Jessie- Enjoying sweater weather and evenings spent curled up knitting!
I am delighted to welcome Heather Redmond to the blog today! I love books with writers as protagonists and hers features one of the most revered writers of all!Take it away, Heather!
We book people are always chasing the latest social media trends in order to be where our readers are. I’ve been through MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now TikTok, not to mention the various sites that weren’t so successful. How about you?
I loved the countdowns to book releases on MySpace, the humor on Twitter, and the photos on Instagram. As I became artsy over the past three years, I have enjoyed posting my paintings there. In the past couple months, though, reels were introduced and it became obvious that the perfect social media for artists was changing to go up against this new kid on the block, TikTok. Now we need to make videos!
That’s what I’m trying to do these days. #booktok is a thing on Tiktok, just like #bookstagram is on Instagram. If Facebook is now for Gen X, I’m hoping younger readers can be found on these other platforms. We authors just want our books to be seen, after all.
On Facebook, I concentrate on supporting other authors. I have my own book club, Heather’s Book Club, in The Drawing Room on Facebook where I read historical romance and give prizes every week. Want to join? We’re at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDrawingRoomHR.
Now, though, it’s promo season for my upcoming release, The Pickwick Murders. It’s undeniably fun to go on Tiktok and find other authors to “duet” against – showing their video while mimicking their activities with my own books, or using “sounds” to create videos, which means you film yourself with a previously created audio track or musical track. On Tiktok my biggest hit so far was showing the first two Trixie Belden books, written in the late 1940s(!), to make the point that my childhood faves (read in the 80s) were still really good reads.
On Instagram, my “if you like this, read that” challenge, showing The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and then my The Pickwick Murders, garnered close to seven thousand views. Does any of this generate sales? Maybe. But social media is best when the author themself is having fun creating content. I’m definitely enjoying myself and stretching my brain to learn new skills.
Readers, what social media site do you like best? Where do you find book recommendations? Answer below by October 29th to win a signed copy of A Christmas Carol Murder, my third A Dickens of a Crime mystery.North American residents only.
About the book:
In this latest reimagining of Dickens as an amateur sleuth, Charles is tossed into Newgate Prison on a murder charge, and his fiancée Kate Hogarth must clear his name . . .
London, January 1836: Just weeks before the release of his first book, Charles is intrigued by an invitation to join the exclusive Lightning Club. But his initiation in a basement maze takes a wicked turn when he stumbles upon the corpse of Samuel Pickwick, the club’s president. With the victim’s blood literally on his hands, Charles is locked away in notorious Newgate Prison.
Now it’s up to Kate to keep her framed fiancé from the hangman’s noose. To solve this labyrinthine mystery, she is forced to puzzle her way through a fiendish series of baffling riddles sent to her in anonymous poison pen letters. With the help of family and friends, she must keep her wits about her to corner the real killer—before time runs out and Charles Dickens meets a dead end . . .
About the author:
Heather Redmond is the author of many novels, novellas, and short stories under three names. She writes the A Dickens of a Crime and the Journaling mysteries series. Her novel, A Tale of Two Murders, received a coveted starred review from Kirkus and was a multi-week Barnes & Noble Hardcover Mystery Bestseller.