THE STORY SO FAR: PART 80

A QUICK ASIDE ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA: THEY WILL DRIVE YOU INSANE

I wrote yesterday on the amount today’s authors are expected to do—in addition to writing books (which is very tough work, I’ll have you know; and extremely time-consuming in itself).

As it happens, I have just run across an excellent blog on the subject which is headed:

THE SOCIAL MEDIA TRAIN WRECK THAT ALL AUTHORS MUST AVOID

Graphically put! Let me quote from the BookBaby blog that identified it.

You’ve almost finished writing your book and you’re starting to piece together the beginnings of a “promotion strategy.” Part of that effort involves Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, StumbleUpon, and Habbo Hotel.

Wait — STOP RIGHT THERE!

I know you’re excited, but if you try to tackle everything at once you’re going to fail. Slow it down! Or as Jonathan Gunson says in his article “The Social Media ‘Train Wreck’ That All Authors Must Avoid…“:

Your fledgling author career can rapidly jump off the rails if you attempt to accelerate book sales by trying to be visible everywhere, using the full range of social media channels, without any prior experience, all on day one.

Fact is, if you try this, you’ll be overwhelmed.  Even worse, your all-important focus on writing will be derailed.  You won’t sell many books either, and you’ll end up a train wreck.

Instead, there’s a right way to ‘take the train’ to author success.

Gunson urges quality over quantity; focus on mastering a few social media channels. Create great content/posts/pics/updates, but limit your social media promotion to less than 30% of the total time spent on advancing your author career (which includes WRITING! — which Gunson suggests should take up 70% of your time).

Read more of his social media advice for authors HERE.

I just hope I have the good fortune to find the right balance between writing and all its associated distractions—let alone the business of living a balanced life outside one’s work. So far, I don’t believe I have in either case.

The computer box still lies unopened.