Social Media for Authors (Expanded Literature)

Authors today, whether self-published or blessed with a traditional book contract, must do at least some marketing on their own (or hire someone to do it for them). If they want a book to achieve even moderate success, they should be prepared to dip a few toes or more in the muck of commerce, beyond the pristine realm of conferences and readings.

Nonfiction writers have traditionally been more comfortable with marketing, so for them the trend toward heightened self-promotion may just represent more of the same. Fiction writers, though, especially those inhabiting the rarified kingdom of literary fiction, are another breed—one inclined to view marketing as vulgar and mercenary. To many in this tribe, self-promotion is a contaminant that poses a threat to their art, even literature itself. (See anything Jonathan Franzen has ever said on the topic for an example of this attitude.) While in principle this may be true, in practice it is potentially fatal—to the lives of their books.

This poses a dilemma: if self-promotion is a sellout/distraction, yet rejecting it precludes a wider readership or a readership period (and a writer without readers is barely alive), what is the true artist to do?


Parallel Content Delivery/Ongoing Marketing Vehicles

One approach is to fashion a strategy that conflates art and commerce, by creating content/marketing vehicles that both supplement and promote the book. This strategy is expanded literature (EL). EL can incorporate the full range of social media, including Twitter, a blog, photography (via Flickr, Facebook, etc.), YouTube—anything.

EL annotates and expands the book; and functions, in part, as a repository for the wealth of texture/background—including history, reportage, topical parallels, etc.—that cannot all fit between the covers. EL helps to make the book come alive. Also, EL gives it constant visibility, thus making the book (and its wider subject) perpetually fresh.

With an EL strategy that is smart and well-maintained (this is key), the full potential of these platforms—especially the “social” dimension—will be realized through the convergence of content, promotion, and audience interaction.

Expanded literature (EL): content/marketing vehicles that supplement & promote the book


A New Paradigm: The Convergence of Literature & Social Media (Plus Merchandising)

EL represents a new paradigm—the convergence of literature and social media. Though the book is the central element and stands on its own, the concept lends itself to a multifaceted presence. It allows/inspires ample opportunities for new platforms, new content sources, and additional streams of revenue.

Even merchandising can be incorporated, in a seamless, cost-free way, via one of the produce-on-demand sites that make customizing a multitude of items (clothing, accessories, home and office products, etc.) surprisingly simple.

A three-headed entity . . . mutant spawn of literature & technology, art & commerce


It is a truism that authors today must “get their hands dirty” with marketing like never before. The economic factors and (techno)logic behind this reality are indisputable, and quite well documented. (See every single blog and Twitter feed emanating from the legions of publishing professionals.)

Expanded literature can make this truism real, in a way that allows authors to promote their work without sacrificing integrity or vitality (though Franzen might still disapprove), and maybe gain a lot more readers in the process.


If you’re an author, agent, or other publishing professional and would like to learn more about how expanded literature/strategic communications can help you or someone you work with, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

Zen Marketing: Passive Dimensions of Creating Positive Impressions

Do something amazing, requiring a ridiculous amount of time and devotion. Then make no effort to promote it. Later, do the same thing again. It’s an exercise in discipline, craft, and generosity; and an investment—however elusive or indirect—in future returns.

Cultivate a reflexive hesitation to grandstand, employing your reserves of humility, personal experience, and understanding that “pride goeth before the fall.” (This is not the same thing as a reluctance to promote yourself, but rather a way to infuse your promotion with subtlety and grace.)

Hone your ability to inflate your accomplishments to oversized proportions, but practice the technique of holding back and deploying hyperbole surgically. Be like the quiet karate master—capable of overkill, supremely confident, thus exuding strength and avoiding conflict altogether.

Never show your ego to the client; your own self-worth and confidence should be taken for granted.

Creating a buzz is essentially a metaphysical idea. (Has anyone ever seen or actually felt this “buzz?”) Yet the process comprises distinct, concrete steps. Make all of these steps meaningful and organic—i.e., integrated with previous and pending steps—so that they reflect both the object of the buzz and your life’s work as a whole.

