As authors, we're often told by our fellow authors, industry professionals, marketers, promoters, bloggers, readers and a host of other people that we have to be on social media. That we need to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Goodreads, and whatever new site pops up every so often. We need to post multiple times a day. We need to stay on top of all the new trends while being "real" and honest and commenting on large world events -- or even smaller conflicts within our community.
Well, I'm here to ask WHY? Why do I need to do all of that stuff? I'm an author. My job is to write, isn't it? Shouldn't my focus be on writing books for people to read? Yeah, but... how will people know about your books if you're not on social media?
Let me be clear that I'm not against social media. Just the opposite. I actually enjoy it when I'm using it organically and for fun. But when I'm actively trying to engage with readers or create content with the goal of garnering engagement, I find myself hating it. I come to loathe logging into my accounts. And spending so much time creating content, posting content, and then monitoring engagement takes valuable time away from the three things that are way more important:
1. My family
2. My health
3. My writing
I write and publish books to entertain readers and engage with them on a deeper level. Does this mean I'm going to quit social media all together? Of course not. But instead of focusing on all the various platforms, I'm going to focus more of my time and effort on this blog, my newsletter, and writing my books. I'll share my blog posts to my social media profiles, and I'll post when I have something fun to share, but I'm no longer posting daily / weekly memes or questions. And you will never see me dancing on TikTok!
Goodbye social media time suck!
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