If I were to be honest, I would tell you that although I appreciate blogger, e-mail and Linkedin, that I really don't enjoy Facebook much. Because my new book "Portsoy Woods" has been released, I committed with the publisher to spending six hours a week on social media in its promotion. Only in Facebook can you arrive, be spammed with hundreds of people you don't know wishing to friend you. I accepted them, because this is how you make connections and sell books. Within minutes, two men claimed to love me (based on my book cover picture), one Middle Eastern man wanted me to deposit money in his account, and one man became angry because "I wasn't spending enough time with him online". Only on facebook can you lose rating by not responding to your "new friends" quickly enough. Yesterday, I was signed up to a pornographic group there without my permission. With twenty minutes twice a day spent there, this is just a chance I will have to take. I don't know if this is translating into books purchased or not. A lot of the people who contact me don't seem to read or respond in English very well. It might be that the book would be too much of an effort for them to read in the first place. I don't really understand how spending time on what seems to be a dating site is going to help my book sales. But then, that's just me. Your own mileage could vary.
If you are genuinely interested in the book, "Portsoy Woods", these are links which would enable you to read about it or purchase it. I would actually converse with someone who wanted to talk about that !
http://booklocker.com/books/8874.html
www.portsoywoods.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/Janebecomesanauthor/
Facebook has indeed been changed, and not for the better. It is now manipulated by "admins" who are out to make big bonuses or something of that nature.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a page (like an author page) or offer a post that looks anything like an advertisement, it is curtailed, even if you make a 'public' post.
FB wants YOU to 'boost' your post for CASH, and/or create ads, like it or not.
We believe Facebook has done itself a HUGE amount of damage by changing the policy to ugly, annoying and unwanted advertising in News Feeds, rather than allowing individuals, authors, for example, to promote their product or books freely.
When your 'deemed-advert' is supposed to be 'public' and it reaches only 10 or 15 people, what does that tell you? Censorship....Then FB offers to "boost" your post and reach "850 people" for $5.00... When my "public" post only reached 10 or 15 people, FB must have lost MILLIONS of customers, so who in their right mind would bother to "boost" anything with them? The definition of "Public" in regard to posting has certainly been arbitrarily changed, and it is clearly8 for the greedy, not for the better. What to do? Advertise elsewhere.
Best wishes with your book "Portsoy Woods"!!!
Thank you, Raymond. Yes, this is indeed the impression I am getting. Best wishes,
DeleteThings improved on facebook when I learned to use the "block" feature generously. Since then, I have been enjoying facebook and have made some wonderful supportive facebook friends. It has increased traffic on all my blogs. Whether this will translate to book sales, I do not yet know.
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