These are some examples of Tech-savvy Writers for our discussion at AWP 2012 in Chicago today.

Get this, writers: traditional media is the circulatory system. But new media is the nervous system. And the two work great together.

The circulatory system makes sure all your everything gets nourished. But the nervous system means you get to have the perception to appreciate that nourishment.

When you want awareness about your book, you want the extended nervous system of humanity to know it.

Just make sure you bring the circulatory system along too, if you possibly can.

These writers do. Check ‘em out!

Cheryl Strayed

Most recent book: Wild, a memoir from Alfred A. Knopf (March 2012) and forthcoming Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar coming this summer.

It’s never too late to get techy!

Strayed is not the most tech-savvy writer you’ll ever meet, by any means. But remember this, writers—better late than never!

Strayed is appearing at AWP this year and you will be hearing her name a lot in the upcoming months if you haven’t already. She has a feature interview in the latest Poets & Writers magazine and also recently had a feature in my hometown paper, The Oregonian. In a rising tide of publicity genius, Strayed timed the big reveal of her role as “Dear Sugar” on The Rumpus to tie in with the launch of her two new books.

Wild will be released in March (you can pre-order it here) and another book that chronicles her columns from The Rumpus will be released this summer.

Strayed wrote a memoir about hiking the PCT, that’s the backstory.

Strayed wrote the line: “Write like a motherfucker,” for therumpus.net. That’s the lead-in story to the backstory.

The end of the story is that more people will read her memoir in the long run because she wrote that top-secret Rumpus advice column.

So put your judgement aside, writers, and see the Internet and technology as your allies, not your enemies.

Learn more about Cheryl Strayed. And buy her books!

Cory Doctorow

Science Fiction writer and activist, Cory Doctorow is one of the smartest people I have ever met. If you are also intelligent, I hope you will follow his proactive, provacative example.

What I’ve learned from Cory is that it does not matter how intelligent you are; it matters what you DO with that intelligence. Your intelligence is either serving your heart or imprisoning it (or something in between). I hope, for your sake, dear writer, that your intelligence is not only serving your heart, but also serving the world.

You can have an ego, that’s fine. Cory certainly has one. But as long as you use your ego in service of the world and others, we are going to cut you a lot more slack than if you just sit around indulging your pride.

You do not have to be perfect, dear writer. Perfection is unattainable and unsustainable. But there is no excuse for self-indulgence and laziness. Got off your rump and write something. Than do something with it. Isn’t that what we’re all here for?

I recommend any of Cory’s books hand’s down (especially to sci-fi fans) because they are so acclaimed and he is so adored by his fans. However, since I am not a sci-fi gal, I particularly like his two collections of essays, Content and Context. Tons of food for thought in there for any writer today and you can listen to them on audio for free.

Seth Godin

If every writer read all of Seth Godin’s marketing books, we would need to have this panel because marketing and self-promotion would be a required class in every writing MFA program in the country. And I know we are doing better but we are not there yet.

So don’t wait for your writing program to get schooled. School yourself. Seth’s books are remarkably accessible and east to digest. You can read them while you are on the bus or waiting to pick up the kids. Just read them!

Godin has saved my career more than once. He is a strong influences in my two recent books, Get Known Before the Book Deal and The Writer’s Workout Coach, both from Writer’s Digest Books.

You can buy them new or used and thank me later. Here’s the most recent list. Read them all is what I recommend.

1. All writers are publishers now. If you are an author, tap into your backlist now. If you are an aspiring author, plan on it before, during, and after you are published.

2. Publishers are leveraging their backlists to the hilt. Watch for it, authors, if you have not seen it already. Check your contracts to make sure you get paid what you are due. If your publishers are not leveraging your best work, you should be.

3. Indie publishing is over. It was over last year. See #1 if you are unclear. In a world where publishing exists on such a long spectrum, there is no longer any room for black and white thinking.

4. It’s still great to be a published author. However, you want to understand the differences between old-world traditionally published and new world traditionally published before you start climbing this particularly steep mountain. Get informed before you get your hopes up.

5. Not only has publishing changed; the entire economy has changed. We are now living in a new gig economy. This is great news for writers. This is by far the best news on this entire list.

6. You probably still need an agent. Publishing industry contracts are more complicated and rights-grabbing than ever. But don’t be surprised if your publisher is less flexible to your agent’s requests more than they would have been in the past. Hopefully this will change as more authors leave publishers and refuse to grant all rights. Bestselling authors, we’re counting on you!

7. Just because publishing has evolved so dramatically does not mean you don’t still need skills. You need more skills than ever. Learn them from reputable individuals, who are genuinely interested in helping you cultivate and grow your unique strengths. But don’t be in an unholy rush. It won’t help you learn any faster.

8. Consider each dollar you invest in your career the equivalent of a vote. As always, you need to steadily invest in your writing career if you want it to grow. But in an economy like this one where most budgets are tight, it’s important to invest according to your values. Each dollar you spend is a vote of support. Support the folks who have earned your respect and take your eyeballs away from folks you do not or no longer trust.

9. Blogging is a tool, not a career choice. I’d rather see you become an expert in something specific and blog in an effort to support your mission than spend all your money trying to learn and leverage “insider blogging secrets” that put you right back where you are now a year from now. And always have your own home base online before you call another blog your home away from home.

