The Writer and Social Media

The writer and social media

 

The writer is being drowned in a sea of advice and counter advice about how to build a platform that has become vital for the writer. The next lesson relates to why a website is so necessary for anyone who aspires to be a writer.  The subsequent step is how to learn the use of Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and other social media to bring readers to websites. This activity is growing at an alarming rate. Amazon stores are adding to this activity and making the writer try to speed up on the effort even further. About two to three years ago this author-strategy was working well but now with the number of writers mushrooming at an alarming rate, it is highly debatable whether these theories of promotion through social media are working or taking up the time of writers and leaving them much less time to bring out that masterpiece which every writer dreams of. Writers, particularly those who self-publish, are advised to start advertising even before the book is written.

This entire approach, in which the writer is expected to work for his promotion along with the time he spends writing, is in keeping with the times. Today advertisements make things sell and the writer is expected to be something like a manufacturer who manufactures a product and sells it through advertisement. The creative writer’s mind is by nature different to the manufacturer’s. The manufacturer can afford to use certain people who help him with his advertisements. But the author has to do both things together; he writes and he advertises.

The writer of contemporary times, is therefore, doing much more apart from writing than his predecessor did. And yet, only 5 to 10% of the thousands of writers in the field are succeeding. The platforms of the vast majority of writers are not good enough for the growing needs of the industry.

 

Waiting is an essential part of the human condition. But in the life of a writer, waiting seems to stand out as one of its most unpleasant salient features. Often a writer waits for years for nothing to happen. And when he does write a book he waits to find a publisher. If that does not happen, he manages to self-publish and then waits to get his readers, readers that do not seem enthusiastic. Most writers (and there are thousands) ending up doing little more than waiting for something oe other and then for nothing. Our times have substantially changed the lives of writers. On the one hand, we have what we call, “the self-publishing” schemes. These help writers to bring out books, no doubt, but these books may not sell at all and therefore they become a nuisance, ultimately. On the other hand, there is traditional publishing which is, understandably, highly demanding.

Ultimately, it turns out that writing should be done for self-satisfaction and pleasure. Writing is a private matter; it links a man with his soul. It should not be done to end up only as part of the rat race of writers and social media agencies working hard to create masterpieces in despair and confusion.