Interview with Collin Kelley: Poets Using Social Media

At June 13, 2011
By Jeannine Gailey
In Collin Kelley, poet interviews, poetry facebook, poetry promotion and social media, poetry twitter, poets and social media
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Today I’m interviewing social media expert, poet, and fiction author Collin Kelly. Collin Kelley is the author of the novel Conquering Venus and the forthcoming Remain in Light. His poetry collections include Better To Travel, Slow To Burn and After the Poison. I discovered Collin’s poetry first, when he wrote some charming persona poems in the voices of some of my most beloved characters. (I believe we share a love of such pop icons as Wonder Woman, Buffy, and Twin Peaks, among others…)

Links: collinkelley.com; facebook.com/collinkelley; twitter.com/collinkelley

Q&A

Jeannine Hall Gailey: Thanks for doing this Collin! I’ve been an admirer of your work for some time (it doesn’t hurt that we watch the same television shows and both write persona poetry!) and really admire the way you were an early adopter of mediums (tools?) like Twitter and Facebook to promote your own work. Could you talk a little bit about how you got started?

Collin Kelley: I started blogging back in 2003 just as blogs were becoming all the rage. This was before MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. I had a static website before that, but once I started blogging all the traffic started going there, so I dumped the site and made my Modern Confessional blog my main “hub” on the Internet. I was an early adopter of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, and they all felt like a natural progression from blogging. The blog is still there and updated regularly but Facebook and Twitter are really where I interact the most these days. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a big computer nerd and Internet addict either.

JHG: What has been the most effective way, do you think, for your own books (poetry and fiction) to get the word out? Do you notice a sales bump from online reviews, blog tours, twitters?

CK: I think a good recent example is when I posted the sample chapters from my forthcoming novel, Remain in Light. I posted the pages at Scribd. (another great site for writers to share their work) and then linked it around to Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and my blog. In 24 hours, more than 100 people had read the chapters and since then hundreds more have read them. Social media drove readers to the chapters and will, hopefully, make for good sales when the book is out later this year. Since I’m poor, most of my promotion for the previous novel and poetry collection was online. Without social media, there wouldn’t have been nearly as many readers or sales.

JHG: What advice would you give a nervous poet new to new media about getting on-board with Twitter, blogs and Facebook?

CK: Don’t be frightened of it and start slowly. I guest lecture and lead classes now on social media for writers and the most asked question is “What do I do once I’m on Twitter and Facebook?” I highly recommend setting up a Facebook page for your book, so that you can be more direct in your promotion and sales, but you don’t want to “hard sell” your book. The goal is to build community, so help other writers promote their books, find topics that relate to your books and interests, post funny YouTube clips – you’re selling yourself as much as the book and readers want to get to know authors, so let them into your world a bit. If you go on Facebook and just say over and over again, “Buy My Book,” it’s going to turn people off. The same applies to Twitter. If you want more followers on Twitter, become a source for good links and information, re-tweet links and information from your followers, and let your interests and personality shine through. Cultivating and building community on social media sites takes time, so work on it daily, but don’t go crazy. Time management is the key. Spend a half hour each day updating your social media then get on with the actual writing.

JHG: Just out of curiousity: poetry blogs – over or not over, and why you think so.

CK: I don’t think poetry blogs are through just yet, but you’ll notice more and more that poets are setting up their blog posts to link on Facebook and Twitter. That helps drive more traffic. I’ve seen a big drop in traffic at my blog over the last year, while the number of people following me and engaging at Facebook and Twitter continues to soar. There are some great poetry bloggers out there – C. Dale Young, Nic Sebastian, Kelli Russell Agodon, January O’Neil, Charles Jensen, Jessie Carty, Barbara Jane Reyes and a certain Jeannine Hall Gailey all come to mind. There is always going to be a place on the web for more in depth writing and niche interests, so blogs will survive because of that. But faster and quicker ways to communicate, like Facebook, Twitter and whatever is being dreamed up by some teenager in his dorm room right now, are where the action is now.

JHG: You and Deb Ager have been running the “Poet Party” on Sundays on Twitter. How did that come together, and what do you think it’s accomplishing? I really love to see the connections between poets that might not have met otherwise, and getting advice on things (Like Facebook pages for a new book!) in 140 characters or less is kind of fun!

CK: Deb created the #poetparty (just follow the hashtag, as they say in Twitter-speak) last fall and it took off quickly. She asked me to co-host early on and we’ve built a solid following on Sunday nights. Introducing poets to each other, sharing links for submissions, contests and poetry online is the real success of the #poetparty. While the event only lasts an hour (9 to 10 p.m. ET), we’ve noticed that poets continue to comment and share info throughout the week using the hashtag. It’s taken on a life of its own. It’s a very supportive group of poets who show up every Sunday night and we welcome poets of all stripes to join us. I also think the #poetparty is proof-positive that you can have active discussion, debate and community building on Twitter in real-time.

JHG: Any other new media advice or news we poets should know?

CK: If you aren’t on Goodreads, get there. The site continues to grow and grow and it’s such a great way to interact with authors and readers. It’s like Facebook in a way, but totally devoted to writing and literature, and not quite as intensive. There are great groups to join where you can discuss favorite books, post reviews and promote your own book when it’s released. I find myself spending more and more time there.