Sunday, June 6, 2010

Social (Media) Anxiety

So, I'm probably about the worst blogger ever. Actually, scratch that. I'm the worst social media person ever. I'm the only YA author I know who doesn't have a website. A couple of years ago, I started a MySpace page when my first book came out, then promptly forgot about it. And I hardly ever post anything on Facebook. (I think my fear of public speaking somehow extends to wall postings).

My most successful attempt at social networking is probably Twitter, only because the 140 character limit makes it seem more manageable. Since I first signed up over a year ago, I've posted 86 whole tweets. Which seemed like a lot, until I applied a little math to it. Apparently, that's a whopping average of 1.3 tweets a week. Not terribly impressive, I know.

I've seen the effects of social media on many people's writing careers, and I fully realize that it can have a huge effect. But I also find all these outlets a bit overwhelming. Life is busy enough without having to keep up with a Twitter feed, right? And whenever I do manage to find some time outside of my day job, I end up using it to write the same books I should probably be out there promoting. I know I'm not the only author with this dilmema, and I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on the subject...

But in the meantime...here I am. Blogging! (Baby steps, right?)

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I know. It's that endless balance between writing the books we sell and selling the books we sell. I'm glad to see you here at YA tribe, Jennifer! Thanks for posting.

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  2. Yay, welcome, Jen! I'm not a great blogger either. Like you, the day job is a big drag on the free time....

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  3. Thank you, Jennifer, for admitting what I certainly feel as well. I suck in this social media world. What is it about the expectation that authors should blog or post? After all, one of the reasons I write fiction is because I don't want to talk about myself. But there's this expectation that in order to promote your writing, you need to post about trivial stuff. BTW --I've never tweeted in my life, so you're ahead of the curve there. Cheers, T.

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