Jill Marie Landis
Author of Mai Tai One On
Writing is never an easy occupation no matter how far up the ladder you climb. It’s still true that as a working writer you can take time to stare out the window and call it brainstorming, wear pajamas to work, spend hours and hours in solitude in front of a computer screen and use that long dreamed of vacation to Scotland as a tax write off. But in the past few years the writing life has certainly gotten far more complicated than one might imagine or desire.
The Good Old Days
Back when I started (we were using quills and ink then) it was much simpler. We were expected to write, meet a deadline, turn in a book, start another one, await the editorial process, make some changes, turn it in again and sit back and wait for the book to come out. In the meantime we started another book and the whole cycle began again.
If we were lucky we occasionally met with other writers, did a few book signings around our home towns, got some press in the local paper, and considered ourselves famous among our relatives, friends and neighbors.
But now, with the advent of gorilla marketing, the internet, and social networking, times have changed. Oh, my. How they have changed.
Too Many Hats
Now we are our own promoters, our own editors, our own cheerleaders. We have to know how to write press releases, act as our own secretaries, spend our non-writing hours (of which there are far fewer) surfing the internet, keep up postings on Facebook, visiting bookselling sites’ (like Amazon’s Author pages), blogging on our own website (websites many of us have had to learn to create), guest visiting each other’s blogs, overseeing cover designs, passing out trading cards, managing contests and putting up hard earned cash for our give-aways. Even choosing the right hat becomes a problem; we are our own image consultants for all of those dreaded photos we have to post. (Oh, did I forget to mention tweeting? I guess that’s because so far I’ve drawn the line at tweeting.)
Too Few Heads
Once an author hits the big time she can afford to hire a staff to wear a lot of those hats for her. I’ve been there. Once upon a time I was lucky enough to unload a couple of tasks like housekeeping, cooking, errand running, and promotion on others. But times change and now I, as well as other men and women writers (some who even hold down day jobs), are trying to accomplish the Herculean tasks required to make a dent in this new world order of the internet marketplace.
It takes not only a real gift but hours and hours of work to make your book stand out from the crowd, to make it sound like the best of the best, the book worthy of becoming the latest “cocktail party” focus of conversation or the next big book club choice. It takes stamina to come up with the charm and wit and effervescence that gets “friends” and readers to “like” you or your page week after week. It takes…well, it takes a good fiction writer to make ourselves look so wonderfully glamorous.
Be True to You
Despite the bombardment of everything that it takes to “make it” in the writing world today, my biggest struggle is to remain true to myself. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the game a long time, or maybe wisdom does come with age, or maybe it’s just that I’m getting to be like the cartoon character Maxine the curmudgeon—I’ve decided there aren’t enough hours in the day to try to jump higher or run faster or sound oh-so-clever on facebook or anywhere else. I do what I can and devote the rest of my time to reading, staring off into space, and writing. I’ve gone back to sitting on the beach with lined paper to make notes if I’m inspired, and I’ve been walking away from the computer when inspiration is just not there instead of surfing the net trying to find out if my book has sold two more copies than an hour ago. I’ve decided to devote time to writing the kind of books I’d like to read, the kind of books that make me laugh or make me cry. I’m focusing on what led me to become a writer in the first place; the writing itself. I’m writing stories that strike a chord within me and hopefully there are a few people out there who will enjoy them and resonate to that chord too. I have to believe that the books will somehow find those readers even if I don’t constantly facebook, tweet, or twitter. I choose to believe that stories that are meant to be read will be read. The hat I’m wearing the most these days is my writing hat. It’s the hat that fits the best.
Any Thoughts?
I guess since I have on my “promotional blogging hat” right now I’d love to hear what you think. Am I the only one who feels as if we writers are juggling too many hats? Or are you comfortable wearing all of yours?
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