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I've been asked by oodles of authors to connect to their myspace page. Only I can't because I don't have one. To be honest I haven't even looked at one or considered one. I'm assuming they are like a blog and must be kept up. (I don't have time for another thing like that)
Everything I've heard about them has been negative. I've read numerous stories of people using other people's identities on myspace and either spouting slander or showing indecent photos.
Yet, authors keep saying "Oh, you have to have one! Everyone will see your covers and want to buy your books".
So my question to those who know or care - Is myspace the place to be to get seen or is it just a bunch of hype and more work?
19 comments:
Paty--I just came back to respond to your blog--about online classes! And here's Myspace?
Huh? LOL
Change of mind, huh? I have those, too. I liked your first blog and thought you did a good job of explaining things. I struggle with recognizing the passive voice thing.
As for Myspace, I'm afraid I don't know a thing about it. I will say that anything that eats up more computer time is not interesting to me right now. This blog is about all I can handle. I haven't even updated my own web site in almost a year. Just don't care about stuff like this. I'm obviously meant to be super wealthy so other people (minions) can take care of the nitty gritty.
I am anxious to hear what more savvy people have to say about this. And thanks for two interesting blogs!
Alice
Oh, and Paty, I like your new cover. It was hard at first to tell what the lines were because the picture is so small, but now that I have, it's great.
Are you hapy with it, too?
Alice
where in the heck is everybody?
I think it's more trouble than it's worth. I have an account, but I don't see the benefits. I'm interested to see if Lisa weighs in b/c I know her and Jen G both use it too. I have yet to be tempted to buy a book b/c of myspace. The whole thing reminds me of "clubs" in 4/5 grades. You know, you ask a bunch of people, "You want to join my club?" And there's no purpose to it at all, it's just a popularity thing?
I suppose, if I had a book out, I could send a blast out to all my myspace friends, but an email list does the same thing---and the myspace list would assume that your friends log in pretty regularly. A blog doesn't require that users log in, and you can set up RSS feeds so that readers can view your blog in multiple sources. Not really possible with myspace. Most people check email way more than they check myspace. So, if I were a published author, my priorities would be: Blog, Email, Events/Promo. Since it's free, myspace is just one more thing that you could do, and since the more you do the better, I'd give it a try, but I wouldn't make it a priority.
And I have news for Tuesday's blog that I'm about to bust a gut with needing to tell. Admire my restraint in not emailing the loop. LOL.
wavy, I have to admit that I wish you would email the group! I miss hearing good news as it happens from the person to whom it's happening! Now, I'm dying with curiosity!
Alice
LOL Alice. Okay. I'll just say Alice made me do it . . . . . .
I'm with Alice on sharing good news with the loop as it happens. I have no prob with repeats, and several of our members don't access or read the blog...just my two cents.
But I digress.
As for myspace, my teen and her friends have accounts. She is practically addicted to it, searching for like-minded people, answering notes, posting countless photos, uploading music, etc... It doesn't interest me. I don't have an account. And I worry about the safety of it for her.
So, Paty, when do we get to read your other blog? Or was that just a teaser for Alice?
Sorry I've been MIA again -- camping trip at the coast nearly all week. It was fun, although the crabbing was poor. Played horseshoes, cards, dice.
Wavy,
I see my arm twisting worked (btw, if anyone has a secret they plan to entrust to Wavy expecting her to bear up under torture, they may want to rethink their strategy--she's about as tough as a kitten!)
Congrats!!!!
Alice
I agree with Wavy and Danita about the negative parts of Myspace.
If you have a good website and a blog going, then a Myspace account may be redundant. And it seems that it's mostly used by teens through people in their 30's wanting to share like-minded things, like Danita said. A lot up and comers use it, like bands and stuff.
Personally, I've never visited any of my favorite author's Myspace "spaces", LOL, because I first go to their website, then to their blog. That's all I need. For me, anything more is a waste of my time.
Now if you are heavy into writing YA and want your target audience to be aware of you, then a Myspace account is probably a great idea. But if you're gonna be Googled, then they will find your website and blog anyway, so having a Myspace account is just one more thing to keep up with.
So, it's basically about how much time you want to spend keeping up with yet another way to share yourself and what you do, with your target audience.
For me, I'd keep it simple. But for others, like those in your position, Paty, it may be a really great way to reach more new readers. The only thing it's going to really do is suck up a little more of your time. But you want to be marketing yourself anyway, so go for it.
How's that for both sides of the fence? LOL
I'm in the process of reading through this week's blogs and comments, and posting my own two bits. If you blogged this week, check your posts.
I'm with Piper, and the others who said Myspace is a time-sucking pig. Too many things pull at my time as it is. I have no desire to create and maintain a myspace account. Yikes. I don't always have time and energy to write, take care of a family, AND keep up with this blog, my personal blog and emails. My online time is very limited.
Um. Yeah. Don't entrust secrets to the woman with no patience.
