Relative Age is Not Always Kind

By Elaine L. Orr

Note: I wanted to write something about age and writing, but am still ruminating. As I reread other things I'd written on aging, I pulled out a piece from 21 years ago. Still funny to me. You may recognize the irreverent humor seen in the Jolie Gentil series. 

Age is often a question of perception.  In my family – where the first cousins range from 44 to 70 and their children from 2 years (so far) to 50 – age also is a question of much good-natured ribbing.  In both generations, it is my immediate family that has the youngest – my 44-year old brother and his 2-year old son.

 Among my siblings, the spread is 10 years, with me being the oldest.  With such a relatively small span of time (so to speak), you would expect us to all look roughly the same age.  As my nieces would say – not!

 The biggest cause of occasional consternation is my youngest brother, Grant.  First, he is in disgustingly good shape – a walking advertisement for eating healthy and getting regular exercise.  He has little gray and had the good sense to marry a woman 10 years his junior, so people assume he is her age.  This, however, has become somewhat of a problem for me. 

 It may have started at their wedding, when the bride’s mom and I walked down the aisle together to light wedding candles.  (Our mom was ill and could not attend.)  A year later, when meeting some of the bride’s mom’s friends again, one of them commented how nice it was to “see Grant’s mother again.”  Ever tactful, Grant pointed out that she only thought this because of the candle lighting ceremony.  Always ready with a jibe, our brother-in-law George said, “It is not.  She thinks Elaine is old enough to be your mother.”  George does not mind living in a metaphorical doghouse; just ask my sister.

 Perhaps I should be used to this kind of confusion.  Everyone who saw my 47-year old father with his 3-year old son assumed Dad was Grant’s grandfather.  Fortunately, this tickled him to no end.

Miles with 3-year old Grant.
(Photo by Arthur Noma)

 Then there is the issue of how people perceive brother Dan, who is 8 years Grant’s elder.  When our mother was in the hospital one time, Dan and Grant were at her bedside when a nurse came in and asked them to leave briefly so she could attend to mother.  The guys moved to the hall, and they heard mother wake up as the nurse was assisting her.  To orient mother to her surroundings, the nurse informed her that she was in the hospital and “your son and grandson are just outside.”  Grant relays that he had only a second or two to pretend he did not hear or rib Dan.  Of course, he opted for the ribbing.

 Unfortunately, two recent experiences have shown that these mistaken opinions have crossed to another generation.  Recently, Grant’s 5-year old was applying pretend make-up to my face.  She picked up a new ‘jar’ and informed me that she was going to put it on my face because “it’s for old people.” 

 “Am I old?” I asked.

 She gave this some thought and said, “Just a little.”  My sister-in-law had the good manners to be embarrassed.  My brother loved it.

 A few months later, I was again babysitting when little Olivia focused on a couple of small splints on my fingers.  (Never let it be said a writer’s life will be free from arthritis.)  She asked about them, and I remembered what my mother always said to young children who were afraid of her wheelchair.  “You don’t need to worry, ‘Livie.  This kind of thing only happens when people are much older than you.  Plus it doesn’t happen to many people at all.”

 She pondered this for a moment, then asked, “Are you older than dinosaurs, Aunt E?”  I assured her I was not, and – given how much my brother laughed at this – was very surprised not to find a plastic one in my Christmas stocking. 

 The really irritating thing about all this is that our brother Wayne has the least hair, and no one seems to put him in the wrong generation.  Go figure.  My personal equilibrium will be restored when someone thinks my sister is our youngest niece and nephew’s grandmother.  One can hope.

(Twenty-one years later, my sister is a grandmother. She is called GiGi, though at age four one of the kids told her she didn't need "two G's," she could just be Gi.)

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Social Media Marketing in 20 Minutes a Day

By Elaine L. Orr

For authors, there's no substitute for meeting readers, librarians, and bookstore owners  face-to-face. Aside from promoting your work, it's a chance to talk books.

If you want to sell books beyond those you can reach in person, you need to advertise. Some ads can be subject-based, even if you write fiction. For example, I've just scheduled some ads about my family history mysteries in publications of the National Genealogy Society. 

Even if you have a traditional publisher, it's up to you to constantly let people know about your books. After all, people can read them for decades, and a publisher can't be expected to promote them that long.

You may hear that all advertising needs to be targeted, but I believe broad -- some would say indiscriminate -- advertising is important. You want to reach people who may not know they would like to read what you write. But you can't spend a lot of money doing that. 

I maintain that twenty minutes a day on social media can make a big difference in sales.

The Most Efficient Way to Organize to Advertise

To spend less time later, you need to assemble short message pieces for each book (or whatever you promote). For each of my thirty-five books, I have several 280-character blurbs that can be alternated on X, where my handle is @elaineorr55. These short blurbs are organized by each of my four mystery series, then by book. 

In case you're counting, that's a lot of draft tweets (okay, posts), and each one contains at least two hashtags. Hashtags are words or very short phrases that begin with the pound sign (#). They help your blurb reach people who have a specific interest.

Why 280 characters? That's the maximum characters for a post on X without paying for their premium membership. Each tweet/post needs to have a link to the item you want viewers to buy. In theory, links don't count toward the 280, but at least some of the characters do, meaning your blurb should probably be less than 280 characters.

Sites such as Instagram and Facebook permit longer postings, so you can add to the basic short blurb. 

