I would never consider myself to be egotistical, but I have to admit, working on my social platform makes me feel a little big headed. It's hard to promote yourself and your work and totally keep your feet on the ground. I'm shy and don't really enjoy being the center of attention but, admittedly, I get a little thrill every time someone "likes" my Facebook author page or tells me they want to keep tabs on me so they can buy my book when it comes out. Fame, or money for that matter, are definitely not my reasons for writing, but I'm not going to shoo them away should they seek me out.
In this day and age where self promotion is key to selling books, it's OK to think your work is tops! Have confidence, be a bit egotistical, push your wares to anyone and everyone. It's the only way you're going to get your name out there, build a fan base, have people interested before your stuff even hits the shelves. That being said, I have to stop here and say confidence is great thing, but remember everyone has room for improvement so if you get suggestions, corrections or hate on your work, don't just brush it under the carpet. Take the time to mull over the information given and possibly make changes. There will always be people out there who don't enjoy your writing style or topics and that's OK. There's something for everyone. Just remember to find the happy medium when it comes to taking criticisms and suggestions.
To sum it up; be confident about your work, get yourself out there in the spotlight and be open to criticism. It's only going to help you in your quest to become a published author.
In the next post I'll discuss some great tools available to everyone to help build your social platform.
The ramblings of a girl striving to become an author.
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About Me
- MBee
- Educator. Aspiring author and budding photographer. Jack of all trades...Master of none. Yet anyhow. Current Works in progress include: The Other Side (YA paranormal romance), Embers to Ashes: a Destined Journey (YA fantasy) and Red Dust (YA soft sci-fi) Heavyweight (YA contemporary gay fiction)Tears of a Clown (YA contemporary spoof)
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5 comments:
I'm like you shy and quiet and it's always a thrill when I get a new follower. I tend to click on the link to their page or profile and see who they are.
Agreed! It's nice when it's a friend or someone you know, but when it's a complete stranger? Wooo! Someone likes me! heh
I tend to be quite quiet in real life too, but the great thing about the internet is that it's so much easier to reinvent yourself and create that online persona.
I have to admit, I'm curious about your 'contemporary gay fiction', seeing as how I tend to write gay/bi main characters myself.
Ahh Heavyweight the only story I've outlined for every chapter before writing. It's on hold for the moment. I do want to get back to it though, but probably not till much later in the year. It's about a teenager named Ian who struggles with not only his secret of being gay but with his body image and weight as he's trying to stay in his wrestling weight class so he can get a scholarship and get out of his narrow minded backwater town.
Great post MBee. It took me a while to get into the self-promotion thing. I'd set up my blog and was working on my website but the real kick I needed was the York Writers' Conference last year in which the message ringing out loud and clear was that it doesn't matter how well you write, if you cannot demonstrate an ability to assist in promotion, nobody's going to be interested. Scary but true. I have to say, I've started to love blogging. And you can find me over at Facebook and Twitter (totally agree with you on all of that.) The difficulty I find is knowing when enough's enough and getting back to writing. It's so hard to log out sometimes...
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