How important is social media to the Indie Author?

In the busy world of social media you have to wonder if it is a help or a hinderance. Today myself, Mistral Dawn and Barbara Chioffi will be discussing how much the various platforms have aided them in their writing careers.

I've been a fan of Facebook for some time, and have met some amazing people! Including Barbara Chioffi, author of Angel Mine, who is without a doubt my twin sister from another mother!

The first point I’d like make is that at one point I found Twitter extremely annoying, in that I couldn't make heads or tails of how it worked....I guess I’m just old, right?

However, after publishing my first novel, Demon Within, I realized I needed to get to grips with Twitter. On my unused account, I had a whole ten people following me!! Not good for someone trying to get people to buy my book.

It was after a few short weeks that I met a very special person, Mistral Dawn, the author of Taken by the Huntsman and Bound by the Summer Prince.

Julie: Hello Mistral and Barbara!

Mistral: Hi Julie! :-) Thank you for inviting me! :-)

Barbara: Yes, thank you , Julie.

Julie: Fabulous to be here with you ladies! Let’s get to it shall we?

Mistral, what is your favorite social media platform and why?

Mistral: Well, it depends. Twitter is awesome for getting something out to a lot of people quickly, but tweets scroll by really quickly. Facebook is better for making sure something stays up so that people can see it. So I guess it depends on what message I’m trying to convey and how I want to present it.

 :-)

Julie: I agree with every word you said, Twitter is very fast and it’s hard to keep up sometimes. I personally love the interaction I get with Facebook. What about you Barbara?

Barbara: I totally agree with both of you. I've found Facebook to be the better of the two, especially for promoting. There are so many more opportunities there. Things are passed from one page to another, leapfrogging over each other. It’s very exciting to watch.

Julie: Yes! Of course, we wouldn't have met without it! Right?

Barbara: Exactly. We've all made so many new friends, especially in our field of interest.

Julie: Which leads me to my next question. I know Mistral has her own blog and getting people to follow is a task in itself, do you find this helps with book sales?

Mistral: I think having the blog helps me network with other authors, and helps get the word out about all of us to more people. If I post an interview for an author and their fans come to my blog to read it, they might also see my books and/or other guests’ books, and take an interest. Honestly, it might be the slowest of the ways to promote, but I think it might also be the most effective in the long run. If people are entertained by what I post on my blog, then maybe they’ll keep coming back for more. :-)

Barbara: I am new to this, but have been fascinated by the interaction on Facebook, and also on the blogs. They provide an insight into an author, their likes and dislikes, and their character. I find myself going back to see what else has developed.

Julie: I’m all for interaction with readers who have bought my book, and meeting them on Facebook and twitter is fabulous. I get a personal high from anyone who tells me they’re enjoying it, let alone they love it! How important are reviews to both of you?

Mistral: Reviews are important, especially for generating interest for people to buy our work. I’m always interested to hear what someone thought of my stories, and I’m thrilled when they enjoyed what they read. :-)

Barbara: I, too, think reviews give such great feedback, even the ones that might not be as good as you would like, as long as they are given in the right spirit.

Julie: It’s interesting that I was asking a few people who I knew had bought my latest book, Angel Within to please leave a review. One of them pointed out that never in her life had she ever posted a review on Amazon or any other ebook seller and she found it unusual to post. In this day when there are lots of wannabe authors, and we’re all scrambling to be noticed, it really does help us. For anyone who is reading an indie author book at the moment, think of it as leaving a tip for a waitress, because it really gives indie authors a high.
I want to quickly touch on sales figures, because we all know how difficult it is to be noticed and nothing is more special than breaking that top 100 barrier on Amazon. Has any of you done it?

Mistral: I managed to do it for the first time on April 1, 2015!! I was absolutely ecstatic when I woke up and saw that Taken By The Huntsman had made it to #79 in the BDSM category on Amazon. I am so grateful to everyone who bought it, and I really hope you all enjoyed it! :-)

Barbara: Congratulations Mistral...that is a great accomplishment and to you, Julie for your sales. I think any author keeps close tabs on their rankings, as well as their reviews. We all want that success.

Julie: I also need to pass on many contrafibularities to Mistral!! Way to go baby!! I’m very excited about this for a number of reasons. It gives me hope that an indie author is quite capable of achieving a best seller status. I have no doubt someone has done it previously, but for it to be accomplished by someone I know, makes me very happy and I can only hope that myself and Barbara follow soon!

Ladies, I’d like to thank you for joining “Fallen Angels” today, and ask if you have any further messages for our readers?

Mistral:Thank you Julie and Barbara!! :-) I love all of my readers, and I just want them to know how much I appreciate their support!!! You’re all awesome! :-)

Barbara:Thank you Julie and Mistral. I think this type of discussion is excellent. Maybe others will, in time, join in so that we can all share our insights, especially for someone like me, who is very new to this.

Julie: What a fabulous idea! How cool would it be to start a discussion group on either Facebook or in Goodreads? Asking our readers to come and join us? Let us know what you think about this idea peeps!! We’d love to know what you think.

Thank you for joining us, it would be great if you could leave a comment or even +1 to let us know what you thought. Feed back would be very much appreciated!