Using Graphics Effectively

Pictures draw the eye, so every post needs some kind of graphic. If you don't use any kind of design software (such as Publisher, Photoshop Elements, or Canva), your initial posts can include simply the book cover or something related to the book. 

Some images cost money to download, but you can find free ones. Generally, vectors (which look like cartoons) are more likely to be free. Take photos yourself -- the ultimate free digital content. I buy 100 images at a time from Deposit Photos and it takes years to use them all. They don't expire.

Whatever you do, don't just grab images from the web -- they could be copyrighted.

My graphics are also organized by book, in separate folders on my computer. You don't want to have to hunt for images you've used. The exceptions are folders by holiday. You may simply want to post a Happy Thanksgiving message with a turkey image, or some of your books may have a holiday theme.

Where to Place Your Free Ads

Make no mistake, posts on social media sites are ads. I use Twitter (X) every day for about 10 minutes -- more if I have a new book or am having a sale. It's a quick way to use hashtags to target readers and reaches readers around the world. 

Here's my best tip. Tweets can be scheduled in advance. When I post one, I immediately put that same blurb in a new tweet and schedule it for one or two other days. Scheduling is also great if you're going on vacation or know you'll be busy for a given day or week.

Post (or schedule posts) at different times of day. If you post at dinnertime where you live, it will be the middle of the night somewhere else. I sell books all over the world, and it's largely due to Twitter. I use hashtags such as #KindleUK or #KoboCanada.

Instagram is easy to use and is very image-based. You load the image before you write any text. Because you aren't limited in length you can use more humor or post on a range of topics besides what you're selling. 

When you load a photo to Instagram, it may show only part of it. Look at the bottom left of the photo and there is a small box that lets you pick the ratio of photo to the space it's in. (That may not be the correct terminology -- just try it until the photo looks ok.)

It's easy to see comments on Instagram, and I end up writing short notes to friends or other authors.

TikTok is video-based, and since I don't know much about videos, I delayed using it. Videos can be just a few seconds. In fact, if they're longer they may be hard to manipulate. TikTok is easier to use from a phone. Take the video and load it from that device to TikTok. If you have difficulty, find a high school kid to help.

Facebook is an older app, but is especially useful if your target audience is older than 25. It's important to have a Facebook page for your work and a personal one. You may not want readers or other clients to see photos of your family and friends. You also don't want to alienate readers through opinions you may post on your personal page -- politics and product promotion rarely mix.

The key to effective Facebook exposure is to join a couple of groups related to your interests or products. I belong to several that deal with cozy mysteries, since that's what I write. Don't just post and move on. Interact with some of the others in that Facebook group.

Use hashtags in most of your posts on all the sites so you aren't reaching only people you may already know.

Every site lets you create a profile with an photo of yourself or some other image you like. Do that. If someone likes a post they may want to know more about you.

Building Slowly

If this sounds like too much work, think of it as an investment of time to build your marketing inventory. Once you save posts to a word processing document, you're cutting and pasting more than creating new posts.

Pick a site you're comfortable with and do just that for a few weeks or so. If you like photos, Instagram may be your thing. If you want to use short videos, that's TikTok.

I suggest you use Twitter a lot. It's easy and quick. Don't pay attention to all the negative political posts or character assassinations. There's a tab called profile, and when you click that you see only your posts.

Final Thoughts

Over time, you'll build up followers at each site. You do this by following others and creating interesting posts that encourage people to follow you. Through use of hashtags, you can reach a lot of people before you have a lot of followers. 

Like and repost the posts of others. When you repost theirs, they will repost yours.

Make sure you do some posts that go beyond "buy my book." I love flowers, so I post them on Instagram a lot. I also post vacation pictures and photos of my cat. Never neglect the weather. Deep snow or storm clouds can be eye-catching. Have a hobby? Post those photos -- have some fun. 

Be consistent. If you're only going to post once a month, should you bother? Maybe not. On the other hand, perhaps you only want to post when you have a new book or other produce. Personally, I don't think periodic posting will help with sales. 

Finally, don't get drawn into reading lots of others' posts or surfing social media sites. And keep meeting real people! They're more fun.

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Would You Read a Book with a Senior Sleuth?

I have wanted to create a series that uses the fictional Ocean Alley town and characters, but brings in outsiders for each mystery. And not just one person, but several. It would keep me from having to bump off more people in the small town.

The Cozy Corner B&B, operated by Mayor Madge and her husband Harry, presents an option. In When the Carny Comes to Town (Jolie Gentil Book 3) a B&B guest was involved in the mystery, and a body turned up in the B&B in Trouble on the Doorstep (Book 5). But such situations are not good for tourism in the Jersey Shore town.

The B&B has always hosted individual guests. What about having a group rent the seven rooms? Or better yet, a bunch of people forced to stay there for a day or two? That would give Mayor Madge (Aunt Madge to Jolie Gentil) a reason to be involved.

Perhaps she'd have some help, but she'd be the main sleuth -- a senior sleuth, a.k.a. silver sleuth. Would having older characters turn off younger readers? Think The Kominsky Method, Grace and Frankie, or Black-ish. And Miss Marple was not exactly a spring chicken.

I've begun developing the characters and first couple of plots. I don't envision fourteen books, which is the status of the Jolie Gentil series. However, I think I could have fun writing three or five. 

Starting a new series is a big investment. Especially for a 'senior writer.' It takes a certain amount of optimism.

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