“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.” ~SHAKESPEARE

Today’s blog will be short and sweet as I have a book to write! Yes. Thorne: Rose’s Dark Secret is more than halfway complete and I am loving that feeling again, that feeling and place I go when I write, the feeling of immersion in writing, getting lost in my characters, and taking their journey to wherever they lead me, surprising me often, unrehearsed, unplanned. The mind is an enigma at times. I’ll never fully understand it, but when it’s happening and when it’s working, there’s almost no other place I’d rather be.

But outside of the mind and writing, where should we writers be spending our time? A friend shared this article with me today—Books without Readers: A Discoverability Problem. It was an interesting read. And I challenge you to give it a read. 
https://medium.com/@AdamKolczynski/books-without-readers-a-discoverability-problem-fc85ce059803#.jstam1lu3


​It argues that the social media outlets are almost always a waste of time, especially the automated kind. If there is no engagement, the readers are not connecting with the authors, and according to this, that is a big no-no. I do not disagree, but let’s face it, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for most of us. Because our books aren’t being discovered the way we would like, most of us have full-time jobs (and luckily, for those of you who know me, I happen to love mine and wouldn’t give it up anyway. As I just stated—my mind is an enigma. I don’t ever think I’d like to get lost in it for an eternity. I've written an earlier post about that. See here: http://rbobrien.weebly.com/blog-posts/the-story-must-end).

At the other end of the spectrum, the article argues that engaging on social media also does nothing to sell books. He writes:

                Posts are transient, with a half-life of several hours in the case of Facebook, to                             several minutes in the case of Twitter. The result? Valuable writing time is spent                           topping up live feeds. If Facebook’s algorithms display a post to around 16% of                             fans, paying to reach the other 84% becomes an unsustainable necessity. More                             insidious, perhaps, is the way generalised (sic) social networks fail to                                             target actual book buyers. Page-views don’t buy books; engaged readers do.

So what is the answer? He gives a few (that truthfully didn’t make a whole lot of sense to someone “un-tech savvy”). I have so much to learn!

So I ask you—what do you think is effective? Where should we be spending our time? Will this blog help me? Does my website? Instagram? Pinterest? What? Just what should I be doing?

Here’s the rub (yup another Shakespeare). I happen to enjoy the time I spend on some social media outlets, especially with the network of friends I’ve built. We have a good time occasionally, writing together, like sixwords or romancelines, and we share our moods, we ask questions, and more than anything, we support each other.

I guess what I’m saying is—maybe writing isn’t always about how many book sales we make. Maybe it’s just about being a human being first. And with that, I guess all we’re trying to do is grow and discover ourselves. It makes me happy. Writing makes me happy. If a sell a good deal of books that makes me happy too. But what I am realizing is that’s not why I write. And I have accepted that. 

So friends, I guess, for the time being, you’re stuck with me. Because: “I like this place and willingly...waste my time in it.” ~Shakespeare