Marketing
I am using a comment I made elsewhere, in reference to a person who argued that you shouldn't talk about politics on facebook if you were an author, because it would piss readers off and damage your brand. The purpose of social media is to promote your brand...
I wrote: "When I read an essay like this one, I realize I know absolutely nothing about being a writer. I write stories. Editors buy them. If an editor doesn't buy a story, I send it to another editor. Sometimes no one buys the story. That is the sum of my knowledge about writing. All the cool stuff about branding passed me by. I am good at bookkeeping, and I wish I was better re contracts. But marketing is a mystery."
To which I will add: When I encounter a person who self-promotes nonstop, I tend to edge away. They come across as a narcissist or clueless or -- worst of all to a Minnesotan -- someone who is bragging.
Announcements of new books out are, of course, okay. Descriptions of writing techniques and problems are interesting. (I can only write with a quill pen, while hanging from a chandelier.) (That isn't me, by the way. I write sitting in a chair, usually with a computer, though sometimes with a ballpoint or rollerball.)
Discussions of the business of writing and publishing are also interesting, if I think the people involved know what they are talking about.
It's the sense that I am the target of marketing that bothers me. If I want ads, I will turn off all the ad blockers...
I wrote: "When I read an essay like this one, I realize I know absolutely nothing about being a writer. I write stories. Editors buy them. If an editor doesn't buy a story, I send it to another editor. Sometimes no one buys the story. That is the sum of my knowledge about writing. All the cool stuff about branding passed me by. I am good at bookkeeping, and I wish I was better re contracts. But marketing is a mystery."
To which I will add: When I encounter a person who self-promotes nonstop, I tend to edge away. They come across as a narcissist or clueless or -- worst of all to a Minnesotan -- someone who is bragging.
Announcements of new books out are, of course, okay. Descriptions of writing techniques and problems are interesting. (I can only write with a quill pen, while hanging from a chandelier.) (That isn't me, by the way. I write sitting in a chair, usually with a computer, though sometimes with a ballpoint or rollerball.)
Discussions of the business of writing and publishing are also interesting, if I think the people involved know what they are talking about.
It's the sense that I am the target of marketing that bothers me. If I want ads, I will turn off all the ad blockers...
posted by Eleanor at 9:20 AM
1 Comments:
I've also noticed that the people who say you shouldn't talk about politics on FB (or wherever) almost always talk about politics on FB.
What they mean, usually, is that *you* shouldn't talk about your politics on FB. Their politics are perfectly acceptable. But your politics are disgusting and rude and offend people.
These are the same sort of writers who insist their fiction isn't politic, when what they mean is that the politics in their fiction is politics that they find acceptable and agreeable. While YOUR politics, on the other hand...
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