Marketing Your Writing Like a Genius on MySpace

High-school and junior-high kids come home from school, get on their computers and talk to their friends. Teenagers might as well own the rights to MySpace for as much as they use it. And as many see it, they don't use it for anything productive.

But something else is occurring beneath the fold of fifteen- and sixteen-year olds that dominate here. On MySpace, it's a revolution of artists (painters, song writers and musicians, writers and poets), and it's something to jump in and take advantage of.

What is happening? Simply that writers are flocking to MySpace to claim their destiny, much like men once grew beards and moved to California to stake their claims in the gold fields. MySpace is giving something incredible to the authors who are willing to accept it.

What is MySpace? It is a social networking website where anyone, from any vocation, from any ethnic, social and political background can come and communicate with anyone else. It may very well be the largest, most advanced and popular social network on the web. Anyone can open up shop (build their own web page) and begin making friends by selecting from others who share their interests.

What advantages does MySpace have for writers? There aren't many avenues for authors to sell their books. Bookstore shelves (brick and mortar and Web-based), commercials on the web, in newspapers, and on TV, word of mouth, book signings, and book clubs are the biggest ways to sell. The problem is that for many writers, not all of these outlets are accessible. It's expensive to buy ad space, and it may be expensive to travel to book signings. Book clubs are hard to get into if you don't have the backing of a medium-to-large publisher, and without a good sized publisher, your hopes of getting onto a bookstore shelf is seriously hampered. Even having a web presence can be hindered by your ability or inability to manage Web design.

The trick to sell books building name recognition, and here's how MySpace helps. It's free, which is very important for writers, because most of us eat cereal straight from the box. It's easy to operate, so even the most web-inept people can manage as long as they know enough about computers to get online (just follow the directions, that's all). There are tens of thousands of readers and writers already there, waiting for your to meet them. And you get to talk to real people, which cannot always be said about chat rooms or advertising space. The advantage there is that you can pick and choose between thousands of people to interact with, dumping the rock flakes and keeping the gold nuggets.

OK, that sounds good, but what are the drawbacks? Nothing is free of faults, and MySpace is no different. The site itself sometimes runs into inconvenient technical problems, and occasionally you'll hear of someone's page being deleted. Phishing scams are rampant, as are users who are disrespectful and rude and just plain mean. Another drawback (for lazy people, of course) is that MySpace does actually take work. You have to talk to people daily, or at least weekly, join writing groups and interact with the other members, go through profile after profile to find users to add, and pretty much get swept up in the MySpace lifestyle. It's not for everyone, especially not for people who are out door types, but if you already spend a couple hours on your computer each day, it's worth at least a try.

Is there good news in the bad news? The technical problems are only minor annoyances. The bulletins may be down, or a friend's page may not open. phishing sites can be avoided easily if you know what to look for (don't give your email and password out, for starters). The unruly anti-social crowd can also be avoided. As for the work, do you really expect to get anything for free?

Now that all of that is done, let's get into the meat and potatoes. Always remember you are building an online persona, an extension of your physical self on the World Wide Web, and MySpace in particular. Keep your ego, emotions, and other human faults guarded, just as you do in the real world. Keep yourself professional, these people may remember you longer than the usual fifteen minutes of fame. And always remember this isn't a mass marketing tool, but interaction between other people you want to sell your work to. If you don't want to have a pen name in the near future, you'll treat MySpace and the users there with respect.

Now the biggy: adding friends. Friends are the corner stone of a successful MySpace venture. Your friends list is the base of all that you do, all that you are, all that you will become. It's also like a garden in that you want to plant very beautiful flowers and healthy vegetables while weeding out the scrub grass and dandelion that grow between your prized plants. Take out the trash often, getting rid of the bots, the trolls, and the otherwise unhealthy folks who happen to find their way to you. There's nothing wrong with a friends list of 30,000-you'll probably never talk to everyone on a list of just 1,000-but no matter how big or how small your list becomes, you should do your best to keep the population real...real people who, if you were to email, would email back with interesting, positive responses.

