Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

I’ve gotten a couple of questions lately about using Facebook, so I thought I’d do a post on it. If y’all have any other questions, please feel free to comment or shoot me an email so I can answer them (or find out the answer if I don’t know it.) I’m including some really basic info here, but I’ve also got a few other things for more experienced users.

A Professional Account and a Personal One:

I started out with a personal Facebook page first. I had a lot of friends using it and sharing pictures, etc, on it—and I had some curiosity about people I’d graduated from high school and college with.

But then I quickly realized that I needed a separate Facebook account for my writing friends. I was wincing far too much as old pictures from sorority formals or icky yearbook pictures were getting scanned in and uploaded to Facebook from old friends.

I decided to open a second Facebook account under Elizabeth Spann Craig, Author. So far, I’ve only had a few friend requests where a personal friend tried to befriend me on my author account and vice versa. I always send a message to them if they do that says, “Hey, I think you’ll like it better on this account….that one’s for work,” or else “Could you be my friend on this account? This is the one with all the writers.”

Some people will recommend that you get a ‘fan’ page instead of 2 separate Facebook accounts. But I like the 2 accounts, myself. I don’t like asking someone to ‘be my fan,’ but I don’t mind asking someone to be my friend. But there are benefits to having a fan page: they are accessible to anyone, even if someone doesn’t have a Facebook account. The argument for having a fan page is here. There’s also, I think, not a cap for having friends. Regular Facebook pages cap at 5,000 friends. But….frankly, I can’t imagine having that many FB friends. I’m at over 600 and I just don’t see me getting anywhere close to that number.

Setting up Facebook is really easy. I think it’s probably one of the easier social media out there.

• Step 1

  Start at the homepage for Facebook.com. You’ll see a screen where you can click on ‘sign up’.

• Step 2

  On the sign up screen, you fill out your name (full name…you’ll be surprised how many people across the world share your name), email address, password, and some other personal info. If you are setting up 2 different Facebook accounts, you’ll need to have 2 different email addresses to use for setting up the accounts (somebody correct me if I’m wrong…it was like that when I was doing it, but might have changed.) This is still easy, since you can get a Gmail account, Hotmail account, or Yahoo account for free. You’ll have a word verification form and an “I accept” agreement to click. Then you click the ‘sign up now.’

• Step 3

• Facebook will send a confirmation email to you to the account you used while setting it up. When you get the email, click the link and you’ll be logged into Facebook..

• Step 4

  I’d be careful when it asks you if you want to search for friends because Facebook will search your email address books. I didn’t use that feature—I just searched for friends in the search boxes. For your personal account, you can search by university and graduating year, which is fun. You can also search by company, if you want to find old coworkers.

• Step 5
  Set your privacy settings. There’s a toolbar at the very top of each page that has ‘settings.’ That’s where you can set up who sees your information and how your info is shared.

• Step 6
  Upload pictures for your profile. Add personal information on your info tab.

How does Facebook work?

You can’t really look up someone’s information unless you’re their friend. It’s limited, for their privacy. You send a friend request to the person and on their end, they get a little notice in the top, right-hand corner of their screen, telling them they’ve got a request. They can click on it and see your picture and name and decide if they want to befriend you (I know this sounds a little like junior high.) If they accept, you can see their info and they can see yours.

Status Updates: This is where you can start a conversation by bringing up a question or making a statement. You can see your friends’ status updates and can respond to them by clicking ‘comment.’

Pull your blog feed onto Facebook:

Set up Facebook to pull your blog feed automatically onto your profile page. This frequently will generate comments: (I’m cutting and pasting Facebook’s instructions on doing so:)

1. On the Notes page (you get there by clicking on Notes on the bottom left hand side of the window), click the Import a blog link on the right side of the page.
2. Enter the URL (web address) of your blog into the text box, and check the box underneath that states that you agree to our Terms of Use.
3. To complete the process, click on “Save Settings.” Once you do this, your previous posts will appear as notes and any new posts you make will automatically display.

Making friends:

Look up writers you admire who write in your genre. Become their friend. Facebook friends are different from real friends—no one is going to wonder who you are and why you’re asking to be their friend, so don’t feel self-conscious about it. It’s a different culture. Once you’re friends with the author you targeted, click on their friend list and ask those people to be your friends. Those people will get a friend request from you stating that you share a mutual friend (the author you originally targeted.) Twitter works the same way. Look up an author or industry professional (agent, editor) that you respect. Then follow them. Then you can raid their followers list.

I accept almost everyone as a friend. Unless they’re currently serving time or something.

