Social Media Writing Part 2 |

Getting to Social Media Writing Part 2

Can we look at Social Media Writing Part 2? Er, I mean Social Media and Writing, Part 2.

More about the Chuck Wendig blog post, and my take on it all.

Recap from Social Media Writing Part 1

Let us return to our discussion. In the first part of this post, I talked about the current state of social media, more or less. Numbers are high. The avalanche will never let up.

But now is the time to talk about you.

Yeah, you.

Your Definition of Success Will Define Your Book-Related Happiness. Choose It Wisely

What am I talking about?

What I mean is, if you go into writing thinking you are going to become wealthy, stop right there, turn around, and go to actuarial school or something.

Actuarial?

Er, I don’t know. Bear with me, okay?

Just, do not consider writing as a super-lucrative career. That is rare, which is why most of the people who have become wealthy from writing are household names.*

Furthermore, two of them, JK Rowling and Stephen King, both started in grinding poverty. They both played what I like to call Bill Roulette, where you have five monthly bills but only enough money to pay four. So you mentally spin a big wheel and choose who you are going to stiff that month.

Although they probably both dreamed of making it big, I imagine their initial goals were things like paying all the bills or getting the transmission fixed on the car.

*Note: there are people who write to market and can do rather well. But you should see how much they spend on ads, promos, covers, etc.! If you get there, great. But do not expect to get there. It is a ton of work. In particular, if you have a day job, it is likely to be out of reach.

Icons

Think you are going to become iconic, like Harper Lee? You might, yes. It is not wholly outside the realm of possibility. But do not go into writing with that as your primary goal. For you will surely be disappointed.

Furthermore, before your death, how do you even measure iconic status? If it is by number of books sold, then you are right back to the fame and fortune dream, supra.

SMART Goal Success FTW

Instead, try defining success in bite-sized terms. And try defining it objectively. Usually that means books sold or reviews obtained.

Goal: sell 50 books. Get 20 reviews. Average 3 1/2 stars or better on the reviews.

There. That is reasonable, attainable, and measurable. It is a good old SMART goal. And it is useful, because at a certain number of sales and reviews, Amazon starts serving the link to your book in more places.

You may or may not want to add a time component, but I personally would not. Why not? Because you will just make yourself crazy with a self-imposed timeline.

What if, for example, your most devoted and reliable readers end up being middle schoolers? They might not have the time to read for pleasure during the school year. So if you limit your goal to the school year, you could end up feeling like a failure. And then summer would save you. So avoid the heartache and just excise the time element.

You will be a far happier person.

Nobody Wants to See or Read a Nonstop Advertising Stream

Seriously. Stop doing that. That is why people are on the Internet in the first place. If they wanted ads, they would be watching network television.

If the only thing you have to talk about is where to buy your book, then I have got news for you.

You. Are. Boring.

So please, never, ever do that.

Instead, divvy up your time. And spend 30% or less of it on self-promotions. For your other time, take 40% for promoting others. And take no more than 30% providing more personal information. Do not talk about the weather or your lunch, but if you just broke through writer’s block, I bet your audience would love to know that.

Me, I use my personal info percent and a bit of my promoting others percent by writing information/instructional stuff. You know, a lot like this post.