Members of both my critique groups have asked how I can be spending so much time on building my author platform? “Aren’t you losing writing time?”
Yes, indeed, I am. I try to keep up with two blogs, two Twitter accounts, a website, and two Facebook pages. Social Media Networking, indeed! I hardly ever see real people. Mostly my day is spent with virtual “friends” and “followers”. I am losing big writing time as I prepare blogs, tweet, and FB postings.
I post (mostly) on this, my writing blog, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I post on my foodie blog (www.sharonarthurmoore.blogspot.com). I try to write one or two of these articles a day so I have a storehouse to pick from when it is time to post. Then I must replenish the stock.
Everyday I post on Twitter accounts @RomanceRighter (where I give relationship advice and share links to relationship articles among other things) and @good2tweat (recipes, links to food articles, food quotes, etc.). I keep a tweets page for each account minimized on my desktop so I can post something every hour or so throughout the day. That keeps my name floating around so no matter what time someone signs on, I am there.
On Facebook, I have a personal page and a fan page. Truly, if I could figure out how to do it, I would eliminate the personal page and just do the fan page. That would be more in line with my writing goals, and it would have a sharper focus. Most of my posts there are to drive people to my Twitter accounts or my blogs.
Except for Twitter, I don’t post much, if at all, on weekends. I give myself that time off. Ha! Instead I spend the weekend preparing future postings, trying to get ahead of the daily grind of having meaningful posts.
So why am I spending these hours doing what I never thought I’d be doing? Why don’t I just write, as I saw myself doing when I “transitioned” a few years ago. Because it works! I have seen more traffic at both blogs, and people I don’t follow on Twitter are following me. How they found me, I don’t know or care.
As I have addressed on these pages before, the new reality is that I must market my own materials along with the publisher. When I attend the Southern California Writing Conference in San Diego next month, and meet there with agents and editors one-on-one, I want to be able to say, “I can let 2500 people know instantaneously that I have a book contract. And those 2500 are connected to tens of thousands more people.” So I build my platform, friend by friend, follower by follower.
But the underlying purpose of it all is based in my writing. I’m thinking of buying one of those books on being a weekend novelist, since that seems to be where most of my writing time comes from these days.
As an unpublished novelist myself, I can hardly wrap my mind around it all. Wow, you've done an amazing job on social media. Go, Sharon.
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ReplyDeleteThe social media/platform-building/writing dilemma is a problem we all have to cope with as publishers have smaller publicity budgets (if any), especially for new authors. It's a juggling act. Great post!
ReplyDeleteIt is a Brave New World for all of us. I am inching into it with trepidation but also kind of excitedly. I have learned so many new skills, and I am connecting with more writers than I would have the traditional ways.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a great system down to get your social promotion done and still write.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be the of the future for writers and I always find it so interesting as to how everyone manages to do it all. Thank you Sharon for demonstrating that all of your continued hard work pays off!
ReplyDeleteSorry Sharon, I meant to say "This seems to be the future for writers."
ReplyDeleteLinda, thanks for coming by. I wish I could say I am happy with the balance. It is still unbalanced, but I see it tipping back to having more time to write. I do write, but not as much as I was at one point. I must write, no choice, so the sooner I can do more of it the better I will feel. I think in this new world, I won't ever be able to totally devote my time to writing again, but it will get better.
ReplyDeleteDenise, if we can all support one another and share what works, we will all go hand in hand forward. Thanks so much for reading my post. I hope you can drop by again.
ReplyDeleteHi Sharon. This post was a greatly needed affirmation of my current activity. I was beginning to think I was getting it wrong by spending so much time building a platform, but I now I see it is worth the effort and I can shed the guilt. I look forward to more on your pages and Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I wonder myself if I am headed right, but I think I am. It is a different world than the one I thought to enter. I checked out your blog. Insightful and engaging posts. I bookmarked you so I can easily drop by. Kristen Lamb talks about WANA--We Are Not Alone. Together we can help each of us meet the goals we've set. Write on!
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