Book Reviews - Part 7

MEETING REAL READERS AND AUTHORS IN REAL LIFE GROUPS

I have been visiting real life author groups for many years, mostly Meetup groups. Additionally, I am also member of a private author group.

If you have never attended a real life author or reader group-meeting you’ll be surprised to feel these groups’ buzzing energy.

As an example:

In the Spring of 2017, I planned a book marketing conference in Atlanta, GA, to be hosted at the Margaret Mitchell House. The early registration fee for the 3-days conference was $239, the final price $299. With a friend I organized a spectacular panel of guest speakers of bestselling authors and industry experts, including a TV-anchor who had hosted more than 1,000 authors and small business owners on live-TV and a book reviewer from one of the United States’ premier newspapers. Even the celebration lunch at the Margaret Mitchell House was included. Most certainly, the price could be considered really cheap for this type of event.

Still, even though my friend and I, and even some of the speakers, promoted the conference heavily on social media platforms, we did not get one single sign-up from online platforms, not even from authors who live in Atlanta.

To promote the conference, I also visited Meetup groups. To my utter surprise, people who met me only once committed to attending the conference with their payment.

We still could not get the minimum number of attendees we needed in time to rent the Margaret Mitchell House which is a highly sought venue but the story goes to show that people who meet in real life author/reader groups are fast-acting doers.

The largest Meetup group I occasionally visit has 500+ members. The smallest group to which I have spoken has 26 members.

To give you an impression of what you awaits you if you decide to do the same, please see this list of smaller U.S. cities I picked in random. The number in brackets indicates the number of writers and readers groups within a 25-mile radius.

Albuquerque, NM (7)

Billings, MT (1)

Birmingham, AL (3)

Carson City, NV (5)

Kansas City, KS (6)

Knoxville, TN (2)

Providence, RI (8)

Syracuse, NY (2)

Tallahassee, FL (3)

Wilmington, NC (2)

There are even more opportunities if you live close to a big city like Chicago, IL that offers 48 writers and readers groups to choose from.

At all Meetup meetings I attended, members were interested in buying and reading my books. The review rate was about 10%. The reasons for this excellent conversion are manifold. Group members buy books because they want to learn about your writing style, how you format your book, or they want to start a mutually beneficial relationship. Maybe they are looking for a mentor.

Naturally, things have gotten tougher because buyers of books purchased “on location” won’t be able to post verified reviews. Still, you’ll find that attending real life meetings connects you with active people who buy, read, and review books.

Additionally, I also found that people who meet an author in person will recommend your book to others because they have a personal connection. Whereas on-line contacts really cannot do much else but share postings into an endless stream of information, people you meet in real life share information via word-of-mouth.

It’s an incredibly effective method. I have received countless emails from people who emailed me, “I got your contact information from xyz who heard you speaking at ...” Therefore, make sure that your book includes all of your contact information and always bring business cards to every meeting.

That being said, please don’t make Karen’s mistake. Trying to sell to people who have no reason to read and review your book won’t work. Also, just swooping in once and trying to sell to everybody won’t work.

If you are still pondering if you should join writers’ meetings, keep in mind, even the almighty Amazon cannot track what’s going on at these meetings. Lastly, if you can’t find a Meetup group in your region, consider starting your own!

For more information please check out:

https://www.meetup.com/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/gb/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/fr/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/de/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/at/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/it/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/au/

https://www.meetup.com/cities/br/

For Meetup groups in other countries please google.

STEP 5: ACQUIRING REVIEWS FROM ONLINE FRIENDS

HOW NOT TO ASK

(online)

James and I met when he won one of my prizes at a Rafflecopter give-away in 2014. Since then we have been friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. James writes paranormal fantasy books, another genre I don’t read.

During the last three years, James and I chatted/messaged on Facebook a few times; he also shares my blogs.

Recently, James too contacted me out of the blue and tried to make his case on why I should read one of his books. That’s when I found out that even though James and I have known each other for years, he has no idea what kind of books I read.

Though it is always a good idea to learn more about the persons you befriend online, obviously, that’s not always possible. In this case James knew what kind of books I write because he was one of the winners at my Rafflecopter give-away. Since I published NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Books Reviews, James also knew for a fact that indeed I review books.

James even avoided the silly faux-pas of befriending a reviewer for the purpose of immediately offering his book. He established a relationship first. The only bit of information James missed was what genres of books I read. Since James is a very engaged and attentive person, I wondered why he missed it.

Even though James is active on Twitter and occasionally on Goodreads like most authors he focuses on networking on Facebook. Unfortunately, on Facebook, a lot of information is either not visible or falls through the cracks because of an overload of information.

FACEBOOK AUTHOR / BOOK / FAN PAGES & GROUPS

Facebook gives authors three options to promote their work: on personal pages, on author/fan-pages, and in groups.

During the last few years I avoided “liking” author/fan-pages because in 2013 and 2014, I used to see too many fan-page postings in my feed. At the time, Facebook controlled the feed in a way that I saw more “liked page”-postings than postings from my friends.

