Driving to work this morning, singing along to Fall Out Boy (don't judge my music taste...) I got to thinking about all the things we have to do to "become writers."
We have to start a blog, get a YouTube channel, instagram, pintrest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blog tours, manuscript assessments, street teams, amazon advertising, goodreads, ARC copies, giveaways ... the list is fucking endless.
I have seen so many blogs selling books telling wannabe #authors about how to sell and make money from their books. 'This is my success story, buy my book and I'll tell you the secret!'
It reminds me of a story my father once told me. He (or my grandfather... I can't remember exactly) once saw an ad in the newspaper saying 'how to make $1000 a week. Send $1 to this address and I'll send you the info on how.' He thought that sounded like a pretty good deal. So he sent his dollar. A week later, he received a letter in the mail. He opened it up and it was the big secret! It said, 'put ad in paper promising big secret for only $1. Copy this letter and send it to people.'
True story.
This is what these books are like. This is what all the bullshit is like. We struggle to keep an interesting blog going, fret about what photo to take for insta and we pull our hair out wondering why an agent hasn't picked us up yet or why we only have three likes on our YouTube video.
We should be just writing.
This revelation probably won't change anything. I'll still blog and take photos of my coffee in the morning. #writerslife ... but at the end of the day we should be spending more time on the art and less time on the sell.
Hugs xxx
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