How Social Media Can Benefit Writers

Tina Cho and Leslie Tribble are teaming up on this post to show writers why they should be on social media. 

From Tina:

Social media can benefit writers in wonderful ways if used responsibly! I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Twitter, especially, in its concise tweets has brought me lots of goodies. Here are my reasons why you should be on social media too.

You might find an agent. 

I found my agent through Twitter. I was following another agent from Martin Literary who tweeted about a new agent. Bingo! I submitted to her, and we’ve sold five books since 2016.

Adria Goetz is the best!

You might find story ideas.

Someone tweeted about haenyeo (South Korea’s diving women). I looked them up and knew I must write about them. The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story published in August 2020 from Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random and received 4 stars and lots of other accolades. See my website for details.

You might get an animated special deal (i.e. short movie) for your book.

It all started with a Tweet, dear readers!! Because Twitter friends share book covers and book reviews, someone who works for a media company just happened to see the book cover of The Ocean Calls, told her company about it, who got a hold of my agency, who bought the rights to make it an animated special. So keep sharing those book covers & reviews!

You might find a writing tribe.

Because of my books and presence on social media, especially Twitter, the famous Newbery author, Linda Sue Park EMAILED me to be a part of her #kibooka team of Korean-American & diaspora writers. See https://kibooka.com/ 

You might discover your book being sold at a famous store.

One early morning as I was getting ready for school, Penguin Random House tagged me on Instagram. Pottery Barn Kids is selling my book along with other wonderful picture books on equity and inclusion. I was floored! And last weekend I did a video for them!

You will meet wonderful people.

I have met so many wonderful people on social media--authors, illustrators, editors, agents, parents, teachers, etc… All these connections are integral in helping you become a great writer and person. 

Librarians and book reviewers will want to tag you.

Each week I’m usually tagged by librarians or book reviewers or parents or readers who enjoyed my books. I’m humbled and enjoy meeting people around the globe. 

Your publisher will want to tag you.

If your publisher is marketing your book, they will tag you. 

From Leslie:

My social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is my favorite form of social media, and I’ve been posting my nature photos there since 2013 - that is hard to believe!

For me, social media is a way to connect with other like-minded folks. I follow authors, both adult and kid-lit but I also follow a lot of landscape and wildlife photographers who inspire me with their work. Seeing the beauty of their art makes me work harder at my own photography. I don’t have a huge following, but I’ve really enjoyed the connections I’ve made with some of these virtual friends and have even met a few in real life. 

It was the suggestion of some of my social media followers that prompted me to create a calendar. I have zero photo editing skills and didn’t know how to create a calendar at all, but I buckled down and finally produced something I was very proud of last year. It was a huge learning curve, but gratifying in many ways, and I’m already working on a new calendar for 2022. 

My SM platforms have also been a convenient way to promote my self-published outdoor recreation guide. With one quick picture and a few words, I can tell people about my book and have even have others expand my reach when they repost my photo. Free and instantaneous marketing! In fact, now that spring is slowly making its way to northwest Wyoming, I’ll be posting a photo of my book soon, reaching even more folks than last year.

Social media can be a huge consumer of your valuable time, but it can also bring personal friendship, engagement, creative inspiration, career success and overall enjoyment. It’s a good way to get your name out there in whatever field you’re interested in. 

Let us know what successes have come your way through social media!

Tina Cho is the author of four picture books-- Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans (Little Bee Books 2018), Korean Celebrations (Tuttle 2019), My Breakfast with Jesus: Worshipping God around the World (Harvest House 2020), and The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story (Kokila/Penguin Random House Aug. 2020). Her lyrical middle grade graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, debuts from Harper Alley in 2023. After living in South Korea for ten years, Tina, her husband, and two teenagers reside in Iowa where Tina also teaches kindergarten. 

website: https://www.tinamcho.com/ 

Twitter: @TinaMCho

Instagram: @Tinamcho

Facebook: TinaWheatcraftCho 

Leslie Colin Tribble is the author of Adventure Guide to Cody, 2019. She's written for Cody and Beyond, Cross Country Skier Magazine, Yellowstone Valley Woman, RootsRated, and Sunlight Sports - East Side Stories. Leslie lives in northwest Wyoming with her adventure dogs, Robbie and Milo.

Instagram: @Sagebrush_Lessons

Facebook: Leslie Colin Tribble

Twitter for Writers Part 2 with Corey Rosen Schwartz by Tina Cho

Welcome to Twitter for Writers Part 2. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. Today I'm sharing my interview of Corey Rosen Schwartz, the popular picture book writer, and how she uses Twitter to market her books. Her most recent are The Three Ninja Pigs, Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears, and Ninja Red Riding Hood, out this summer.

Just to show you how great social media is--I even interviewed Corey using Facebook messages back and forth, rather than email! 

As a published author, how do you use Twitter?

