As everyone knows....or if you don't know....pull up a seat and listen close....authors need to do about 99% of their own promotion these days. Unless you're Stephen king or JK Rowling....
But the rest of us need to put our names and books out there...entice readers to spend their hard-earned dollars on our book. Social media has made this relatively easy. There are so many places to put your face and books: Facebook groups and author pages, Twitter, blogs, Goodreads, Yahoo groups, LinkedIn, and a million other places.
But what is best?? Where should you spend your time? Is more better?
I am lucky enough to stay home and not work outside of my home. I have one child home with me and another who is in school full day. I get a decent amount of time each day to work and network. But I still have many interruptions and responsibilities. So it's not always all that great. I do what I can. But that means I have to limit the time I spend doing Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, etc... I could spend hours and hours each day doing that. But that means I get little or no time to actually write.
And what about the working writer who has to do the 9-5 all day and only has a couple hours each evening to do all their writing related things???? They can't spend all of their little time networking and promoting. Or they'd never have anything new to promote.
So my question today is...does it really pay to have your face and hand in EVERYTHING out there???
I do what I can...I think I'd rather do a couple things, and really do them right, than try and visit a million places each day. But I have days where I feel like I'm not doing enough. that I should be doing more. But then my work in progress suffers. There's only so many hours in the day and I can't neglect my family (and I don't want to). And as much as I would loooooove it...I cannot survive on an hour of sleep.
Lastly today, if you can help me out...I have gotten my survey up and running!!! Yay!! It is for readers ONLY, not writers, so please please please send the link to anyone you think may help be willing to help me out!! I will be posting the results here on my blog in a few weeks!! I think the info will be very valuable for all authors!! Survey
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I tend to think NO writer can do enough. There is just too much out there, and at some point you really do need to put writing first. It doesn't mean the rest isn't important, but you need to pick and choose what seems to fit you and that works for you, and discard the rest.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm no marketing genius, so that is probably less than 2 cents worth of opinion. :)
I can relate to your post. It's hard to find a way to do promotion and take care of business when it comes to writing. It feels like one is suffering due to the other. But I just pray that it will all pay off in the end and I am doing my best to network so I don't have to work so hard at keeping my hand in everything.
ReplyDeleteI really love your blog. Found you through Shannon O'Donnell's blog..Book Dreaming.
New follower now. :-) Hope to stay connected.
I know how you feel! Sadly, I do have a 40/wk job, plus a teenage daughter at home...it's hard and I've never been the best time manager. My blog is about the only thing I consistently maintain - so I can fit the writing in. One day - I hope that writing will be my full-time job, but in the mean time - Twitter, FB and the rest can wait. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and happy 13th anniversary!!!
ReplyDelete