#WritersCoffeeClub 11 Apr: What's your most effective method for connecting with readers?

[cstross@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub 11 Apr: What's your most effective method for connecting with readers?

I don't know!

"Write good books and motivate my publishers' sales team to push them" is part of it, or used to be, but COVID and Amazon decoupled everything and everyone.

My blog used to have immense reach (around a million unique page views per month) but then Google decided to systematically destroy the blogosphere in pursuit of AI-generated profits.

Twitter—you know the pack drill.

And now ...?

[green_bens@mastodon.green]

@cstross Your blog is the only place I go where I read and pay attention to the comments.

[anj@digipres.club]

@cstross FWIW I believe @AliceFraser has largely switched to Patreon because what your followers will see is more transparent/predictable/manageable.

[70hz@livellosegreto.it]

@green_bens @cstross same!

[ttmevans@mstdn.social]

@cstross we’re definitely experiencing a signal to noise problem. Lots of fragmentation certainly doesn’t help. The big social media services have all pretty much gone to shit.

Are people actually making money from newsletter services like substack? Ad revenue is, well, elusive doesn’t really express how little it generates, and it’s very annoying.

Love to see if someone has a magic bullet, but frankly I think it’s probably all luck or down to a good agent with the right contacts.

[verain@c.im]

@cstross I have a question for you! Have you ever been approached to write a novel for an existing universe? Like Star Trek or Warhammer for example.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@Verain I did some W40K short stories for GW back in the very late 80s, but meeting Brian Ansell cured me of any desire to have anything to do with them. Circa 2005 Marvel were interested in me writing scripts for Iron Man, but turns out I hate Tony Stark (and I had my own novels to write anyway). Since then, nope. And not terribly interested, either. It's called "sharecropping" for a reason.

(Limited exception: I wrote a story for a recent "Wild Cards" anthology.)

[verain@c.im]

@cstross Interesting, thanks.

[deliaturner@mindly.social]

@cstross Data point: I went back to reading your books (had only read a couple) because of your Mastodon posts.

[iceopal@mastodon.social]

@cstross I wish I knew. Twitter was a great way to keep track of what writers were publishing but x demolished that. Very few blog anymore and most that do seem to only be posting to patron these days which I've found is good if you want to be super supportive of an author financially but if it's someone that you just buy the books from it's often quite alienating because of the pay wall.

I'm definitely on the reader end of the equation and my book buying has noticeably gone down.

[thelancashireman@hostux.social]

@cstross

Maybe just the feedback is missing.

Even if I don't always click Boost or Favourite, I read all your toots.

I read your blog when you toot a link, but I don't post comments there.

I'm way behind with your books, but trying to catch up.

So maybe here is a good place for connecting with readers.

[rantingnerd@hachyderm.io]

@cstross I regularly forward your blog posts around, and also say "this is actually a case where reading the comments -- at least cstross@'s -- is recommended".

[mithriltabby@wandering.shop]

@cstross Seeing authors at play on social media is my way of discovering new books to read. I used to get things from awards shortlists; these days I get things that authors I like are enthusing about. Thanks to ebooks, I will not be crushed by my TBR pile in the next earthquake!

[booksthatgoboom@nerdculture.de]

@cstross I don't remember ever agreeing to let billionaires destroy the internet, how did that happen?

[juergen_hubert@mementomori.social]

@cstross

For a time, I ran both my Mastodon feed and a Facebook page as a way of showcasing my work.

But my Facebook pager never even reached 100 followers, so I eventually ended that experiment. I suppose I might have gotten more followers there if I spent money on ads, but I decided to stick with Mastodon instead.