didn't ask any questions, I just did. But so far as a crash course in the new economy driven by social media, Rachel is an excellent guide. By October I'd learned enough, put together enough systems, gotten onto all the cyber highways to the point that my fledgling book business could provide something more than the occasional senior night at sizzler with a coupon!
Then January came and the Facebook changes and the world tipped over, and I am back, marketing plan in ashes at my feet, trying to figure out new systems and how to get traction again. It isn't that I resent Zuckerberg wanting to make a buck for his shareholders. Hell, I'm a capitalist. I get it. It just seems to me he's chosen to start by stomping on the little guy, and he hasn't given me an effective way to pay to play. I'm all for paying, but most Indies will tell you, taking our work directly to readers through social media is a 10000times more effective than the Facebook ads. I buy the ads, but I'm of that generation who works hard, believes in working hard, and wants to, can do, for themselves. Killing my ability to be a self-reliant hard-working woman just ain't right. I have and do buy your ads Facebook. The problem is, I do better for myself than you can do for me. I sure hope you work on that. Senior night at sizzler with a coupon just isn't all that fun!
As always I wish you Peace.
OH and When the Perfect Comes is still on 99cent Kindle countdown.
It's not that technology is something intimidating to me. I participated in software company start ups in the Silicone Valley for about 6 years. It's just, it didn't serve a purpose in my life so why plug in and learn. Then I released my first book on Amazon, had some sales, but started to wonder how the heck are some of this Indie's burning up the sales charts. I hadn't heard of most of the authors, couldn't imagine how they were reaching readers, and felt there was a party going on somewhere, I don't know where, but I hadn't been invited.
That's when I stumbled, quite by chance across Rachel Blaufeld (author of Electrified and Smoldered). I'm not really sure how we connected. Cyber land always ends up a touch of a fuzzy memory for me. But we did, and Rachel is all things social media and new economy. Writer, blogger, and willing to take on an old lady clueless in the new world as a charity educational project.
She grabbed me by my dye covered gray roots and dragged me into the new world. In the beginning it was, "Just do this, Susan. Point! Click! Post! Like!" I didn't ask any questions, I just did. But so far as a crash course in the new economy driven by social media, Rachel is an excellent guide. By October I'd learned enough, put together enough systems, gotten onto all the cyber highways to the point that my fledgling book business could provide something more than the occasional senior night at sizzler with a coupon!
Then January came and the Facebook changes and the world tipped over, and I am back, marketing plan in ashes at my feet, trying to figure out new systems and how to get traction again. It isn't that I resent Zuckerberg wanting to make a buck for his shareholders. Hell, I'm a capitalist. I get it. It just seems to me he's chosen to start by stomping on the little guy, and he hasn't given me an effective way to pay to play. I'm all for paying, but most Indies will tell you, taking our work directly to readers through social media is a 10000times more effective than the Facebook ads. I buy the ads, but I'm of that generation who works hard, believes in working hard, and wants to, can do, for themselves. Killing my ability to be a self-reliant hard-working woman just ain't right. I have and do buy your ads Facebook. The problem is, I do better for myself than you can do for me. I sure hope you work on that. Senior night at sizzler with a coupon just isn't all that fun!
As always I wish you Peace.
OH and When the Perfect Comes is still on 99cent Kindle countdown.
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