I must confess; I spend way too much time on Instagram these days. But, in my defense, how else is a broke girl supposed to promote her books for free? I find myself asking, though, “Is it really free?”
Free can mean a couple of things a) without cost or b) without restriction. Social media advertising is actually neither of those things. True it doesn’t cost anything financially, unless I choose to run an ad. But there is a price to be paid, intellectually and emotionally.
The intellectual price:
I pour a ton of creative energy into posts and reels that I would rather spend writing, or any number of other things to be honest.
The restriction:
Certain things please the algorithm, and everything else falls through the cracks.
The emotional price:
It’s disappointing when that content you worked so hard on goes out to all your followers and only yields a handful of interactions. But it’s so much worse when only 10% of them even get to see it!
The funny thing is, the pay off doesn’t even come in the form of book sales—well, sometimes it does. It comes from building a community. From lifting each other up and learning from one another. Honestly, it comes in small moments like this comment on my video of a little spider in my garden, guarding her eggs.
“Spiders usually give me the ick, but this felt really wholesome to me.”
A slight perspective adjustment is something I greatly enjoy both providing and receiving. People growing closer together instead of farther apart. So here’s another comment someone blessed me with.
“Maybe the people who you expect to be most supportive and proud actually are but they don’t express it the way you expect. They just know how wonderful you are and so expect nothing less than for you to accomplish whatever it is you set your mind to do.”
In case anyone else needed a slight adjustment, today.
Tag: mental-health
Social Media
Before I published and started promoting my books, I had been off social media altogether for about three years. It was nice. It had gotten to a point where I didn’t even enjoy it anymore, but I would still scroll and scroll and waste my energy. One of the biggest things I remember about Facebook, because that was the only one I did, is the groups. I joined a pitbull owners group (yes there was an unbelievable amount of shade thrown around) and a turtle owners group where I learned how to upgrade, once and for all, a prime habitat for my quickly growing red eared slider, now 22 years old. They were all “experts,” man, and if you even had one little thing wrong, someone was gonna jump in and tell you how much you suck and that you have no right even owning a turtle, etc. That wasn’t the majority; there were some very friendly and helpful people there. But when I took my turtle to the vet, and he was astonished by the maticulously controlled environment I was providing and told me that most of it wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t sure how to feel. Had I been driving myself crazy over details that didn’t matter to Skittles one bit?
Flash forward. Eight months into bookstagram I remember why I didn’t miss it. Don’t get me wrong, I have met some great people and am finally beginning to feel like part of a community. They have helped me improve my writing ,build my confidence and given me some semblance of a clue about marketing. That said, I think I need to remind myself on occassion that this particular community is made up of professional authors, some way more experienced and successful than myself, professional editors and reviewers, and folks whose whole life is reading incredible numbers of books every month and talking about them. This is intentional and has helped me emmensely. So why is it important who they are?
Are you familiar with the term imposter syndrome? This is when you feel like you aren’t any good at, or don’t belong in, your profession. It’s very encouraging to know how many other authors feel this way at times, and how many of them also look at their work and flip flop between “This is going to be a bestseller,” and “This is total crap; I should never write again.” I am in the latter mood at the moment. I am making some minor edits to Garden of Secrets for the complete trilogy special edition—I’ve hired a fantastic artist, I’m so excited—and I’m seeing more than I expected that I’m unhappy with. I started to panick—like wanted to pull existing copies and stop ads until I update kind of panick. Then I realized, I edited very carefully and was happy with it before. I’ve even gotten good reviews and people are coming back for book two, so it can’t be that bad.
What is the difference between then and now? It’s the people I hang out with. I’m noticing a bunch of tiny technical stuff that I never notice as a reader, things that most readers don’t notice, just because I heard one or two bookstagrammers say it’s bad writing. But there’s so much contradictory advice out there, you just have to go with what feel right to you.
Just like I did with my aquarium, I am making all the updates, because I love and value my readers, and my craft, like I love and value my pets. But am I taking the nuclear option? No. I’ve learned the difference between, “This could be a little smoother,” and “This is complete garbage.” Besides, if I ever do get the editing perfect, everyone will just think it was Ai. 😉 Cheers -JG
