Being an Author: the true story. . . Think twice before you fantasize about becoming an author. In the six months leading up to the publication of my book, Inside the Flame, and for the past five months afterwards, I have been enslaved to blog writing, Facebooking, and at least five other varieties of social media.
It’s taken me as long to set up the social media sites and incessant code-governed practices required of today’s publishing—as long as it took me to actually write the book.  Doing all of this is nothing short of hell, especially since most of us who write books simply wanted to write the damn thing. We didn’t want to become literary hookers selling ourselves and our ideas like so much virtual meat on any number of well-used digital platforms
Every morning I change my cover image on Facebook. Every morning I post an image, or an article, or a new mini-post about my book. On Facebook. And on LinkedIn. And on my website christinawaters.com, and on my Facebook Author site. Then I make sure I post something intriguing each week on Instagram, and on Goodreads. By Friday I’m exhausted, and still I cannot stop.
I need to create and line up at least three new posts for my Author page. Every. Week. Find images for them. And schedule them to go off like landmines all during the week.
Oh, did I forget to mention being held hostage by Constant Contact? Yes indeedy. You are not only required to create interesting content, as well as cheer-leaderesque self-promotional hypola, you’re required to package each week’s upbeat cry for attention (the weekly update) in an attractive manner. One that requires mining the internet for images. Cutting those images into the template’s preferred size. Writing excited emotionally-charged text, adding the appropriate links to places, people, and events tied into your product, i.e. The Book. Then the little announcement must be emailed out to potential, or alleged readers on your evolving email string.
And you must purchase this service using real money you may or may not actually have. Are you with me so far?
If I have a scheduled, in-person appearance, it gets worse. All the blogging, the social mediating, the posting, multiplies exponentially. Invite people. Tag people. Take pictures. Circulate the pictures. Post on friends’ sites, and when they post on mine, I immediately swoop in and thank them. “Excited!” I squeal (electronically). I feel like a needy and desperate performance artist enacting a public artwork for the benefit of a very few who have the time, the patience, and/or the inclination to dig deeper into what I’m up to than simply following my weekly food, wine, and art columns in GTWeekly.
People seem to love it when I’m irreverent, or highly opinionated, or critical of some public event which did not exactly deliver what I paid for.
People are less inclined to actually read an article, a thought-piece, or a critical essay in which I connect some intellectually or socially relevant dots and lead up to a reasoned (or at least well-illustrated) conclusion.
Here’s the deal: No one has any time. Everyone is overloaded. We are all overwhelmed with electronica, with digital obligations, with mindless FB happy talk and emoticon porno.
I’m exhausted. Worse. I’ve begun to turn on my own work.
Xtina ~
I cannot empathize too much with you here as I personally have yet to use Facebook. I guess I’m a dinosaur in that respect as I know it’s not a fad soon to fade away. In fact, its a New Year’s resolution (again) yet to happen. However, I do want to comment that the readings held at bookstores that you have done as part of your promotional ‘duties’ are really enjoyable, most interesting and very much thought provoking. I attended one such session at Bookshop SC and remember it fondly. Not only were your remarks important to hear but many of the questions tossed your way (and then returned with even more personal musings and great stories) were delightfully substantive and added to the enjoyment and learning. So, I write this with a hope that if you ever toss aside all the social media work from your marketing and promotional routine that you do not ever eliminate these intimate reading sessions as I believe them worth the effort as they are both effective for you and very enjoyable for us, your eager readers.
You are so courageous!!!! love your honesty. WOW! thank you for telling the truth about this.
Thanks so much Ted for this feedback. Yes, it’s true that reading, plus Q&A opportunities at places such as the inimitable Bookshop SC are really the most in depth and engaging way of presenting both the book, and its inception.
However, this is the Digital Age, and it’s dismaying that there are so few bookstores (and they need to give full attention to mega-authors) and everything seems to require an online hustle.
Those of us who want to write books are spending a disproportionate amount of time on social media sites making pitches to prospective readers.
And it is really a relentless process.
I would so love to talk about the book at in-person events in bookstores with literate clienteles. Not as many of them left as we both would like.
I hear you, Christina. I’m in the same predicament with Stone Soup Magazine, and I do not like it.
Surely that’s why there are publishers? My late cousin was a prolific author with twenty books published and little to no complaints. Of course you do need to find a publisher that believes there is a market for your work, so obviously there is work going through that process and you need to be able to deal with the possibility of rejection and not give up. Anyway it sure seems better to me that what you’re going through. Good luck.
