Abstract
This article offers an analysis of the impact of professional social-media engagement upon authors. Authors primarily use Facebook, Twitter and there is growing use of Pinterest. Authors use social-media platforms primarily for marketing, publicity and making contact with readers. They tend to adopt a multi-layered approach to self-presentation and the lines between their ‘public’ and ‘private’ identities are blurred. The research reveals a limited author-reader community, but a much stronger online author–author community, founded upon practical support and encouragement. There are implications for the publishing industry as authors believe their publishers lack social-media expertise. The commercial benefits of maintaining a social-media presence are unclear for many authors.
Highlights
Introduction and RationaleThe study of the impact of various social networking services is a burgeoning stream of research, and the growth of digital media calls into question the authenticity of identity, relationships and our various practices in life, work and leisure [1]
Probing the authors’ social-media use, it was established that of the 38 respondents
Baym and Boyd [5: 322] propose that social media ‘makes visible processes that have always been at play’, but this research finds that social media reveals new processes
Summary
The study of the impact of various social networking services is a burgeoning stream of research, and the growth of digital media calls into question the authenticity of identity (identities), relationships and our various practices in life, work and leisure [1]. Baym and Boyd [5] explore the multi-layered publicness available to those using social media and find that ‘people’s relationship to public life is shifting in ways we have barely begun to understand’ [5: 321]. It is not new to be able to communicate with readers about their work. It is assumed that social media enhances this kind of symbiotic relationship between readers and authors, but the veracity of this assumption has not been examined to date
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