Magical book

Magical book

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Facebook Problem



Authors are constantly told that we must have a “Facebook presence” — it’s as necessary as a website.

But we can’t go on Facebook only to promote our books. Readers find that borrrring. They want to get to know us, to chat with us about personal things that have nothing to do with our books. If they find us interesting as people, then maybe, just maybe, they’ll be moved to take a look at our books.

Some writers have revolted and dropped off Facebook or refused to join in the first place. Others do the forbidden: they have only professional author pages, not personal pages, and they post about nothing but books, usually their own and sometimes upcoming books from other writers on their publishers’ lists. And some find genuine friends, old and new, on Facebook and enjoy chatting with them about myriad topics.

I’ve been in that last group, but I’m increasingly tempted to join the first and abandon Facebook altogether. That it’s a time-waster is undeniable. And if you care at all about the world around you, it’s not good for your blood pressure and peace of mind. Scrolling through the newsfeed brings up countless posts about politics, guns, and all manner of horrific happenings in every part of the world. It’s worse than 24-hour news. If you’re female, you also have to contend with the obnoxious trolls who send out private messages to women (dozens at a time, apparently) in the hope of starting some sort of relationship.

When I started my personal Facebook page, I “friended” the writers and other people I already knew, such as the panda fanciers, then I pretty much stopped soliciting friends. But I approved almost everyone who sent me a friend request, and I’ve ended up close to the limit of 5,000. Some of those people, I’ve discovered to my regret, have nothing to say that I am interested in hearing. Their politics appall me, their rants on social issues disgust me, their lack of compassion and kindness toward the less fortunate saddens me. I see these people’s posts because, for whatever reason, they sent me friend requests and I allowed them onto my friends list. I have generally refrained from commenting on their posts because I know better than to jump into a pool full of sharks. But if I post something political on my own page, such as a positive statement about the president, I can count on people I’ve never interacted with before popping out of the cyber woodwork to denounce me. I unfriend them and wonder why I bother with Facebook.

I’ve been online, in various groups of writers and readers, for many years, but I’ve never experienced anything like Facebook before. Every day I see the ramblings and rants of a multitude of strangers, mixed in with posts from people I like and want to stay in contact with. There’s a panda group I do not want to give up, and personal friends whose posts and photos I would miss terribly if I left. I’ve tightened my settings to allow only people on my friends list to see my personal page, and lately I’ve started culling that list, but I’ll admit the newsfeed drives me crazy.

Have I sold any books by being on Facebook? Some, I’m sure. A few people have told me they learned about my books on Facebook. But I’ve probably offended plenty of people too by letting my liberal political leanings show.

What’s a writer to do? We’re expected to be on Facebook to promote our books, but we’re not supposed to spend our Facebook time relentlessly promoting our books. We’re supposed to let our personal selves come through, but when we do we’re just as likely to make enemies as friends. And that could (gasp!) hurt book sales.

Writers in the pre-internet age had no idea how fortunate they were.

16 comments:

  1. Sandy, I share your concerns and frustration with Facebook, but overall, I think the good outweighs the bad. I've been fairly selective in accepting friend requests and, as a result, may have missed getting to know some interesting people, but it sounds like I've missed some weirdos too. I've completely given up on the Author page, since my postings there seem to reach so few people. Bottom line: there's no way to know if any decision we make is the right one because we never know what would have happened if ...

    By the way, gorgeous picture on your masthead. (I guess that's what it's called.) Nice.

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  2. That's always the problem with any form of book promotion -- never knowing what works and why. At this point Facebook is less about book promotion for me than connecting with friends, so I feel fully entitled to ditch the people I don't want to interact with. They're so different from me that they would never read my books anyway! Like you, I've pretty much given up on the author page because FB has made it so hard to reach anybody with it.

    I love the header on this page too. I licensed it from a stock photo service, and it actually inspired the name of the blog.

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  3. I agree with much of your thoughts here and I find Facebook a nuisance. I find my best source of meeting new people through browsing the blogosphere and getting in touch through individual blogs! Thelma

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  4. Sandy, I am interested in doing a very simple blog page such as this is. I am the world's most ill-literate computer person that exists! Can you tell me what company and process you use for this and how one gets started. Thank you very much. T. Straw

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  5. Thelma, this blog is on Blogger, which is free and provides a variety of templates to choose from. You can use one of their headers or import your own, as I did. You can play around with it all you want to before making it public, so you can get it the way you want it and learn your way around before anybody else sees it.

