For our 60th episode, we're hosting another Q&A extravaganza.

How should aspiring writers use Facebook and Twitter?

Question: Jen asks, "I really enjoy this podcast, but I'm curious as to how aspiring writers are supposed to use Facebook and Twitter differently."

Thomas: I recommend that you shouldn't use them at all.

If you're a novelist, Facebook and Twitter are a distraction. If you're unpublished, they're not helping you at all. You need to hear this. Being on Facebook and Twitter makes you feel like you're writing, but in reality it's not helping you. It's actually distracting you and hurting your marketing.

A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, and an author can sell books to anyone except his own friends. Once they're your friend, they expect a free copy of your book. You don't want to build a lot of friends, you want to build fans, and there's no way to have a fan as a novelist until you have a book.

If you're nonfiction, it's totally different. Facebook and Twitter can help you. But if you're an aspiring novelist, don't use them. Write your book instead.

Jim: We say this a lot, but the best marketing tool you can ever have is word of mouth. Somebody reads your book, loves it, and tells somebody else about it. That's why the time you spend on craft while you're still aspiring is crucial.

If you want to find out where your time is going, there's a free program called RescueTime that tracks how you spend your time on your computer. It might tell you sixty percent of your time is going toward social media and only thirty percent toward writing your book. It's a good wake-up call. Spend your time on the craft first.

Thomas: For nonfiction writers, the situation is different. As I'm working on a nonfiction book, and as I do research, make discoveries, and post quotes and full blog posts of chapters, one of the most frequent pieces of feedback I get is, "I can't wait for your book to come out," or "Now I understand your book." Teasing the pieces makes people hungry for the whole.

So if you're doing nonfiction, it's okay to use Facebook and Twitter, there are real benefits. But what Jim said about having a good book still applies.

(Note: Thomas no longer recommends using social media in this way. Due to algorithm changes, it no longer works.)

Do book blurbs actually drive sales?

Question: J.T. Stoll, author of The Rift, asks, "I'm an indie fantasy author trying to figure out how much time to dedicate to putting together blurbs for my book. Seeing a bunch of authors I've never heard of rave about a book doesn't make me want to buy it. Do readers care about these kinds of blurbs? Do they drive sales?"

Jim: That's a great question, and I have to answer it with a physics principle. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. If you're in space and there's no resistance, an object will continue in its direction forever until it's pushed a different way. That applies to publishing too.

Author endorsements used to be a huge deal, so publishers still ask for them, authors still get them, and you see them all over books. Most of you listening are educated enough to know when an endorsement came from a friend, so it probably doesn't carry much weight. For readers, it's the same. An endorsement from a big-name author can help, but it's not what drives sales. What drives sales, like we said earlier, is a great book.

Thomas: I have a different perspective on this. I agree with Jim as far as an author you haven't heard of goes. But there's a lot of power if it's an author you like and respect. Seeing that author's blurb on a book makes me highly likely to buy it.

I went through a period of about three years where if a book had a blurb from Seth Godin, I bought it, no other reason needed. I was such a fan of his that in between waiting for his own books to come out, I bought every book he blurbed. Having a New York Times bestselling authors blurb your book is very valuable. But your author friend from that conference, who's a midlist author writing a different kind of book for a different readership, won't do you much good.

Jim: As J.T. says, he's seen a bunch of authors he's never heard of, and I get that. But J.T., if it's an author you absolutely love who's endorsing a book, you might give that book serious consideration because of it.

Thomas: Who blurbed The Lord of the Rings? C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Should I record my own audiobook, and podcast it first?

Question: Kristen Stieffel, author of Alara's Call, asks, "While my book is in production at my publisher, I'm looking into recording an audiobook version, and I'd like to record it myself. I'm trying to decide if I should go straight to Audible or podcast my book. If I podcast first, can I still distribute the compilation through Audible? What are the pros and cons of podcasting the book?"

Thomas: Recording novels yourself is very hard. I only know one other person who's done it successfully, James L. Rubart, and that's because he has a background in radio. For nonfiction authors, it's a lot easier to record your own book. For novels, people expect a certain amount of drama and acting ability, and most authors don't have the background to pull that off. I don't know what your background is, you may be able to do it, but most people can't.

To answer your question directly, no. If you podcast your book first and then want to distribute it through Audible via ACX, they'll make you take the podcast down. You can't have it anywhere else for free.

Jim: Liking to perform doesn't mean you'll be able to do an audiobook. I've done six books so far, and they're hard. Like Thomas, I have a background in radio and took drama classes in college, so I have some understanding of what it takes. It's not an undertaking you want to do unless you're very comfortable with it. There are other opportunities, like ACX, or hiring someone you know to perform it. I'd explore that direction first.