Corey: I mainly use Twitter to connect with teachers and school librarians. They are very easy to find through hash tags such as #1stchat, #2ndchat, #titletalk, etc. These are usually educators who are very active on Twitter. I follow as many elementary educators as I can. Most follow back. Sometimes I also check out who THEY follow and follow some of them, too. Once I've made a connection, I offer them bookmarks for their students. This often leads to Twitter Q & A's, handwritten thank-you notes, and Skype visits. The relationships that develop are amazing! Lots of these teachers have already pre-ordered my next book. And I love thinking of new things to send them...stickers, activity guides, etc... 

Do the students send you class Tweets of questions or compliments?

Corey: Yes! I've gotten lots of students' responses. You can see student responses of Ninja Red Riding Hood here. This is the type of thing I get. This came by email. That's definitely that type of thing that Twitter leads to.

Do you think Twitter is better than Facebook for teachers to connect with you?

Corey: ABSOLUTELY! It took me a LONG time to get Twitter, and I still sometimes can feel a little lost there. But I have totally managed to find a way to make it work for me. I am also very lucky because my book is fairly well-known. So when I do follow someone, they often write back and say, "Wow, we've read your book, and my students love it." So that definitely helps. Gives me an "in" to say, "Oh, well would you like Ninja Pig stickers?" 

Facebook or Twitter?

Corey: For me, I ENJOY Facebook much more. But Twitter is an incredibly useful tool for reaching the "influencers" in the school community. 

You mentioned previously you have a manageable system for Twitter. Can you share that system with us?

Corey: Not sure I actually have a "system," but I have managed to find a way to connect with educators. I read a ton of PBs and MG so I use Twitter to spread book love. I look for and make book recommendations and once relationships have developed, I OFFER educators some type of swag, stickers, bookmarks, and activity pages. I mail them out a package and this often leads to Twitter Q & A's, Skype sessions, etc... 

Teachers will often tweet back pics of their classes holding the swag I sent. 

Or they will tweet a photo of the swag to thank me. (This helps create more buzz for the book.)

Thanks so much, Corey, for answering my questions and helping us get a better idea of how authors and illustrators can use Twitter. 

You can find Corey here:
blog
Twitter: @CoreyPBNinja

Corey is the author of THE THREE NINJA PIGS (Putnam 2012), GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS (Putnam 2014), and NINJA RED RIDING HOOD (Putnam 2014). Corey has no formal ninja training, but she can sure kick butt in Scrabble. She lives with three knuckleheads in Warren, NJ. 

Twitter for Writers Part 1 by Tina Cho

Got tweets? If you're on Twitter, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I'll try to convince you to join. If you're already using Twitter, that's great, because I'm going to discuss how writers can use this social media in many ways.

For those of you who are new, Twitter is a social media program in which you connect with people, and it allows you to type a message of 140 characters to your followers, called a "tweet." When you make an account, you are given a Twitter handle, which is like your address for people to send messages to you. Author/illustrator Debbie Ohi has a wonderful "Twitter Guide for Authors and Illustrators." And author/illustrator Katie Davis has a podcast "A Beginner's Guide to Twitter."

Twitter has many benefits for writers:

• Connect with other writers, illustrators, and book reviewers. Once you connect with someone, your new friend's followers might also connect with you.
• Read great information about the craft of writing and be directed to blogs and web sites.
• Promote your blog posts. Once you tweet about your post, someone else can re-tweet (share) your post. Then your blog post tweet is automatically shared with their followers, which could be hundreds to thousands of people with one click! So Twitter is an extremely fast way to share information.
• Stalk Follow agents and editors. You can find out a lot of information by following agents and editors that you're interested in submitting to. Sometimes they'll tweet their wish list. You can read their likes, dislikes, whether they have kids or pets, even their religious preferences.
• Write to your favorite authors/illustrators. For example, I found out that Rosemary Wells was coming to Seoul, Korea. I signed up for her lecture, found her Twitter handle, and messaged her that I looked forward to meeting her. She tweeted back! The famous author of my children's Max & Ruby books! Messaging a person on Twitter is easier than messaging someone you're not "friends" with on Facebook. Here's another example of a class that tweeted to an author.
• Practice pitch writing. There are pitch contests on Twitter for writers to type their 140 character pitch for agents and editors to see. It teaches writers to explain their premise in few words!
• Participate in Twitter chats with publishers and agents. They'll usually announce the date, time, and hash tag for the chat. One recent Twitter chat/party is #WeNeedDiverseBooks.
• Check these hash tags. (#) A hash tag will tag a tweet to categorize it. If you search under #MSWL, you will see posts that show the "Manuscript Wish Lists" of agents and editors. Try these others: #querytip, #pubtip

I hope those benefits convinced you to use Twitter or to tweet more! I hope to see you online. My Twitter handle is @TinaMCho.

Join me Friday, May 9th, as I interview Corey Rosen Schwartz about how she uses Twitter to promote her books and communicate with readers.