Authors Shouldn’t Have To Be Social Media Experts

[photo by nayrb7]

There are increasing calls for authors to not only write great work but be great marketers too. Justine Musk talks about the importance of developing an author platform, as does Robin Hoffman. Dan Schawbel discusses how to use social media to develop your personal brand. All with good reason.

Publishers are moving away from their traditional role as promoters and marketers. I’ve written previously about the shifting landscape in the publishing world.

The conclusion everyone is coming to is that authors now need to bring their own audience to a project, especially if they self publish but even if they go with a big traditional publisher.

However, this flies in the face of 234 years of economic theory. When Adam Smith published his magnum opus The Wealth of Nations in 1776 it contained a theoretic principle that would change the world’s productivity forever; the principle of specialization.

By dividing work into discrete tasks each worker could specialize, become more proficient and their combined efforts would produce greater output and therefore more profits.

We see the principle of specialization around us everywhere. It is what modern economies are built on.

In fact, whenever we see an area where a person’s job requires the development of a diverse set of skills we should see an economic opportunity to increase profits through specialization.

In this case, the opportunity I see is to separate marketing from writing.

The beauty of specialization

Nothing about being a writer inherently makes them a good marketer and vice versa. Why then combine these two tasks?

It would be more efficient to let authors focus on writing (and either write more books or better books) and share the increased profits with a talented marketer who doesn’t have to worry about developing his or her skill as a writer.

This past weekend I went to hear a friend perform. He’s a talented guitarist, a musician with a confident stage presence and good audience rapport.

But after the show as we were talking he confided he really doesn’t enjoy performing. He’d much rather just write songs. And he should. He’s got a talent for it.

We talked about his early success as a songwriter, a couple of his songs got on the radio and he won a prestigious song writing competition in California to some acclaim. But he didn’t know how to capitalize on those early wins, didn’t know how to publicize his talent in the right way to roll that into the big time.

And why should he? Just because he can write songs doesn’t mean he needs to be a great marketer as well.

How social media is changing things

The drive behind author platform development is the decreased investment of large publishing houses in marketing and the increased demand for personal interaction by fans. The rapid expansion of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow fans to stay more connected and provide greater opportunities to feel engaged with previously inaccessible stars.

When celebrities can send messages about their personal lives to hundreds of thousands of fans at once, it creates a feeling of familiarity and trust which increases the celebrity’s leadership bond with his followers.

An author’s most loyal fans are those who know her best. They are people who like the way the author thinks and want to support her by purchasing her work. It also solves one of the most perplexing dilemmas in the age of information abundance: where’s all the good stuff?

There are few things more daunting than looking at thousands of book titles and authors’ names and wondering which ones are good. (Barry Schwartz goes into some detail on this quandary in his book The Paradox of Choice.)

When we have a relationship with an author we are inclined to believe we’re going to enjoy their book. It gives us a way to narrow down the choices.

But social media is time consuming and requires the author develop an entirely new skill set. And let’s be real, there’s a difference between using social media to keep in touch with friends and using it to create a platform. Chatting with friends is fun, creating a platform is work.

This is not confined to social media, by the way, just ask any author who’s felt obligated to attend a party to promote her book.

How can we specialize?

Isn’t the point of social media to create relationships and facilitate community building? What happens to that community if the author isn’t present?

It depends on the ultimate goal of the author. If the author is looking for an ongoing personal relationship with her followers there is no substitute for individual attention and interaction. But if, as one would expect, some authors (not naming names) are merely interested in expanding their readership, it could work quite well.

Assume a partnership arrangement between an author and a social media marketer.

The social media expert of the team can develop relationships and build trust in their ability to recognize great work. This solves the twin concerns of fans, they want a personal relationship and they want help sorting through all the crap that’s published every day.

If you’re wondering what such a leader/follower relationship looks like you only need to turn on your TV. Oprah Winfrey has developed a loyal following by being personable and authentic and by interacting with her audience as individuals. She has developed a relationship of trust.

When she recommends a book it’s an automatic best seller. Why? Because her multitude of fans trust her judgment.

This is the quintessential author/marketer relationship. Authors can write without worrying about marketing, Oprah can market without having to write.

Let’s learn a lesson from Adam Smith and specialize our efforts. I’ll be Oprah.