Too Much of Me?

No, this isn’t a post about my weight, although I could probably…well, never mind. Right now, I have some questions for those who enjoy reading books–fiction or non-fiction.

In these days, we have an amazing amount of outlets for keeping in touch with family, friends, friends of friends, and people we’ve never heard of before. More social sites seem to pop up every twenty-four hours.

As a writer who expects to market a book one day, there are ample opportunities to stay connected with people who enjoy the kind of writing I do—namely, historical romance for the Christian market.

So, I blog here. I tweet. I can be found on Goodreads. I’m on Google+. And recently, I joined the Facebook community (I know, one of the last remaining dinosaurs). Shameless self promotion break: Links to all of these can be found in the sidebar. The next latest thing is Pinterest. From what I can tell, it’s like a public bulletin board. My friend, Nicole Miller, wrote a wonderful post on this here.

To my surprise, I have found that I enjoy the sharing (for the most part), though it takes time and sometimes that’s hard to come by.

So, my questions are addressed to you as a READER because I want to know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to connecting with authors:

Do you even follow an author on a social site?

Do you follow an author simply because you enjoy their work? (As writers, we follow other writers in the business, but as a reader, are there writers you follow simply because…?)

What is it you like about following that author(s)? Are they amusing? Are you looking for informative content?

Which online sites do you prefer participating in when wanting to learn more about a particular author: blog, Twitter, Facebook/Google+, Goodreads, other?

Do you follow to learn what book is coming next—more about their career, or do you want to connect on a more personal level? 

Have you found new books/authors through a social site?

Do you feel the author does a good job in relating to you?

Do you like shared links to other writing-related sites, such as authors, publishers, book sources, etc?

Does having that connection make you more likely to purchase a book by that author?

What don’t you like when it comes to following authors on social sites?

Realizing security issues exist and safety can’t be compromised, what should an author blog about, tweet, or share that would draw interest from a non-writing reader?

Your answers in the comment section to any or all of the above questions will be appreciated (as long as they’re not snarky or indecent :-)). Next week, I’ll share some of the reasons I follow certain people.