Thursday, November 3, 2011

Social Media Redux

I know I already talked about ditching Facebook.  Since then, I've done likewise to Google+.  The same day I did that I culled my blogroll to just the blogs I regularly read.  (And even then I'm sure I'm not faithful in my visiting of those blogs.)

Why?

It's just too much.  Even Twitter I've gotten lax on.  Partly it's because I've gotten a seasonal job which is taking a lot of my energy.  (Way more than it rightly should, if you ask me.  I'm just out of practice on this whole being employed thing.)

But a bigger part of it is that it's just too much.  That's why I've pared down the blog schedule to only two days a week.  Priorities are in need of constant reassessment.  This is part of that process.

Yes, authors need a platform.  But more and more I'm seeing agents and publishers talking about how it's not something fiction authors need to focus on before they're published.

Yes, it can help grab an agent's attention.  It can be a good leg up when you do get a book published.  But it detracts from what's really important in this process– WRITING.

I've learned a lot along the way in the two-plus years I've been blogging consistently.  But I've learned even more with each book I've written in those years.  But while writing has always been my goal and what I wanted to do, blogging took over.  The pressure put on authors on the road to agent, editor, and finally book-on-shelf to be out there on the social media is overwhelming.

And it just got to be too much.  So I decided to cut it back.

5 comments:

  1. You know, it's getting to be something that I can't even focus on as a published author - and I'm convinced it doesn't make THAT big of a difference. What matters most of word of mouth and interaction with the community and genuine relationships online and offline, like what we have. So good on you for realizing this early on! It has taken me way too long to learn.

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  2. It's always good to evaluate priorities and time and what is really important to you. Writing is definitely the most important thing. All the networking in the world won't mean anything to your career if you don't actually write something! Good luck with the job.

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  3. I'm with you there. I have so many other things on my plate that if I want to write at all, blogging/networking really does have to take the back seat. Good luck with fitting in what you want to keep!

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  4. Amen. It's a fine line to juggle (hows that for mixing metaphors?)
    That is why I've made my husband join my blog. Because then there is consistancy but it gives me two days back to just write.
    Because that's what WRITER's do!

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  5. I think that's smart. I wish I could figure out how to unfollow the blogs I don't really read. It feels so cluttered and I'm just not a clutter-collecting kind of person., At the same time, I don't want to make anyone feel bad by dropping them. :S

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