Hi, Jess. I'm interested in knowing what you found in the data from your TikTok campaign last year, where you went through TAI. Did you feel like it moved the needle? If so, what was the outcome - increased book sales? Also - I saw that you posted the link to the TikToks in Insta instead of uploading the videos to Insta itself. Was that to save having to change the format for Insta, or for another reason?
Also - if you're comfortable any ideas you have for social media moving forward in this fractured environment, I'd love to hear them. I've reduced posting on twitter to provide Muskrat with less content for users but haven't given up there entirely, in part to protect my account.
Ohhhhh TikTok. I only went there because it was so easy to take that 90-second IG reel and also post it to TT. The numbers were much higher on IG than TT, and while a few videos gained traction, I would not personally spend a lot of time on TT unless it was something I really enjoyed. The mean comments were much higher on TT, too. As for Twitter, I still have my account because I don't want someone else to pretend to be me but I've pretty much let go. I had like 50k followers over there and engagement USED to be great, but no more. IG is where I'm spending my time now. Know where your audience is and go there.
Thanks. I had a mistaken impression from last year that you were finding TT useful. I don't enjoy spending time on it myself, so I post stuff there when I make a new video but don't check in frequently. I think you had suggested that when you spend time viewing videos, it may serve up your videos to others? I don't think I can be bothered.
I stumbled backwards into fiction writing from journalism and while I'm focused on my first novel, I still have a nonfiction idea rolling around in my brain.
How do you figure out of a book idea is with pursuing? The idea of starting feels very overwhelming, but I've spoken to a number of people who have said they'd find my book idea very valuable.
Great question. I find the ones worth pursuing stick. Ask Sarina or KJ, I get ideas all the time, but very few stick. The two novels I'm still hung up on keep poking at me - the characters are more real to me, the story keeps taking to me, the scenes keep coming. I started my first novel in 2011 or 12 and last night I emailed myself two small things that will round out one of the chapters. I just can't seem to let those characters and places go. Same with nonfiction except the books I write there are books I need for myself, books I'd probably research anyway just out of curiosity. That includes the next one!
Jess, How long were you reporting/writing, (and for which types of publications) before you cracked into the NY Times, Atlantic, etc? If you could distill those years and how you made that jump into one piece of advice, what would it be?
Hi Valerie! I started writing when I was in high school and had student pieces in student special editions of the Boston Globe starting way back when (which made my return to the Globe a few years back even more fun). I wrote a book that did not sell in around 2010 and sold the pieces off as essays in local magazines. I wrote a bit (and got some photography credits!) in our local paper as well. I was in a slump in 2011ish and my husband suggested I start writing about education because that's what lights me up. I started a Blogspot blog and after a few years of that, it had caught on in education circles and I was asked to write (for free, allowed to crosspost) for a well-known education blog. In January of 2013 I read some research I thought could make for a great piece beyond the blog and hit up someone I knew in journalism (Washington Post, mostly) and she had the email for my first Atlantic editor. That first piece was accepted on a Friday, published on a Monday, and went viral by Wednesday. That was my first taste of morning shows, etc. Trial by fire. After that, it got a lot easier to place pieces, but I stuck mostly with the Atlantic until KJ got the Motherlode editor post at the NYT. She took a chance on me and pitched the column we envisioned, "The Parent-Teacher Conference" and by then I had a book deal with Harper Books and an established reputation in education circles. I continued to write for the Atlantic, and when my editors there moved on, for the Washington Post and other places. I got the gig doing book reviews at Air Mail because someone over there had read my work. We don't, as a rule, allow the term, "I got lucky" but everything came together in a lovely way at just the right time. I had a large backlog of well-executed work on my blog and other education blogs as well as connections with sources and credible quotees and knowledge of the education beat when I got that first chance at the Atlantic (I even wrote that one for free and hit the upswing of their education content just as it was starting) and later at the NYT. I hope that's helpful!
Oh, and the advice: write, even if just for your own blog. Research. Read widely in your field. Publicize your work as hard as you can without being a jerk. Read others' work and promote the best stuff on social channels or on your own blog. Write emails or letters to writers you admire (that's how I met Annie Murphy Paul, who was writing about education at Time). Once you are ready (consider looking at the Op Ed Project) start pitching to news outlets!
That (and what followed) is hugely helpful! I knew chunks of this story, but was missing the earliest chapters and the 2010/11 plot twists. Your advice is beautiful. I recognize strands of it from the pod, but I love having it reduced to its essence here. Thank you so much for taking the time to spell all this out in detail, Jess!
Hi! I’m wondering if you have any suggestions about book sales when doing Zoom events? (Without the opportunity for in-person book availability and signings, it’s obviously not nearly as easy!)
Hi Lisa! Sometimes the school agrees to do a staff or community read ahead of time, and sometimes I have them work with a local indie bookshop and they advertise that's where books can be purchased. What has worked really well for me is if the school/community/faculty etc has a community read, I can create personalized bookplates for each person. I have the school send me a list of the entire staff rather than just the people who opt in because what good is a bookplate without a book to put it in? Yes, sometimes that means I'm personalizing 300 bookplates, but I think it's worth my time. I also send bookmarks or other swag if I have it.
Thank you! (Just saw this!) Great idea re the community read ahead of time. (And I’m guessing without this, the book sales are just tricky to arrange as part of a Zoom event!)
