I am a member of a good number of writing groups online.
Some are great and others…not so much….
My intention behind joining the groups was to find authors
to tour with for large book events and to trade cross promotion online. My goal
is to get my work in the hands of people that want to read, review, and assist
with promoting my work. In about five groups I am a member of that actually
happens. However, in most writing groups you will find the same things:
1)
The group
moderator that acts like a Nazi about posts. Usually, this is an author
that is just plain frustrated with the industry. I mean with 15 million books
being publishing just in 2013, who wouldn’t be? They spend the majority of
their time moderating the group instead of writing and promoting themselves.
You would think this would be obvious to the new authors that join these
groups. However, they are so hungry for the bad advice given that they will do
exactly what they are told in order to remain in the group.
2)
The group
focuses exclusively on promotion. Every day an author spams the room with
posts about their ebook that no one is buying. I undoubtedly will wake up to
the same fifteen authors spamming social networks about their books.
3)
The group of
meanies that think they have seen it all…This is a group of disgruntled
authors usually writing in a single genre that have limited themselves to a
very competitive genre and they are not selling any books. They spend their
days trying to figure out how to market to an already saturated market without
spending any money.
4)
The group that
is so small that it literally does nothing. This is self- explanatory.
5)
The group with
too many rules. The group that has thousands of members and 22 or more
rules about advertising, deletion of group membership, and types of posts.
These are usually the worse groups to join. The activity in this group is more
about rules than about helping authors. You will see at least nine posts a day
about group behavior and threats about deletion.
There are more. However, I will
stop there. As a writer, try avoiding groups that focus on the negative and
select writing groups that you can get something out of each week.
Additionally, feel free to add your two cents about what you learn in the
industry each week as well.
Tips for joining an online writing community:
In my opinion, authors should only
join writing groups that focus on helping you build a social media following,
focus on cross promotion, author book review swaps, and information on how to
set up book tours. All other information can be found online or in how-to
publishing books and guides. Authors should spend their time writing, promoting,
and selling their work. Scouring rooms on social media just won’t do it…
Don’t forget to market, market,
market….
Happy reading!
