Indie Writer Truths about Social Media

"Wow! It must be nice to just sit back and collect royalty checks!" I hear this, shake my head and grin. It does not work like that even if it seems like it. It takes a lot of work. I don't get to write nearly as much as I would like. (That is the artistic passion) I spend hours reading about how to publish, promote, market, and sell my work. I spent days just trying to get my first book published on Kindle. I also likely did everything wrong, and am still doing everything wrong. 

There are a few things I learned along the way that if I could share with you, might help you understand the misconception. Today I will talk about just social media. 

First, set up all your social media accounts. It sounds easy. I know. But it takes a lot of time. Especially if you are not big on using one or more or any of it. It is not the same as your basic sit at home and play on the internet to waste time. You need to link your blog and other social media accounts together and set them up as business pages so you can use them to not only stay in contact with your readers, but advertise to gain new readers.

Now you will ask, do I really need all of them? I don't know anything about this one or that one? Is it really important? My answer is, no. You don't really need all of them. I have five. (https://www.opheliakee.com/ophelia-kee-author-contact.html) That was where I decided enough was enough, and I had to write. But they are all interlinked with one another, and my blog auto feeds to them. I cross post information from one social media platform to the others in order to reach the largest audience I can.

​The next question is always, "Which ones are better to have?" Here is where what I have to say is a personal truth for Ophelia Kee, and you may need to feel around a bit before you decide. I prefer facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/Draoithe/), but I feel as if I need youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YG0meqbI_dfhxcLiX3CMg) 

Why those two? I am simply better at navigating facebook. I understand it better. I post pictures to instagram, and make pins for pinterest. I tweet on twitter. But facebook just makes sense to me so I use it more. Youtube is a bit more of a necessity tool. I need a place to stage my book trailers. From there I can link my pins on pinterest and tweet about them. So by now you likely guessed that if I deleted any social media, it would be instagram. But I won't because it is linked to my facebook, and although I am not a great photographer, sometimes the pictures are cool.

The truth is that Indie authors have to sell themselves. I must show the world what Ophelia Kee has to offer. The internet is an exceptional tool to be able to do that. Social media offers opportunities for visibility that simply did not exist twenty years ago. But I do have to work in order to make it work for me. Remember my lack of budget? I spend two hours everyday promoting my books on social media to groups for free. I write this blog, I post it to facebook and twitter. It auto posts to my author pages and pinterest. I spend time with my social media accounts to check and reply to my messages from readers too. 

Ophelia Kee has to be a real person, with a real life, and be accessible to readers. Honestly, it is really good to get questions because that has led to whole book ideas. Social media is the best way to do that and still get to be Ophelia Kee.

I also have to actually live too. Food, tea, family, the house, and my elliptical machine, all gotta happen everyday. Then I have to craft the book trailers. (I know I am behind, but I had to learn how to make them first so give me a bit of a break. I will catch up. No budget equals time and hard work, right?) I also have to edit, rewrite, format, etc... But I love to write, so I will put up with those things.

I have not touched on author pages or paid advertising and promotion. This blog is all about social media. But if you wanted to write (work from home) or just needed to be enlightened about how your favorite Indie author likely really spends all that free time you mistakenly believe they have, I hope this helps. 

As always this blog was supposed to be about Draoithe, so I will shamelessly plug my facebook page again and ask you to like and follow. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YG0meqbI_dfhxcLiX3CMg

Be Careful!
Happy Reading,
​Ophelia Kee
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