Social Media Overwhelm Anyone?

Is anyone else feeling social media overwhelm? Or even overload? 

If you own a business you get told that you need to be on social media. Although, you're not to 'sell' but you need to be showing you, your human side, not some robot. People buy from people and all that. 

On the writer side, I'm on there to connect with readers, but find myself followed by other writers, or book reviewers offering to review my books - for a fee! A few readers connect, but I've not got to the point of being bombarded with fan mail! 

And when I think, right, let's do some social media, but there are so many social media channels... Where do I go first? 

I sit on business networking, listen to all these social media gurus that tell us what we should and shouldn't be doing. But quite honestly, I don't have the time. I'm a fairly organised woman but bloody hell, the last thing I want to do on a Sunday is schedule my social media for the bloomin' week! And it really feels like a life suck sometimes. But once upon a time social media was spontaneous... now it's scheduled... 

And it's not always positive. We're all comparing, and bitching. It's just drama. I try to keep my posts on my social media positive now, but that doesn't mean my life is all rosey. (It's not bad actually, I can't complain. UW has changed my mindset for the better, two of my books are in Prime Reads... I'm happily single... and I'm digressing...) 

It used to be about friends connecting - especially on Facebook - which I do love, because I've reconnected with so many people that I wouldn't have done otherwise. But now Facebook feels like it's an advertising platform - so I see these friends less and less. And then you're panicking if you're still actually 'friends'. 

Seriously, I Google something for research purposes, or take a look at something on Amazon, and the next minute I'm constantly seeing adverts for these things either via Instagram or Facebook. It's a good job I write romance... dread to think what my adverts would contain if I wrote horror or crime. 

I bought a phone case from a company and now all I see is this company! FFS! I've bought the phone case - how many more do I need? Or do phone's need a wardrobe of phone cases now? 

I've tried Reels. But that can frustrate the hell out of me. Take half-an-hour, or longer, just when I should be putting my phone down to go to bed, to create a reel for it to not load, or there's a typo, or it's not quite done what I wanted it to do. Or it's just fucking crashed! At midnight! FFS! 

It's taken me less time to write this blog post - but nobody will read it because it's not a video. I don't even get comments anymore... Do you remember when people left comments on blogs? God, those were the days! 

If you have read this blog post, all the way to the end, thank you! Xxxx I just needed to get that off my chest. 

How To Help An Author Friend

Not all authors are like J K Rowling (although her struggle was real in the beginning). They actually have a part-time or even a full-time job as they need a reliable monthly income. They hope one day, when they "make it" - like J K Rowling - they can give up the day job.

However, for most of us, it's a reality that we can't ever give up work and become a full-time writer, and having recently talked about this, a friend suggested I put a blog post together to help guild those wanting to support their author friends but aren't sure how.

Firstly, I've found myself explaining how royalties work and that some don't understand the process.

To clarify, the days of advances are long gone for most writers. Authors only get paid if you buy their books. And then it could be something as little as 10p per copy sold depending on the RRP of the book.

Where you buy their books is important, too.

Ebay, for example, is possibly selling used books. Yes, the author would have been paid at some point for that copy, but when you buy a second-hand book, the money is going to the seller and not the author. (And the irony is they'll make more out of the sale of the book than the author ever did).

I will argue at least with a charity shop the money is going to charity. And I would much rather a book exchanged or re-sold than burned! It can be a good way to gain new readers, too. However, we're not talking about your Stephen King's of the world. We're talking about your author friend with the other job to bring in a reliable income...

And by buying second hand, without sounding ungrateful - because it is great a new reader is trying you out - it hasn't helped boost rankings like it would have done if you'd bought the book/ebook new from Amazon. And some ebooks are cheaper than buying the paperback second-hand!

Actually, all other good ebook sellers will have rankings, so whether you've bought from Amazon, Nook, Google Play, iTunes, it would have boosted the books visibility. Authors are just obsessed with Amazon and getting into the top 100 of something!

So if you can, please buy new!

Or borrow from the library! (The author gets paid lending rights and it's not cost you a penny.)

These are the best things you can do for free to support your author friend:

• Comment on/Like/Share their Facebook posts about their books. This increases visibility and is free advertising for your friend.

• Tell people how much you've loved your author friend's books (if you've read them - if not, why not?) and recommend they buy one.

• Leave reviews on Amazon and wherever you purchased the book. Again, this increases "traffic" to your friend's book and helps others decide whether to buy the book or not. It also gives the author something to share and shout about over their social media accounts.

• Tag them on Facebook and share a photo of you reading their book. Authors like to see the exotic places their books have travelled to, even if  they've not left their front room, let alone the UK in a while... 

• Support your author friend with local book signings, help spread the word. Bring new friends along to introduce them to your author friend... or be there to drag people in off the street. Either way, your friend will be grateful. 