Everything you do—even random, seemingly meaningless gestures and actions—influences your future, in ways both obvious and unexpected. Pursue each opportunity or exchange mindful that it may lead to more significant ones.

To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your distinction, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

To the Artist in Search of a Marketing Strategy (Part 1)

A Fundamental Truth: personal feelings can never truly be shared or adequately communicated—no one knows how/what you felt when you were working on a piece. If you try to tell them, rhapsodizing about your passion, the transcendence that enveloped you in the throes of creation, they’ll simply interpret those feelings through the prism of their own experience. The creator’s feelings are one thing, the audience’s feelings another—the twain shall never meet. The best you can hope for—and it’s definitely something—is to provide a space for others to intensify/explore their own thoughts and feelings.

Be allusive, use telegraphic language; suggest rather than explain or expound—it’s more alluring. And while you’re at it, banish forever the words “journey” and “therapy.” These are clichés, and worse, indicators of self-absorption. Using too many words like that, or just a few in the wrong place, may prompt the viewer to see your art as clichéd and self-absorbed—even if it’s truly amazing. (That’s why bad promotion is a scourge: it distorts the audience’s perception.)

The details of your life/struggle are not inherently interesting. Really, who cares? What is your “journey” compared to those of Picasso, Da Vinci et al.? Not much. However, the relationship of your work to the history of art is something else—that’s big. Your work is part of the same vast dialogue/continuum as the titans of art (more or less, per its originality/vigor/etc. and recognition).

Mute the personal, accentuate the universal (“I am but a vehicle . . .”). Survival is dreary, art is significant. Communicate the latter truth to the audience through your promotion, so that they may appreciate your work in a larger context.

Promotion is a frame through which artwork is seen. It is a guideline, a means of orienting the viewer. It should be completely unobtrusive; never showy or superfluous.


(Samples of promotional materials I’ve written for artists.)

To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

Click label below (Marketing Strategy for Artists) for Parts 1-3. Click Arts promotion for all posts on this topic.

Good Writing Is Good Marketing

Good writing is good marketing. Good writing is not interchangeable with bad or adequate writing. There’s a real difference, not only in the writing per se, but in its effect.

Some people think that the product or service they sell really speaks for itself. They look at copywriting, social media, and other communications as something they need just to fill a space or satisfy some marketing convention (like producing a brochure because everyone else has one). When seeking a writer, their sole criterion is price.

This attitude ensures that they’ll have a harder time standing out from their competitors. Assuming they have the absolute best product in the field, if they cannot communicate this fact convincingly, their superiority may not translate into higher sales/business success.

It’s also a mistake to think that effective SEO writing is equivalent to good writing. Improved search ranking and site traffic is just an opening; you also need to close. Good SEO writing that cannot make a persuasive case for your product or service is ultimately not good writing. It’s a well paved road that leads to a derelict shack.

What about “content” and social media marketing? The writing in these areas cannot come across as overt marketing. In blogs, Twitter, and other vehicles, you have to actually add value (not just appear to), by providing services/information that complement what you sell.

As marketing gets more subtle, more sophisticated, more UBIQUITOUS, consumers or “targets” get more sophisticated, too. People are more wary than ever of being marketing to. That’s why the content you provide, even if it has an ulterior motive, must contain some kernel of meaningfulness.

Good writing is more than just words on a page or screen. Good writing is a vehicle for ideas, which takes it beyond the space it fills and creates another dimension. This is no abstraction, especially in marketing, where words must drive action and produce concrete results. A typical copywriter will likely produce typical results, while a writer with genuine passion can make his excitement for a subject contagious . . . In order to make your products/services speak for themselves, you need a writer who can give voice to them.


To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

To the Artist in Search of a Marketing Strategy (Part 2)

Artists may be fundamentally unsuited to write their own promotional materials. They're simply too close to the work and know too much about it. Excess knowledge, and with it the inability to distill the work’s essence and fit it into a marketing vehicle, may be the biggest downside to the whole “lack of objectivity” issue.

