A Chat with Charles

“Splat”

and

“The Challenge Of Marketing” Part 3

When I was a younger man, I had an electrical side business. One of the jobs I took on was the repair of some flood lights around a pool for my customer. I had to use a twenty-foot ladder to climb up to the lights and do the repairs. I was removing one of the covers of the lights and discovered the problem was a wasp nest that was being built inside the box. Needless to say, the wasps were not happy about being discovered, and equally, as true, I had no desire to be the object of their wrath. So I jumped, off the ladder from twenty feet off the ground. I remember hitting the ground, rolling, and thinking how fortunate I was that none of the wasps had been able to sting me. I got up, brushed myself off, found my wasp spray, and well I finished the job. 

Why do I tell you this story? Because two weeks ago while I was with some of our authors at the Hurricane Schools Art In The Park Festival, as we were packing up our displays, I was walking to the corner of my tent display to lower the tent, and my left leg got tangled up in a root sticking up out of the ground and I found myself on the ground. I had fallen all of zero feet, but that fall ruptured a tendon in my left leg, making it impossible for me to get up. It is a really strange experience having one leg respond to the command to stand up while the other leg acts as if it is not even a part of your body.

I learned that unlike my twenty-year-old self, who knew how to bounce, well this almost seventy-year-old self has learned what going “Splat” means. So this newsletter is late because going Splat means I must totally revamp my life as I heal from this accident.  

So let me tell you the things that I have learned over the past two weeks. First I have seen the caring of all of the authors in Scribblers. I was helpless and the authors at that show took care of packing up my display, while I was being carted off to the hospital. That may not sound like much, but for those of you who have never seen my display, it is massive. So much work was done by Mike and Leda Owens, Julie and Rick Clarke, Ron and Donna Barron, it is hard to know what to say, and then the whole display had to be unpacked into Mike and Leda’s house so the car was available for my wife and daughter to drive me back to Florida.

Then those author friends came to visit me in the hospital, even before my family had been able to make the journey. I have watched as my family had come together, with daughters who have lives, dropping everything to come to our aid. First, my oldest daughter jumped on a plane in Maryland to meet my wife who also had jumped on a plane in Florida to head to Atlanta to meet up with me in the hospital in Gainesville.

My middle daughter offered to take me in, especially since hurricane Ian was trundling towards Florida, and my youngest daughter who had just moved to Hawaii made plans to come to help us as well. While we decided to stay in Florida, and fortunately were for the most part missed by the hurricane, that offer was amazing to me. My youngest daughter actually arrives tomorrow afternoon, having the hurricane cancel her first flight, but she will be here, and here I had been wondering when or even if, I would get to see her again!

Many of you know that I am generally the cook and kitchen cleaner, but my wife stepped right up and took over without complaint. It is especially humbling to know now that she has to help me get dressed, and so many things that I use to do unattended now require her attention. Some people might say, “Why would a good God allow such a thing to happen?” I look at the event, and while I am not fully certain about the total reason, I know this for sure, I am seeing the love and care of family and friends that I knew existed but had never had the opportunity to fully comprehend. The African church has a saying in Swahili that is best translated as “God is good all the time, all the time, God is good.” Even in the midst of suffering and sadness I now can say categorically that this is a true statement. I will not tell you that I am happy to have the experience, I’m not, but I am convinced that He is working out something in my life that is still unfolding.  

The surgery appears to have been successful. The tendon was reattached to the bone. For the next two to three months, I will not be able to drive and therefore many of my plans are changing. The pain medicine has shortened my days and lowered my energy. This evening as I write this, I am actually waiting for the pain medicine to take the edge off the pain so I can go to sleep. 

 You will see some of those changes as I reorganize the in-person chapter meetings where I am the chapter leader, as those chapters will need to return to ZOOM meetings since I cannot be there to lead in person. Many of my seminars and speaking engagements have been canceled or delayed to 2023 when I hope to once again be mobile. I am uncertain if I will be able to attend those shows still scheduled for this year. My life, well, is different now, as I adjust to not being mobile. 

I am grateful that Scribblers has other leaders in it, and the Lilburn Chapter will continue to meet under the leadership of Mike and Leda Owens, while the Snellville Chapter will continue under the leadership of Marlene Buchanan. As for me, well the wonder of technology means I can use ZOOM to continue much of the work of Scribblers. So, thank you all for your understanding and patience during this time.

Let’s just say that many of the experiences are already being crafted into stories for my book about life that I am going to title “The Problem Of Suspenders”. I have so many more stories to tell, about hospital functions or misfunctions. (Did you know that your bladder could actually fill up the plastic bottle they give you to pee in? Ever try to stop before it overflows? Interesting experience. ) And then there is the nurse call button that apparently was there to satisfy the desire to call for help without the necessity of knowing that it actually works. Ah, so many stories to tell. 

More next month, but now back to what I really wanted to be talking about in the newsletter.  

Marketing – Part Three – The Use Of Social Media in your marketing.

“The Challenge Of Marketing” Part 3 -Social Media

1. Facebook has 2.8 billion Monthly Active Users (MAU)
2. Youtube 2.3 billion MAU
3. WhatsApp 2 billion MAU
4. Messenger 1.3 billion MAU
5. WeChat 1 billion MAU
6. Instagram 1 billion MAU
7. TikTok 1 billion MAU
8. QQ 807 million MAU
9. Qzone 532 million MAU
10. Sina Weibo 520 million MAU
11. Pinterest 459 million MAU
12. Tumblr 437 million MAU
13. Reddit 430 million MAU
14. Twitter 225 million MAU
15. LinkedIn 310 million MAU
16. Douban 300 million MAU
17. Baidu Tieba 300 million MAU
18. Snapchat 287 million MAU
19. Viber 260 million MAU
20. Discord 250 million MAU
21. Vimeo 240 million MAU
22. Telegram 200 million MAU
23. Line 165 million MAU
24. Twitch 140 million MAU
25. Medium 60 million MAU

More than ¼ of all of the people alive today are accessing Facebook, one of the social media giants. When you look at all of the social media platforms available today, it is very possible that one-half or more of the world’s population has some access to these electronic methods of communication. I have listed above just the top twenty-five social media platforms, but I am aware that there are many more with new ones appearing to be birthed every year. Here is an interesting exercise…mark the ones you have heard of, and the ones you are using and add to the list the ones you know that are not listed.  