Networked Blogs:

Networked blogs is my favorite Facebook application (it’s a 3rd party one, but very popular.) Basically, you’re bringing your blog to the Facebook community—they can access it via Facebook’s blog reader. And your blog will automatically post to your profile page. The only thing is it’s sort of a pain in the neck to figure out and set up. The best online guide that I’ve found for how to set it up is this one. It uses screenshots as illustration, which really helps.

Helpful Tips for Facebook:

Twenty Facebook Tips You Might Not Know.

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.

What I’ve gotten out of Facebook professionally:

I’ve gotten interview requests, etc. in my Facebook inbox. I think that’s because, if I’m Googled, Facebook comes up quicker than my email or blog as a contact.

I really enjoy networking with the writing community in real-time on Facebook.

Dangers of Facebook:

Could you spend your entire day on Facebook? Oh, sure, without even thinking about it. But I think the best thing to do is to set a timer to remind us to get off of it after we’ve visited. Otherwise you can lose large chunks of time there without even thinking about it.

My daughter would balance on the slippery edge of the bathtub for what seemed like an eternity before stepping out onto the mat. No holding on to the side for her.

“Oh my goodness, you are scaring me to death!” I’d say.

“Why?” Very curiously.

“You’ll get hurt!”

A couple of days later–

“You’re scaring me just looking at you! I told you not to stand there!”

“Why?”

“Because I said so!”

Finally, when the same scenario of the bathtub balancing act played out a third time, I said in my best ghost story voice:

“I once knew a boy when we lived in Birmingham. He was just a little guy. But one day, he stood up on the edge of that slippery bathtub. He was just weaving and wobbling around, and WHAM! He busted out both of his front teeth. Oh the blood and the crying–you just wouldn’t believe it! His mama had to put his teeth in a glass of milk so they wouldn’t go rotten on the way to the dentist. And the dentist had to stick the little boy’s front teeth back in!”

She never stood up on the edge of the bathtub again.

What’s the lesson? Other than the fact that I finally succumbed to the grand tradition of parent warnings (including the granddaddy of them all “Your face will freeze like that!” I liked to cross my eyes at people when I was a kid…)?

That when you paint a good, concrete image in someone’s head with words, it’s powerful.

How to make it vivid? I think it depends on the book and the genre.

I usually like reading vigorous language with strong verbs, spot-on metaphors, and sensory details that are quick but evocative.

Fancy adjectives don’t hurt. And I’m not adverse to adverbs if they’re not overdone.

A good storytelling style, or voice, helps too. Even if an author’s word choices aren’t wonderful, if his voice is strong, it’ll grab me. I can see everything through the narrator’s eyes and it pulls me into the story.

What makes a vivid story for you?

Sometimes it’s a challenge to act like you’re a professional person when you write.

People don’t really get writing, sometimes. They know we’re at home, but they really don’t know what we’re doing there.

And children can make it difficult to be professional.

When I upgraded my cell phone and gave my son the old phone, I had no idea that the contact list would still be there, even though we’d gotten a new phone number assigned to the phone. He was busily thumbing through, adding contacts to his directory (all 7th graders) and said, “Hey. Who’s Ellen?”

“Ellen? Ellen is my agent. Hey…give me that phone!”

And then my 3rd grade daughter, who tried to make me change my profile picture on my Gmail account so it would have kittens on it.

I’ve no problem with kittens. I love cats, actually. But a book cover would be a better choice for my particular books.

Then, of course, there was the radio interview where my daughter knocked on my locked bedroom door for 20 minutes.

Still, I’m trying hard to portray myself as a serious professional.

Things that help:

• Business cards.
• A snappy, interesting one or two sentence summary of your book, if someone asks what it’s about. (Think of it like a pitch.)
• Introducing yourself as a writer (this is a tough one. I’m working on it.)
• A professional-sounding email, Twitter, Facebook account. My email is my name, and so is my Twitter account and Facebook. I have two Facebook accounts—one professional and one personal. This keeps me from feeling irritated when old sorority sisters post pictures of me from 1989.
• My voice mail message sounds professional.
• A website. This is important, even if your book isn’t out yet. Make sure your contact info isn’t buried on there.
• Respecting our writing time and asking others to do so, too.
• Making sure our children know when we’re about to be on an important phone call.

Alan Orloff had a wonderful idea for keeping children away when you need to work. He puts a sign on his office door that says: Please come in so we can get started on chores.

Brilliant!

I’ve always been forgetful, but this month has taken my little problem to a new low.

I forgot my parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s school.

I took my daughter to a Christmas play practice…and then realized (after her part had been assigned and she’d practiced for an hour) that we’ll be out of town the day that the play runs.

