Argh, site traffic is low despite daily posting. This is frustrating to me because I’m trying to network and monazite as I work. So I’m faced with the new and potentially destructive question, how do I self promote while maintaining financial solvency and my sanity.
There are a bunch of ready-made, out-of-the-box opportunities for writers and other creatives these days. Its not all writing and then attempting to publish. But the problem, especially for a creative going it alone, is that you need a big pile of cash to endure the opportunity costs that will arise.
I know that patience is advised, write more then polish is sound advice. And every day that’s just what I do. Someday someone may take notice and before you know it you’ll be swimming in a J. K. Rowling sized pool of loose change. The conclusions there aren’t very reassuring.
I want to build a roadmap to success in this for this writing endeavor, but what is in my toolbox the hope that I’ll exercise good judgement, a rudimentary ability to budget, and an ability to recklessly stab in the dark.
Tobias Buckell recently wrote about how little time there is and how valuable it is to him.
I now evaluate things by a very strict lens (are there opportunities to meet author friends I rarely get to see, or combine a bunch of business meetings, etc), as there are reasons to travel on your own nickel (I go to NYC once or so a year, for example, to have face to face meals with publishing contacts because I value face to face encounters). I also go on writing retreats to better my craft, or to get a large chunk of writing done and reconnect with author friends.
He’s concerned more about the value of his non-writing time going to conventions and traveling, which while I can understand is not specifically my problem. No one has invited me to come to their writer’s conference. He’s got a following, I know, because I follow him. That said, the evaluation he’s making is very similar to the decision I need to make on a daily basis. Is what I could be doing as important as what I should be doing? How do I protect my “golden time” so that I can nurture these stories?
So, if the image above didn’t already give it away, I need to explore more options for gaining back readership. I realize that of my friends and family who maintain connections to me within the online social networking world only some of you are even remotely interested in the fact that I’m writing now.
But your feedback is much appreciated. Your networked contacts with things I publish on my own is even appreciated, something you read may get a click or like or whatever from someone I don’t know then from there it grows.
FeetForBrains 