Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Exposing myself is hard work

by Joe Moore

There are more places to expose yourself on the Internet than you can possibly keep up with. For me, it started a long time ago with a website, then another, then a blog, then another, and on and on. Sometimes it feels like a full-time job just to maintain and update all the blogs, forum profiles, and social networking sites where I have my profile and book news posted.

Most are available for public viewing while some are for those who register first. But when a news item or piece of info needs to be added such as a book launch or a signing, it can take hours just to update them all.

Did I change my Facebook status today? Did I post the newest version of the book trailer on YouTube?

Here’s a partial list of where I've exposed myself. As you can see, it can quickly get out of hand.

Facebook
Redroom
Kill Zone
InkSpot
Amazon Blog
Personal Website
Book Website
Thriller Website
Goodreads
Mystery Writers of America
Plaxo
Live Journal
Linked In (members only)

How many places do you expose yourself? Is it worth the time needed to keep everything updated? Do these sites generate books sales or just more busy work? Shouldn’t we all be writing rather than posting or updating or checking or commenting or . . .

12 comments:

Gwyn Ramsey said...

I agree, Joanna. It takes a lot of time to update everything, read your email, dig through digest, prepare for library presentations, bookstores signings, and face-to-face craft festivals. Writing seems to take a backseat if you don't set a time to do it. Yet writing is the name of the game. I have found myself in the same boat and hope it's all worth the effort. But the face-to-face time is important especially when you hand a signed book to a smiling reader who signed the mailing list for your next book.

Jessica Lourey said...

My goal is to be to online promotion what JD Salinger is to face-to-face promotion. But hmmm. Maybe I need to write The Great American Novel for that to work. I'll get back to you...

Mark Combes said...

I'll do a little name dropping here - I had lunch with Dennis Lehane a few weeks back and he said he wasn't very good at promotion. That he thought that if he wrote the very best books, the cream would rise. He did what his publisher wanted him to do, but nothing more.

That might be the other extreme, but I think the self-promotion thing can get out of hand. I do what I'm comfortable doing (this is supposed to be fun right? Not work) and hope that will be enough to expose me to new readers. After that, I try to concentrate on my writing, and like Dennis, hope the cream rises.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Mark, I remember a certain SleuthFest--Joe was there, too--where one author was on a marketing panel as the contrarian. He kept saying, "My job is to write. It's my publisher's job to promote."

And that's fine. We do need to write the best books we can. But...we all know that some talented authors will never get the readership they deserve because the public just doesn't know they exist. So my philosophy is that I need to work as hard at marketing as I do at writing.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

And Joe and Gwyn, I sort of chringe at "exposing" myself. Partially because on Linked In I received an offer for an, um, romantic relationship after I posted my author photo. Great for the ego, but not what I'd had in mind!

G.M. Malliet said...

I've pared back on this kind of multiple posting stuff as much as I can. (I never did figure out Red Room, BTW.) It does start to affect the novel writing and sometimes I just stop myself and say "enough."

G.M. Malliet said...

p.s. Congratulations to you and Lynne on the rave review in Mystery Scene.

Joe Moore said...

I wish I could say that all this online shenanigans has resulted in book sale, but I don't think I can. Although I have had a few folks on Facebook say they enjoyed one of our books. Same on Goodreads. But you never know for sure. My New Years resolution is to not take on any new online "exposures" unless the site has a really cool name. Wait, they all do. I'm in trouble.

Thanks for all the comments.

Sue Ann Jaffarian said...

For several months now, I've been declining invitations to these online groups/posting venues. I found they took up way too much of my time to participate and use them properly. On most of those I still belong, I don't keep up my profile. I'm not sure they result in any real book sales and they can become quite unmanageable if you have too many.

Joe Moore said...

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'd say more but I've got to run change my Facebook status. :-)

Keith Raffel said...

Joe (or is it Joanna?), We can't wait to hear from you only in your novels. Write more online!

Paul D Brazill said...

Christa Faust expressed her doubts about this networking lark recently, but she's just joined twitter, so ...