I bought a decongestant for my husband at the drugstore, then couldn’t find it. He and I searched my car, the den, our bedroom, and much of the rest of the house before we found his decongestant—in the freezer.

And…I published a post on the Midnight Ink blog yesterday when I knew my posting day was the 17th. It was on my calendar and everything as the 17th. But I posted on the 16th.

Wow. What’s going on?

I think one big component to my problem is email and the way I’m processing it.And then how I’m reminding myself of the tasks I need to complete that my emails are laying out.

I’m juggling lots of different types of messages: emails from readers (which I love getting), emailed requests for interviews, review copies, signed books for charity auctions, blurb requests for upcoming books from other authors, and emails from the publisher’s publicity person—this is for the book I’m promoting.

Emails regarding revision requests, emails to obtain blurbs on my upcoming book, submitting lists to publishers regarding review opportunities for ARCs, lining up appearances—this is for the upcoming book.

And then, of course, there’s the writing for the next book, which should always be in the hopper. And some emailing to editors and agent regarding that project.

My email inbox was a disaster area. Chit-chatting stuff alongside mail from my agent. The three list-servs I’m on had emails all over the place in my inbox.

Enough!

The last couple of days, I’ve been working on making sense of the madness.

Folders for my inbox…set up with mail rules upon delivery: listservs in one folder, agent/editor mail in another, interview stuff in another. I use Gmail for work, which technically doesn’t have folders—it has labels. But you can label one email several different ways, which is nice.

Using my phone for big reminders: My daughter’s parent-teacher conference? It totally needed a phone reminder. I can set up my phone to send me a text or to make an alarm to remind me of something important.

A “Big Picture” calendar: I think one problem I’m facing is that I’m not grasping the relationship between my days. That sounds nutty, but basically I think that just because something is on my day planner, I’m not really realizing that day’s relationship to the current day. There’s nothing wrong with using a page-a-day calendar—unless you don’t know what day it is. Which I, apparently, don’t. Now I’m using both—the daily one and the big picture calendar. I need a sticker with the words “You Are Here” on it to put on today’s date.

Starring or flagging important emails: This is something I’ve always done, but it’s worth a mention to those of y’all who don’t and end up with nutty inboxes. In Gmail, you can put a star next to an important email so you can find it later. In Outlook, you flag it. You can even choose different colored flags. Later, you can sort your emails so you only see the ones that require action.

As far as putting drugstore items in the freezer? I haven’t figured out a fix for that one, yet. I guess I’ll just have to include it in my places to look when I’ve lost something.

My husband and I started dating when I was a freshman in college. This will be exactly 20 years ago December 7th and means that I’ve known him longer than I haven’t known him.

You’d think there wouldn’t be too many surprises left, but there actually are. Oh, we have our set-in-stone-patterns most days, but sometimes we shake it up a little. And I think we’re hitting our midlife crises, so we’ve become somewhat more unpredictable lately (my husband has rediscovered his enjoyment of scuba diving.)

But even with some surprises along the way, I can frequently guess what my husband will think, do, or say about a given situation. He does the same for me. It’s very comfortable in many ways. I like the ability to read someone’s mind.

With series, you get to know the protagonist similarly well over a series of books and years. If I met Adam Dalgliesh in the street, I’m pretty sure I’d recognize him. PD James has made sure of that.

Reasons to write series:

For one thing, I enjoy reading series. I’m going into a book with some knowledge. I know the sleuth, I know the sleuth’s personality. I know the sleuth’s sidekick. I know some of the internal conflict. Just bring on the new victim, suspects, and murderer.

It’s easier for me to write. My setting usually stays the same. The constants I mentioned above (regarding sleuth and sidekick) are the same. I even have recurring characters in my books. I’m starting with a bunch of ‘knowns’ to build on. When you’re starting with Book One, you’re making everything up as you go along.

From a purely commercial standpoint, I make more money writing series. And I’m building up a name for myself (on the bookshelves) in the industry.

Challenges in series writing:

Making sure you don’t bore your returning readers by providing too much back story. Making sure you don’t confuse your new readers by not providing enough back story.

Some people don’t enjoy reading series, preferring stand-alones and a fresh story each time.

Not getting bored with your protagonist. And not boring others with him or her. Like a marriage, you really get to know your main character. This can be a good thing….or not. Try to keep it fresh—either by providing your protagonist with new challenges or new characters to interact with.

Things to check:

Is your protagonist likeable? If not, is he or she at least interesting to hang out with? Otherwise your reader might not want to stick around.

Is your protagonist growing as a character? I think marriages get boring when there’s no growth or change. Same goes for books.

Are you a series reader or writer? If you don’t like reading series, do you enjoy writing them?