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  6. Sandy, like the other Sandy, I'm pretty selective when I "friend" someone--they have to share other friends with me or I have to be able to check out at least their basic information on their personal FB page. Consequently I don't have nearly as many followers as you, but the ones I have seem to be fairly sane. I only have the personal page, no Author page. I post too much about my writing these days, but that's just because I don't have much of a life, otherwise. p.s. That header picture is very nice indeed.

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  7. Thanks for this post, Sandra. It's nice to see someone speak honestly about this issue. Facebook (especially its "author page" feature) confuses me! I find Twitter helpful, and I use TweetDeck (a downloadable program) to help me manage the tweets I read and post. (By the way, I agree about the picture you chose for this blog. It's fantastic!)

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  8. About three-quarters of my FB friends are writers, readers and others in book-related fields, plus a lot of animal lovers, especially my panda friends from a private FB group. It's the rest that give me problems. I no longer readily accept a friend request. It has to be somebody I know or somebody recommended by somebody I trust.

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  9. Some of my writer friends have revealed a side to themselves on Facebook that I never suspected was there, so I've unfriended them, even if we were friends in real life.

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  10. Sandra, I agree with everything you say here. Sometimes I want to drop Facebook altogether, but I don't because it has brought people back into my life whom I haven't seen in years, and has "virtually introduced" me to people I hope someday to meet in person. I decided some time ago that my page is MY page, and my time is my time, so I now am very quick to stop notifications from people who, as Whitman might have said, "offend my soul." If they post offensive comments on my wall, I delete and, if they continue, I block. I dropped my author page several months ago because I was tired of maintaining both, and repeating myself. I do have a group focused on writing about animals, and occasionally I remove an offensive post there. I have become very selective about the groups from which I receive notifications, and that has helped. And I'm very happy to be FB friends with you. :-)

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  11. I avoid (99.99 percent of the time) saying anything I think could be controversial on FB. Politics. Nope. Religion. Nope. It's just not worth it. I know how I feel. I'm not going to change minds. And I don't want to get into any arguments. I'll occasionally like posts by other people that are politically minded, but that's as far as it goes. People who know me on FB know me for my dog, my writing, and my oh-so charming personality. Beyond that, I'm a woman of mystery, and it works for me. :)

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  12. I agree with Barb. I don't do any politics or religion or anything that I think will be controversial. Even then, I do get flack occasionally for a joke. Several people say they rely on me to provide them with humor on FB, so the pressure is on! I do love finding things that make me laugh and sharing them.

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  13. I love Facebook and wish I didn't. I don't have as many friends as you do, but I accept those I find interesting and ask others I think might be. Most are involved in writing or the arts. I have an author page that I post book promos, but I do that on my regular page too. I love seeing everyone's pets and gardens and families. I feel I know some friends intimately, yet we've never met. I do get involved in political discussions and don't care if I get anyone mad. If someone gets me mad, I just ignore their posts, especially if they're friends. Ignorance makes me seethe, and there's plenty of that on Facebook. I skip over them or block them. I block people constantly pimping their books and not interacting. If that's all they have to say, they can't be very interesting in the first place. What I don't see won't drive me nuts. I've reconnected with old friends and made new ones I really like, including you, Sandy. When we met, you handed me your drink and said, "Hold this," as if we'd known each other for years. That interaction was part SinC and part FB. I agree with Sandy Cody. The good definitely outweighs the bad. The biggest problem is my inability to monitor the time I spend on there.

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    1. I take that back. I did delete one local friend whose posts were so crazy I couldn't see straight. We're not friends anymore.

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  14. It can be a time waster if you have to be doing something else, but I find the rants gives you a good idea of how much time some people really do have on the hands.

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  15. I got on FB as a place to post my daily blog -- but have enjoyed the friendships that have sprung up. I let myself indulge in political opinions on FB (not so much on my blog -- I think it's a good forum and have been happy that, so far, the discussions that follow my posts are polite. I accept almost every offer to friend me (except for the creepy guys who say they have fallen in love with my picture) but first I look at the would-be friend's profile. If they are obviously right-wing, I accept their friendship but warn them that I am a tree-hugging, bleeding-heart, liberal/progressive feminist and I do post political stuff, Yes, FB is a time suck. I know it's introduced my books to some people but whether or not it's cost effective in terms of time not spent writing, I couldn't say. I just enjoy it for the glimpse it gives me into so many other lives.

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