It’s a hard, sore, difficult-to-fathom fact that we just have to accept. It’s a grow up and get over yourself moment. It’s a sair thing. It’d bring tears to the driest hardest eye and the know it all dyed in the wool traditionalists think it’s vanity publishing and beneath them.
My apologies for bringing you this dreadful news. But, if you want to write and sell books, you need an on line presence and no, that does not mean you are capable of answering an email or three once a fortnight. It means you are required to tell the world of your genius and engage with other souls, often only for the benefit of others.
You must be pro-active. You must put yourself out there and demonstrate that you are capable of being an author in this modern world.
It’s odious. It’s positively vile. It’s the very opposite of what I thought writers did. I do not like it. It makes me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I would much rather someone else did the dirty work for me and left me alone to compose pretty sentences all day. Even if I had a traditional publisher, an agent and a team of publicists, I would still have to show willing and tweet, facebook, blog and so on each week or so. Even if I was an author with ten best sellers behind me, I would still have to maintain some sort of visible persona on the internet that other folk would find and engage with. it’s compulsory.
I loathe and despise the showing off, but, a few years back, I had a wonderful mentor who kicked my ass into the new age of literature and made me learn how to do it. He made me start at the beginning and figure out each and every step of self promotion and then self publishing.
A few months ago I broke my leg in a freak accident involving a sand dune and sobriety. I knew it would be a long hard road to recovery and I dreamed of days penning the beautiful lines, indulging in my favourite fantasies, running wild with all my inner personalities. But, no. The painkillers, the surgery, the pain, the constipation, the wooziness, and all that wiped me out and I lay like a stone for three months.
Now, I have to somehow pick up where I left off and let me tell you boys and girls, bloody blogging does not come easily to me. Feken tweeting is a pain in the ass and I could throw Farceboom across the river. But, I have books written and to write, sold and to sell and there’s no choice. Writers can’t live in gorgeous isolation anymore, we need to get out there, say hi and build audiences. It’s the law.
Of course, I now teach the stuff. I sit and show folk how to do it. All of it. From nothing to published. From a dream to reality. I learned well, and so, I teach well. I have courses and classes up and running. I have space for more clients. If you fit the description of writer with little or no experience of self promotion or self publishing, or if you want to discover and develop your writerly voice, then use the contact form below and I look forward to meeting real people, rather than cyber-beings.