Writing Is an Art--Being Read Is a Business

"I think if there's one trait about me that has served me the best while at the same time annoying the most people, it is that I will absolutely not tolerate being told that I cannot do something."

So begins Lori Culwell in a recent article for the Huffington Post, "Social Media for Writers: Get in There and Prove Them Wrong!"

Culwell's article is a success story about how you can use social media to sell your story. Rejected by the "big publishers," she independently published her book and then sold it through social media contacts, eventually receiving a publishing deal from Simon and Schuster.


Here is, for me, the key paragraph of her article:

Enter social media: MySpace, to be exact, and Twitter, and Facebook, and anything else I could think of. When the self-published version came out, I spent hours (HOURS) on social media, friending every person I could find who said they liked a book similar to mine, talking to them personally, reading about them, and convincing them that they should read my book for their book club. Social media was my book tour, my publicist, and my connection to people who were interested in my writing. Did it take as much effort to promote that book as it did to write it in the first place? Actually, it probably took more.

 She finishes with three bullet points:

• Books are business.
• Numbers speak louder than words.
• Seriously, get in there.

As the proud owner of a mama and papa writing business, I intend to get in there, roll up my sleeves, and keep the light on.

Thanks to writer Nicole Dominique for sharing the article link.

Copyright 2010 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved