You’re writing a book. Do you also have to be a content creator?

Social media for writers can be overwhelming. Publishers want “author platform,” literary agents ask about your following, and your preferred social app just updated and you can’t find anything. Many writers either burn out trying to post every day, or quietly give up and hope the book sells itself.

But social media doesn’t have to suck your writing time away or just plain suck!

Social media works for writers when it grows from your voice, your subject and the questions readers are already asking. Micaela Williams has watched it happen. She took New York Times bestselling memoirist Stephanie Land’s (MAID, CLASS) TikTok from under 100 followers to more than 240,000 in eighteen months, with videos the publisher tied directly to spikes in book sales. One of Micaela’s viral pre-launch videos got a debut author invited onto the Tamron Hall Show two months before publication.

And with Micaela’s MFA, her background in poetry and essays, her own successful chapbook and her literary connections–she gets it. This isn’t another social media maven with bikini-related advice–this is a writer, who knows writing, and how writers can create discovery of their work online, as their true, unvarnished selves.

In this session, we’ll talk about:

• What social media can and can’t do for your book, and what results are realistic to work toward
• Which platform to focus on first, and why “all of them” is the wrong answer
• Turning your writing into content without giving up your voice or your writing time
• What you can handle yourself and when it’s worth bringing in help
• How to choose and vet a social media manager: what to ask, what to expect and which red flags to watch for

Whether you’re years from publication or launching next spring, you’ll leave with a clearer, more doable plan for showing up online as yourself.

Spotlight Guest: Micaela Williams

Micaela Williams is a poet, essayist and social media marketing specialist. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore, and her writing has appeared in HuffPost and Slate as well as numerous literary magazines.

Since 2018, Micaela has worked in social media marketing. In 2022, inspired by the success of promoting her poetry chapbook, CUT THE LIGHTS, exclusively through social media, she started her own business. Today, Micaela Writes Poems LLC provides social media marketing and digital assistant services, helping writers and creatives share their work through thoughtful strategy and compelling content. Her clients include Stephanie Land (Maid, Class), Courtney Lund O’Neil (Postmortem) and Elizabeth Topp (City People). She is currently creating video content with Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman to promote writers for The Rumpus.

Find her online @micaelawritespoems or visit micaelawritespoems.com.

Join us live and FREE on Zoom!

Bring your questions and your social media dread.

Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for a better way to think about–and do!–social media.

TUESDAY November 24th at 1PM EASTERN / 10AM PACIFIC – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.

Enjoy past recorded sessions here

Closed captioning is available. ✔
Recordings post to YouTube a few days after. ✔

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS

Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses, plus the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists. An expert in writing craft and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (19k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her bestselling writing craft book is Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.

Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com

Registration Info

Location