• If you want to avoid Amazon and prefer to support local bookshops, order the book from there. Although depending on the publisher, Amazon maybe your only go-to for paperbacks. But if you can order from a local bookshop, and you want to keep them in business too, order your books from them! But if you can't afford to buy, remember, check out your local library. 

Your author friend is not going to suddenly get rich and forget you by these small tokens of goodwill. They're more likely to hug you till you ask them politely to put you down. But if they do become the next J K Rowling, they'll remember the friends who got them there. 😉

Come Fly With Me!

My favourite cocktail; Pornstar Martini

And I'm still neglecting my blog, aren't I?

Last night, after writing up my 3 positives for the day - something I really do need to blog about - I turned off my bedside lamp and thought about my blog. I've got ideas about what I want to write about, but to be honest, the reason I've not been blogging is because I'm editing and writing.

I turned the light back on and emailed myself, deciding that if I made a note of it I would just ignore it. The email is more nagging. And it worked because I'm here blogging.

As you know I work part time and I'm full time mum to two boys too, and although they're growing fast they still need my attention. In the three days I get to write, I try to use as much of that time as possible to write and edit - and not let real life get in the way too much! (Currently I'm editing the first book of what I hope will be a 3 books series). Therefore, the blog is getting neglected, as I'm concentrating my time on the big stuff.

However, what I wanted to say was, I do check into Twitter and Facebook daily, and I could do with more followers, so while I'm quiet over here... please follow me on Twitter I'm @Teresa_Morgan10 and Facebook - Teresa F Morgan! Come fly with me there 😉

Right, back to it then.... oh, but before I go, I will be book signing at Waterstones, Weston-super-Mare on Saturday 7th July.... if you're interested?

Teresa x 

Resolutions, Goals And A Little Inspiration

I'm rubbish at New Year Resolutions. It will only stress me out, and they are usually forgotten by February. I will try to eat more fruit, and I want to beat my five writing hits from last year (actually it could be six as apparently I was in Friday Magazine 30th December but I haven't been sent the links... and I couldn't find 'me' by myself.)

I'm not great at setting goals. I am a very organised person generally. I was a secretary by profession. I actually like admin though depending what it is, it can soon bore me senseless as I pick things up quickly. But since becoming a mother, and finding that the routine can so easily be disrupted, I find goals hard to set. I'm better off writing a to-do list for the day sometimes.  All I know is my goal for this year is to start submitting The Wedding Favour (ASAP) and to get my second novel, Perfect Isn't An Option finished and sent to the RNA NWS (by 31st August). Any short stories and assignments achieved will be a bonus. Plus try to beat my running mileage for last year which was 282 miles. Oh and read another 40 books.

I suppose I will try to make sure this blog remains entertaining... and therefore posting hot pictures of men writing inspiration like this one:

 or this one.... 

I have a book idea for a fireman - so all relative, honest. It might be next book (3) I get to write. Who knows?

On another subject, I might try to calm down my posting on Facebook.

Does anyone else get comments from their non-writery friends that they comment too much on Facebook? I've had a couple of friends tease me about how much I'm updating it. They joke I update my status about my running, but their statuses will discuss the football. That doesn't interest me, but I don't tease them about it.

Maybe it's because I am at home all day usually, and something will enter my head (while doing that mundane thing called housework) and I feel the need to share. If I'm honest, I'll try to think of something funny to see if someone will hit the like button. But who doesn't?

I know some of my writery friends update their wall regularly, and it doesn't bother me because I use Facebook in the same way. I've now found, like Twitter, with Facebook if I miss something, I miss it. I don't get too stressed over not seeing someone's update. (Though I worry slightly if it might be an important one - writery news). I've got over 300 friends now, but a lot of those have become writing friends (so now I have to watch what I put on my wall lol!). Admittedly, I was never really intending on making friends with 'strangers' (because I post stuff about my kids) though they are not really 'strangers' in the writing world. (Please don't be offended if you're one of those 'strangers'). But I don't want to make an author page yet... I may not be superstitious, but I do believe in jinxing things. The irony would be I make an author page now and never become an author ;-) Plus, I might not be Teresa Morgan in pen name yet . (That's another blog post).

With the teasing though, I have found myself a little conscious about what I post. Maybe they notice me more because they might not have as many friends, and then the friends they do have, not all post. Some are just watchers, some have an account and never even go on it - luckily I have those friends too! So little ol' me who switches her PC on first thing in the morning and updates regularly, (and is addicted to social networking) probably looks like I'm there all the time. I am not. I do have housework, and writing to do... plus running around after the kids.

So, before I break the blogging rules and make this post way too long (which I fear it already might be but I wanted to discuss Facebook) do you have resolutions? Do you get teased about how much you update Facebook?