Andromeda/Your Turn: Platform Ponderings, Facebook Promotion, When to Blog

Summer is a quiet time here at 49 Writers, and if you’re busy fishing, more power to you. Some of us are still at our desks, fishing for more tips on how to write and also how to promote our own work (without seeming like obnoxious self-promoters). Today’s catch: an “ask the freelancer” column at The Daily Dot about “platform ponderings” from colleague Melissa Chadburn, who does an excellent job getting her work seen on lots of literary websites, including the Rumpus and Salon. Here she answers a question about when it’s time to make a Facebook author page . Her earlier post on whether or not to blog offers more straight-talking advice. Common themes in both posts seem to be: do it if you enjoy it (or pick the social media option that comes most naturally to you, whether its Twitter, FB, Pinterest or other), and if you can be consistent, since long-term effort is required to build a following. If your heart’s not in it, you may not do it well enough to yield fruit.