Bye bye birdie

Tags

marketing, publicity, sales, Samuel Plank, tweeting, Twitter

As some of you will know, I serve in a voluntary capacity as a magistrate (perfect for crime research…).  A large part of our work is sentencing, and at this stage in the proceedings a defendant will often say in mitigation, “But miss, I’ve got mental health”.  We know s/he means just the opposite, but every time I hear it I reflect how grateful I am that, for almost all of my life, I have indeed had mental health.  And in a bid to keep things that way, I have decided to stop using Twitter in my private and writing lives – although I shall keep a very inactive account for work purposes, so that people can find me.

When I realised that my narrator Constable Sam Plank would live beyond one book, I decided to hide behind his name and created the @ConstablePlank Twitter handle.  I did this on the advice of more experienced authors, who said – without exception – that the key to selling lots of books was to have an active social media presence.  And (like everyone else) I have no way of knowing whether that is true: it is impossible to know what proportion of readers were alerted to the Sam books via Twitter (or Facebook or this writing blog or Amazon searching or shop displays).  But what I do know about Twitter is this:

• Anything that I post on Twitter can just as easily be posted on Facebook or this blog
• My tweets – like everyone else’s – disappear within hours, if not minutes
• Nearly all the tweets I read from the authors that I follow are – like mine – attempts to sell more books, which becomes rather dull quite quickly
• Too many tweets are unpleasant in tone
• Twitter sucks up too much of my time, as I seem to be addicted to scrolling through yards and yards of irrelevant tweets.

This is to take nothing at all from those of you who enjoy tweeting and/or enjoy reading tweets.  It’s just that I have not got from it what I was hoping (over and above book sales), which was an insight into the writing process and the lives of other writers and therefore a sense of community.  (Plus, if I read the phrase “hand sanitiser” once more, I may indeed get mental health.).  So for now, @Constable Plank is no more.

Am I too old to be an overnight success?

Tags

author, Fatal Forgery, marketing, publicity, review, Samuel Plank, Susan Grossey, tweeting, Twitter

I’m not much of a Twitterer (Tweeter?), but I do use it as part of my day job, to share links I find to money laundering related stories.  I have never really used it for my writing self, as I’m not sure how to (or indeed whether to), so I was absolutely delighted to get this notification today: https://twitter.com/DebbieYoungBN/status/456341479418372097

Debbie Young is an author and book reviewer (you can read all about her here) , and some weeks ago she very kindly agreed to take delivery of a copy of “Fatal Forgery” and consider writing a review of it.  Always a nervous moment for an author…  So I am thrilled beyond measure that she is (a) enjoying the book, and (b) telling all of her 6,228 followers that she is enjoying it.

And so the daydream starts…. (*wavy lines*)  Debbie Young’s Twitter followers include one of England’s most influential, hip and happening agents.  This agent’s interest is piqued by Debbie’s comment, and s/he orders a copy of “FF”.  S/he reads it at one sitting, unable to believe the fluency of the writing, the reliable detail of the historical setting, the sympathetic nature of the characters, until the twist in the tail makes him/her slump back in the chair, amazed at the experience.  S/he can barely wait for morning, to telephone three, no, six leading publishing houses, whose in-house readers are similarly impressed and immediately leap into a frenzied bidding war for the rights.  The agent, meanwhile, finds him/herself stuck in a lift with Steven Spielberg and Richard and/or Judy, and shows them the book: Steve immediately buys the film rights, and Richard and/or Judy begs to be allowed to recommend it as a summer read.  I retire from the day job, to spend the rest of my days, Colin Dexter-like, writing Sam Plank books and being feted.  The End.

Fledgling tweets

Tags

Fatal Forgery, financial crime, self-publishing, Susan Grossey, tweeting, Twitter

Although I am not short of things to say, I have so far resisted the lure of Twitter.  It’s partly because I don’t have a smartphone (I’m almost allergic to mobile phones and often leave my own – elderly, clam-style – one at home.)  And it’s partly because I fear that once I start I won’t be able to stop.  But every website, book, blog, article and programme about self-publishing says that tweeting is an essential activity for today’s author, so I am giving it a go.

I signed up at the weekend, and spent a happy two hours wandering around looking up authors I admire, friends and random famous people (did you know that the Pope now tweets?) to get an idea of what they tweet.  Apparently it is a big no-no to self-promote on Twitter, which leaves me somewhat at a loss as to why everyone recommends it so highly for self-published authors, but I gather that it is more subtle than that.  You put “helpful content” onto Twitter, gather a following about you, and then they might buy your book.  After a brief flirtation with what I thought was amusing content, which just left me wondering what was the point of it all, I had an epiphany: I shall just use Twitter as I use my existing work website and blog, i.e. to share information about money laundering and financial crime.  After all, that’s the topic of “Fatal Forgery”, and people who are interested in the topic might be tempted by the book.

It’s a bit like watching your gran trying to get to grips with a PlayStation, I know, but if you’re minded to take a look, my Twitter username is @susangrossey.