Agents love talking about platforms and social media presence. The quality of your writing is first and foremost, but online prowess is not far behind. I worry about this because I have limited mental bandwidth for the internet. I'm on Facebook and Twitter, but I don't use them religiously. I have a blog and blog friends, and try to post and comment regularly. To add Google+ to this list is daunting to me. What can G+ bring to the table that those other sites can't? I don't want to be overconnected. I can't be everywhere. I just have to admit to myself that I'll never be a social media maven. Will that make me less desirable to agents and publishers?
For all the authors who have a strong web presence like John Green and Brent Hartinger, there are plenty who don't who've sold lots of books. YA authors need to be online in some capacity, I think, since that's where their audience is. What do you think is the bare minimum of social media that authors should utilize?
I read somewhere that you should just do what suits you, and do it well, whatever that may be. I'm taking the advice to heart and sticking to blogging. That said, I did just join Twitter, although I haven't got involved at all yet :-)
ReplyDeleteI may try out google plus. I don't have facebook yet.
ReplyDeleteI agree that limitations concerning internet access and bandwidth can be daunting. I'm lucky to get a hold of a computer with access but think it's unfair to assume all people have the money to afford this.
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