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*

A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I was rethinking the timing of publishing my books. It's been on my mind since then, and I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that it would be August or September before I sent my books out into the world.

But this weekend I spent some time talking to an author friend of mine. An author friend whom I consider very successful in terms of the income she's making, which is three times my monthly goal...!! I asked a few questions and got her talking and she was off to the races. She told me the secrets to her success, and while our genres are different, I think everything she said applies to mine.

She also got me to thinking about the timing and intervals of publishing each book...and I'm wondering if I shouldn't have all nine books written, if not completely ready for publication. (I've pretty much decided my first series is going to be nine books.) If I decide to do that, then I probably can't begin the publication process in September. She suggested October or November...but I still don't think I'd be able to get all my ducks in a row by then...


So now the notion of waiting until next June is now under serious consideration. That's a year to get those other four books plotted and written. I still don't really want to wait that long, but that wait might mean the difference of thousands of dollars. And I've waited this long, right?

So, in between writing and revising, the day job, my side job, and just generally living life, I've got to determine what the best path for me is.

Well, I don't really have one.

My friend Regina does. She's good like that.

So I got to thinking...should I have one too? Probably.

My strategic plan, at this point, is to publish a few more Romance Writer's Guide Books this year. The second one went live last week.


As far as fiction goes, the plan is to stop flitting from project to project and finish one of them. I had some inspiration on a particular one last week, so that's the one I'm working on now. It's going to be short...10,000ish words, give or take.

I think I do better with deadlines. Have it done and submitted or else you don't get included or accepted or whatever the consequence is. Right now, there's no deadline. But even if I gave myself one, there's no consequence.

I thought maybe if I had a reward, that would work, though. If I complete the manuscript by XYZ date I get... WHAT? I don't know. I have pretty much everything I want. I can buy the things I need.

But no matter. I'm determined to make myself finish. Once I finish one, I think it'll be easier to finish the next one and the next, too. Someone once suggested I don't finish because I'm afraid to. Afraid of what's next. Of success. Afraid of...whatever. I think there's something to that, though I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm afraid of. I haven't stopped to contemplate, though it might help me get over it if I know what IT is.

Anyway, my deadline for completing the first draft of this particular book is February 9th. In order to reach it, I have to write at least 250 words a day. That's a doable goal.

Once the book's done, I'll put it aside for a week. Well, it may end up being more than that as an event I'm in charge of will be coming to a head at that point in time.

After that week or two or three, I'll re-read, fix any errors that now present themselves, and do some revising.

And then...off to the critique partners. More waiting. Then more fixing and revising as called for.

In the meantime, I'll be thinking about and having a cover created. Oh--and I'll need a title somewhere along the line--definitely need it before the cover art. Right now this book being referred to by the heroine and hero's names.

But I've gone off topic.

The strategic plan. Finish a dang book and publish it.

Then do it again and again.

Learn about how to utilize social media platforms to my benefit.

Lather, rinse and repeat.

That's the basic version. Thanks for letting me come up with it on the fly.

Is there anything I'm missing?