In 2016 when I was picked up by the first publisher, I had heard of Facebook but I had not even looked at it. Social Media was an interesting subject but not something that had impacted my life.. My publisher first had me work on “Sphere of Influence” marketing that I covered in last month’s newsletter. The whole concept of how to get people who did not know about me or my writing was an interesting discussion but did not seem to have a realistic solution without someone spending a lot on marketing on my behalf.  

If I was going to define the difference between the older traditional publishing world and the new publishing world, probably one of the most notable differences would be the marketing approach that the publishing world took before the digital age changed the landscape as we know it. Prior to the computer, writing a book was a tedious exercise. I am old enough to remember using the typewriter, carbon paper, white-out, and a host of other products designed to help me not need to fill the wastebasket with a ton of rejected ideas related to my stories. ( And if I was to be totally honest, I remember writing out stories long hand on paper, and using erasers to make corrections, even before I learned how to use the typewriter. And yes, I filled many a wastebasket with discarded drafts of writing!) The computer changed all of that, with word processing making it easy to make corrections and changes. The digital age also lowered the barrier of entry into the written world, and since the advent of the computer, the number of newly written works being produced has mushroomed. 

With the barrier lowered, ideas flowed like a tidal wave. Changes in printing capabilities also reshaped the publishing industry, as now getting books into print became affordable for literally everyone. That is a wonderful thing because I do really believe “We All Have A Story To Tell,” but it also means that while getting our ideas and stories out there was more likely, that very few of us had the financial capability to do the advertising necessary to alert people to our stories.

I discovered that my publisher was not going to spend on marketing what it would take to truly alert everyone to my book(s). Also, I knew I did not have the resources to spend on marketing what it would take either. How was I going to break out of my sphere of influence and get in front of people who did not already know of me?  

When you realized that every year there are more than 1.5 million new books being printed/published how are you ever going to be found? 

That first publisher encouraged me that I should begin to create a presence on FaceBook. In the beginning, it was an interesting exercise, especially as I realized that many of my friends and family (sphere of influence) were already on the platform. Suddenly I was finding that I was spending time every day writing on Facebook. I also discovered that an amazing amount of other dialogue was taking place on Facebook. Family pictures, friends' schedules, and activities, were up on the site. It was as if Facebook was replacing all the other mediums of communication, It was amazing to see life being lived and shared digitally. Pictures of what happened just a minute ago were suddenly captured and on the Social Media platform.  

It was about that time that Facebook also launched its advertising platform, permitting me the opportunity to advertise my book through its platform. I tried that, spending several hundred dollars trying to alert people to my book. As far as I could tell, my efforts did not result in any sales. 

Then the publisher began talking about a number of other social platforms they thought I should also be on. Twitter and Instagram were recommended. And at the same time, I was watching as the number of e-mails that were demanding my attention were also multiplying geometrically. I began to realize that my day was evaporating. Those 24 hours each day we are given began to be consumed by all the time I was spending on the different social media platforms and trying to alert people to my stories. 

I discovered that I had neither the money nor the time to really do everything I knew could or should be done related to alerting people about my books, so just what was I going to do? So here is what I have learned and am continuing to learn.  

First, you need to set how much time you have that you will commit to the social media world. Pick a reasonable number in keeping with the lifestyle you have. Obviously, if you are working still, you will not have the same time as someone who is retired or not needing to work on a daily basis. 

Secondly, do not expect instant success. Despite all of my efforts, I have found that getting the word out about my stories is a long journey. (Do not get discouraged, because your writing career is not a sprint but a long endurance race.)

Thirdly, chose carefully which of the social platforms best suits your personality and style. I discovered that I simply could not manage more than two social platforms effectively, although I continue to dabble in several more. I came to realize the time I was spending on social media was actually reducing the time I was spending writing my stories. I needed to make a choice, as to where I would spend my time. I choose to write more stories because those stories were rattling around in my spirit and needed to be set free first. If the stories were never written, no one would ever know I had those thoughts.

And finally, share your social platform experience with other writers/authors. Let them know what you have tried and what successes you have had, For those of you who have not met Marlene Buchanan, our Snellville chapter leader, talk with her. She has created a Facebook page dedicated to Scribblers Christian Writers Group, and together we can alert the world to one another’s writing. ( https://www.facebook.com/scribblersweb). If you have not already “liked” that site, please do. You will be helping to raise awareness of the existence of all of the authors that belong to Scribblers Christian Writers Group.

In November, I will be tackling another piece in the marketing saga for authors. As you probably have heard, almost 70% of all of the books sold in the United States are sold through Amazon. Next month I will tackle what we have learned about this marketing behemoth, and how we as writers can work together to get the word out about our books.

  

Until November.

Grace to you all, 

Charles de Andrade 

Scribblers Christian Writers Group

"We All Have A Story To Tell, To The Glory of God" on www.scribblersweb.com (http://www.scribblersweb.com)

Charles de Andrade announced that the first two books of the Eyewitness: The Miracles Of Christ Series are now available on Audible and through the www.Scribblersweb.com book store.

From writing alone, to writing with friends, pen a Scribbler's journey from beginning to The End.

772-584-1578