Back to myspace--I forgot to mention that myspace will let you make a link to your regular blog. If you want to hedge your bets, create an account, add a single entry to link to your regular website. Then, at least you're up there. There are a NUMBER of these meet-sites though--friendster, face book, ringo, etc--I don't think I'd have the patience for adding all of them AND I do write YA.
Alice- I guess I should have left the other blog up, but then I thought, oh that's to much thinking for a weekend and decided to ask the question that has been knocking at the back of my brain.
I have an aversion to myspace. All I ever hear is negative, so I think I will stay with my website and blog for now.
Sorry I'm so late responding. I had a sewing club meeting this morning, lunch with someone I worked with at extension, then a haircut and came home and raked hay - so no writing today other than my two- well three blogs, I updated my personal one.
I guess I'll have to reblog the one I deleted. I thought I got to it before anyone saw it!
Thank you for all your honest answers!
Great topic, Paty! I'm always interested to read people's varied opinions on Myspace.
Here are my loooooooong thoughts on it. I have two myspace accounts, one for personal use and the other for writing. I was originally very against myspace. I thought it was a stupid fad and I wanted to be a nonconformist. But then I learned to view other people's pages, I had to have my own. So I made one.
I'm glad I have. Well at first I hated how it seemed like everyone from high school had contacted me within the first 2 hours of having an account. But now I like that aspect. I'm awful at keeping in touch with people, particularly when it involves talking on the phone. This way I can send a quick message or leave a comment on their page to just say hi.
It's also fun to spy on people a bit, see what people you used to know are up to.
Then I realized I wanted a seperate one for writing. I only log into it about once a month because I get tons of friend requests from writers who I've never heard of. I get lots of "thanks for the add" comments from people I don't know.
From what I can gather, most of us who are on there, either unpublished, newly published, e-published, etc - most of our friend lists are other writers. The people who gather readers are the authors who already have a large following.
For example, Michelle Rowen (one of my fave authors, she's awesome!) had her book featured on myspace books. She already has a following and lots of readers, but it seems to have boosted that even more. But she had to be known on a certain level to have been chosen.
As far as the upkeep, it's not too bad. Just clicking approve or deny on random friend requests.
Here are some benefits to writers:
1) People scan the friends lists of their friends and could come across you and send you a friend request. You could do the same to other people, join some writing groups on their, make friends, build name exposure.
2) You can leave comments on your friend's pages - reminding them you are out there, keeping your name fresh in there mind. There are pretty picture comments with phrases like "Happy Friday" or "just saying hi" or even holiday ones.
3) Probably the biggest benefit is the bulletin. You can post a bulletin that appears to everyone on your friends list. When you log in, there's a box that shows bulletins from all of your friends. Usually it's people doing surveys with random questions. But on my writing account I notice people advertise new books, upcoming chats, when they sell, signings, etc. It's overwhelming when your friend's list is all writers because it's dozens of those a day, but if you have readers on your friend's list it's a great way to keep them updated.
4) It's also a one-stop shop for promoting yourself. Blogs and Web sites are useful, but on a myspace page you can have all the current info in one place. You can have a blurb and even exerpt for your newest book and a video trailer. It's nice for a quick scan. Web sites tend to be a bit more cumbersome for people.
5) It's also a great way to reach an audience that might not be reached by traditional methods. Younger readers are a great example, most youth have a myspace page. But also meeting people with specific interests. You know that pirate game I obsessed with for a while? Well there's a myspace group for the game. So if I wrote a pirate book, I could go into that group and promote it (groups have their own message boards). And I could add friends with the same pirate interest.
Ok, I'm rambling. My brain is fried. Looooong day. Hope I added something useful. When I talk about PR at the September meeting, I'll incorporate myspace and bring my laptop to go through it. I was very overwhelmed when I first joined, I'm sure others are too.
Lisa, great hearing you and so nice getting a different take on a possible new source. It sounds time consuming, however, esp. at first. I look forward to hearing you talk about it in the future...
Alice
Thanks Lisa, but you aren't helping any! LOL I was hoping you wouldn't have so much good to say about it.
I know I'm not ready to add one more thing to my plate at this time, but I might when things slow down.
Only what about the horror stories I've heard of people using other people's identities and then writing slanderous things? That's what I'm afraid of. I figure if I keep away from it then if something like that happened there would be proof I've never even accessed the place. We just had a teacher here that nearly lost her job, because a student made a myspace page for the teacher and then said things about other students. so I'm skeptical.
Interesting viewpoints. I'm like most of the rest of you - at this point I'm avoiding myspace like the plague. I just don't have time to mess with it right now. And as an unpub, I don't really see the benefit. But maybe when I sell I'll think differently.
Hey Lisa,
I love the idea of you incorporating myspace into your PR talk. My daughter has a myspace account, and her site looks great. Lots of photos, music, information. She even has a quiz on their so people can test to see what sort of horse person they are. It's all real swift. When I publish, I could have her help me set up a site.
In the meantime, I have no time for it. Too busy writing, raising kids, flowers, vegetables and kittens. Anyone want a kitten?
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