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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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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/