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I am stunned by how much time and effort I must spend marketing my book and interacting with my readers. With social media, you don't just publish a book and figure you've done your part; your fans want to talk to you, have a conversation.

Many of us get our news from social networks, blogs, and daily aggregators.

Obviously it makes a difference if an author has a public online profile of some sort, even just down to the level of having a moderately popular blog. Most books sell 5, 10, or 15 thousand copies. Most are midlist books. With those people, even a modest online presence can make a difference in sales.

I breeze through Twitter - I look at the mentions, the pictures, the videos.

Thanks to social media like Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads, I can easily reach out to so many people. Being a writer gives me the added bonus of a targeted audience: readers, who enjoy targeted 'prizes' for participation in fundraisers - books and other neat promo items.

I get most of my news updates from electronic and social media.

The most important thing is readers. I've got a huge Twitter following, but I don't really think it sells books; I don't think a huge Facebook following sells books - although these things aren't bad, of course.

I had a blog for many years. Once you develop your readership on your blog, and you can put something out there or direct traffic or get attention - it's like a super power.

I get Twitter, and think it's a great way to keep it in touch, but I don't do it a lot. I hate reading when people tweet about what you're eating or who they are out with, but it's a nice way to keep in touch with people.

I have 250 contacts, employees, and investors who, anytime they come across something relevant, will share it with me. I wake up to 10-15 links that people have explicitly recommended for me. I don't have to look for news anymore; it flows to me.