Back to Business: KEEPING UP WITH THE (no, not Kardashians) PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

So, you shouldn't waste too much time on the interwebs. YOU SHOULD BE WRITING! But just in case you (like me) need a break from time to time--and, in truth, if you're serious about being in the children's or YA literature business--here are a few helpful industry links:

PUBLISHERS LUNCH on FACEBOOK (nice, free updates on the industry, book deals, etc.)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Children's page (on the web, great info and links to blogs)

SCBWI (if you don't belong already, go join today!)

If Twitter's your thing, I recommend @ShelfAwareness

And, if you're so inclined, click one more time and enter to win a signed, annotated arc of THE
SOUND OF LETTING GO!

WROTE BUT NEVER POSTED, 2nd EDITION

This post was originally titled The (Lady) Problem with Social Media. 

Batman circa 2011

Late last night, I was watching E News when a not-unpredictable ad for a feminine hygiene product came onto the screen.

My husband always jokes that I watch networks that carry ads for zit creams and hair dye, and he watches television channels that hock collectible coins and scooters for the mobility challenged. But, I digress.

The ad in question was actually kind of funny. Above average for its topic. But at the end of the ad, it was suggested to me that I like the product on Facebook because that would make me look super-cool, right? Or help me in any way, huh?

After giggling in mortification at the thought of actually LIKING said page, I thought a minute about my own liking habits.  What's in it for the like-ER and like-EE? Liking other author pages is nice because I want to support colleagues, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything to drive anyone's book sales. Liking television shows or music groups gives me a few seconds of fun but failing to update these likes more-or-less creates a trend-expiry date for your page, not unlike the open-by stamp on milk. Besides, I am pretty sure I have never found new "friends" or readers because we both like Smash. And so on. You get it.

What's more, many of the pages I "like" are updated with an infrequency that, combined with my kind of "meh" relationship with Facebook results in my almost never seeing a posting from them again. I mean, it's probably close to a full-time job to FB enough to keep a page in its "likers" feed enough to make the whole effort worthwhile.

This post was originally written a couple of years ago. What's REALLY FUNNY is that, since I wrote it, SMASH has been cancelled, TWITTER and other sites have emerged, and SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER has actually BECOME a full-time job at publishing houses.

Back-to-Business Monday: Taught by Teens

I had a most amazing morning on Saturday.  Inspired by some advice from SCBWI-WWa colleague Carol Lucas, I held a get-together for ACTUAL TEEN READERS to talk about the books they read, how and when they read them, and how they find them.  We met in the Starbucks corner of our local B&N and had a very fun chat. 

Kathryn, Sarah H., Erika, Alice, Colleen, Katy, Britta, Katrina, Mia & Sarah B. represented girls ranging from (almost finished with) eighth grade to college sophomores.  They were all super-nice and so gracious about giving up their morning to enlighten a forty-something newbie writer.  I brought a bunch of arcs along to share with them.  The one that sparked the most interest was Kieran Scott's HE'S SO NOT WORTH IT.

It is amazing how much the girls know about Facebook.  It is definitely their go-to social media resource.  They belong to groups for everything from sports teams to prom committee, and use the event/invitation feature, tagging, etc.  Some of them "like" authors, bands, etc., but not excessively.  One of the girls, who does follow some authors, mentioned that she got annoyed when she'd "accidentally" find herself on the author's website via their like page, preferring to get all of her information while on Facebook. They also explained some details of "like" pages of which I was unaware--very helpful stuff for techno-dense folks like me :)

The girls also had lots of suggestions for fun websites to visit, favorite teen magazines, and so much more that I'm still digesting.  It's quite incredible how much these teens do, and how capable they seem to be at managing their time and keeping focused on their interests despite the barrage of advertisers, etc., trying to get their attention.  Wow!  Way more savvy than I ever was (or am).

I was so grateful to all the girls for their time.  I hope they had some fun. For me, the conversation opened the door to many more questions.  Oh, and I'm definitely going to learn how to vlog!