There's been a lot written recently about the explosion of e-books. Of course, the largest platforms for e-books, Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and Smashwords have already been offering a new gateway for established authors to sell books. But as time goes by, more and more new writers, tired of being rejected by literary agents and established publishing houses, are turning to e-books as an alternative. Of course, without a major publisher behind you, it's still difficult to get your work out there. Readers have to know your book exists if it is going to be sold and read. And here is where social networking comes into play.
I must admit that at my advanced baby boomer age, learning and understanding new communications platforms like Blogs, Facebook and Twitter are still a bit of a challenge to my gray cells. But it's been very enlightening to me to read about successes a number of e-book authors have had by using these platforms to promote their work. Many of these authors are young and quite savvy at blogging and tweeting, and using music and graphics to generate interest in their books - even creating their own book trailers. Authors like J.A. Konrath, Amanda Hocking, H.P. Mallory and others are doing quite well and have talked about it on-line and to the press. Konrath even has a helpful blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, that has been eye-opening to me, and gives me hope that I'll eventually find an audience.
We all hear that you're never too old to learn. I intend to test that theory. And if you're a writer, you can't seem to stop writing anyway, so you might as well try everything. So, as Jackie Gleason used to say (boy, now I'm really dating myself)...Away we go!
No comments:
Post a Comment