A Time For Everything

As an author, I'm supposed to be on various social media platforms so as to...

Be out there to connect with fans, to network, to help advertise my books...

I guess.

The problem is...unlike the gripes I hear from writer friends...social media is not a huge draw for me. Well, most platforms aren't. There are a few I can get lost down the rabbit hole, as it were, but those aren't the ones where my (potential) fans are.

Many moons ago, Kristen Lamb was the speaker at my group's annual/biennial conference. One of the things she said that stuck with me was: Find what you enjoy and do it. If you don't like the medium, it will show and could be counter-productive.

Facebook for me is a time-filler. I have no problem spending time there--if I'm bored. I'm rarely bored.

Twitter is another place that my writer colleagues seem to congregate. Twitter is mostly a mystery to me. I don't get it. Although, it's making a little more sense to me of late as I've had to get alerts from a podcaster I follow because he's going to be announcing an appearance in Dallas I want to attend. He tweets A LOT. How does he get any work done with the number of tweets he makes, not to mention the probable metric-shit-ton of tweets that he gets...? So I have it, but I'm a consumer.

I'm on Instagram too, but again, as a consumer of only a few--and I do mean only a few--other accounts. I do post on occasion, but only random or interesting images. I doubt anyone sees them, but whatever.

I have this blog of course. Why why why do I need more than a blog and a Facebook page? Quite frankly, I don't think I do. I don't offer a newsletter because--I blog three days a week (usually). If someone wants to know me, then can stop by or they can subscribe to the feed.

You know what sells books? Not social media. Not newsletters. Not blogs. The next book sells books.

Now if only I could write the next book and the next one as easily as I can spend time on social media. *sigh*

I mean, I have this blog. I can add pages to it to list books and share excerpts. I have nine years of blog posting history and that's nothing to sneeze at.

I have a website for the book series, but should I, as a (soon to be) published author, have an actual website?

As a reader, I don't go to other author's websites. I don't check out author's Facebook pages either. I don't follow authors on Twitter. I don't sign up for their newsletters.

Many of the authors I know have websites, Facebook pages, a Twitter account they use, newsletters, and several other types of social media platforms. There's a lot of hype in my author circles about networking and supporting one another. And I get that. I really do. But it's so much work juggling all that, and I dunno, but isn't another good book a better selling tool than just about anything? Plus, this is a fun adventure, and anything that makes it not fun isn't happening. :)

But all those platforms are generally for reaching out to readers. I understand that writers are generally big readers, and if a writer wants to follow a favorite author then by all means he or she should. But sometimes I feel...bad, maybe? about not being part of this huge chain of authors. The reason I'm not is simple...

My writer friends are not my target audience.

Now they may enjoy the genre I write and like my books too, but they are under no obligation to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or anything.

I'm not doing a newsletter either. Too many of my author friends gripe about that chore. I blog three times a week, it'll do for getting out whatever upcoming news I might have. I'll set up a notification list, though. Submit your email address and get a quick email about the latest release when the time comes. That's it.

But back to the question of a website... I was recently turned onto AuthorPage.com which is what it sounds like--a platform for author websites, no domain names necessary. It has themes and many cool features, and I think between the blog here and that there, I'm good. Both are free, too. So bonus.

If you're a huge reader, do you actually visit author websites?

It's been an exciting few days. The most exciting thing is that I got to see my second mom, my sister, my aunt and my cousin this weekend. It was my aunt's birthday last week and they were having a party. My second mom and my sister flew down from Nebraska and Michigan respectively to be here.

My sister and me:


And baby sister wearing her tutu, because life will always be better with a tutu!


She has inspired me though and I now know what I'm wearing to the 221B Con next year. :D

In other very interesting/exciting news...I was contacted via Facebook by a very very old friend of mine. Usually, when one hears about these things, the parties involved knew each other in high school or college. In this case, I knew this friend back in elementary school!! Our moms were great friends for many years, and so we were friends too. The really amazing thing is that while we both lived in Southern California as children--she now lives in Texas! So we'll be making arrangements to meet and catch up here in the next month or so.

So how was your weekend??

Today I get a smart phone!


Well, technically I have the phone--it's Sonshine's old one--but I'm going to Verizon today and switching out my old dumb phone for a smart phone. Can't wait! I'll have Google maps when I'm driving around and weather access if power goes out. But also, yeah, Internet access & social media access wherever I go. Oh, and Netflix...

Can't wait!!

As an aspiring author, I've avoided the whole gotta be on social media hype. Had no interest in it, didn't care much, had no desire to spend hours and hours participating in online platforms that didn't work for me and didn't feel comfortable with my personality. So I didn't.


I've written this blog since 2007. The first four years were hit and miss and then became a bit more diligent and regular about it. I like the platform.

I resisted Facebook for ages, but broke down mostly as way to be in regular contact with my half of the family, none of whom live here in Texas. I added a few close friends who are fellow authors, but I don't use it as a networking tool, and I don't have a fan page. I'm not sure about going that route at this point. Since I don't have a work of romance fiction out, I'm not overly worried about it.

I don't tweet. Don't think I'll ever tweet.

I've had a Goodreads account and generally keep track of the books I've read as well giving them a rating, although I've avoided reviews. I think I've written one or two for the over 200 books I've read and tracked via the site.

