The Dangers of Social Media

So, you may have read that I am writing a book (here are the first unedited paragraphs if you were interested) and so far the process has been a bit..well..intimidating. Over the last couple of weeks, I've taken a half a dozen writing/publishing workshops online and while these have proved very useful, it's evident that I've got a lot of work to do if I want to be a successful and more importantly published writer. It's not as though I was expecting this entire process to be easy because if it were, everyone would publish a book. There is, however, a lot more to it than I originally anticipated. Writers are not merely conveyors of a story; they are, at their heart, marketing gurus (which I am not). Selling a book also means selling your platform, building an audience, and connecting with the core of people that you want to read your story. 

So, that's what I'll have to do. 

And I kind of hate it. 

I am really not much of a social media person. Over the years, my distaste for social media has only grown; the steadfast belief that it is ultimately one facet of a system that will be the collapse of our entire society. Our entire lives are on display and every part of our identity is for sale to the highest bidder. There isn't a single app you can download on your phone that doesn't have some minute, tiny text in its 'Terms and Conditions' that signs away your right for companies to collect information about who you are - your age, demographic, spending habits, desires. I once heard it said that if a company gives away its product for free, it's because YOU are the product. You are the commodity by which that company earns its coin. 

I remember once many years ago, I was working a temporary side job as a way to earn some extra cash and the warehouse that I worked in was a giant concrete box. It got absolutely no reception so streaming any music was out of the question. So, it came to be that because all of my coworkers were Spanish-speaking, we often listened to Spanish radio during work. Though the words were lost on me, it provided much needed background noise to get me through the day. And it only took a couple of weeks, if that, before all of the advertisements I was getting anywhere online, from Youtube to Pandora to Facebook, were all in Spanish. I don't speak any Spanish. But it was the very act of being in an environment rich with that language that whatever applications on my phone were listening and telling advertisers how they could get to me. 

And the downside is that every resource I'm finding about being a published author is telling me the exact same thing: you have to have an online presence. 

So, how do I reconcile my desire to be free from the system that uses me as a means of wealth generation for other unscrupulous people and needing to be part of that system in order to succeed? Is there a way to do so? I'm not sure. 

This morning, having recently finished up an article on platform building for new writers, I started making a to-do list of things that I wanted to accomplish so I can begin building my audience before the intimidating process of querying agents. Looking at that list made me second guess this plan. How could I be expected to be someone I am not? I've never been truly comfortable in front of a camera much less on a consistent basis. One of the workshops I took last week talked about how building an online audience has a direct correlation to book sales (duh) and in their experience, cultivating that relationship with your readers gives you a much better shot of being a successful writer. 

But what would that even look like for me? I don't want fame. Frankly, the idea is laughable. I certainly have no delusions about what this project could bring me in terms of long-term success. If I am successful in any way, it will be moderate at best and I am completely comfortable with that. I just want to earn a living. I just want to write. 

For the time being, because all of this is hypothetical anyway (because as of two days ago, it's been exactly eight weeks, two entire months since I filed for unemployment and still have not heard a peep), I will focus my energies on just making good use of my abundant free time. 

As always, till next time.