Here is the centerpiece of this agony. In 2015 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated that 40.4% of the workforce was comprised of “contingent labor.” The BLS definition: “Contingent workers are persons who do not expect their jobs to last or who reported that their jobs are temporary. They do not have an implicit or explicit contract for ongoing employment.” I.E.: The employment of the self by the self for the survival of that same self is implicit if, tragically, not temporary.
Getting better? Not really. Projecting employment 15 years from now is a fool’s errand but lots of fools come up with frighteningly similar notions… loss of 2 BILLION jobs — about half of the jobs in the world. While the consistency of this approximation might be explained by a particularly-infectious viral Facebook post, robotics, AI, big data and the like make it at least as believable as not.
What seems to be the most likely replacement for employment in the future is the conglomerate of the individual — the Christina Waters corporation in which all of the full-time jobs are both filled and supervised by herself with the hope of growing large enough fast enough to hire some contingent workers of her own.
Isn’t this an odd twist… a new Dickensian universe, entire enterprise systems comprised of one character with multiple personalities. Esther Summerson, Mr. Tulkinghorn, Prince Turveydrop, Captain Hawdon, William Guppy, and even the profligate Harold Skimpole reduced to a single player: creative, ruthless, diligent, inspired, conniving, and enlightened (even if only as an enlightened fool.)
This sounds appallingly unsympathetic which I am not. You have written well for a long time and deserve better. We all deserve better. I would offer only this… hold on to the joy of writing; choose enlightened foolishness over diligent despair whenever possible. Best…
Brilliant, soothing, and well-timed commentary & advice Bill. You’re so right about the individual as conglomerate. Even with a PhD I was somehow unprepared for the avalanche of post-publication grunt work that fell to me. I have two more books in the works but am hopeful (ha!) that a larger publishing house might offer a smidgeon more support in the marketing department.
If you’re right however, I might become that marketing department.
My head simply isn’t large enough to wear this many hats. And for the record, it is damn hard to hold onto the joy. Best to you…..
The burden of self-promotion has fallen almost completely upon authors these days. You are not alone. Even bigger publishers like National Geographic and Random House have stipulations in their contracts requiring authors to create or grow social media platforms to boost audiences – and sales – for books. The book publishers used to carry this burden of arranging book tours and more.
If you are self-publishing then of course it’s even more demanding. Many authors, artists, and creative folks are not marketing gurus/ It’s a lot to ask of something making art to then go and do all the marketing themselves. Exhausting indeed.
And you made a good point – it’s hard to schedule in person talks at bookstores. Many are disappearing. (I miss the BookCafe so much!) Again, the onus is on the writer to make their own appearances in places like Facebook Live.
Overall, it sounds like you need a much-needed vacation which will include a big break from social media posting!
As a social media coach, I strive to help folks navigate this brave (at times, frustrating) new world. And yes, it can take a toll. And yes, it’s always changing and evolving. The key is to scale back to fewer networks and to allow yourself a break from it at times. And get help.
Karen, Social Media Coach
Christina,
Hope you don’t mind that I linked to this page on my publishing blog: https://wordsworthpublishing.com/news/
Gave it a link to your Amazon author’s page too. I have authors ask about marketing support, and I will do some of it for a fee, but most authors don’t want to put in the effort for a tour and all the social media outreach that you are doing. However, with so many books out there, your book needs to be waved in front of people frequently or they’ll forget about it. It is exhausting though. Did you get guidance from your publisher on what to do?
I received a great deal of guidance from my publisher. They helped to steer me toward the most fruitful approaches to marketing my book, especially the crucial piece of having an ongoing social media presence. Since I’d been posting articles, reviews, and comments on my website for ten years, I was already in the saddle, so to speak. But what I could not have known in advance was the dearth of venues, bricks and mortar bookstores willing to offer space and time (events) to unknown authros — and the sheer non-stop overload of “waving” my book out in front of people. I had expert guidance from a Bay Area publicist and a local social media consultant, both of whom worked effectively on my behalf. And both of whom were paid for their services. By me. I am drafting up another article on this experience. Look for it here, soon.
In this vast networking, high paced hype into what’s new and upcoming, I think some sort of old fashioned book clubs are needed. Like the friendship cake that used to get passed around, it just keeps flourishing organically! You are amazing breaking thru hurdles of social media and being your own publicist! I’m still stuck in the friendship cake word of mouth era so kudos to you fir breaking thru the multiverses out there! Big Frank is smiling upon you as you broke the code! Keep on keeping on and love your sassy pants attitude, enjoyed your insight and information ! Enjoy Europe and just breathe, you earned it (leave the phone at the hotel from time to time just use your will to go beyond! (Perhaps a new book from you for new authors on the how toos using Ganesha and promo while eating the spaghetti of social media with heartburn!)