Hi, Jess. I'm interested in knowing what you found in the data from your TikTok campaign last year, where you went through TAI. Did you feel like it moved the needle? If so, what was the outcome - increased book sales? Also - I saw that you posted the link to the TikToks in Insta instead of uploading the videos to Insta itself. Was that to save having to change the format for Insta, or for another reason?
Also - if you're comfortable any ideas you have for social media moving forward in this fractured environment, I'd love to hear them. I've reduced posting on twitter to provide Muskrat with less content for users but haven't given up there entirely, in part to protect my account.
Thanks!
Ohhhhh TikTok. I only went there because it was so easy to take that 90-second IG reel and also post it to TT. The numbers were much higher on IG than TT, and while a few videos gained traction, I would not personally spend a lot of time on TT unless it was something I really enjoyed. The mean comments were much higher on TT, too. As for Twitter, I still have my account because I don't want someone else to pretend to be me but I've pretty much let go. I had like 50k followers over there and engagement USED to be great, but no more. IG is where I'm spending my time now. Know where your audience is and go there.
Thanks. I had a mistaken impression from last year that you were finding TT useful. I don't enjoy spending time on it myself, so I post stuff there when I make a new video but don't check in frequently. I think you had suggested that when you spend time viewing videos, it may serve up your videos to others? I don't think I can be bothered.
I stumbled backwards into fiction writing from journalism and while I'm focused on my first novel, I still have a nonfiction idea rolling around in my brain.
How do you figure out of a book idea is with pursuing? The idea of starting feels very overwhelming, but I've spoken to a number of people who have said they'd find my book idea very valuable.
Great question. I find the ones worth pursuing stick. Ask Sarina or KJ, I get ideas all the time, but very few stick. The two novels I'm still hung up on keep poking at me - the characters are more real to me, the story keeps taking to me, the scenes keep coming. I started my first novel in 2011 or 12 and last night I emailed myself two small things that will round out one of the chapters. I just can't seem to let those characters and places go. Same with nonfiction except the books I write there are books I need for myself, books I'd probably research anyway just out of curiosity. That includes the next one!
Jess, How long were you reporting/writing, (and for which types of publications) before you cracked into the NY Times, Atlantic, etc? If you could distill those years and how you made that jump into one piece of advice, what would it be?
Hi Valerie! I started writing when I was in high school and had student pieces in student special editions of the Boston Globe starting way back when (which made my return to the Globe a few years back even more fun). I wrote a book that did not sell in around 2010 and sold the pieces off as essays in local magazines. I wrote a bit (and got some photography credits!) in our local paper as well. I was in a slump in 2011ish and my husband suggested I start writing about education because that's what lights me up. I started a Blogspot blog and after a few years of that, it had caught on in education circles and I was asked to write (for free, allowed to crosspost) for a well-known education blog. In January of 2013 I read some research I thought could make for a great piece beyond the blog and hit up someone I knew in journalism (Washington Post, mostly) and she had the email for my first Atlantic editor. That first piece was accepted on a Friday, published on a Monday, and went viral by Wednesday. That was my first taste of morning shows, etc. Trial by fire. After that, it got a lot easier to place pieces, but I stuck mostly with the Atlantic until KJ got the Motherlode editor post at the NYT. She took a chance on me and pitched the column we envisioned, "The Parent-Teacher Conference" and by then I had a book deal with Harper Books and an established reputation in education circles. I continued to write for the Atlantic, and when my editors there moved on, for the Washington Post and other places. I got the gig doing book reviews at Air Mail because someone over there had read my work. We don't, as a rule, allow the term, "I got lucky" but everything came together in a lovely way at just the right time. I had a large backlog of well-executed work on my blog and other education blogs as well as connections with sources and credible quotees and knowledge of the education beat when I got that first chance at the Atlantic (I even wrote that one for free and hit the upswing of their education content just as it was starting) and later at the NYT. I hope that's helpful!
Oh, and the advice: write, even if just for your own blog. Research. Read widely in your field. Publicize your work as hard as you can without being a jerk. Read others' work and promote the best stuff on social channels or on your own blog. Write emails or letters to writers you admire (that's how I met Annie Murphy Paul, who was writing about education at Time). Once you are ready (consider looking at the Op Ed Project) start pitching to news outlets!
That (and what followed) is hugely helpful! I knew chunks of this story, but was missing the earliest chapters and the 2010/11 plot twists. Your advice is beautiful. I recognize strands of it from the pod, but I love having it reduced to its essence here. Thank you so much for taking the time to spell all this out in detail, Jess!
Hi! I’m wondering if you have any suggestions about book sales when doing Zoom events? (Without the opportunity for in-person book availability and signings, it’s obviously not nearly as easy!)
Hi Lisa! Sometimes the school agrees to do a staff or community read ahead of time, and sometimes I have them work with a local indie bookshop and they advertise that's where books can be purchased. What has worked really well for me is if the school/community/faculty etc has a community read, I can create personalized bookplates for each person. I have the school send me a list of the entire staff rather than just the people who opt in because what good is a bookplate without a book to put it in? Yes, sometimes that means I'm personalizing 300 bookplates, but I think it's worth my time. I also send bookmarks or other swag if I have it.
Thank you! (Just saw this!) Great idea re the community read ahead of time. (And I’m guessing without this, the book sales are just tricky to arrange as part of a Zoom event!)