This past Saturday, the speaker at my writers group spoke to us about how to harness the power of Goodreads. Since I'm already on it and I don't have issues with it, I'm going to implement some of her suggestions immediately, some later. I'm not ready to jump in and get super active and social in groups. I've got enough on my plate at the moment. That'll have to wait a bit until life calms down. Although Murphy may move in and I won't be able to catch my breath until August.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide what and how much works best for me. Of course, if I never finish a fiction book, the point is mostly moot.

Are you active on Social Media? Select platforms? How much time do you spend per week?

A few weeks ago, on my writers group loop, a friend posted a link to a blog post about how to stay connected to readers without feeling overwhelmed by all the social media platforms available these days.

The advice was two fold--be clear and consistent and make it easy.

The blogger suggested that I and anyone else reading his words of wisdom take an hour and write a new message. From scratch. Then post it wherever I or they maintain an online presence.

Saturday morning while the house was quiet, I took that hour. Then I posted my message on my website as well as Amazon and here and an abbreviated one at Goodreads (they only accepted 2000 characters) with a link to the page here. If you want to read it, click here.

The thing that I really liked about this post was that this blogger verified my feeling that it's okay to be on only one or two platforms consistently rather than being hit or miss across all of them. Someone else has said it before too, though I don't remember who. Kristen Lamb or J.A. Konrath, I think. Writers get inundated with social media advice, most of which says you have to be everywhere. When are we supposed to write if we've got to juggle a day job, kids, spouse, and house too? And if it's not fun, you're less likely to do it.

One of the reasons why I finally took that hour--well, really, it was forced upon me. DH was sick and had to sleep on the loveseat, so I didn't want to disturb him with housework and stuff while he was actually getting some sleep.--is that last week I worked to get my second Romance Writer's Guide book ready for publication and I wanted my author message current, consistent, done and out there.

Remember, one of my goals for the year is to publish at least three more of them. The topic had been percolating for a while and it needed to get put on paper, so to speak. So I spent time before and after work, writing and revising and finding examples. I read it out loud to hear the cadence and flow of my sentences. I tweaked some more. I added new text. I deleted repetition. It needs another read through before I'm comfortable putting it out there. The cover is done too. I took some time this weekend to create it as well. That's my least favorite part--creating the cover. I find the process tedious and time consuming. But it's ready to go when the book is.

Another of my goals was to read books about plotting--the hardest part of writing for me. I think. I spent some time on Christmas day looking for books about plotting on Amazon and bought five of them with the gift card I had. I started reading one of them last week. We'll see what nuggets I can pan from it.

How about you? Making any headway on this year's goals?

I'm back on the happy train after it came to a complete halt the other day due to a branch on the tracks.

Yesterday, I was able to break the 10K word mark on a different manuscript from the one that hit the tracks on Sunday. Not by much, granted, but I deemed it ready enough to be sent forth to my critique partners for a very thorough raking over the coals and I sent it out. It's the first thing I've sent along in quite some time and it completely made my day to do so.

Am I ready to dive back in to the other manuscript I've been going round in revision circles on yet? I don't know. But as soon as I'm done working today, I'm going to give it a try.

Follow Me - Why?

Follow me or don't. To be honest, I don't really care.

Last week I got caught up in the social media trend, thinking that because I was so close to finishing and submitting, it was about time I waded in. So I did. I got on Facebook and updated my profile a bit and friended a few people. I was then friended in return by many others. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now. It's not intuitive to me. My original intention was to connect with my family, which I have yet to do because I can't find them. (Mom, please find me and friend me: Jen FitzGerald in Fort Worth.)

Following a person here on Blogger or on Wordpress or Pinterest or wherever doesn't really mean people are actually reading what you have to say. Of my seventeen followers, two of whom are the same person, how many of them do you think read this blog every MWF? Five or six maybe? Eight on a good day?

I joined another group although I wondered what the purpose was and still do. This group seemed to me like all those other things all wrapped up in one package. I was sort of gung ho, reaching out, making friends, joining a group, creating a group. But this week? Meh. I'm not feeling the love. I have other things that are more fun for me. Visiting all these people's FB pages is not fun. It's a time suck and one I have no interest in. Am I shooting myself in the foot? Maybe. Am I showing my age? Quite likely.

I'm not really sure social media is my thing. I like my blog and I like blogging. I have a website that needs a bit of updating, though not much, and I have Facebook, with which I'm going to connect with my family, because that's what they do (obviously not what * I * do since I can't find them without help).

If I get lucky enough to develop a readership, I'll reassess my needs at that time. Otherwise, I'm just going to do what I've been doing.

How do you feel about social media? Are you knee deep or neck deep? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it?

I want to post today, though at first I didn't have a topic in mind or a bee in my bonnet. Now I do. (:

Social media for writer/aspiring writer. Does using social media help aspiring writers generate sales once they've sold the book?

It's an interesting debate and I think the answer is yes and no. The problem is that most aspiring writers have a following of other writers and personal friends when they begin the journey. And that's okay. And eventually, I think, friends of friends and friends of other writers might find you and join the bandwagon. But that takes time.

Some people find social media fun to use. But it's time consuming, and so does an author spend his/her time working the media or do they spend the time writing the best damn book they can?

I guess that's for each individual to answer, but I'd think one would err on the side of writing the book. You can't have fans or sales if you have no product.

I know people who start blogging or tweeting or what-have-you and go great guns for a while and then their activity dwindles and you never see them online. That's frustrating for the followers.

Personally, I have an author website that has seen no updates in quite some time, but while this blog consists of my personal musings on a wide variety of topics, I post fairly regularly.

And the real kicker is that I have 8 followers. I don't know who half of them are, but it's kinda cool. :)

Have a good day.