I was browsing Writers In the Storm, a blog for professional (as in full-time) writers. Their advice ranges from very useful to mildly head scratching (do you think about the table of contents as a structural element in your novel? Should you? What does it tell readers?)
The article that caught my eye was about writers and our electronic presence, and sales. Penny Sansevieri says that there are five electronic outlets that an author really needs for sales and marketing. One is our Amazon Author page, and here I agree fully. At the least have an image of some kind, a short bio, and if you have social media, links to that if you are so inclined. You are selling yourself as much as your books. Be interesting, or at least presentable. And keep it up to date (something I need to redo, since mine focuses on what was important when I did only mil-sci-fi, and isn’t as applicable now.) If you sell through other outlets, then have something there as well. If you have an Amazon sales page (you hand-sell through Amazon, so to speak), then it needs to be clean, professional, and look as if you know what you are doing.
Now we get into “but I’m not a full-time pro, and Day Job and Life absorb absolutely everything!” sorts of things. Do you need a web-presence of some kind? As much as it pains me, I think now it really does help sell things. Do you absolutely have to have one? Well, no, you are not going to drop dead if you don’t.
Web-site [and I count blogs here] – Tidy, easy on the eyes, not overloaded with stuff, and text friendly. You should post once or twice a week, more if you can but at the least once a week. Here you put links to new releases, announce new releases, have teaser excerpts, cover art, and so on. That’s the minimum. A little about you, essays and background pieces? If you have time. Don’t make yourself into a web-site that occasionally releases books (unless that works best for you. See Peter Grant for an example of a blogger who turned writer and sold books to blog readers, then to others.) If you sell your own books, the sales links need to be current and secure. If you don’t sell your own books, the links to your distributors still need to be current and secure. Ditto any sidebar blogs/sites/what have you.
Do you need a mailing list? Some people do and it works very well for them. Other people don’t, and let’s face it, a lot of email filters start kicking things into the spam-trap after two or three from the same address in a short time. How short depends on the email service. If you do a mailing list, don’t overload your readers with daily stuff – it is not a spam list. I focus on my blog and don’t worry about mailing list, because I announce things through my blog, my social media, and a few other places.
Do you solicit reviews? Be careful here, because Amazon (and I suspect other sites) has a problem with friends and social media contacts posting reviews for each other. Yes, someone abused the system, and so the rest of us are stuck. Encouraging people to post reviews, and accepting invitations to be on podcasts and such is great.
And social media … Oof. For some people and genres, it is almost necessary. Larry Correia is a master of social media. If you do YA, Book Toks and Twit/X or Instagram seem to be critical to getting word out. I suspect dark fantasy romance is similar. TradPub expects authors to have a social media presence with a minimum number of followers in order to sell books*. This is one where you personally have to weigh the benefits and liabilities. And social media can be a massive time sink when you have Day Job, and are trying to keep the house clean, the dog walked, cat fed, spouse in clean clothes, kids domesticated (or at least housebroken), bills paid, and still find a bit of writing time.
At the least, if you have books for sale, do an Amazon (and other places if you use them) Author Page. The rest? Whatever works for you and won’t drive you insane trying to keep up with.
*Tell me again about how TradPub nurtures young authors and helps them develop their skills and markets new books to readers so writers can write. Please tell me, preferably with a straight face. I need a good laugh.
Mad Genius Club 
5 responses to “Part-Time Pro: What Do You Need, and What Is Optional?”
LOL! Yeah, really ponder what kind of message your table of contents is sending the potential reader. ROFL.
And I love your footnote. Trad pub delenda est. Trad pub these days is nothing but a money laundering racket for politicians. Just for the heck of it, I submitted a story to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine last year. The formatting requirements are absurd in this day and age, and they claimed a typical response is 8-10 months. It took them 13 months to reject my little story. How is a writer supposed to live with those turn-around times? Raconteur Press OTOH has an anthology I’m submitting to that opened a call in mid August. The call closes in early October with contracts sent out two weeks later, and the book publishes in mid November.
2 You own your blog. At a minimum, we recommend a short bio with picture (for possible reporters looking for a local story), a media kit (how to reach you and YES, you should check it sometimes to see if someone invited you to a podcast interview. This is an issue Bill regularly faces when trying to set up interviews for the Mechanicsburg Mystery Podcast including with authors who already said yes in person!!!!), and “Your Books”.
“Your Books” should include a cover image for each title, a short synopsis, and links to where it can be bought. Arrange “Your Books” however you like but it should be logical. Keep series together and so forth.
Your website should ALSO include, top righthand corner, a list of any upcoming events.
Update your blog when you publish another book. Anything else is extra, depending on energy level and interests.
3 We do a monthly newsletter and that’s enough! We don’t do newsletter swaps.
4 Only do the social media you already like doing. If you hate doing it, it’s a chore you’ll avoid at all costs. I like Instagram which is why we do that one. Facebook gets little attention from us. We’re teaching ourselves to livestream so our YouTube account is getting a bit more attention. Never, ever forget that your social media account is owned by someone else. If they decide they don’t like you, your account is gone.
5 You have this information out there so if someone picks up your bookmark on the floor of the convention center, they can find you online. If they can’t find you, you don’t exist.
About your Table of Contents.
I like them. But I DON’T like
chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3 and so forth.
I like
1 Escape into the steppes
2 Lost and starving
3 Found by savages and so forth.
In print, this doesn’t matter too much. BUT! In eBooks, when you use the look inside feature at Amazon, you see the table of contents because eBooks require them. Why not title each chapter and use it to add a little more interest?
You can write chapter titles however you want. One word. Two words. A short sentence. A sentence from that chapter. A snippet of dialog from that chapter. Whatever works for you.
Your Table of Contents for your eBook is another marketing tool that says, “you want to know more about this story.”
That’s an interesting idea, especially if you can make the chapter titles sufficiently cryptic enough they don’t spoil things, but do line up with what is going on when the reader gets there.
I like using a snippet of dialog from the chapter.
Thus:
1 “I have a confession to make”
2 “It’s not like you can trust those people”
3 “Bad Coppertail! Bad Coppertail!”
4 “Rapacious bloodsucking bastards from Olde Earthe“
5 “I am not leaving this train naked”
This is so much better than chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 and so forth!