A strawberry iced bun with a jam filling. Yummy!Am feeling a bit dislocated from reality again today. From writing reality... Everything feels a bit weird and I feel detached from it. I think I'm stressing myself out over promo and suchlike again, and am experiencing panicky feelings that I'm not doing enough, and what I am doing is the wrong sort. I feel as if I'm about to sink into writing obscurity because I just can't handle the sort of promo some people seem to sail through... and manage to write at the same time. It's a tough balance... and yet, time and time again, in blog posts and on boards, it's hammered home that these days it's simply not enough to be a good writer to ensure success and sales... you have to do a lot of other stuff too. You have to promote yourself and brand yourself and establish a 'personality'. And heaven help you if you're an average writer - like me - and you're shit at promo... you'll just fade away completely. Some fairly mediocre writers [well, let's say, their writing doesn't work for me... it may for others] can soar to prominence because they're great self publicists and self promoters, but if you're the shy, retiring type like me [seriously, I am!] you don't stand a freaking chance!
Which makes it such a temptation just to switch off and think about sticky buns...
So, writer friends, do you worry about promo? Whether you're doing enough? Or too much, and it's interfering with the actual job of writing?
Reader buddies... do you sometimes find yourself thinking... 'This is all hype, and writer X isn't really all that good... maybe she should concentrate on her writing a bit more'?
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Telly: Top Gear lads at the North Pole
Choc/Yummy: see above
Mood: troubled and uneasy
Writing: GH, I suppose...
Reading: Lover Eternal... so fab!!!!
RSI/FMS: sore, tired, fed up
Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!
6 comments:
Hmmm. I hear you about promo, and I hear you about worrying, Wendy.
I just wanted to say, though, that my favourite authors - I read them because I love their writing. Half of them don't give interviews, don't do a thing that could be called 'promo'. (Actually, quite a few of them are dead.)
Concentrate on the sticky buns and to hell with the worrying, is my advice. From where I'm sitting, it looks like you're doing fine!
x
The best promotion can't fix a bad book! When I find a writer/ book that I enjoy (like Entertaining Mr Stone:>) I read more form the same writer, Not cus they promote well but cus they write well. Most of the time when I first read someones works it's cus a friend told me about it not cus I saw their promotion!
That's reassuring, guys!
I always try to tell myself that the ones who shout about themselves the loudest are compensating for something... but doubts still creep in.
And one of the premier names in erotic romance, Emma Holly, doesn't seem to have a blog, or comment on other people's, or hang round boards or do many interviews... and people adore her and buy her books in bucketloads. Because she's wonderful at what she does...
The best promotion can't fix a bad book!
The above pretty much sums it up.
Whether in your face, or tucked in a quiet corner, people will seek out what they enjoy and return for more.
Did you share any of that sticky bun with Sven?
xox
No, alas, I scoffed all that bun myself... although Mr Blue can have a nibble of anything whatsoever of mine, whenever he likes!!! ;)
Mmm, that sticky bun looks good :)
Promo is exhausting. I haven;t even released my first novella yet, and I'm already at it. It is truly exhausting.
And it's so difficult to get the balance right. Not enough or completely in the reader's face which is so not cool. *sigh*
I tend to concentrate on promo when I'm not in the writing spirit. It makes me feel like at least I'm doing something.
Promotion is a mind-field. So you are definitely not alone.
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