Consequently, I figured the more author/fan-pages I like, the more I clog my feed, and I “un-liked” many author/fan-pages.

But, not only Amazon changes their guidelines, Facebook too changes their modus operandi. 

During the research phase for this book, I re-liked many author pages; to be precise, I specifically chose authors who I communicate with regularly. I expected that Facebook’s algorithm would identify these authors as my closer friends and therefore show me more of their author/fan-page activities. I also made sure that I reset all fan-pages to “default settings” so I would get to see the postings Facebook decides to show me by default.

My plan was to record the number of author-fan-page-sightings in my news feed for ten days. Surprisingly, though I logged in and “conversed” on Facebook at least twice per day, in ten days I saw only four postings of other authors’ fan-pages. However, while scanning my feed at least two times per day I saw postings from Mashable, the South China Morning Post, Visit Cherokee, Salon, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, News & Media Website NowThis, and WYFF-4, my local NBC station, all fan-pages I had also “liked.” In fact, I saw two to three of WYFF-4’s postings every day.

Notice that among the seven fan-pages whose postings I got to see are five news organizations. I saw it and wondered if Facebook knows that I am a news junkie. Apparently, they do.

Additionally, I also noticed that my author friends hardly ever shared their or another author’s fan-page posting. Instead, my author friends shared cute animal pages, joke pages, and political news. Apparently, that’s what Facebook showed them in their feeds.

This was baffling indeed. What had happened to the many author/fan-pages I had liked?

I went on a search mission to find that Facebook had split their feed. To see many but not all postings, and shared postings Facebook-users need to search their “pages-feed.”

Once there, I realized how many postings my 500+ friends shared: author/book/fan-pages, calls-to-action, fundraisers... lots of information I never saw.

Immediately I wondered how many of my 500+ friends had never seen the information I shared.

Why did Facebook share so many postings from news organizations with me but only four author/fan page postings, even though I specifically selected author/fan-pages from author friends I regularly communicate with?

Who knows... For sure it’s a money question.

Facebook generates income from selling ads. To help their customers target their ads, Facebook needs to collect personal information, but authors are neither great customers nor a great target group. I don’t know a single author who reported great success running a Facebook ad campaign but I have seen many comments advising authors against running a Facebook ad campaign. 

Hence, showing author/fan-page postings in news feeds may not collect as much useful information for Facebook Inc. as other postings:

• “Please adopt a pet” (will be liked and shared by users who like nonprofit organizations, charitable causes, pets etc. )

• “Stop Trump” (will be liked and shared by users who may support the Democratic party or simply dislike Donald Trump, which is information that can be reused to sell ads to news organizations)

• “How to make your own soap or detergent...”  (will be liked and shared by users who like environmental causes, health, beauty etc.)

This might explain why you see more “Save a pet”-postings than “Save an author”-postings.

But that’s not the whole problem. Even Facebook visitors who check their pages feed don’t get to see everything.

AN INCOMPLETE BUT EYE-OPENING STUDY

Without a doubt I saw postings from WYFF-4’s fan-page most often. I have been a guest on WYFF-4 five times, I am friends with anchor Myra Ruiz whose fan-pages I also “liked,” and I comment about three to four times per week on one of their postings.

Still, though I saw at least two and sometimes even three postings from WYFF-4 per day, when checking WYFF-4’s actual feed, I found out that they post an average of 73 times per day, which means I got to see only 2.5% of their postings. Similarly, Mashable posts two to three times per hour but I got to see only one posting every three to four days.

Finally, I compared my Facebook feeds (news feed and pages feed) with my Twitter feed using WYFF-4’s example. On Twitter I got to see four of WYFF-4’s postings per hour and in reality WYFF-4 posts about 7 times per hour; in other words I get to see more than half of WYFF-4’s postings on Twitter.

The reason for this striking discrepancy is obvious.

Worldwide about 1.94 billion people are active Facebook users but Twitter has only 317 million active users. Though – in theory – you can reach more people on Facebook, in reality most likely your message gets drowned among millions of other postings.

Of course, simply switching to posting mostly on Twitter is not a magic solution. Posting and promoting on Twitter, “your official source for what’s happening,” can be unpredictable since Donald Trump became president. Since President Trump likes to tweet, not only the president’s base, opponents, and news organizations will react, additionally, automated accounts known as web robots or “bots” respond to all presidential tweet activities  (pro and con). Add tweets about all other news and catastrophes (e.g. the London Grenfel Tower fire or the Gatlinburg/Chimney Tops Mountain fire that killed 14 people and destroyed 2,175 homes), to see why on certain days when “something is happening” your tweets may get drowned there too.

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Beyond that, to me, the fact that Facebook created what amounts to two feeds, a news feed and a pages feed, is the equivalent of Amazon presenting verified and non verified reviews. By default people get to see only one part of the information; they have to engage and click a button to see the other part.

Which must leave all of us are wondering if people who liked our author/fan-pages actually check their pages feed, just like we also have to wonder how many Amazon customers really check out the non-verified reviews our books receive. In fact, Amazon at least tells customers how many reviews the book has altogether, whereas on Facebook friends and fans don’t know how much information is not being shown to them on any given day.

