What Agents and Editors Look for in Your Social Media
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Feb 13 2019
Whether you like it or not, it’s time to admit that social media is here to stay. It’s an important piece of every business, including the business of writing and publishing.
Before you even land your first book deal, agents and editors will be looking you up. The question is, what are they looking for:
Jessica, if a writer has a website and a blog, plus some social media accounts, what would an agent look at if they were considering signing them?
I don’t know that I’m searching for anything specific when I’m looking at an author’s social media. I’m really just looking to get to know the author a little bit. I want some insights into what she’s writing or who she’s writing for. I like to get a sense of whether or not she’s a positive and supportive person or angry and negative. I want to know who else she follows or how engaged she is.
But really, despite all of that, I just want to get a sense of who she is. Maybe find a personal connection like baking or a love for Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.
I love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and I used to love baking – when my children were little they didn’t know what a shop bought cake tasted like – until I started to seriously get into writing. Just not enough hours, plus, too much temptation to comfort eat.
Have you tried the dark chocolate ones? Or are you a milk chocolate fan?
I’m in the UK so the only ones we get so far are milk chocolate.
Love those peanut butter cups in all varieties. I went on the Keto diet a few weeks ago and one of the snacks available is a Peanut Butter Cup Bomb! Have to love a diet with this on the menu.
I’m a Wheat Belly guy (peanuts are iffy) so we make ours with almond or walnut butter and Stevia. Then we eat, guilt free as squirrels at the bird feeder.
There are dark chocolate ones?!?! But seriously, social media is great for getting an overall snapshot of a person – I love positive, argumentative, questioning, and unabashedly nerdy. The things that can really hurt your image are unrelenting negativity and vaguebooking. Now I’m on a hunt for dark chocolate and peanut butter – mmmmmmm!
On the other hand, one can encounter what I call the “Marmite Factor” after the British savory spread which people famously either like or loathe, something its makers actually feature in their advertising. There’s no accounting for taste! In foods or otherwise.
Yep – Marmite is definitely a love or hate thing. My American friends so far have all loathed it. Guess it’s an acquired taste.
I hadn’t thought about social media being used to see if there was a connection. I always assumed it was to check the person was a “grown-up” (manner, behaviour etc) and that they had some level of ability to do social media. Didn’t realise it could be to see if there was a connection.
And no to Marmite, yes to vegemite. Yes to Reese’s peanut butter cups (I first discovered them in about 1994 on a trip to the states – after that I used to send a US friend cherry ripes and he’d send me peanut butter cups). Like others we only have the milk ones here.