Why I am Currently More Concerned with Writing
Self-publishing 101 is an intense push on the importance of marketing yourself and social media. I have a Youtube, this blog, my website, a Facebook Page, AND a Twitter. This time last year I was more concerned about how important growing my platforms was and growing my book sales than actually writing. I, like every other author on the planet (whether they admit it or not), want to be noticed. I want my books to be successful and I want everyone to read everything I’ve written. That was all fine and dandy until the progress on completing my second book ground to a screeching halt. It took me almost two years to complete Jeremy and I learned a lot about myself and my writing process during that time. I wanted to share with you a bit more insight into my hiatuses, my social presence, and why I’ve changed my point of view.
I like to think that I am telling an interesting story about vampires. That I’m telling a different type of story about vampires. I mean, how many stories are out there from a vampire’s perspective of their situation? Turns out there are quite a few. I figured that the only way to boost the sales of my one novel were to go social media crazy. I joined like-for-like groups and pages. I hosted an ungodly amount of freebie days. I promised that my second novel was on it’s way. Never mind that I was working a full time job and barely spending any time writing. If I just got people to notice me, I could build my audience and then work on my writing.
It turns out that people don’t want to start a series that only has one book out and then have to wait almost two years for the next one. All that time I spent perfecting and redesigning my website, all of the like-for-like, advertisements, and what not were not getting me any where. I mean, all of those like-for-like groups are authors liking other author’s pages. Other authors are concerned with getting their own books out there and typically don’t go out and buy every book the authors that they’ve liked have written. I thought that I just needed a schedule. If I built up my readership on my blog, and gave myself a schedule, then I could figure out a time to write and everything would be good. And there I was wrong again.
I know that I mentioned my move last year multiple times. There was a time there that I thought I would build my Youtube channel and get a viewership going and that was going to be the key to getting readers. I replicated my schedule to my Youtube and did most of my posts via video. I took the Youtube Partner Academy courses and bought a new camera. I really thought that that was going to be the key to my success.
Surprise! It didn’t happen.
I wondered and wondered what I was doing wrong. I was stressing myself about about building this blog and my channel. I finally realized that the one thing I wasn’t doing was writing. I wasn’t actually doing the thing that I wanted to be successful at. I was spending all of my time and energy on everything else that I seemed to be losing sight of my work. I felt like an idiot.
So I went on hiatus. I didn’t write here as much, my Facebook posts were limited without much information, my only Tweets pertained to things on television, I hardly vlogged at all, and I wrote. Mind you, writing short stories and a novel at the same time is not easy. It took me a long time to get to a point where I thought I would be comfortable doing it all again. Except when I went off of hiatus, things didn’t go according to plan. I still had work to do on the novel and responsibilities at home and at my full time job.
That’s when I made the decision to do away with the schedule. I still do participate with stuff on social media, and I clearly still blog, but I don’t stress myself out. Heck, I even organized a blog tour (and a second one is in the works). This time I am doing things on my own terms. Success is not measured in the number of Facebook followers you have, or the amount of people you can annoy with your over abundance of self-promotion. Success is being able to take your life and work into your own hands and creating something that you love. I wish I had learned this lesson earlier, I might have more books out.
I will say that your books are never going to sell if people don’t know that they exist, but I think that we should all spend more time on doing what we love. I have no idea how my books sales will look in the future. All I have is my characters and Microsoft Word… and I’m pretty happy.
Posted on June 25, 2015, in Journal, Random Stuff and tagged just my thoughts, market less, write more, writing, writing is love. Bookmark the permalink. 21 Comments.
Reblogged this on Tricia Drammeh and commented:
Love this article. I’ve been there. I think most authors eventually come to this point. It’s easy to wrapped up in marketing and lose sight of what we’re supposed to be doing – writing. Yes, marketing and promotion is a necessary evil, but if it takes away from writing, we need to re-evaluate our goals. Thanks for sharing your story, Maegan!
Thank you for the reblog Tricia! You, more than anyone, know how hard I’ve tried to push myself. I know that we’ve talked about this plenty of times, but there really comes a point when you just have to be done. Books first. ❤
I like the point you made about how readers don’t want to read the first book in a series if there aren’t other books. I think readers are looking for at least two books and reasonable certainty more is on the way. If you have to choose between writing and marketing, writing must always come first.
Wish you luck. I can’t imagine stretching myself as thin as indie authors need to do. 🙂
Thank you!
You are welcome. 🙂
Great article! I’m not on many social media platforms, but since I started blogging I have been spending less time on my WIP because I have been busy coming up with ideas for blog posts and checking out other people’s blogs etc. The networking side can sure be time consuming.
I’m so glad you’ve found your way back to writing.
I can so relate to how we beat ourselves to death trying to do everything at once.
I drove myself crazy. When family matters took over, I tried to keep up the pace and I burned out. I got to the point where I hated social media, my blogs, and the grind of marketing. It became impossible to complete any project, no matter how short.
All I can say is ‘Beware the Burnout’ – it can happen and if it does, it changes everything.
K.A. that is definitely where I got. I am a bit more active than I used to be, but I am not making it a priority any more like I used to.
I think as women we push ourselves too hard. We need to enjoy life, so when we sit at the keyboard, it’s with a joyous heart, not stressful thoughts.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
A great post. Finding that elusive balance is so hard because the landscape keeps shifting. I imagine many of us are experiencing similar quandaries, and there’s only so much time in the day. I feel like an octopus with so many arms juggling priorities. Like you, I’m making more space again for writing…and it feels wonderful.
Reblogged this on AUTHOR JENNIFER LOISKE and commented:
Been there, done that. Great article and a reminder that writer’s number one priority should be writing. Everything else comes after that.
Thank you so much for your kind words and reblog.
All that networking is fine and good, but the thing which really drives us (and like everyone else I want to earn enough to nothing else) is write.
For me it’s writing first and foremost, which is why I’ll probably never earn enough to do nothing else.
Reblogged this on Three hoodies save the world.
Thank you so much for the reblog!
Hi, Maegan. I needed your message. Thanks for sharing! I’ll share too… 🙂
Thank you, Bette!
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
All these other activities can expand to take all the time available and more. And yes, you don’t always see a return from it…. Good luck!