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advertising, books, family, life, social media, Thinking, Writing
Hello friends! Hello, hello? Have you forgotten me? It’s true I haven’t written my blog since last November so if you have forgotten me it’s not surprising.
‘Last November?’ I hear you say. ‘What on earth have you been doing all that time?’
You might well ask! When I think about it I really don’t know. Just ‘life’ really.
At first, it was Christmas; you all know what that’s like and with a big family of six ‘children’ (I use the term loosely as they are all adults), and their partners, various, seven grandchildren and a gorgeous wee great-granddaughter, there is a lot of shopping, wrapping presents and food to think about, not to mention the many cards to write and send off – yes, I still do that, although my list is getting shorter as various elderly relatives have passed on. It is a sobering thought that my husband and I are the oldest generation in our family, now that my mum has gone. That was our first Christmas without her.
The New Year brought a sense of urgency as I became aware that my close friend, David McCalden, was dying and I really wanted him to see a small book of poems and short stories that I had compiled from my posting on his Facebook page ‘Teddy Story Lines’ which was to be dedicated to him. It is called ‘Mostly About Bears’. Sadly, I never managed it; hampered as I was by my inability to draw and I was waiting for a member of my family to do them as she is a talented artist. However, although talented, she is also super-unorganised and unreliable and in the end I published the book without the final picture that I’d wanted. David never saw it, which made me very sad. I like to think that he’s still watching what I’m up to from wherever he is now.
At the same time, I was formatting my book, ‘Bronwen’s Revenge’, which is the second book in my Castell Glas Trilogy and then I had to wait for my proof-reader whose little son was having health problems. ‘Bronwen’s Revenge’ slipped into being published fairly quietly in April. Both books are still waiting to be ‘discovered’ by readers, although I would recommend that any prospective readers should read Book 1, ‘The Hiraeth’ before they go on to find out what Bronwen got up to next.
I help my eldest daughter out by having her little one once a week so she can work; on other days he is looked after by his other grandparents and his father. I find looking after him quite tiring – I often wonder how I managed to bring up six children!
Upon retrospect, I have the same problem that many writers do, especially female writers who have so many other roles to play; we are the mothers, the carers of the sick and the elderly, the baby-sitters, the shoppers, the housewives and so on. How on earth do we fit in writing as well? And then there is the BIG problem that all self-published writers face – that of the publicising, the constant, grinding use of the ‘soshial media’ (as my good friend, successful author, Seumas Gallacher refers to it) which we mostly hate and don’t want to do. But we know we have to if we’re ever going to get noticed by anyone.
I want to know, do other authors rebel over having to do all the media-advertising thing, the ‘twitter-facing’ and so on? Do you ever think ‘to hell with it, I’m just going to write’? I know one writer friend who has done just that; he’s taken himself off Facebook and so on in order to concentrate on writing his book. Sometimes I wish I was brave enough to do that but I’m afraid to let go of all the strings – not to mention nosey because I like to know what all my friends are up to!
How do other authors feel about all this stuff we have to do and do we make time to have a quality life other than to just grind away at the proverbial typewriter all the time? Please let me know what you think – am I being paranoid about the social media; I didn’t have to publish my books, did I? But if I hadn’t, what would be the point of writing them? Perhaps I should just give it all up and let myself slip quietly into old age and senility…?
jeanetteford51 
Never give up your writing, Jeanette! It’s what keeps us sane when we have to do all the other stuff too. It’s ‘ours’, no one else’s until we publish, then it’s the readers but still very much ‘ours’. I don’t do a lot of facebook and almost nothing with twitter. I don’t really understand twitter and I’m too busy to learn. haha! Facebook I peek in several times a day to keep up to date with friends, news and stuff. So I know you’ve been busy writing. Keep it up! 🙂
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Jackie, you’re a good friend and I’m grateful always for your support. I keep trying to talk myself into doing more twittering as so many have told me that’s the way they have sold their books but I can’t get to grips with it, like you. Maybe I’ll repent and go back to it…after all, I’ve come back to the blog!
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Thank you, Jeanette. I’ll leave twitter to you then, you can teach me how later. 😉
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I don’t have a book to sell so I’m not one to ask about social media. I’m not that fond of it and neither are my adult children. It takes too much time and there is little of any value to me there. It would be lovely if there were still people to do the publicizing of books but I fear that with so many books going online, those days are long gone. I wish you well getting the word out. I’ve been struggling all year to get posts done as well. Maybe it’s the alignment of the stars this year.;)
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Maybe you are right there! Although I do have a problem in that I don’t always have something to say on my blog and I’m not one for wittering on about nothing. I do envy people who can find something to blog about every day. But I’m a person who can be in a whole bunch of people and not find anything I want to say, other than ‘hello, nice to see you again.” Something lacking in me? Anyway, I write my books because I love to write and that is the most important thing for me. x
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When you write what you love to write, the people that want to read it will be drawn to it. I don’t know how it works but it does and did before social media came along. I rarely write more than once a week and most of the time every couple of weeks. My life is not that interesting. 😉
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Enjoyed your blog Jeanette. I think you already know my take on social media as a marketing tool, but I think FB can be a really useful tool if you use it to its best advantage, and that includes spending money and taking advice from people who have mastered it. I sent for a video from Mark Dawson, a successful writer who says it brought him the success he now enjoys and in it he goes through the step by step process he uses to increase sales. Quite frankly, although he says its easy, I soon got lost, but I intend to revisit it. If you’re interested in having a look, I can email it to you.Having said that, I would prefer to attend a physical workshop where you get the opportunity to watch and learn, ask questions and then try for yourself, alternatively, get someone who is more IT savvy to go through it with you, but again, its the time involved!! You must never stop writing, you are a born storyteller, its a juggling game, grasping opportunities to devote to it as and when they arise,
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I do know how you feel about social media, Sue! That video you have sounds interesting; I would be interested in having a look, although I’ll probably lose it like you did. Like you, I would prefer to be shown by a person with me really.
I don’t really intend to give up writing but I do get fed up with all the rubbish that goes with it, it’s so time-consuming.
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