Overall, group pages get much better results, probably because in general they generate more activity. On a daily basis I get to see about five postings my friends leave in Facebook groups in my news feed.

Facebook has a tendency to promote emotional-laden, personal postings like “Here is a picture of my new grandchild” or “See who

we adopted (with a picture of a kitten)” much more than any book postings.

The only exception seems to be postings about winning a book award.

To me it seems as if all postings about winning an(y) award get preferential treatment, meaning they will be shown in news feeds, including postings about the awards my friends’ children win in school and at sports competitions. I believe this is because Facebook’s programmers know that postings about awards will get many “likes,” hence it helps Facebook to identify connections between members or alternatively how far a posting will travel and how fast.

LOCAL ADVANTAGES

In addition to being a member of authors’ Facebook groups, I am also a member of two local small business owners’ Facebook groups whose members also meet in person every month. In both groups, members cannot post on the group’s pages whenever they want but have to follow certain rules. As a result the group pages accumulate only about two to three dozen postings per month, of which I get to see 75-80%.

I contribute this disproportional high rate to the fact that these are local groups, located and registered in my hometown. Somehow Facebook has to find out information about the residents of the thousands of smaller communities in the United States and elsewhere. Probably, their only option to gather this information is to show as many local postings as possible and collect the data on who responds to postings related to the categories animals, books, business, clothing, entertainment, fashion, food, etc.

Equally, I get to see my local TV-station’s postings more often than Mashable’s, probably because Facebook uses the information on which postings I liked and commented on to determine which topics are dear to my heart.

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When churning all of this information one thing becomes obvious: Overall, indie authors spend the most time networking on the social media platform that is the least conducive to spreading their message. At the same time, Facebook also does not show us all postings we want to see so we can help further our indie authors cause.

So, what can you can do to improve your feeds (news feed and pages feed)?

“Unfriend” all fan-pages you really don’t want to follow. It does not help you and it also won’t help the page’s owner. Always remember: Meat eaters hardly ever spread vegans’ messages and most certainly vegans don’t spread meat eaters’ messages.

Here is how you can do this fastest.

Personally, I was surprised to find that even though in 2014 I specifically “un-liked” author/fan-pages and I avoided “liking” just about anything I saw, I had amassed 491 “liked” pages.

The more pages we “like,” the more we increase the chances of seeing fan/page-postings that really aren’t of too much interest to us.

After I “un-liked” every page whose name did not ring a bell, as well as outdated pages of events or competitions that ended years ago, I ended up with 287 liked pages. And, even more importantly – I loved my pages feed.

That previous convolute of weird information with little relevance to my life had turned into a feed that was interesting. I knew the people who posted, and nine out of ten postings featured material I wanted to read. I know you’ll love your condensed and improved pages feed too. 

Occasionally, I see invitations to “share your author page” in many Facebook groups. Trying to be a team player, many authors follow the call-to-action and even “like” author/fan-pages whose book or content is the exact opposite of what they themselves do and promote. Probably, no children’s book author will share a horror book author’s postings with their own followers who really care about little kids’ topics. And, they shouldn’t because that’s not what their readers want to see.

The effect of following invitations to “share your author page” can pile up. Doing a bit of research, I noticed many authors who “liked” between 1,000 and 3,000+ pages. The chance that they get to see many postings they want to see and will also share is close to zero. 

“Liking” too many pages is going to reduce your capability to be a helpful networker. Always remember, Facebook can and will show you only so-and-so much content. 

Lastly, try to find local Facebook fan-pages where you can network; for instance, your library. Though my hometown Greenville, SC is a smaller city, its library system’s fan page has 4,000+ followers.

Odds are, if you follow your local library’s and news organizations’ fan-pages, Facebook will show their postings regularly so they can collect local data.

This will allow you to comment and meet local people who share your interests. If you can also befriend them you can invite them to book signings and other events just as described in the previous chapters; after all, you already know that they like books.

If you find a particularly great fan-page you can even mark it so it’ll be shown in your news feed, first.

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Naturally, I am not alone with certain resentments; many of my author friends also have mixed feelings about Facebook.

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Gisela Hausmann dares to write what others' won't say or don't know. Her work has been featured in regional, national, and international publications including Success magazine and Entrepreneur, and on Bloomberg's podcast "Decrypted."

Gisela tweets @Naked_Determina.
Her books are available at Amazon and other fine book stores.

• Naked News for Indie Authors How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$

• BOOK MARKETING: The Funnel Factor: Including 100 Media Pitches (paperback only)

• The Little Blue Book for Authors: 53 Dos & Don’ts Nobody Is Telling You
• The Little Blue Book for Authors: 101 Clues to Get More Out of Facebook
• The Little Blue Book for Authors: Essential Manners for the Modern Author

• NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018
• BAT SHIT CRAZY Review Requests: Email Humor (paperback only)

© 2017 by Gisela Hausmann

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