I hear it all the time: to sell books writers must be online marketing themselves. We need blogs updated four times a week. Active Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Pinterest clip boards filled with images of scenery from our books. And now Instagram because people under 40 want to see us writing, not just read our Tweets.
How exactly are we supposed to get any writing done?
If I spend all that time looking for interesting things to post on my “page”, when will I finish writing a page in my book?
I’m sorry, but my life is not so interesting I think I should fill up the net with images of my toenails or what I ate for dinner. No one’s life is. But we writers will make things up to have something to share online. If only I could come up with that one clever Tweet that goes viral and suddenly I’m a star on line for a day. That one clever comment everyone will repost. My blog will get a bump and I’ll sell more books. It’s like winning the lottery.
If I spend creative energy thinking up funny sayings or hunting for inspirational quotes (which I do, I hate to say) then that is creative energy not spent writing.
Where is the balance? How do we write and still find someone to read it. Writing for yourself is no fun. Writing for thousands is thrilling. Or so I hear. Maybe if people like what I’ve written here in this blog they’ll share it and my blog will be featured all over Facebook. It’s worth a try.
Time to work on my book.
Terena Scott 
So true Terena. I haven’t started my second book yet. (I HAVE all the material, etc. but no time to even do an outline.). AND I have a great idea for a play. So burned out by social media, but it IS a necessary evil. LOVE this post BTW 🙂
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Since I’m not a longform writer this may be off-base, but I think for some people the exchange of ideas can be conducive to more and even better writing. Elizabeth Gilbert is no slouch in the word-farming department and she’s on multiple channels daily chatting with fans, which is pretty neat. For me, with very few followers and often no response beyond a “like” if I’m lucky, I can honestly say it’s basically just a good meter of where my social anxiety levels are. Yet here I am. 🙂
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Yeah, life can very quickly get gobbled up by social media, especially if you are a self-published author. You constantly feel like you need to say something on-line to bring attention to your book(s), and before you know it, it’s the end of the day and you haven’t written a single word for your book. Some times if feels like there just isn’t enough hours in the day!
P.S. Check out my website at http://www.oddauthoramandamccoy.com and buy my books “Driftwood Island” and “Monster in the Basement”!
Yeah . . . . some times I just can’t stop myself. (sorry)
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Lol! We need to help each other.
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