Presenting yourself as a Professional Part 2

Ahhh the joys of social media, you can vent, you can keep in contact, you can advertise, and you can well...destroy your career. Don't want that now do you? I'll be honest with you. I hate social media, it sucks my time away, but it is honestly the only thing that has worked for me as far as building my platform and my marketing. Now you're wondering where this comes into play when it becomes to being professional. Imagine you're a reader and you're talking to an author, just in passing, an elevator or something and the first thing he/she says to you is. "Oh my fucking god, someone gave me a one star review! How dare they not appreciate my genius!"

Now I hope realize that it's rude and probably should have been kept in the authors mind. I get being frustrated, especially with drive by ratings, and reviews that just make no sense to you. I get it, I do, but here's the deal. They are going to happen. Every author gets bad reviews. Don't believe me? Go look up your favorite authors. Honestly, as a reader, I don't trust a book that doesn't have at least one low rating. Why? Because I feel like one book cannot be everyone's cup of tea. As an author you need to realize that. My point? You wouldn't do this in person, don't do it on your Facebook, tumbler, blog, twitter, whatever you use.

Best policy? Don't respond to the review or rating. Do not let your street team respond, and for the love of the writing gods do not stalk the reviewer! I can hear you now: But it's my personal page! I want to be real with my readers!

My answer to the first one: Yep, but this is the age of the internet, nothing is truly private. That's what's scary about it. Personal or not, you need to control your emotions and feelings. You are a business now, the way you act reflects on your product.

Second one: Be real with your readers, yes, let your readers know you're human to, but do that by interacting with them. Not ranting about them. I'm going to touch on that in just a minute.

Okay, so no responding to reviews. Next thing....do not go on some crazy rant about haters that you have. Seriously. We all have them, we all have people who say things mean about us or our work. Move along, for many of the same reasons above. You are going to hurt your brand if you react badly. This goes back to not ranting about your readers.

Interact with your readers, invite them to answer questions on your pages, they don't have to be related to writing or your books, they can be, but don't have to be. If they ask you a question, answer them honestly. (within reason of course) Even if the question is "What is the order of your series." You need to appreciate your readers, because without them you would be nothing.

Basically don't do anything online that you wouldn't do in person.

Pros and Cons

My last post I covered knowing what you want from your writing and publishing. With a lot of drama going on in the writing world, I'm reminded why I'm primarily indie. When I first went indie, my husband sat me down and said "Hey, make a damn choice and stick with it." Or something to that effect. So as I do with many things. I sat down and made a list. A list of pros and cons. I'll share them for you and I invite you to continue the list on your own or in the comments.

Indie Publishing
Pros:
I get to keep more profit
I control everything
I don't have to change my story (this has happened to me on a short through trade publishing)
My deadlines, my schedule

Cons:
Most of the profit goes back into publishing
Everything comes out of my pocket or I have to learn how to do it myself
Still have to depend on others for cover art and editing

So those are generals, I actually listed out what I get to control and what was going to cost me. I also tried to draw on experiences of others, with keeping in mind that I wasn't going to be an over night success. From there I moved on to trade publishing, including small presses- anything that I had to write a query letter, submit, and wait on.

Traditional Publishing
Pros:
Professional editor
Professional Cover art
Marketing?
The attraction of a big name behind the title.

Cons:
Possibly less royalties
Very little or no control
Still might have to do all my own marketing.
Could take a long damn time.

Both lists are close to being even, Trade has a few more pros, but since marketing is questionable, it evens out. To me. To someone else they may think that trade publishing is better. To each their own. However, due to recent events (that because it's not SPE related, I won't mention here in detail) I'm very happy that I didn't put all my eggs in the trade publishing basket.

The thing is that indie publishing met up with what I wanted and what I need. I have a wonderful support team and I've learned a ton on this journey. I've even learned a program that I swore I'd never get along with. I have to say that I like having the control over everything. Down to what edits make it in the book (have I mentioned how much I love my editors?) to what the cover looks like, to the release day. I get to throw my own parties, decide how I want to market, say what events I go to. I can also hammer down my own timeline and if it doesn't get done, I only have myself to blame.

So while you're asking yourself: What do I want out of my writing. Also ask yourself: Which route is best for me?