You’re Already Invited: Connecting to the Lit Community Online

by author Saundra Mitchell

When I was a newly-minted YA author, bearing a contract and little else, I was overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know, and how many people already knew each other. It was a lot like the first day of high school. Where are the lockers? Where are my classes? Most importantly, where do I sit at lunch?

But come here; let me tell you a secret. The great thing about YA and MG authors* is that everybody is glad to see you. No seriously, they really are. I’ve never met an established author who wasn’t straight-up freaking excited to meet a brand new author.

In fact, I’ve never met a crazy famous omg-I-read-all-your-books-when-I-was-a-kid-i-love-you level of author who wasn’t excited to meet a new author, either. (However, uh, if you can help it, just say you’ve read all their books, full-stop. No point in reminding them that they’re fifteen to… a lot years older than you. I learn things the hard way so you don’t have to!**)

Even though it seems very big, our community is actually very small. Even if you can’t afford to attend conferences, if your house isn’t sending you to BEA or ALA, you can still be an active part of the community. And trust me, you’re going to be glad you’re part of it. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to talk about something that’s happened in your career without having to explain it first.

So how do you find other authors online? In my opinion, the best place to start is with other debuts. Debut authors have been banding together since the Class of 2k7, to share their debut experience and to celebrate and promote their books together. If you’re brand new, your book is probably not coming out this year, but check out The Elevensies and The Class of 2k11 to get an idea of what debut groups are doing in public.

If you come out in 2012, check out The Apocalypsies and The Class of 2k12. If you come out in ’13, you’ll want to pay attention to the ’12 groups anyway. Invariably, the next year’s group is formed by someone whose book got bumped this year. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons, right?

If you’re not comfortable jumping right in, debut groups always list their authors’ titles and publishers. Find an author with a book coming out from your imprint, and drop them a line. You can get to know people on a one-to-one basis, or in a massive group. Whatever makes you the most comfortable, there’s a speed that works for you. Sharing excitement, sharing that debut experience, really helps you make career-long friends.

But what if you’re not really a joiner, you don’t know if you can carry on an e-mail friendship, and you only have one finger and like to stick to brevity whenever possible? Then my friend, you’re looking for Twitter.

While there are tons of tutorials out there that can help you get the most out of Twitter, let me tell you all you need to know.

Your messages can only be 140 characters long. RT means re-tweet, which means somebody is repeating something someone else said. @ is how you address other people to make sure they see what you say. Finally, #wordshere is a hashtag, and it’s supposed to contain information to help people find stuff on certain topics. There are weekly #kidlitchat topics you can follow by clicking on those hashtags. But honestly, most authors use the hashes as a toy. Sample tweet***:

Eeeeeeee!! I get to read something awesome!! #danceparty #myroom

What can you tweet about? Pretty much anything. I’d suggest avoiding complicated, controversial conversations on Twitter due to the character restrictions, but seriously, tweet about what you’re reading, what you’re writing, the day’s top news story, soup… well probably not soup. That’s what I tweet about.

Author @MitaliPerkins (see that @?? That’s how you can find her on Twitter!) created a list of YA & MG Authors with Twitter Accounts (which is now maintained by Blogging YA.) Feel free to go down that list, and add authors you find interesting. And again, if you’re too shy to just go adding people willy nilly without invitation, add me. @SaundraMitchell – that’s your invitation. (Fair warning: I wasn’t kidding about the soup.)

One of the easiest (and most fun!) ways to start tweeting is to read other people’s news, and congratulate them. Celebrating other people’s news is happymaking, and it gives you a chance to learn what other people are up to. Don’t be afraid to comment on someone else’s conversation. Twitter conversations are public; people expect you to jump in.

So you know, though, Twitter is not a bullhorn. Yes, it’s okay to tweet about your book coming out, a giveaway you’re having, the great review you got. But if all of your tweets are about your book, people will do what they’ve always done online when confronted by ads in their recreation space: block them. Remember, this is about getting to know other authors, not about selling to them!

Finally, you can use social media sites to get to know other authors. I can’t really speak to the Facebook community, because I don’t use it. I know many authors just maintain fan pages there, though I’m sure there are plenty who are also interacting. But if you want to start getting to know other authors in place where they’re brand new too, you might give Google + a try.

Since it was opened so recently, everybody’s new! Everybody’s trying to figure it out. And everybody’s very welcoming. Check out Debbie Ohi’s Master List of G+ Lit Directories to find other authors, illustrators, librarians, teachers—there are a ton of lists, and a ton of people to meet. G+ also lets you “hangout”- if you have a webcam, you can do live video chats with, well, strangers****.

Okay, that sounds kind of weird, now that I think about it, but we’re having fun doing it, so come on in! Another nice thing about G+ is that you can type longer general messages to post, and it lets you use #hashtags and @s—so it’s kind of like a Twitter without the character account.

All right, so that’s your glossy guide to finding other authors in the wild, er, on the Internet. Of course, we can be found in tons of other places as well, but I hope this is a good starting point for you. And really, no matter where you go to meet other authors, I think the most important thing is this: believe that you have an invitation to this party. You wrote that book, you got that agent, you accepted that deal. You’re already a full-fledged member of the club.

We’re just waiting for you to say hello!

———————–

* I’d be willing to bet that this is true of pretty much all authors. Maybe not the ones who write dark, psychological spy thrillers… but I bet even them, too. Just, you know, cautiously, with sidearms at the ready.

** They will also forgive you if, in a rush of fannish glee, you throw yourself at them while squealing in dog-whistle tones. You will, however, feel like a derpy derp forever about it, so try not to do that, okay?

*** Yes, I really tweeted that.

**** Strangers who write, though!

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She’s the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine and The Springsweet and the editor of the forthcoming YA anthology Defy the Dark. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.

THE VESPERTINE by Saundra Mitchell: It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own—still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him.

When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.