My behavior over the past few weeks has been a bit schizophrenic. If you recall less than a month ago I was through with the internet—at least for a while. And now in less time than it takes to send a package overseas I've done a complete about face and joined
twitter.
Understandably, some of my readers have said "What!?!", along with other less than flattering words about my character and self discipline. Now let's just ignore the fact that all these comments have come from fellow internet junkies *cough, cough* and give me a chance to explain.
The internet is incredibly addicting. Especially when I have other things I don't want to do— like fold laundry or grade exams. Sometimes it's depressing reading posts about the things other people are doing and instead of the internet being a great escape from reality it is just a bitter reminder that other people have exams to grade, and laundry to fold, and children with the swine flu. So last month I decided I'd had enough and decided to take a break. My hope was that I could learn to live without the internet.
But here's the catch: I am a writer in the 21st century and trying to write without the internet is like trying to live without food.
Unless you've been living in a dial-up cave you know that in the last few weeks the book industry has gone through a
tremendous upheaval. It looks like e-books are here to stay. As much as I love to bury my nose in a nice new hardback, if I want to write I need to have an online presence.
I can't say I'm crazy about the idea.
Now before I get angry emails, let me explain myself:
I highly admire savvy internet authors. I bow in reverent awe to John Greene and Maureen Johnson (see sidebar if you don't know who they are). They've carved out healthy careers nourished by a strong online presence. Look at Neil Gaimen, he's got over a million followers on twitter for pete's sake! Like it or not those followers translate into
book sales.
My frustration with the internet is that it is very much like a popularity game and I've never been very good at playing. I have this terrible habit of speaking my mind and sometimes that gets me into trouble.
But lets face it, none of us writerly types are all that crazy about popularity. We tend to be the quiet ones who'd rather observe from the back of the room. But we don't have the luxury of being JD Salinger not with the
big vendors cutting costs on bestsellers. I may not understand the complex dynamics of this deal but from what I've gathered if you're not one of the top authors in the country it just got a lot harder to sell your book.
Since I do not yet have a book on the market, I feel it's a good time to learn this publicity game as quickly as possible. Everything helps, right? I'd rather make lots of mistakes now in front of fifty people rather than later in front of the whole publishing world.
And the truth is I like twitter . . . even more than facebook. I thought it would be a tremendous time waster. In truth it is a lot more efficient.
Jaime Theler is right. You get to control what shows up on your homepage—no more invites for quizzes you don't want to take or announcements about cartoon farm animals. You don't get anything you don't want. So instead of swimming through miles and miles of status updates you get the down and dirty (and very entertaining) recent activities of your twitter friends. And you can follow whoever you want. You don't have to wait for an invite or an acceptance.
As an added plus, I get to feel the pulse of the YA market—as it's happening.
Now I only have five followers thus far. I'm hoping some of you reading this will come along and join me. But before you condemn my actions you might want to read a little about the
future of publishing.
Because the internet is a tool and an important business tool at that.
