Thursday, June 21, 2012



Author Blog Challenge #20

The prompt is: How are you using social media to promote your book? What aspect of social media would you like to learn more about? What are your next steps?

The Little Mongrel was published in 2007 when the face of social networking (in my world anyway) had quite a different look than it has today. Blogs and web pages had been around since the beginning of the internet, IM was considered humdrum and phone messaging had been around long enough for spatulate thumbs to evolve. Networking communities were springing up everywhere, Facebook was only a couple of years into its existence and largely misunderstood by the uninitiated and Twitter was in its infancy, so I stayed with what I was most comfortable with – maintaining a web page and a blog.

I continue to use the methods I started out with to keep its presence alive, as it is no longer available in print copy and I promote ecopies on my blog – with the occasional nudge in Facebook. Library listings and previously networked publicity (through associations, author talks, reviews, author interviews etc) keep the information Googlable.

My next book (when and if it is finished and never mind the buts) would involve a planned social media launch with all guns blazing to the furthest reaches, from an initial physical introduction of the book. Rather than learn amore about any particular aspect of social media, I would benefit more from building on what I do know – most of the time I feel as if I’m dancing around the edges of it, never fully understanding (therefore never fully reaping the benefits) the many dimensions of opportunity that exists.

I have already begun taking the next steps to learning more, spending quality time with my grandchildren, up close and personal over the computer, drawing on their advanced knowledge - from an education that, while it may have skipped the three Rs, has endowed them with an instinctive almost robotic knowledge and understanding of all things electronic - and desire to help their old Gran keep up with it.

~ Merlene Fawdry 

4 comments:

  1. Another great insight, and I'm not sure Old Gran is the correct term. My thirteen year old Granddaughter in England told it it was totally cool to have an Aussie Papa on facebook.
    So there you go Merlene, to a thiteen yearold in England, if we are on facebook we are officially cool.

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  2. You have an interesting perspective on social media which must stand you in good stead. I admire anyone who has been blogging for as long as you have. Keep it up!

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  3. We are always learning...and that really comes across in your blog. I love that!

    Lisa x

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For some reason I'm yet to fathom I'm unable to reply to comments left by others so thank you for dropping by and taking the time to read and comment. Merlene