Everyday Canvas

Don't Do as I Do

Prompt: Social Media: Let's discuss the pros and cons of using social media for your writing. Do you consider yourself a business owner and the product you are selling is your book, just like any other product on the market in a very matter fact manner? Or do you see it as a necessary evil and do what is recommended for sales but secretly wish it wasn't necessary? Pros and cons of each aspect? How do you see it affecting your private life?

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No, and I refuse to buckle under pressure, although I think giving links to my work in social media is fine because every writer wants to be read.

Now, what I am going to write on the subject of salesmanship doesn’t mean that writers, new or old, should take me as an example. I am a very bad example for this, and they may be missing a chance of a lifetime. Plus, this is a warning: Don't do as I do! Take it or leave it.

Surely, I can see that publication at all costs is a necessary evil for writers; however, I resent it immensely what they have to go through. It is a situation of do-or-die. Yet, I am no business owner and it infuriates me that this situation and the publishers turn the writers into street vendors, or worse, to sellers of the oldest profession. Come to think of it, if he were still alive, I would get along so well with J. D. Salinger.

Would I change in the future? I don’t know. No one knows what will change their future.

At this time, for myself, I decided to keep my self-respect and wits about me. To start with, the few years of life left of me together with my husband would be ruined; I am not letting any publication worries mess that up. Then, if anyone wants to read me, I have this site and friends who are kind enough to tell me what they think. Writing makes me happy, but going out of my way to promote what I write is not my cup of tea.