When Promotion Becomes Procrastination

For the Indie writer building a solid platform to advertise their work, and social media is one of the key areas to build and develop this. Just look at the incredibly talented Kait Nolan and L M Stull who are well on their way to mastering the skill of platform building.

The question that came to me today however is at what point does promotion stop being what it is and become procrastination?

You have worked hard and published your first novel and now you are eager to follow it up with an even better second. Your sales are going well but you are sure that they can go ever further and so you are working hard getting your name out there, with book tours, tweets and wall postings. At the same time you are trying hard to rewrite a certain chapter of your follow-up novel that just doesn't seem to flow as well as you would like. So what do you do? Do you knuckle down and force your way through will full confidence in your writing ability? Do you skip ahead to the next chapter knowing that you just need to give it time to stew? Or do you open up twitter and send a few tweets out advertising your book, and start socializing? As you can't just use your twitter account to plug your work without socializing, making friends expanding your social network?

I am sure that for many of us all three apply, but we would foolish to say that the additive pull of social media doesn't lead to the dreaded procrastination from time to time.

But how much is too much?

The answer really depends on your available time. For one person a few hours a day of chatting and 'non-essential' tweeting may be fine, whereas for others time management is key and a well structured approach is best?

Of course we need an escape route from our writing, we need to be able to chat, bounce around ideas and meet new people who share our interests, and those that don't. We just have to be careful that we don't lose sight of our goals and sight of ourselves. Convincing ourselves that those last few tweets or wall posts were valid marketing tools can sometimes be all too easy.

I understand the key to social media and am all for using it to build solid platforms, but please, be aware of the dangers that lurk in the dark corners of those twitter halls. Procrastination is a tricky son of a bitch and will take a hold on your long before you realise it is even there.

On a happier note, after a few days of outrage regarding a certain writer's somewhat unnecessary reaction to a slightly unfavourable book review, I was delighted to read about Amanda Hocking's success and wish her all the best.