Jason Pinter’s talking today over on the Huffington Post about publishing and social media.
He’s saying that’s where the industry is going on now: on Twitter, especially, where agents, acquisitions editors, and publishers can talk either one-on-one or en masse to readers and authors, bringing the audience down out of the stands and onto the playing field. Pinter points especially to John Sergent’s blog, which he started in response the Amazon-Macmillian fracas (only Jeff Bezos’ first public tantrum of the year). It’s an amazing idea, and it’s true that what we considered business-as-normal only three years ago is practically medieval today. But at the same time we’ve been talking here about where you find time to write. . .and there’s no question that the blogosphere is a major stumbling block (Twitter—my god! It eats your life).
So how do you balance it? DO you?
I barely got adjusted to facebook, and now–Twitter! I’m hopelessly behind. For now, it’s for the best–between FB and blogging and kids and yardwork and do find a bit of time to write.
That was an excellent article by Jason. If I were an agent or publisher, I would definitely act on it and get my electronic socializing up to speed.
But, I’m still trying to do the writer thing and all I can say is that social networking is a time drain. I was working on Mirren and quit to read this blog because it is just so much easier than fixing Chapter 27. I can just imagine myself on Twitter.
It’s the great thing about your blog, Victoria. It offers leads to people who want to go outside, but it’s satisfying enough to stay inside. You allow your readers a way to keep tabs on the rest of the publishing world without having to sift through the internet themselves.
Thanks,
K
Ania, my garden is a wreck. Literally not even garden anymore, just lawn with vegetable-bed-shaped weed sections. I barely have time to spend a half hour riding bikes with my son these days. I couldn’t possibly squeeze in Facebook. As it is, I’ve GOT to carve out more time in the three-dimensional world!
Kathryn, thank you for the kind words. I did originally intend this blog to be about nothing but craft, and then when that became a headache I intended it to be exactly what you described, a peephole into the business of fiction. At this point I’m not sure what I want for it. I’m going to be making some changes after I get this book dealt with.
And that’s the thing, of course. There are only so many hours in a day, and the more social media blossoms, the more precious those hours become. How do you allocate them?