Web Strategies For Writers (Part 03)

Strategy Step By Step

It took awhile to get here, but it's finally time to lay out one (possible) method for creating a web strategy for writers.

The build up was necessary, because if you don't have a basic grasp of how the web works, and what people expect when they go online, then you have nothing to base your strategy on.

Now, before we get down to business, remember in Part 01 I mentioned that all writers (to varying degrees) participate in a Create >> Share >> Interact cycle. Since I wrote that in Part 01, I'd like to add 'Promote' and 'Give Back' to the list: 

• Creating
• Sharing
• Promoting
• Interacting
• Giving Back

I added Promoting to the list because, oddly enough, even if you're giving away something for free online, you still have to promote it before anyone will know it's there. By 'Giving Back' I'm referring to the process of supporting others in your tribe: readers, and just as importantly, other writers. Writing shouldn't be a competitive profession.

In Part 01 I also touched on (but didn't spell out) that while the basic thrust of a writer's web strategy will be similar to other writers, one of the main factors determining how it will vary is the stage of your career. Real quick, the stages:

• No finished manuscript
• Unpublished, seeking agent
• Have agent, unpublished
• Pre-release of your book
• Post-release of your book
• Multiple books in print
• Bestseller

Do I have any bestsellers reading this? If so, e-mail me. I'll wait…

Thought so.

Given most of you, like me, haven't yet enjoyed Stephen King like success, I'll limit most of the strategy discussion to tactics applicable to first-bookers on down. (And by 'on down' I don't mean to imply anything negative whatsoever as to the worth of unpublished authors, as my ego is far too fragile to withstand such biting personal attacks.)

Onward.

Creating A Web Strategy For Writers, Step-By-Step

1) Identify where you're at in your career using the list above.

2) List at least three (and preferably 280) digital mediums, devices, and/or social networks you haven't yet released your work to:

• Podcast
• Cell phone
• Serialized e-book: e-mail
• Serialized e-book: web + rss
• Amazon Kindle
• YouTube
• Something from the bowels of your sick imagination
  

3) Find at least three "tribes" within your genre that hang out online, and join them. This could be a place for writers, or it could cater to readers. I recommend something frequented by both.

4) Using the stage of your career and the genre you write for as a 'filter,' create a table with one row each for: Creating, Sharing, Promoting, Interacting, and Giving Back; and columns for each digital medium you came up with in Step 2, as well as each social network / tribe you identified in Step 3 above. Number the resulting cells. It might look something like this:

	Podiobook	E-Serial	Bit Torrent	Kindle	iPhone
Creating	1	2	3	4	5
Sharing	6	7	8	9	10
Promoting	11	12	13	14	15
Interacting	16	17	18	19	20
Giving Back	21	22	23	24	25

5) Now, for each numbered item we're going to do two things. First, we're going to list actual tactics we might use to enhance these 'Writing Cycle Activity / Digital Medium' pairs. Second, we're going to do a little research to establish what the current standard of quality / badassness is for each tactic we come up with. If we find tactics that others are doing so well that we can't improve upon their efforts, then why reinvent the wheel? Plus, it should be obvious by now what a total fucking time-suck the web can be. There's no way you can do everything. The trick is in finding one or two things you can do well, and focus on those until you get a result you're happy with. Or even better, find something no one else is doing yet, and be the first. Instead of stressing over all the tactics you don't have time to try, look for stuff not to do bother doing, and then rock the stuff you do commit to. (By the way, this is a lesson I'm still struggling to learn.)

Let's look use #11 from the table above as an example:

11. Promoting:Podiobook

POSSIBLE TACTICS:

• create promos for my podiobook that other podcasters can include in the intro to their shows.
• create a signature with a link to my podiobook website that shows up every time I post in a forum.
• (And so on. We'll look more at specific tactics in the remaining parts of this series.)

STANDARDS:

• Author Scott Sigler does awesome promos for his podnovels, as does Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff. I'll need near studio-level quality, awesome background music, and pro-grade voice talent to their style of podcast promo. Or, I could take a different approach, and be funny...a parody perhaps?
• Most people just put a regular ol' link in the forum signatures. What if I used an intriguing tag-line or provocative quote instead?
• Etcetera. If this looks like brainstorming with prompts, that's because it is.

So if you take the time to list tactics and standards for all 15-25 cells of your table, you'll end up with enough ideas to keep you busy for the next year leveraging the web to promote your work. But let me reiterate: don't try to do everything all at once. Pick one or two tactics at a time--the ones you can do better than all the others--and implement them first before moving on.

OK. That about wraps up Part 03. From here on out, we're done with abstract principles and will be covering all the nitty-gritty, get-it-done stuff involved in actually implementing your writerly web strategy. Even better, I'll be sharing case studies of FIVE authors who are kicking serious butt online with their innovative strategies and entertaining fiction. The folks know how to build a community of raving fans. You won't want to miss what they have to share!