10. Think ebook. Used to be, most writers first big goal used to be working their way up to a traditionally published book deal. Today, the first big finish line has become a successful ebook. This means learning the skills you need to have to write an ebook that will sell itself (not as easy as it sounds) so you can compete in the new economy.

And if your ebooks are not up to professional snuff, you’d better take ‘em down and take ‘em down fast. You’re best career move is to get them up to snuff before you re-post them. Otherwise your reputation is going to suffer in comparison to all the quality content that is coming down the pipe in 2012.

Need help navigating all the changes in the publishing industry?

Check out my new book, The Writer’s Workout, for an idea for every day of the upcoming Leap Year.

Has this post or any of my past work been helpful to you? Thanks for letting me know in the comments!

Today, I feel like celebrating my second book, Get Known Before the Book Deal from Writer’s Digest Books.

Thank you to everyone who has already recommended Get Known as a resource to writers who are ready to build a marketing platform. You know who you are. I cannot thank you enough for your support and for waving the book around and including it on your resource lists.

There are a whole lot of conversations out there about platform development going on. I feel proud that Get Known played a small role in getting the conversation rolling.

Maybe I feel like celebrating because the most frequent comment I hear about Get Known lately is that writing conferences are not stocking enough copies for attendees. So attendees are coming to me with their disappointment.

Ack! I wish there was something I could do about this!

I’d noticed that sales of Get Known have been shooting up on Amazon lately. No doubt because this is a big time of year for writing conferences and none of them are carrying enough copies. I’ve already been to four writing conferences this year but unfortunately I can’t attend them all. (Although I have contemplated cloning myself–don’t think I haven’t!)

The best idea I can come up with is asking you, fans of the book, to request ample copies of Get Known at your upcoming literary events and conferences. (Just submit ISBN # 978-1582975542 to the conference bookseller.) If your conference did not stock the book or ran out (and this happens both at conferences where I have been a long-time member and even when I am a speaker), you can purchase my books absolutely everywhere. Here’s the complete list, so you can choose.

As for the book sellers/providers. I can’t promise you that you’ll sell out every copy you bring, but I can let you know that this is the case at the conferences I’ve been attending and what folks are reporting back to me. I think I can probably go out on a limb and predict that if you are hosting an event for writers, about 90% of them are interested in learning the fundamentals of platform development—precisely what’s covered in Get Known.

Not convinced? Well…

Joe Wikert of O’Reilly Media dubbed Get Known, “The Author Platform Bible.”

Agents recommend Get Known to their potential clients. Several have been in touch with me to say how grateful they are to have the book as a resource they can recommend.

Get Known has 50 reviews of Amazon. The reviews are predominantly positive. And no, all of these people are not my friends. (At least they weren’t before they posted their reviews. As for the three who panned it, yet sound suspiciously like they didn’t even crack the book, who knows what their deal is.)

Last year, seven contributors created ten issues of The Get Known Groove, which I posted to the Get Known blog (here’s a link to my Get Known Now column). If you are new to platform development, I hope you will partake of all of the archives including columns on social networking, book promotion, podcasting, and more.

Also in 2009, I wrote a feature for Writer’s Digest Magazine called, “How to Build a Marketing Platform” that you might enjoy reading.

You might also enjoy reading this excerpt from Get Known over at WritersDigest.com.

This post contains my definition of platform and a bit of tough love on the topic.

Another post, you probably don’t want to miss is my suggested online tools for authors.

You know, there is no magic platform formula, folks. Building a platform is as much of an individual creative process as writing. My hope is that writers will embrace the creative aspects of platform building as much as they embrace the creative aspects of writing.

And on that note, here’s my book trailer for Get Known, followed by a few quotes from the book:

Page 252: I am the conductor of my writing career, and you are the conductor of yours.

Page 253: The steps you need to traverse to go from totally unknown writer to successful author are:

1. Produce quality writing
2. Build a platform
3. Grow your platform
4. Write your book proposal
5. Write your book
6. Promote your book
7. Repeat

p. 255 If you don’t have your specific, targeted platform concept developed, all the technology in the world is not going to do you much good.

To paraphrase the final quote in my book from Seth Godin. Building a platform is a tremendous experience. It pays off…clarifies your thinking…builds credibility…and is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading…you should build one.

I hope you will. Good luck!

If you are becoming an author for the first time, chances are good that you haven’t had time to read up on the most recent how-to market-your-book books because you’ve spent so much time learning from the latest how-to-get-a-first-book-deal books.

Oh sure, you took a quick look at book-marketing books when you pulled together your proposal. Maybe you even skimmed them again when your agent asked you to “beef up your marketing section.” But time has passed since then and soon, you’ll be having conversations with your publisher’s in-house publicist, if you are lucky enough to have one assigned to you.

You’d better have a detailed plan and put it in writing. Here are three books that provide a solid foundation as you prepare for conversations with the folks at your publishing house about how to manage your first book launch.

Publicize Your Book by Jacqueline Deval (Perigee 2008) Amazon link

Get Known Before the Book Deal by yours truly (Writer’s Digest 2008) Amazon link

Plug Your Book by Steven Weber (Weber Books 2007) Amazon link

Read these books as soon as you receive your verbal offer, preferably with a pen and paper in hand. You want to channel the spike of enthusiasm and excitement you’re feeling about the publication of your first book into launching your book into the world with as much fanfare as possible.

Best of luck!

Photo by Wonderlane