SquarePeg Books

I can’t really expound much on this month’s topic, being one’s favorite word-processor thingy. I haven’t had money to really explore anything beyond Linux Office Writer, which is essentially a clone of Word, with just enough differences that it avoids patent infringement.

So. I guess we’ll pull another insecurity out of the hat.

Networking.

Some people do it very well.

I do not.

It isn’t that I don’t want to network, it’s that I’ve discovered a lot of networking doesn’t seem to help me out. I feel like it chews into my own limited brain resources. It can take me a long time to realize all the time and what not that I’ve poured into a particular networking thing actually doesn’t have the ROI I’m looking for.

I lurk, a lot.  It’s nice to look at other people’s postings, other groups that focus on writing; to glean information from here and there, but I’ve also felt a lot of “wow, that totally does not fit the needs I have right now”.

I have limited brain. I couldn’t tell you why, exactly, I don’t brain as well as I did 20 years ago, I just know that it doesn’t, and it is limited, now.

The limitation is scary. It also defines a lot of what I do, and don’t do. I have a tendency to RADICALLY underestimate the time and resources I need to put aside for project X–be it writing 500 words, creating a new YouTube skit for marketing, sewing an outfit for my kid’s formal do, spending a day cooking a number of things to “save time later”, or even networking.  I always think it will take me less time than it really does. Sometimes by a factor of 2.

Other times it’s more like a factor of 10.

I’m someone who, when they join a group, a lot of times suffers from “over-investing” resources, because I’m excited that this is THE THING THAT WILL PULL TOGETHER ALL THE OTHER THINGS INTO ONE COHERENT MASS.

It doesn’t usually work out that way, though.

How is the writing related? One needs to build a readership, a community of fans, in order to make publishing one’s own work not a total  money-suck.

One needs to network, but network wisely.

I still haven’t figured that out yet. Quite a few authors say to just pick a social media platform that you’re comfortable with and roll with that. But like many, I’m not comfortable with most social media. An yet, one must try to build a fan base, prior to publication.

As awkward and as slow as I am, I am trying to put out YouTube videos. Technically, it is social media, and really, on any other platform I would run into similar problems. I’m slowly learning the #. Now I just have to figure out the right combination of hashtags, which flavor of pixie dust to sprinkle the video with, and convince enough people to Like! and Subscribe! that it will actually show up on the algorithm. (Am I using those words right?)

How do you advertise? What do you do for social media?

Check out the Insecure Writer’s Support Group to see what other writers are thinking about!