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7/28/2019 Working As A Writer In The Digital Age
1/2
TOP TIPS FOR WRITERS
WORkIng aS a WRITER In ThE dIgITal agEBY SOPhIE ROchESTER
1. Consider Your Options
There are many ways to publish today. Writers
can take the traditional route, publish directly via
Kindle, Kobo, etc and also experiment with bite-size
chunks o text on platorms such as Wattpad. Do
some research beore you make any decisions and
consider all your options. Try to talk to people who
have rst-hand experience.
www.kdp.amazon.com / http://www.kobo.com/
writinglie / http://www.nicolamorgan.com/
2. Keep Abreast o Changes in Publishing the
Future o Everything
Its important to keep abreast o changes in
publishing as all the major shits in publishing at the
moment aect writers. With so much rapid change
in the publishing industry its oten hard to keep
up. Subscribe to some relevant newsletters: The
Bookseller and Publishing Perspectives are good
places to start.
3. Develop Your Writing
In all the noise around social media and direct
publishing, sometimes writers orget the most
important thing creating time to develop creativewriting skills. Go on an oine course such as Arvon
and think less about prole and publishing or a bit,
and more about developing your skills as a writer.
4. Do Some Research
Have a read o your avourite writers blogs, Twitter
eeds, Facebook updates, Tumblrs, etc. Consider
subject matter, tone, where your own personal/
proessional boundaries lie, regularity, etc. and think
about which social media platorms might suit you
best. Watch the way writers are interacting with
readers and with each other.
5. Be the Reader
When considering devices and reading experiences
make sure you understand what those environments
are like or readers. Try and nd a book on a Kindle
or recognise what a book promotion looks like in the
iBookstore. This will help you understand the issues
o discoverability o books in the digital age.
6. Find Your Tribe
Writing about 16th Century Pianos? A quick google
search will show you who are writing, blogging,
tweeting about this subject area try and connectwith them online.
http://www.thewritingplatorm.com/2013/02/a-
writers-guide-to-online-discussion-orums/
7. Make Sure Readers Can Find You
Metadata all the inormation about a book
- infuences search, categorisation and which
countries its available in. Bad metadata could result
in your book being invisible and un-purchasable.
Writers should ensure they understand how
metadata will give their books the best chance o
being ound online.
http://www.thewritingplatorm.com/2013/02/a-
writers-guide-to-metadata/
8. Experiment and Collaborate
Dont have vast amounts o technical knowledge?
There are tools to help you out. Dont have a buddy
to work with? There are networks that connect you
with others. Adopt the anyone can play ethos and
try something new it might not be or you in the
long-run, but youll learn a lot along the way.
http://www.thewritingplatorm.com/2013/02/
anyone-can-play-platorms-or-experimenting-and-
collaborating/
9. Understand Who And Where Your Audience Is
and Dont Go Heavy on the Sales Talk
I you have a website or blog then regularly checkyour Google analytics dashboard and see where your
readers are, how they have come to your site and
which keywords theyre using in search engines to
nd you.
You can occasionally mention your work as long as
the way you do it is sensitive and respectul to the
community youre talking to. People dont like to be
sold to, so sometimes just being thought-provoking
and responsive is enough to sell a ew copies o
your book.
10. Have Non-Commercial Goals As Well As
Commercial Goals
Not all success should be measured by book sales.
Think about other ways you can measure the
development o your online prole - an increase
in ollowers or unique visitors to your site. All these
things are helping you to build your presence online.
11. Dont Let Age Be A Barrier
Many writers ear that age might excludes them rom
certain online communites but there is a huge age
range o writers online. Platorms such as Wattpad
are best known or young adult writers but that
doesnt mean that savvy septuagenarians such asMargaret Atwood arent also experimenting here.
continued...
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7/28/2019 Working As A Writer In The Digital Age
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Literature Works
Peninsula Arts, Plymouth University, Roland Levinsky BuildingDrake Circus PLYMOUTH PL4 8AA Telephone: 01752 585073
Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England and Wales
Company Registration Number: 06858956 Registered Charity: 1132586
www.literatureworks.org.uk
12. Keep It Low Maintenance
Remember when youre setting up blog posts,
websites, social media proles etc. that theyre going
to need maintaining. Try and be regular with your
updates, and invest your time in one or two platorms
that you really enjoy and that work or you and your
writing rather than spreading yoursel too thinlytrying to maintain proles on every single channel.
13. Remember Your Oine Reader and Writers
Communities
Dont orget your local, regional and national
communities! Meet people oine when you can
and get out to events where possible. Remember
oine word o mouth is still how many o us hear
about our next read.
14. Switch Of Occasionally
The internet can also be a huge distraction. At the
launch o her latest book, Zadie Smith explained
that she used two programmes SelControl and
Freedom that enable writers to switch o the
internet while theyre working.
http://selcontrolapp.com/ http://macreedom.com/
15. Think Big, Start Small, Act Now
Contemplating any new book project or trying to
develop an audience online might seem like a huge
task. Try to think about some goals youd like to reach
but dont be disappointed i you dont reach these
immediately. Break it down into the smaller steps you
need to take to start building up, make sure you takethose rst steps and enjoy the journey!
...continued
Sophie Rochester
Sophie Rochester ounded The Literary Platorm in
2009, initially as a ree online resource dedicated
to exploring the interace between literature and
technology showcasing ground-breaking projects,
and then as a specialist consultancy.
She has been a speaker on digital publishing
developments at TOC New York, the Frankurt Book
Fair, Bologna Book Fair, Editech Milan, British Council
Crossing the River conerences in Beijing, Shanghai
and Hong Kong; Electric Bookshop Edinburgh,
FutureBook Innovation Workshop, London Art
Book Fair and Alphaville at Whitechapel Gallery. She
is also a visiting lecturer at the London College o
Communications MA in Publishing and at UEAs MA
in Creative Writing.
In 2010 she launched, supported by Arts Council
England, the National Lottery unded Fiction
Uncovered an ongoing programme dedicated
to celebrating British ction writers. Previously she
worked in communications at publishers 4th Estate
and Jonathan Cape beore moving to the digital
agency Good Technology in 1999. In 2002, she
joined Colman Getty where as Associate Director
she led the teams working on The Man Booker
Prizes, Hay Festival and the Poetry Archive. She
went on to work on the communications or digital
agency AlloUs, as content editor or the Man Booker
Prizes, and delivering the literary strand o Story o
London working or the Mayor o Londons cultural
campaigns team.
She is currently a Trustee or the Arvon Foundation
and is on the Advisory Committee or World Book
Night. In 2011 she was part o a working group
at NESTA looking at the impact o digital on SME
publishers and she was a judge or the New Media
Writing Prize. She is a keen marathon runner.
http://www.theliteraryplatorm.com/collective/
about-us/the-team/sophie-rochester/
http://www.thewritingplatorm.com/about/
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