Promoting Books

Can I just have this blog? Is that enough? I know, I know, how very 2003 of me, but this social media thing. It’s kind of a drag.

I’m showing my age. I get that. But the divide in my feed, the barrage of accusations, arguments, and sometimes plain old meanness, for lack of a better word, makes me want to pack it up and leave it behind.

All this time could be spent writing. But everyone says you can't do that, you have to engage. I've been an indie author for around ten years now, so at this point I know how we’re supposed to be active on numerous platforms. I know the etiquette--to comment on other people's post and take part in conversations and discourse. And it all makes sense. But it's all so tiresome. And all the distractions lurking between those posts, sometimes I’d rather just walk away.

Now, I'm sure I'll get several messages from well intentioned people who want to help me promote my book. They might even offer a nifty outline of all the wonderful things they will do to get my book in the hands of the right people. They might even tell me how great the book is and even go the extra mile by quoting they're favorite part of my book which also happens to be the back cover blurb. 

But back to walking away. Easier said than done of course. By now it’s such a part of my daily life. To check Facebook as though it’s the news, it’s become muscle memory. 

And I think it's muscle memory for all of us to stand our ground, take sides and never budge on our beliefs. To always be right. The other side is out to get you, they did it first. We can't back down now. But I digress...

So, where was I? Oh, book promotion. Not long ago, I let my Instagram page go. I was tired of it, tired of begging people to review my book and mostly getting people who only wanted to “optimize my SEO”, so I dropped it. Now I’m back, but not really. I started it again but so far haven’t the energy to spruce it up. Twitter is a dumpster fire. I refuse to do Tik Tok. So maybe I’ll just stay here for a while and see how it goes.

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Okay, so in writing news, I’m super excited about a new middle grade project I'm working on, but I don’t want to spill yet because I might jinx it, so I’m going to wait until the first draft is done and see how it comes out.

I’ll post something more detailed soon.