Artists who write their own marketing materials—even those who write well—often abandon the best qualities of their work, like brevity, rigor, and alluring ambiguity. They gush about the many influences and inspirations that figure into their work. They expound and explain when really they should tease and allude.

If you agree with the following premise, then it means the assertion above is on target: If I know little or nothing about how a piece of art was made, who made it or why, then I can make that artwork mean anything I want it to mean.

When the artist allows people to define her art themselves, the work can function or signify in ways that she never imagined, and thus expand beyond its origins/intent.

Faulkner said "Kill your darlings." That is, jettison those attachments that clutter your work. Fixations can be huge impediments in art. That goes doubly in marketing . . . When it comes to promoting art (if not everything), less is more.


(Samples of promotional materials I’ve written for artists.)

To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

Click label below (Marketing Strategy for Artists) for Parts 1-3. Click Arts promotion for all posts on this topic.

Social Media for Artists

Social media makes self-promotion for artists more accessible and wide-ranging than ever, but it also brings with it a new set of responsibilities. The more platforms/media you use to put your work out there, the more important it is to ensure that you speak with one voice—a powerful, consistent voice.

Here are some ways artists can more effectively tap into the power of social media:

Activated Artist Statement. You can streamline your artist statement and extend its reach—so you’ll always be ready whenever someone asks: “What kind of art do you do?” Start by making additional versions of your statement, like a Q&A—perfect for press kits, events, etc.; and a 30-second “elevator pitch” or mini version of your statement (just the essentials).

These are ideal for communicating with buyers, dealers, and journalists. Plus, they’re more concise, so they work better within a variety of online formats. Most importantly, they allow you to make your artist statement an active element in your overall promotion.

Communications Audit. Before plunging into social media—or even if you have already—you should make sure all your materials are up to par. Typos, awkward phrases, and broken links, whether on your Website or profiles, can ruin your public face. Review and compare all your online materials thoroughly, to ensure that everything is in top form.

Marketing Plan. As part of your audit, you should also create a plan to integrate ALL your promotional efforts (Facebook, Twitter, updates on LinkedIn, etc.) . . . Approach your marketing systematically; fashion it into a seamless tapestry, with all the different platforms interconnected and showcasing your work—consistently, dynamically. A few simple techniques can give your marketing a strategic edge.

Social media truly expands the artist’s promotional palette, which is significant on multiple levels. In the best of circumstances, promotion not only helps an artist gain exposure, but also enriches his/her art by adding texture and context—those fundamental elements of meaning.


Click the Arts promotion label below for all posts on this topic.

(Samples of promotional materials I’ve written for artists.)

To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.

Statistic of the Week (Archive)

I’m really not a numbers person, but I love a good statistic, especially one that confirms what I had known all along or what common sense might dictate.

With that combination—Insight/observation > Common sense > Evidence (quantitative)—you can be relatively certain you possess an authentic truth. Any comfort this certainty may bring, though, is often short-lived; the numbers can reveal harsh truths, and confirm what you had hoped was not as bad as it seemed.

Statistic of the Week is intended to highlight good stats—figures that reveal significant social/cultural/economic changes or trends . . . A good stat is one that synopsizes a big issue or idea, and is obviously credible.

Please send me good statistics (including the source) and I will try to include them here.

# # #

In 1950, less than 10 percent of American households contained only one person. By 2010, nearly 27 percent of households had just one person. [Source: Atlantic Magazine, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”; May 2012]

In 1950, 4 million people in this country lived alone. These days, there are almost 8 times as many, 31 million. [Source: New Yorker, “The Disconnected”; 4/16/12]

The number of American workers in unions has dwindled to 1 out of 14, from 1 in 3 in the 1950s.[Source: New York Times, Film Review: “Who Stole the American Dream?”; 3/1/12]

In 1890, 90% of bread in the U.S. was baked in homes; by 1930, 90% of bread was purchased [Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, “What Would Great-Grandma Eat?”; 2/26/12]


To learn more about writing and strategic communications that can amplify your voice, contact me at ajeisenstat[at]gmail[dot]com, or visit my portfolio AdamEisenstat.com and LinkedIn profile.