L.A.Mitchell-articles

L.A. Mitchell

Romance...Out of Time

From Divas to Polka Dots :

A Closer Look at Online Writing Communities

When it comes to sorting through the vast network of online writing communities, many pre-published and small press authors grow weary trying to optimize their web presence while minimizing precious time spent away from writing. These social communities exclusive to writers and readers provide a graphic-rich, organized environment ideal for self-promotion, but can be a time management pitfall if not placed in the proper perspective. Understanding the strengths of each type of community can be a valuable asset when devising promotional goals.

Surface Communities

Surface communities are the equivalent of an online bulletin board, allowing writers to create and post profile pages with minimal set-up and maintenance time. Beyond the familiar social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, creating a presence on book-centric sites like Author’s Den or Absolute Write capitalizes on the common interests of writing and literature. Offering message boards, forums, and in the case of Amazon Connect, a chance to filter an author’s essentials into the hands of a potential buyer, these sites can be an effective way to disseminate information.

As enticing as these drive-by sites can be, they often fall short in payoff. These sites require readers to search out authors by name or title and offer no guarantee the promoting author will ever be found.

Cross-Pollinating Communities

Cross-pollinating communities are designed for the purpose of connecting author to reader. The strength of free sites like The Polka Dot Banner and Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction lies in the author’s ability to benefit from the exposure of other authors. Potential readers browsing for a Regency romance can stumble upon attractive cover art, enticing book trailers or even the first captivating lines of a blog post to lure them into considering a well-placed paranormal or a women’s fiction title they may not have found otherwise.

The Polka Dot Banner promotes itself as a “web traffic vortex” with the capacity to funnel mass traffic to an author’s website or blog. An author’s gathering place, the site provides forums, book profiles and cover art displays designed to utilize strength in numbers.

Lynda Coker, founder of Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction, saw a void in the online community market—one that failed to embrace readers usually tucked away in obscure book clubs. Readers participate in the community alongside their favorite authors. Coker compares the site to a literary shopping mall where “[readers] can browse through hundreds of small shops featuring books in their favorite genres, all in the same convenient place.”

For newly published and established authors looking for more extensive cross-pollinating as part of their promotional plan, Author Island provides a venue that attracts all subgenres of fiction. Because it, too, is designed with readers in mind, the site has become a powerful marketing tool to emphasize new authors. For a $100 set up fee and $39 per month, authors can expect active exposure on the site that includes interviews, news, contest listings, buy links, chat programs, excerpts, trailers and extensive advertising.

All of these cross-pollinating sites capitalize on the display of multiple authors and draw exponentially more potential readers than a single site or profile page designed for a single author.

Immersion Communities

Immersion communities offer a close-knit, supportive environment for writers looking for something beyond drive-by promotion. For these sites, the best promotion is getting involved. Although exposure to potential readers is less, often exclusively other writers, authors participating in these sites can count on a deeper network of support and a community of members willing to assist with promotional buzz.

Kristen Painter, co-founder of Romance Divas, attributes the success of the romance-focused community to the tremendous encouragement writers find there. “We have a zero tolerance policy on flame wars, which is why we have such a great sense of community. We are truly about support.” In addition to a writer’s resource forum, Romance Diva participants can interact via message boards and blogs and gain valuable industry insight through workshops, articles and feature interviews.

Writer’s Café offers writers a free venue for posting profiles, but takes the idea of immersion to a more intensive level. Writers are encouraged to post excerpts; and through giving and receiving reviews and feedback, become a part of a community with strong ties. In addition to joining subgroups, writers can track feedback of their work using graphs and disseminate information to everyone on their contact list at once.

Local and special interest RWA chapters also fall into the immersion category, offering a specialized network of support for events, book signings, speaking engagements and another site to increase an author’s web presence.

The promotional return on immersion communities is directly proportional to the time invested. Becoming an active participant on these sites is the best way to ensure a writer’s valuable time is translated into support and sales.

Finding a Balance

For writers seriously committed to pursuing publication and those who have found success with small press and e-publishers, participating in online communities requires time discipline and a firm grasp of promotional goals. Some authors set aside one day of the week to attend to online community promotion, while others push it aside until after daily or weekly writing goals are met. Ideally, a blend of all three types of online communities allows the writer to reach different audiences and benefit from what each type has to offer. Installing good web tracking software such as statcounter on a website or blog can provide extensive feedback on which communities are meeting the writer’s promotional goals.

In these online communities, as in the real world, the success taken from it is dependent upon what is put into it. For a writer, striking the right balance is the best route to effective promotion.

Surface Communities

http://www.authorsden.com

http://www.absolutewrite.com

http://www.amazonconnect.com

http://www.myspace.com

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.twitter.com

Cross-Pollinating Communities

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/

http://www.polkadotbanner.com/

http://cataromance.com/

http://www.ecataromance.com/index.php