Thomas: If you do want to podcast your book, I'd encourage you to go to Podiobooks. It's a website devoted to authors who podcast their book episode by episode, and it will help you find readers and offers tips for recording. One option is to podcast the audiobook yourself for free, then have a professional narrator record a paid version for Audible, where people expect higher quality.

For updated information on recording your own audiobook, check out the following episodes:

• The 5 Tiers of Audiobooks: Which One Should You Publish?
• How to Write & Narrate Better Audiobooks with Tom Parks
• How to Publish Your Audiobook Through ACX 

Will posting honest book reviews sabotage my writing career?

Question: Jennifer Pappas asks, "I blog about books and book reviews. My question is, as an aspiring writer, is it not smart to post bad reviews? I know I'm thinking far ahead, but what happens when I meet somebody in the publishing game who likes my work, and they see that I've written a one-star review of their book? It rubs them the wrong way. Am I sabotaging my future by being honest?"

Thomas: Even bad reviews help people. I'm the poster child of this. I rank number one on Google for the word "courtship" because of bad reviews, people writing blog posts about how much they disagree with me. If someone is mature as a writer, they should recognize that all publicity is good publicity for someone still trying to make a name for themselves.

Mark Twain wrote a twenty-page essay called The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper, who was the author of The Last of the Mohicans. It's an excellent essay on how to write better, but it was biting in its criticism. He really ridiculed the guy. It didn't sabotage Twain's future as an author.

Jim: Here's the reality. You have to be honest, and if you're writing a thoughtful review, the mature writer will think, "Maybe I have something to learn from this."

With my first book, I sent an endorsement request to an author I really respected. He wrote back honestly and said the book just didn't work for him and he couldn't endorse it. But he was so thoughtful in his response that for my second book, I sent it to him too, and he loved it and endorsed it. If you have honest discourse with people, done respectfully, those people can turn into allies.

Thomas: There's a way of criticizing someone's book without criticizing the person, and a way to criticize their book that's still kind. Being honest is no excuse to be unkind.

Can I use MyBookTable to showcase other authors' books?

Question: Cara Grandle asks, "I'm not published yet, but I want to write a blog post here and there on books that I love that someone else wrote. Not book reviews necessarily, but just like talking about a book to somebody at a coffee shop. Can I use MyBookTable on my blog showcasing other authors' work, and then add my own when the day comes that I'm published?"

Jim: Yes.

Thomas: You can do that, and you can even make money while you're doing it, because the affiliate program works whether it's your book you're selling or somebody else's. We built the plugin with that in mind, for people using it to review other books.

Which stores should indie authors sell their books on?

Question: Darren Sapp, author of Fire on the Flight Deck, asks, "Where should I sell my books online with self-publishing? There are a lot of options these days. I assume most of my sales will be on Amazon, both print and ebook, but what about Nook, iBooks, and Kobo? Are there others I should be thinking about, such as Smashwords?"

Thomas: As somebody who looks at sales numbers, not just for the publishing company I work with but also through MyBookTable, I've realized that if you're in America selling to Americans, three stores account for ninety-nine percent of independent authors' sales. In order of importance, they're Amazon, at about sixty to seventy percent of your sales, and Apple iTunes at number two.

Barnes & Noble is plummeting, their platform is dying in terms of ebooks. Apple is replacing them for a lot of authors, partly because they embrace permafree, and partly because they have a bigger user base and device base. Not many people have Nooks, but a ton of people have iPhones and iPads, so they prefer to buy through that interface.

If 95% percent of your sales are through the big three, the smaller players add a maximum boost of five percent, which is only worth it if you're already moving a lot of volume. Kobo is almost negligible in the United States, though it's still popular in the UK. These numbers shift for other countries. For most of you, Amazon is still the number one player, but your number two and three may be completely different. I can't tell you what those are, but having looked at MyBookTable stats, it's interesting, there are stores we've never heard of that people are using MyBookTable to promote in Spain and France.

MyBookTable 2.0 is out, and I'm super excited about it. We've added a bunch of features. The one I'm most excited about is the Amazon Bulk Book Importer. Before, if you wanted to add 100 books to MyBookTable, you had to add them one at a time. Now you paste in the ISBN numbers, click import, and it creates the page, pulling in the copy, the price, and even the image straight from Amazon.

We also added a grid view, a notify me button, and a shadow box. Instead of a bunch of buttons on your page, there's just one buy now button that pops up a shadow box with all the different options, including find your local bookstore. If somebody wants to buy your book at their local bookstore, they can get the phone number.

MyBookTable gives them the number of their closest bookstore so they can call and check if your book is in stock. If it's not, now you have readers all over the internet calling their local bookstores asking for your book. It's magical.

With 2.0 you can enable user statistics, which help us make MyBookTable easier to use and more effective. It also gives us useful anonymous data about what's selling and which platforms are popular. If you want to help the Novel Marketing Podcast become more informed, make sure to turn that on. We don't track it to individuals, but it's really useful for us.

www.mybooktable.com

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