Who to add, and how: By using the search bar at the top of your MySpace home page, you can type in any keywords related to yourself. If you're a poet, type in Poetry, Poets, or any other poetry-related keyword, hit search, and look through the profiles that pop up on your screen. You can learn a lot about people on MySpace by reading over their page, their blog, and by messaging them-what a concept! Once you find a profile you like, add it, and you have a friend. Go to the next and so on until your wrist turns to jelly or you feel you have enough friends.

Besides the search bar, other ways to add friends is to go through your current friend's friends and search for interesting people there. Groups, too, are great way to find friends, especially if the group is one that interests you. If you find a poetry group, go through its friends list and add the people that pass muster.

Some friends will find you, but be careful who you let onboard. If they are obviously selling something on their page or have a lot of comments that say you can get a free ring tone or see my cam, then don't add them. These aren't real people. To find out if someone is real, it's as simple as emailing them and asking a question, like How are you? or What's up? They'll email back with something similar and from there you can discern their realness.

Why even bother with friends? Without friends, no one is going to see your page, and your page is the entire reason you're messing with MySpace. Once you build a decent friends list, interact with as many of them as you have time for. Comment their profiles, their blogs. Email them to strike up interesting conversations. In short, make friends. By doing this you can get more than a few of them to purchase your novel, and through networking, you'll get them to recommend your books to their friends.

What should you put on your page? You should make the page an extension of yourself. Put information about you (nothing too personal) keeping it interesting and unique. If you're using MySpace to market your writing, then the most obvious thing to put on your page is your writing. Whether you write poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, your blog can be used to showcase your best work. Don't use anything you've published or want to publish, but use work you are willing to give away, work that is professionally done. It may be a good idea to write new material just for your blog.

Why blog? Think of your MySpace blog as a resume. If you go to someone else's blog and read through and like what you see, what do you do? Chances are you will add that person as a friend and keep track of any new blogs they post. The same goes for when someone reads your blog.

The novel aspect: Let's say you have a novel and you're using MySpace to sell it. Well, gee, there are thousands of other authors doing the same, and getting a friends list the size of Rob Zombie's isn't the only thing you have to do to get anyone to purchase your book. Any reader will want to know how good a book is before they buy it. When they buy Stephen King, they already know how good the book will be because they've read other books by Stephen King. When it comes to you, the only way they'll buy is to read something else you've written, but what they read better be good or they won't waste their money. By posting a short story in the same genre as your novel on your blog, you can give readers a glimpse of your writing ability, your style, and your effectiveness at story telling, all in just one or two thousand words.

Writing Groups? What are they? How can I take advantage of them? A writing group is a band of fellow writers (and many readers) who get together for the sake of trashing each others' work, talking about what books they've read, and learning the ropes of all things writing (learning about the publishing industry, agents, book marketing, and how to improve their craft whether that craft be poetry or prose). Once again, your job comes down to interaction. There are dozens of writing groups with consistent activity, so find your two or three favorites, and start by watching the boards to see how people act. For two or three weeks, just soak up the information others tell each other. By being a silent member, you can learn many, many things and not subject yourself to the torments of those who actively participate. When you feel confident, you have two choices. You can either show the group your own work for critique, or critique the work of others and answer any of their questions. By giving or getting help, you're drawing other readers and writers toward you. If you are an active member in a group, you can show people what you know and what you want to accomplish and build a sturdier base of friends.

Bulletins? How do they work? A bulletin is a message you send, not like an email to one single friend, but to every friend at the same time. It's like a mass mailing list...it is a mass mailing list. By posting a message that you want every friend to read, you can skip the tedious time consumption of emailing them individually, but be warned, too many bulletins can become tedious and time consuming to your friends and will quickly be ignored. Save bulletins for when you have news (a new novel, or a book signing, or just something interesting to pass along to them), and always be punctual. Bulletins are a great marketing opportunity and should be taken advantage of when you have something you can use them for.

MySpace can be addicting, and it can be loathed, and both at the same time. It can be a hangout for hormonal, pointless teens, and a center for a focused professional community. It is many things, and there are many things it is not and can never be. A good writer, a good marketer, will learn its limitations and understand MySpace's usefulness, keeping the balance between the two. It is one more spoke in the wheel of a successful author. Of course, successful authors have been around a lot longer than MySpace, which goes to show you can be very successful without it, but for those beneath the level of big advances and sustainable writing incomes, it can compliment nicely the other marketing techniques available.