Self Promotion or Self Defeating?
I'm getting used to the blogging thing. I blogged almost every day during July and I got to the point that it wasn't such a big deal to find a topic and write a paragraph or two. I'll probably stick with it, at least for a while.
But to be totally honest, I started blogging because I thought I was supposed to. I kept reading how I needed to have a blog in order to let fans know about my books, to make sure agents and editors saw that I had one when they googled my name. Yeah, I'm sure that's happening multiple times a day.
Today on The Lipsticks Chronicles, Harry Hunsicker blogged about closing his MySpace account. I wanted to stand up and cheer. He likened MySpace to joining a club and that if you already belong to a club of like minded people and then you write a book, of course you'll tell all your friends about the book. Then he questions the wisdom of writing the book and then joining a club to promote it.
And in the comments, Nancy Martin notes that most of her MySpace friends are sending her notes on when their books are being released. Harley Jane Kozak wanted to cry when a friend suggested she do a MySpace page to promote her new book.
Well, pass the tissues.
Now, I don't mean to say I don't like the fans. I love them. And it's not that I'm such a hermit that I don't want to go anywhere or see anyone. I'm a fairly social person. And I loved going to RT and meeting fans and other writers. I don't mind doing the promotion thing. I'll go to conferences, I'll sign books. I'll pretty much do whatever anyone asks of me with in reason. I just don't want to do it all the time.
I'm a writer.
I write. I love to write. And I'm hoping that I have fans that want me to write. Because, really, do you want to read a blog post from your favorite author or do you want to read their next book?
NOTE:
Harry Hunsicker's next Lee Henry Oswald book, Crosshairs, will be out Monday.
Harley Jane Kozak's, Dead Ex, will be in stores on Tuesday.
Nancy Martin writes the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, the latest of which release in March.