Does self promotion come easy for you?
A writer, writes. Simple. Straightforward. Easy.
A writer who wants to make a living writing is a different story. Apart from being a writer, you are also a self promoter, a marketing manager, a businessperson, an entrepreneur, a researcher, a twitterer (is that even a word?), a social media commentator.
A writer who wants to write full time and get paid for it has to be all those things and so much more.
I don’t know about you but I’m terrible at self-promotion. I’m happy to promote other people, vouch for their talents, market them to anyone and everyone I speak to, but doing the same thing for myself? Not a chance.
With the explosion of social media, self promotion should be easy. There are so many avenues from Facebook and Twitter to Linked In and blogging, that self promotion can be done with the click of a button and at no monetary cost.
But self promotion is scary. Social media has made it a scary experience.
You’re putting yourself out there. You’re baring your soul for the world to judge. And oh my goodness, do they judge. They will pick at the tiniest of things. They will destroy you by abusing you for being inadequate because you used ‘effect’ instead of ‘affect’.
They will torment you because you used a semicolon instead of a comma. They will scream at you with capital letters that YOU SHOULDN’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB BECAUSE YOU SUCK! and you won’t because you’ll take it to heart and huddle in a corner with a cheap bottle of wine and a packet of Tim Tams as you swear to yourself you will never, ever, in a million year write another word.
Yes, I might be exaggerating just a little bit but it can and does happen.
The world is full of haters. But the world is full of supporters too. And while it’s easier to focus on the negative, we should really put more emphasis on the positive. I once read somewhere that you’re more likely to dwell on one negative comment even if you’ve received nine positive ones. Ouchie, ouch. That sucks!
We will never please 100% of the crowd. There will always be someone who’s going to put us down. The good news is, there are going to be ten others to lift us up.
Self promotion is an important part of anyone who runs a business, anyone wants to be a well-paid novelist, or is even trying to find a job. If you can’t toot your own horn, reaching a level of success that you deem satisfactory may take a little bit longer than expected or it might not happen at all.
I admire people who have no care in the world and can self-promote endlessly. I wonder if they do it because they love it and it comes easy for them, or they have fine-tuned their techniques and simply do them because they know it’s a necessary evil – fake it till you make it type of thing.
What are your thoughts on self-promotion? Does it come easy for you? Any tips?
Have you done a structural edit?
I think I’ve read Lethal Disposal a dozen times. Maybe more. Before I send the novel off to a copy-editor (I haven’t decided which one yet), I want to do a structural edit first. A structural edit is not the easiest of things when you’ve read the novel so many times that you skim over sentences because you know what’s coming.
It’s easy to become complacent with one’s writing. It’s also very easy to be too critical and never let it out into the world. I’m hoping to find a balance between the two so I’m doing one last structural edit and have given myself three weeks to complete it.
So what is a structural edit?
It’s looking at the plot, characters, theme, and structure of the entire novel. It’s hard work but it’s also a necessity.
I’ve had two people read the book with a critical eye. A teacher friend was kind enough to make notes where plot points made no sense or required further explanation.
Now there are a few questions I need to answer:
Does the story flow?
Do I care about the characters?
Is the plot engaging enough?
Do my characters grow?
Are the main characters likeable?
Is there enough action/reaction?
Is the point of view clear?
Do the story elements make sense?
Do the character’s actions make sense?
Is there anything missing?
Have the subplots been wrapped up?
Has the main story point been wrapped up?
Does each scene move the story forward?
So it’s time to put butt back in chair, put my editors hat on, and tackle the novel’s structure.
Happy Writing (or rewriting!)
Would you call yourself a writer?
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, a writer is:
1 a person who has written something or who writes in a particular way: the writer of the letter.
• a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or occupation: Dickens was a prolific writer | a writer of short stories.
2 Computing a device that writes data to a storage medium: a CD writer.
3 historical a scribe.
So therefore, if you write, you are a writer. I always thought in order to define myself as a writer I had to score a cool publishing deal with a major publisher, sell a million copies and make a living from my words. Well, sorry to burst my own bubble and anyone else reading, but your excuses are over, finito, done. It’s time to come out of the closet and admit to yourself that you are in fact a writer. So what if Harper Collins hasn’t responded to your manuscript, and the agent that promised to take a look at your first five chapters has gone missing in action? You’ve written, so you’re a writer baby! Own it. Love it. Cherish it. Make the most of it. Most importantly, sit your booty down and write.
Would you call yourself a writer?