Finding a Balance
Recently I got an invitation to Google+. Exploring Google's social networking attempt a revelation occurred to me. This light bulb moment has been crawling around in the back of my brain for a few months now, but I wasn't completely aware of it, until Google+. Let me explain:
I've been doing this writing thing for a little over a decade now. Every so often, I find myself pausing and looking back, reevaluating my goals and progress. I've had two story collections published, a few pro sales and a fairly respectable showing in anthologies. Most of those goals have been reached and surpassed. Still, I'm nowhere near being able to do this gig full time. Every serious writer dreams to write full time, but it never quite materialized for one reason or another for me. I've made some money over the years, but considering the hours spent and the monetary return to ratio? I'd make way more money flipping burgers.
The Internet is an amazing thing to have at your disposal as an author. I shudder to think what it was like pre-internet when there was no MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or any number of other Internet social media platforms. Research? While it may seem romantic to haunt the library stacks of old, it would be a dreary, daunting task, to say the least. As an author, Google is my best friend; it's my lifeline during research. When nearly anything we may want to find out is merely a few mouse clicks away, I think, this Internet generation of writers is well and truly spoiled. Gone are the days of going to a local library, pouring over ancient newspaper articles and dusty textbooks, interviewing people to find out details to make your novel that much more real. I don't know, maybe I'm romanticizing it a bit.
Back to Google+ and my "aha" moment. As I began adding to my circles I realized these people were now spamming me across at least 3 platforms now. I became more selective in adding people on Google+ without really realizing it at first. I took a look at my Facebook page and saw I had nearly 1,800+ friends, and then I realized I barely knew the majority of them, much less ever interacted with them since they were added. Then I began to realize that the majority of them were other authors who were constantly in my news feed hawking their various eBooks and novels. And then? I realized I had no interest in reading or buying their works because they simply did not interest me. I was tired of seeing posts bragging about word counts. So what? If you're writer, you should write, correct? Quit bragging about it and write. I was tired of seeing them bitch and moan about not having any sales or the opposite, crowing loudly about selling X amount of books in a single day. Then I realized every new release I posted on my own pages, they were ignoring me as much as I was ignoring them. I write because it's what I do, but I also crave to be read. Call it ego, it's very healthy, trust me, but nothing makes my day more than some random reader leaving a review or emailing me to let me know they enjoyed the story. That's the icing on the cake.
Take this in for a minute…other than the 20 or so friends I knew personally, and the other 20 or so authors I've spoken to on a regular basis or personally met at one point or another, the rest of these "friends" I knew little to nothing about. In reality, with nearly 1,800+ friends, I should be getting at least half of that in sales for every new thing I release? Not so, not so at all. I realized I'd become stuck in a relentless cycle of self-promotion to people that really had no interest in buying my work or supporting my career, because they were just as hung up on their own career trying to sell me their stuff.
So all those Facebook blasts about something new of mine was falling on deaf ears and going absolutely nowhere, for all intents and purposes, I was wasting my time and not gaining any new readership. I'd been doing this for years, first on MySpace and then carrying this flawed model over to Facebook, then Twitter. Other than the initial flurry of sales for my new releases, there was nothing after, just a stale sales sheet. I realized those people that initially bought my work were the ones I personally knew or had interacted with. Everyone else on my Facebook? I'd attempted to read a few of their works, you know, to support other fellow authors, but they, put simply, sucked and couldn't write. I had no interest in their new work, vice versa, they had no interest in mine because we were both trying to preach to the choir, and sell to people that had no intention of buying our work because we were both authors.
So if you've been removed from my friends list, this was the reasoning behind the decision. From here on out, I will be even more selective on Facebook and probably even more so on Google +, with the recent developments with Facebook and their continual "improvements". I'm grateful for those of you who share my links and comment on successes, failures, and my status updates. I will continue to return the favor. I want to be a part of your successes and I hope you will be a part of mine.
I've been doing this writing thing for a little over a decade now. Every so often, I find myself pausing and looking back, reevaluating my goals and progress. I've had two story collections published, a few pro sales and a fairly respectable showing in anthologies. Most of those goals have been reached and surpassed. Still, I'm nowhere near being able to do this gig full time. Every serious writer dreams to write full time, but it never quite materialized for one reason or another for me. I've made some money over the years, but considering the hours spent and the monetary return to ratio? I'd make way more money flipping burgers.
The Internet is an amazing thing to have at your disposal as an author. I shudder to think what it was like pre-internet when there was no MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or any number of other Internet social media platforms. Research? While it may seem romantic to haunt the library stacks of old, it would be a dreary, daunting task, to say the least. As an author, Google is my best friend; it's my lifeline during research. When nearly anything we may want to find out is merely a few mouse clicks away, I think, this Internet generation of writers is well and truly spoiled. Gone are the days of going to a local library, pouring over ancient newspaper articles and dusty textbooks, interviewing people to find out details to make your novel that much more real. I don't know, maybe I'm romanticizing it a bit.
Back to Google+ and my "aha" moment. As I began adding to my circles I realized these people were now spamming me across at least 3 platforms now. I became more selective in adding people on Google+ without really realizing it at first. I took a look at my Facebook page and saw I had nearly 1,800+ friends, and then I realized I barely knew the majority of them, much less ever interacted with them since they were added. Then I began to realize that the majority of them were other authors who were constantly in my news feed hawking their various eBooks and novels. And then? I realized I had no interest in reading or buying their works because they simply did not interest me. I was tired of seeing posts bragging about word counts. So what? If you're writer, you should write, correct? Quit bragging about it and write. I was tired of seeing them bitch and moan about not having any sales or the opposite, crowing loudly about selling X amount of books in a single day. Then I realized every new release I posted on my own pages, they were ignoring me as much as I was ignoring them. I write because it's what I do, but I also crave to be read. Call it ego, it's very healthy, trust me, but nothing makes my day more than some random reader leaving a review or emailing me to let me know they enjoyed the story. That's the icing on the cake.
Take this in for a minute…other than the 20 or so friends I knew personally, and the other 20 or so authors I've spoken to on a regular basis or personally met at one point or another, the rest of these "friends" I knew little to nothing about. In reality, with nearly 1,800+ friends, I should be getting at least half of that in sales for every new thing I release? Not so, not so at all. I realized I'd become stuck in a relentless cycle of self-promotion to people that really had no interest in buying my work or supporting my career, because they were just as hung up on their own career trying to sell me their stuff.
So all those Facebook blasts about something new of mine was falling on deaf ears and going absolutely nowhere, for all intents and purposes, I was wasting my time and not gaining any new readership. I'd been doing this for years, first on MySpace and then carrying this flawed model over to Facebook, then Twitter. Other than the initial flurry of sales for my new releases, there was nothing after, just a stale sales sheet. I realized those people that initially bought my work were the ones I personally knew or had interacted with. Everyone else on my Facebook? I'd attempted to read a few of their works, you know, to support other fellow authors, but they, put simply, sucked and couldn't write. I had no interest in their new work, vice versa, they had no interest in mine because we were both trying to preach to the choir, and sell to people that had no intention of buying our work because we were both authors.
So if you've been removed from my friends list, this was the reasoning behind the decision. From here on out, I will be even more selective on Facebook and probably even more so on Google +, with the recent developments with Facebook and their continual "improvements". I'm grateful for those of you who share my links and comment on successes, failures, and my status updates. I will continue to return the favor. I want to be a part of your successes and I hope you will be a part of mine.
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