Author Buzz UK is, fundamentally, a social network for authors. British authors in particular but all writers, authors, readers, publishers, and agents are equally welcome.
In this post we will take a look at the ways you can use Author Buzz as a social network and where else you might find a good social network for authors.
Author Buzz Social Networking
As a social network for authors, Author Buzz is designed to help you connect with authors you love and find new authors to follow. If you are an author yourself, this may be a way to grow your readership.
Author Profile
Your Author Buzz profile is designed to promote you. Your (author) profile is the capstone of your Author Buzz social presence.
We are still working on ways to make them even better for promoting books, authors, and blogs. We have plenty of ideas and a number of projects under active development towards that end.
When you post in the forums, share in groups, or post a blog post to your own group, our users are given the opportunity to click on your name and follow you back to your profile. There they can find out what you have been sharing. As a result interesting content equals interested readers.
The Author Buzz activity page
At the heart of the Author Buzz social network experience is the activity page. Here you can see what has been posted, who has joined, and what is going on in all of our groups.
You can choose to see only those groups and users you follow and filter the feed to show you only the types of content you are interested in seeing.
Following people
At Author Buzz, you are free to follow as many or as few groups and users as you wish. We recommend following users that are active and thus regularly posting interesting content.
When you follow a user, their content will appear in your “Following” link on the activity page. Next to that you will find “My Groups”, “My Favorites”, and “Mentions”.
Mentions
Shows you who has been talking about you recently. If you are an author, this may include reviews, fan responses, or your friends bringing something interesting to your attention.
Your mentions tab starts of entirely empty. The only way to fill it up is to interact with other users or do something worth talking about.
Author Buzz Forums
Author Buzz blends social media elements with more traditional forums. The forums are a great place to interact with other users. Not to mention ask questions, and share your own skills and insights.
Author Buzz Groups
Groups are a community centred around an idea, interest, or blog. For authors, we recommend setting up your own group so that fans can keep apprised of your latest content.
When you start a group, you will have the option of adding a forum and/or starting a blog. If you start a blog, you can decide who in your group, if anyone, will have access to publishing content.
In addition to that, if you already have an author blog, you can include its post in your group updates via the RSS feed option. Anyone subscribed to your group will see your updates in the activity page – everyone will see them on the “everything” view of the activity page.
Author Buzz Directory
In addition to your profile, you can add a listing for your books in the directory of everything for writers, readers, and authors. It is completely free to use and there are a good many useful resources in the directory too.
Free WordPress blogs
If you are just starting out and do not have an author blog yet, we can help. By creating a new group (a community for your fans) you will get the option to create a matching blog.
Blogs are the power house of Author Buzz as a social network for authors. Your blog is a fully independent WordPress blog which you control. What you post, what media you upload, which pages you make and even which theme you pick – all of this is entirely under your control. Your blog posts automatically get added to your group so your followers will see it in their activity feed.
Here is a list of all the blogs our members have started.
Other Social Networks for Authors
As an author, you no doubt want to reach as many people as possible. To build your platform, you probably want to have a presence on a few social networks.
The Writer’s Cookbook has a post titled, “Social Media for Writers: Which Platforms You Need to be on, Based on What You Write“. It is a pretty decent overview of the more common social media sites. However, it pretty much just suggests all of them for everyone. It is still a good overview though.
Let’s take our own trip though the social networks authors may find useful.
Twitter as a social network for authors
Twitter is social networking in tiny bite-sized bits. Be careful about following too many authors. Many less social authors simply spam variations on “please buy my book”. Quite a turn off.
For more on Twitter check out our article, “Mastering Twitter in 3 easy steps“.
Facebook as a social network for authors
Facebook is by far the biggest and most complex of the social networks. For an author, I highly recommend setting up a “page” (as opposed to a new profile or a group). Your page can be managed by you but you can appoint other people to also help run the page.
To remain relevant, it is recommended that you post something each day to your page. A WordPress blog (like one of ours, for example) can be configured to automatically share a link to your post on your page. If you have committed to daily blogging, the content for your page already takes care of itself.
For days without blog posts, you might like to consider asking open ended questions. Your followers’ reactions as they debate among themselves will help boost your post reach.
Tumblr as a social network for authors
Tumblr is quite a youthful social network. It has a large community of fan fiction writers and short form story writers. If you pick the right tags, you can quickly go viral.
I would recommend Tumblr for anyone writing YA novels or short stories.
For more on Tumblr check out our article, “How to (ab)use Tumblr for fun and profit“.
LinkedIn as a social network for authors
LinkedIn is social networking for business and professionals. If you are still trying to get signed by an agent, looking for freelance writing work, or just want to reach the professional market then LinkedIn is where you need to be.
WordPress blogs can be configured to automatically share posts to your LinkedIn network so a little ground work here can reap rewards in terms of traffic to your main site.
Reddit as a social network for authors
Reddit is the wild west of social media. It pays to carefully locate the best sub-section (called sub-Reddits) to share a post. If the users in that sub-Reddit like what you share, they vote it up. Get enough votes and it will be shown to more of the community.
Some Reddits you might like to try:
- /r/writing – general writing related reddit
- /r/Writeresearch – for when you want help finding facts for writing
- /r/worldbuilding – for help building worlds
- /r/writingopportunities – calls for submissions etc.
- /r/BritishBloggers – clue is in the name
There are even more in this list.
Good Reads
Good Reads is, among other things, a social network for authors and readers of books. If your book is listed on Amazon, sooner or later it will show up on Good Reads too. As well as creating an author profile here on Author Buzz, we highly recommend creating one on Good Reads too.
Feel free to send me a friend request.
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange is not a social media site as such but it is a great place to show off your knowledge and experience. The Stack Exchange group of sites are a question and answer network on a range of subjects. The community values great questions and definitive answers.
If your aim is largely to just get your name out there, here are some Stack Exchange sites especially suitable for authors. (Just be sure to read the guides first).
Where else?
There are a lot of social media sites out there. Some are social networks for authors to take advantage of. Others, not so much. Far more than you could hope to keep up with. I highly recommend picking a few great ones that are suitable for you. You will find a few sites with focused effort will yield better results than spreading yourself too thin.
Here is a massive list of social media sites.
Over to you
What have we missed out? What other forms of social media for authors would you include? Have you had great success with a particular social media site – why not share your story in the comments?