If you're an author toiling away on your next opus, how would you feel about coming to a screeching halt to field a question like this:
"I'm on Chapter 6 of 'Stuff Happens' and am confused about what you just said about stuff. I know you published the book back in 2007 but I wondered if you could explain to me what you meant?"
Most authors have been dutifully tending their blogs, their Facebook page(s), LinkedIn profiles and Twitter feeds. Maybe they've even dived into Google+ where they can participate in different social circles without having to leave their comfortable chairs (a writer's dream). It's simply what's expected of authors these days - both by their publishers and their readers.
But the launch of Amazon's new Kindle social media feature @author (now in beta) might just be the straw that breaks the author's back.
With @author, readers can ask questions directly from their Kindles while they are reading a book, and the questions get sent to authors' Twitter accounts as well as to their author pages at Amazon for all to see. Anyone who has purchased items from Amazon.com can reply to an existing question or ask a new one, and all visitors to Amazon.com can read any current question or response.
With digital reading devices it was only a matter of time that a truly social element would be introduced into the reading experience. And it's no surprise that Amazon would lead the way, with its vested interest in growing the community aspect of reading (loyalty, recommendations, more sales of books and more tethers to the Kindle, just as the company is getting ready to release its new full-color Kindle tablet).
Writers who've been dying to interact with their audiences-if only the publisher would get out of the way and if only they could find that audience-should be thrilled at having Amazon connect them so directly to their readers. Right?
At first, it probably will be thrilling to have current readers reaching out to you. They're reading my book! They like it! They want to discuss it! Of course, I'll answer your questions.
But then the social pressure will mount. The questions just stay there, hanging out on my Amazon page for all to read. Hmmm, everyone's seeing how mystified other people are by the doppelgänger motif.
Then the time pressure will escalate. Gad, another tweet from a reader! I was just about to crack that tricky plot twist. Maybe the community will answer her question for me. I'd better go check and see what the community answered. Oh, damn, they got it wrong. Have to write my own answer.
Then the inevitable irritation with your beloved readers. All these questions-it sounds just like my editor! Why don't they just sit back and read the book? It's meant to be an immersive journey. Take the journey. The answers are all there if you would just keep reading.
The majority of authors probably won't have to deal with any of this. How many people are reading their books anyway (and then feeling moved to reach out to the author)? The writers who need to worry most, of course, are the successful ones. Authors with a following. Authors whose readers crave two-way interaction with their literary heroes. Authors who have annual deadlines for delivering books and no spare time.
So, yes, authors' jobs have just become a little less solitary and a little harder.
The first @author post I saw to author Susan Orlean asked her, "How do you keep your momentum going after you've come up with an idea for a story or profile?" The devil in me had her replying, "Certainly not by spending time answering questions like these!" But I'm sure she'll be much nicer than that. At least for now.
Follow Laura E. Kelly on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LectriceUSA
Jon Ossoff: Do as Quebecers Do: Read a Book
Randy Susan Meyers: What Makes You Buy a Book?
Why Isn't Kindle Promoting Its Social Networking Features ...
Kindle's New Social Media Features Sends Message:'You Are What ...
Amazon Quietly Launched a Kindle Social Network - eBookNewser
Amazon launches Kindle Social Network | Benjamin Kerensa dot Com
New Kindle social networking features are welcome, if limited
Is Amazon Aiming For Kindle Based Social Network? | ITProPortal.com
It will certainly be interesting to see how things progress as more and more Amazon customers become aware of the feature.
Most writers HATE self-promotion--while understanding it is necessary nowadays. And we love hearing from readers. I've cried at the feedback I've gotten from some of my audience, and I even follow the blog of a blind reader in the UK (who reads via Amazon's text-to-speech) about how much LONG PAST DEAD touched him, and changed his perspective.
Amazon's biting off the hand that feeds it. Marvelous as Social Media is, it's also potentially dangerous. Some people are ruder online than they would ever be in person and yet, more easily offended. What readers feel offended by an author, they stop buying their books. Amazon's penalizing the most successful authors, since they're the ones with the largest audience!
Such a feature should be capable of being turned OFF; with a polite message /disclaimer from the author.
If Amazon needs ideas on making their tablet the next best thing, if they really want to blow their competition out of the water, they need to talk to me. They're missing the boat.
As one of the 16 authors in the Amazon beta test for the feature, I love it--of course, I'm not hugely popular enough to be bugged to distraction, but there is no one I'd rather hear from (outside of family) than my readers. Those are the people I write for and the ones who support my dream and goal, and THEY ARE MY CUSTOMERS. Why would any business owner want to hide away from their customers?And what is more important than connecting with the people who spend their valuable time on your work? Isn't that worth spending a few minutes, when most authors are really only writing an hour or two a day anyway.
Maybe people who get too "big" will resent it, but it's easy enough to be ignored--don't worry, ignore people long enough and they forget you exist.
On a lighter note, it would be interesting to see authors like Harlon Ellison use this new medium; he'd probably go feral and tell readers what they can do with their social networks, and he'd have a point.
I think far too many new authors fall into the trap of thinking that the internet is the ideal vehicle for publicity. It's not always true and, in my view, Amazon is just doing what small presses do, requesting authors to get on board for the 'good' of it all.
Authors don't need to expose themselves to being on call - effectively - 24/7 to readers.
Harlan Ellison rocks.
Fanned.
All best,
Deborah Reed
But how about that new Kindle? I was reading that article earlier today. Androids with the kindle app have the e-ink appearance when you open a book but the book cover flow might be like the pc color version.
Nook Color is worth mentioning separately as this is a hybrid Android eReader/tablet device, something between e-Reader and iPad. Even though Nook Color has LCD touchscreen, it's a new generation screen which is anti-glare coated and is better performing in sunlight and produces less glare all of which are dooming reading on iPad. The screen is amazing and readable/viewable at wide angles.
Nook Color has several apps that already come with the device (Pandora Internet radio, QuickOffice, etc.) and hundreds of other apps are available for download. Also, you can use the Social Settings screen to link your NOOK Color to your Facebook account and your Twitter account. You can also import all your contacts from your Google Gmail account. Once you have linked to Facebook and Twitter and set up email contacts, you can lend and borrow books, recommend books, and share favorite quotes with your friends.
Great post! Thanks for starting this discussion.
I don't know, I've only written a couple of authors. (Not counting forums - then it is general discussion)
Many will undoubtedly founder, losing productivity while becoming embroiled in online feuds, misunderstandings, and trivial pursuits. They will have to master a different and sometimes quite demanding social sphere. Their efforts to do so may degrade how they are perceived in the sphere that is their bread and butter and perhaps first love -- the word written at leisure, in consideration, and at some remove.
However, there are those who will successfully expand their brand by using social media more actively, even if as a result of public gaffes. And there will be those who will wish that branding hadn't become such a large part of their job that a second hardly went by without it, and hardly a word or action or even moment of silence could be enjoyed without second-guessing its appearance to others and effect on the pocketbook.
OK, so, on page seventy one of your novel, when you wrote....
;-)