So… it’s been a while oh Blog of Mine. I’ve also been sparse on Facebook page updates, Tweeting, and forget my never used Instagram account. Here’s why…
I’m bad at social media in terms of my writing. I just am. I have a few ideas as to why however.
- Age. I’m 43. While not ‘old’ at least in my head not old, I grew up in a different time. The idea of constantly broadcasting my thoughts, hopes, irritations of writing holds no appeal to me. I find myself having to FORCE myself to do updates. For personal stuff I do updates a lot, but that’s personal. Those are family, and good friends. It is, to me, ‘different’.
- Not having anything overly interesting to say. While I’m working on a book (or books) I don’t have anything other to say than ‘Hey, still writing.’
- I’m not a conversation starter. One of the things I know about myself is I’m not a person who likes to start a conversation. I’ll gladly join in, adding anything I can that’s relevant, and somethings that aren’t if I get to rambling. But I starting that off isn’t my thing. It works this way in face to face stuff as well. I’ll smile and nod, but very rarely actually talk first.
All of this makes social media ‘outreach’ hard for me. I know other people who are trying the writing game who can post 25-30 times a day and seem to have no issue with it. Me? I usually rewrite a tweet 40 times if I’m starting it, and half the time delete and send nothing thinking ‘That’s stupid.’
I’m not anti-social, though I am an introvert. But I have always found that aspect of the writing game hard. It’s probably why I find marketing hard. I simply think that anything I might write about when I’m not doing a release or a cover reveal, or anything like that to be kind of pointless. I know it’s not ACTUALLY pointless, but my built in reaction is “No one wants to hear this.”
I wish I was better at it. Maybe I’d sell more books, or have a better platform when I DO a release.
I’m going to attempt to do better.. but I’ve said that before.
I’ve tried various software tools to automate it more before. Auto twitter posts, Facebook page posts, something, anything… but it boils down to me just not being.. excited by it. Interested in it.
So..anyone got any advice?
–Josh
