I’m now on TikTok
by Rob - November 27th, 2022.Filed under: Uncategorized. Tagged as: Marketing, TikTok, Videos.
A great friend has suggested to me that the best social-media platform for authors trying to sell books these days is TikTok, so I’ve dived in. I now have six TikTok videos up.
On this page, it shows them, left to right, from most-recent to least-recent, but the better way to watch them is from right to left, as four of the six are on a theme of defining science fiction, and they build in that order:
https://www.tiktok.com/@robertj.sawyer
(Note the period in my user name there: robertj.sawyer — someone else beat me to just robertjsawyer.)
I’ll be doing a mix of commentary about science-fiction works, writing and business advice for science-fiction authors, and general kvetching about the state of publishing and the world at large.
I’ve got to say, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I have a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and spent a year after graduating working there, teaching television production techniques. It feels good to be using some of my long-dormant video skills again.
I’m using the spectacular free-and-open-source software OBS Studio with a Logitech C920 webcam to create the videos. Yeah, most TikTok creators do it on their cell phones, but I know I’ll never produce an appreciable quantity of material if I have to set up a tripod and my iPhone; I need to be able to knock these off quickly so that they don’t eat appreciably into my writing time.
The Downloaded hits Audible in March 2023, I’m trying to relaunch The Oppenheimer Alternative in July 2023 (when Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer comes out), and The Downloaded will be out in print and ebooks in September 2023, so my plan is to try a TikTok every day or two for the next ten months to see if I can expand my audience.
Say tuned! ;)
Robert J. Sawyer online:
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