I read an interesting article the other day about the 'conscious uncoupling' of writers with social media.
When my first novel was published in 2013, I was told that social media was the way forward – access to an enormous potential readership. And it was free! What's not to like, they said? Well, like many authors, I'm a fairly private person, and the thought of chit-chatting with total strangers online made me uneasy. But my publisher insisted it was the thing to do, so I tried. The result was that I got to know many other writers – people I had much in common with – but not many paying customers.
I facebooked, I tweeted, I blogged myself silly, providing vast amounts of free 'content' for social media, while my book sales remained minimal. My reward for all this effort was social media demanding money for 'advertising' while making it ever more difficult for me to reach the elusive readership. Yes, I even tried the advertising, with zero results.
In the meantime, I was bombarded with fluffy kittens, chain posts containing veiled threats, 'click-bait' and political rants. I have never been outspoken enough to be trolled, but like many other writers, I have had enough.
So, here I am in the process of deactivating my Twitter account. It takes a whole month to convince the chief Twit that I really mean it, but I shall persevere, and ultimately delete the account. Facebook is trickier, since I do use it for friends and family purposes, and I want to be able to support my current publisher.
Nonetheless, I looked at my friends list, and found it full of fellow writers I'd never exchanged a word with. I had a clear-out and reduced it by half, keeping only people I know in person, other local people and writing friends I have corresponded with. I tightened up my privacy settings. I am now working through the enormous list of pages I've 'liked' over the years. I was assured, at one time, that liking other authors' pages in return for them liking my page would make me more visible. It didn't, so most of them can go. Sorry about that. There will be more tightening up and cutting down to come. Facebook stays, but in a much-reduced form. My LinkedIn account has already gone. Thank goodness I never bothered with Instagram.
The question remaining, of course, is: if social media failed as a means of promoting my books, what else can I do instead that will succeed? Now that is really what's on my mind!
PS My reward for the diligent tidying of my Facebook page was to be slapped into Facebook jail. Apparently they thought I might be a robot!
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