We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media (edit title/settings)

• Rated 0 stars

“Okay - FANTASTIC so far. I'll give you the skinny when I'm done, but I have a feeling it's a must read for all of us. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“'We Are Not Alone' is a useful and well-targeted book on the sort of promotion that writers are doing these days - that is, leveraging social media to build a platform.

The most important point to raise is that WANA serves as an introduction. Parts of it will quite literally walk you through, for instance, setting up a facebook page, click by click. Considering many writers are basically aspirational cavemen still banging stories out on rocks, this is a wise approach, but it may put off the more tech-savvy among us. It didn't put me off entirely, but I did find myself skipping significant swaths of how-to, which is not great because there's good information mixed in with the 'click this to proceed' bits.

The book's biggest strength is that it spends plenty of time and space on the culture of social media. It teaches the soft sell, the need for peer-to-peer networking, and the importance of reciprocation. 'We Are Not Alone' could very easily have been titled 'We Are In This Together'; it's a great crash course on social media ethics, first and foremost, and a technical manual second.

Flaws include a few too many proofreading problems for my liking, and the unfortunate omission of some of the best social media resources targeted at writers and readers, in Shelfari and goodreads.

I'm relatively new to social media, but it turns out that I've been sitting in it long enough that I'm no longer the target audience for this book. Still, I took a few lessons away. For readers in my situation, there may not be enough of a bang-for-buck here to go past 3/5 stars.

However, this is an excellent resource for overwhelmed writers approaching the subject matter for the first time, and I would recommend it to them without hesitation.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Great guide for writers at any stage on the basics of social media marketing”

• Rated 5 stars

“A must read for those who want to self publish”

• Rated 5 stars

“This helped me get set up with some of the social media sites, but Kristen Lamb's sense of humor and worthwhile tips along the way made it a 5-star read.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This is a great little book for anyone wanting to learn how to promote on Social Media. It is easy to read and to understand. She takes you step by step into the process. It is a great book to have close at hand for reference.”