I fell into deep despair about the followers of this blog this week. I strive to communicate—with my books, with my social media postings and with this blog. But this week I hit a funk. The worst of my better nature told me my blog clearly fails to pique people’s interest at all. Nor does my web site. It’s very disappointing to have worked so hard to create interest-piquing content and then come to the realization that you’ve failed utterly at that task.
We writers are an awkward lot. Many of us, as I’ve discovered on Twitter in the #WritingCommunity, are introverts who’d rather stay at home and write than get out and actually commune with people. We prefer sticking our noses in books to reveling at parties. We’d rather burn our eyes out staring at a computer screen calling up action and plot and characters than wander around a shopping mall. Thus, putting ourselves out, even on the interweb, can be tiresome and even frightening to many of us wordsmith types. Promotion? Are you kidding? And what is a blog but self-promotion?
Let’s get this clear. I write my books for myself. If I manage to draw someone into my world, I’m thrilled, but my books are my refuge, my peace place (despite the death and mayhem I often visit on my characters). But my blog represents my effort to represent me to the world. If I have few subscribers, that world is small indeed.
And what’s the trick? What’s the trick to kicking the meter up a bit and gaining followers? Self-promotion. But I thought that’s what the blog was supposed to do—promote me and my work. If I have to promote it in order to then promote that other stuff, what is the f#%$ing point?
So there you are, this writer whining about her failures and, in truth, hoping my defeat will blackmail new readers into following me. Am I a horrible person? I’ve always thought so. Hence, the self-promotion thing being such a bust. But I’ve now written the post I swore I wasn’t going to write this week. I guess that’s success, right?