Author

September 30, 2013

Authors: Readers Don’t Care About Your Twitter

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post asking whether fiction writers should blog, and if so, what about. I got some great feedback, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and researching in the meantime. A few of you asked that I share my findings, so here are the startling facts.

Keep in mind, I researched my target market. While I’m not a hundred percent who will enjoy my book, I’m guessing it will be older teens and adults, primarily women. They’d likely also read fantasy, young adult, romance, chick lit, thrillers, and maybe some horror or science fiction. If that isn’t your target market, then your statistics might tell you a different story.

I found an excellent research study done by the Romance Writers of America (RWA). While I wouldn’t classify my novel first and foremost as a romance, our target markets would overlap a lot, especially readers of paranormal romance (essentially, romance with a fantasy element).

I strongly recommend reading the whole study, especially if you are a self-publisher. Romance readers are the biggest subgenre purchasers of e-books and care the least about whether they’ve heard of an author or not. The study asked a lot of in depth questions about how to price ebooks, and found that if you price your book too low, readers won’t buy it, because they assume that it’s a low quality book.

RWA also spent a lot of time on various media and how effective it is at reaching readers. Granted, these statistics were from a 2011 reader survey, so they are a little old, but they are so shocking I wanted to copy them in full for you. Note that blue is NOT DONE AND HAVE NO INTEREST.

Activities that Do or Do Not Interest the Romance Buyer

Source: Romance Writers of America 2011 Romance Book Consumer Survey

Did you see that?

83% of readers have not and have no interest in ever following an author on Twitter. Add to that an additional 13% of readers that don’t follow you and have varying levels of interest of ever checking out your Twitter account. Only 6% of readers have ever actually gone to an author’s Twitter account.

Guess what else they don’t care about? Your Goodreads, YOUR BLOG, your videos and trailers, your Facebook page, or your online or live events. Yes, there are a few people in each of those categories who are interested in those things, but not much.

The one exception here is readers do like author websites. They like to occasionally check in to see what you’re up to, what’s coming out, and any little extra goodies you might be offering. But as for any ongoing info like a blog, Facebook updates, Twitter, etc. –not so much.

After my mind stopped reeling, I thought about this. It makes sense. I only follow two author blogs of my very favorite writers. Honestly, most of the time I give their new posts a quick skim at best, and half the time if it doesn’t have anything to do with their newest book, I delete it immediately. While I have followed a number of authors on Twitter, I don’t ever look at their feeds. I think I might have clicked a Like button or two for an author’s Facebook page, but I’m quite certain I have never read an author’s status update. I’m a writer myself, and I don’t even care about these things. Why in the world would a reader? I am a busy person who is constantly inundated with media. What I really want from my authors is more books, not tweets.

So if all of this media we’ve been pouring our time into isn’t what makes a reader buy a book, then what does influence their purchasing decisions? RWA asked that, too.

  • 50% say they buy the book for the story
  • 19% for the author
  • The third biggest factor is the book is part of a series
  • Lastly is the back cover copy (Does anybody like those front covers?)

An author’s online presence isn’t completely for naught. It does help build name recognition and that hard to measure “buzz.”  The Google spiders learn who you are, and publishers always like that.  The problem is platform building has to eventually lead to hard sales.  RWA found some online influences that did lead to a book purchase:

  • Online bookseller websites (Amazon.com, BN.com, etc.)
  • Reading about it/seeing it online (I wish they’d given a bit more detail about what this means.)
  • Seeing it on a bestseller list
  • Author website

At this point you’re probably thinking, “That’s nice, Lara, but my readers are young and hip and possibly even male. I’m sure this doesn’t apply to me. I don’t write silly paperback romances.”

First of all, whatever you do, don’t ever insult a romance reader. Not only do romances make up a huge part of the publishing market, they are also some of the most loyal repeat buyers. That everyone should have fans like romance readers!

Secondly, are you are sure your readers are who you think they are? The other major study I found was by publishing market statistic guru Bowker. They also will let you download their 28 page report on the state of publishing for free. Want to know who buys the most books, ebooks or traditional?

College educated women over 30 making $50,000 a year or more. Specifically:

  • 60% of books are bought by women
  • 60% of books are bought by people educated to a degree level
  • 58% of books are bought by those making at least $50,000 a year or more
  • 69% of books are bought by those 30 or over, with 28% being 55+

So does any of this make you rethink how you spend your time? It certainly does for me. I’m still pondering what I’m going to do with my blog, but it is likely to go through some changes. The first one is that I’ll just be posting on Mondays. I’m forgoing the Thursday posts so I can have more time to work on my novel. Imagine that!  🙂

September 19, 2013

Writers: Is Your Blog Working?

I was chatting with a fellow blogger this week, discussing the pros and cons of regular blogging.  We’re both pretty new to the game, and like most newbies are a teensy obsessive about our stats.  Both of us continue to be surprised what posts are popular and which ones seem to tank.

I’m a nerd at heart, so when in doubt, I research.  I wanted to know why fiction authors really blog in the first place.  I’ve always understood platform when it comes to non-fiction writers.  They get to try out all their ideas first on their blog and then collect posts into chapters that eventually become a book.  For those of us that write novels, deciding what to blog about is quite the chore, and it seems most of us end up writing about writing.

But are we accomplishing anything?  What’s the goal of blogging for the fiction writer?  Certainly, there can be more than one.  Some writers blog to develop discipline and to get themselves writing.  Others like being part of the blogging community, making friends and gathering manuscript critiquing partners.

If either of those were my main goals, I’d say my blog is working just fine. Unfortunately, that’s not why I started this blog, and I’m guessing it’s not why most other authors blog, either.  Added discipline and community have been wonderful side benefits, but they have never been the point.  The goal of my blog has always been to build an audience and connect with readers.

While not published yet, I write fantasy fiction for adults.  As mentioned before, I’m pretty attentive to my blog statistics.  The people following my blog are almost exclusively other authors.  That makes sense, since this blog has been about writing and publishing.  While a few of you might one day be interested in a novel of mine, my primary market I will be writing for is not authors.  So why is my blog about the craft of writing–a topic my potential audience won’t likely give a fig about? 

Hmm.  I’m not sure anymore.

I’m not Kristen Lamb, who writes books teaching authors how to use social media and be a support to each other.  I’m not an agent like Rachelle Gardner or a publishing guru like Jane Friedman to be giving writers expert advice how to make it in the industry.  I’m a novelist in want of readers. 

How do I craft a blog that will connect me with the same audience that is likely to read my books?  Is a blog even the best way to do it? 

L.L. Barkat argues that sometimes the best thing an author can do is STOP BLOGGING.  It blew my little mind.  Dan Blank disagrees. I’d really encourage you to read both of those articles including the comment section.

Authors, I’d love a lot of feedback on this.  Should we blog?  Should authors spend their time elsewhere?  If so, where?  If you do think blogging is important, should we really be blogging about writing if our audience is not writers?  What in the world should we blog about instead?