Guest Post: Murray Tillman, Author of Meet Me on the Paisley Roof

Please welcome Murray Tillman with a special Guest Post today. Murray is the author of Meet Me on the Paisley Roof....

A Writer's Senior Moment on Facebook

          After Meet Me on the Paisley Roof was published in 2009, I wanted to quit for a while, maybe head for Maui and take that crazy drive along the Hana coast as my wife Dorris and I had done many years ago.  After all, I did my job.

          But, wrong!  Now suddenly I had to become the great communicator.  So I did the traditional book-hyping things for a year or so.  Then, early in 2010 I began to hear about "social media" and a place called Facebook.   It was the wave of the future, I was told, and all writers (even a seventy-year- old such as myself) needed to have a Facebook page.  I found a creative designer in Brooklyn who would help me with the book page, but first, he said, I would need to set up my personal page by myself because of privacy issues.  So I quickly read a few books on the subject and alerted my daughter-in-law Lynn, a Facebook user, I might need some help.  Anyway, I just plunged ahead.

          Setting up the personal page was sort of like taking a quiz on your own life.  Facebook asked you to list information such as your favorite movies, TV shows, and books.  Well, I decided to be honest; after all, this was for my friends.  I had just read The Sex Lives of Cannibals:  Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost, so I put it on my list of recent books, along with War and Peace (as a hoot to balance things out).  It didn't take long to complete the Facebook quiz, so my page was activated, and I was in business.

          The next day I could see that Facebook had been busy and had a list of potential friends ready for me to consider.  Most I knew, but one lady in particular I had never seen before.  And why was she (please remember the picture was very small) posing with her elbows showing like that?  Strange.  I didn't know her.  I called Dorris in to see what she thought.  "Those are not elbows," she said.  "Oh, really!  I can't believe it," I sputtered.

          Well, actually I did believe it and removed her post.  But soon I got more photos of topless women with "friending" requests.  Where are these people coming from, I wondered?  The phone rang.  It was Lynn. "You forgot to set your privacy controls!  The whole world can see your profile!"  Quickly I set the privacy controls and guess what?   The friending requests from topless women gradually declined, then stopped.  Apparently, there are people who make a living scanning available Facebook profiles for keywords, then selling that information.  So, for good measure, I deleted Troost's book from my list.  Too bad; his book was not about sex or cannibals, just a well written, enjoyable book with an eye-catching title.

          I now have a Facebook page for my book, www.facebook.com/MeetMeOnThePaisleyRoof, and I enjoy adding new posts and responding to queries.  If you have multiple books or anticipate such, you probably should consider an author page for yourself rather than a page for a single book.  But, whatever you do, remember that Facebook constantly changes and that the scanners are mining for gold, especially for small, three-letter nuggets.

I want to thank Murray for stopping by today. I hope you found that as interesting as I did.
You can purchase Meet Me on the Paisley Roof at Amazon.com


Blog Tour Schedule:
December 1
Bibliophilic Book Blog

December 2
Minding Spot
and
You Gotta Read Reviews Guest Blog

December 5
The Book Connection

December 6
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

December 7
Reviews by Molly

December 8
Once Upon a Twilight

December 9
Broken Teepee

December 12
Bea's Book Nook

December 13
Proud Book Nerd

December 14
Life in Review

December 15
I Read Banned Books