‘like a heartbeat, lonely and strong.’ (Great Big Sea)

The trouble with social media is that – unless you happen on a rare, lucky viral post, it’s a long, slow heavy haul to a decent following. And, go away for a few weeks (or less) and it all fades away. This, if you hope to do some marketing via your social media platform makes it a perpetual wheel to get chained to.

Of course, even getting the following in the first place is hard yakka. Posting endless spam ‘Buy my book’ – is a guaranteed turn off, and will lose you followers Yes, if you’re popular already, some of them MAY buy your book, but otherwise, no.

You have to engage the attention of readers with OTHER content, generally. If, like Larry Correia you enjoy argument, do it well and entertainingly, you may not win over those you ridicule — but it’s the audience that you’re playing for. Otherwise… cat-pictures sometimes work. Funny bits of snark occasionally take. Getting your posts share by larger accounts does too. And there… the key is so often that you share theirs (unless of course they’re so vast they don’t care).

But be prepared for the long haul. Not too many mentions of your own work, and at least some break out of the ‘writers following writers’ silo. Writers DO buy books (sometimes quite a lot of them) but a career needs a market outside that.

Remember, however, you have to beat the drum, and keep beating it.

In the meanwhile, I have a grand-daughter to put to bed.