Friday, October 17, 2014

Adrenaline, Online Presence, and Invisibility

This will be short and to the point because FINALLY the boat is back in the water - all repairs completed. Pretty much everything that could go wrong, did, and kept us on dry land days past our original splash date. But it's all over, now. We hit the ground running at 5AM. The boat was in the water at 10:30 this morning. My father and I have been on the water since, delivering the boat back to its regular slip. Add in two solid adrenaline rushes while I did things with that boat I'd (A) never done before and (B) had no idea I could do and you may understand that my brain is oozing out my ears. Maybe you've hear that the most exciting parts of flying an airplane are landing and taking off. In boating, the most terrifying parts are getting off the dock and then putting the boat back on the dock (without killing anyone or sinking anything). So. I'm pretty much toasted. But I can tell you about my online presence, such as it is.

Website: There are really none of the following save the author website that I think are critical - and I know a couple of authors who laugh at even that. They have no website at all. Their argument is that if you're looking for information on them, they want you to find their books, not them. Shrug. Dunno. I have a website.

Blogging: I have three. Word-whores, Darker Temptations, and my much neglected personal blog. I tried working both on Blogger and on Wordpress. One person swore that Wordpress made it much easier for you to be discovered - or to go viral, however, I saw no real difference between the two. Thus the Wordpress blog will be closed out and the content there will be moved over to the longer running Blogger site.

Twitter: I am on Twitter where I listen more than I speak. I find my snark is strongest on Twitter and I have to rein that in. It's way too easy for that to come off as mean. Do Not Want. So I listen until I have a ridiculous day that begs for quick shots into the great dark expanse of the interwebs - mostly about the boat or the cats.

Facebook: I have an author page and my regular page. FB has done their best to make FB utterly useless and irrelevant in the recent past. Not that I'm bitter. Author pages are no longer visible to your followers unless you pay FB's extortion - ehem - page promotion fees. Thus, I've asked anyone who liked my author page to friend me on my regular page, assuming they can handle the cat photos and geeky silliness I post there. I'm nowhere near my friend limit and at least the few book updates I post have a shot of showing up on someone's feed.

Tumblr: Lurvs Tumblr. Most of my reblogging is science, artwork, fashion I will never get to wear, and assorted stuff that tickles me. This is the least 'branded' thing I do. Which may be why it's so much fun. I'm not in the least concerned that I might 'do it wrong'.

The Thing I Do Not Have and Am Likely to Never Have: Pinterest. I know my limits. And I know a massive, unending, never write again time sink when I see one.

Curious thing. I am not crazy about any of my online presences. Some writers have spent most of their lives being invisible. The sudden emphasis on getting online and staying online in a meaningful (and up to date way) can feel overwhelming, impossible, intrusive or any combination of those things. Those of us who fall into that category are bucking the tide to get online in the first place and when we do, we're plagued by constant inadequacy neuroses about them. All of them. If you fall into the category with me, take a deep breath, and do one thing. Right or wrong. Pick one. Start there. Bonus points if you can make it fun for yourself. I know. That sounds like an oxymoron. Think of it as challenging your comfort zone. You're stretching. Growing. And getting your website online.

1 comment:

  1. That's the one thing I don't have that I probably should - a website. But I'm a miser and I've never been able to justify the expense. I did look into it years ago, though, and all the good URLs I wanted were taken. I'll stick to my blogs and hope anyone interested in my books finds me there.

    And I totally agree with you on Pinterest. That's got timesuck written all over it.

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