social media

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Trying To Embrace A Culture of Mediocrity

I came across some good advice in an article on using social media as a career advancer. I quote: “Social media is a tool that can unlock a world of potential.”

Apparently I should “show [my] new connections that [I’m] the real deal by joining in on conversations related to [my] shared professional interests.”

So, as I’m trying to pursue mystery writing as a potentially marketable venture this year, I did a search on “mystery writer and reader forums”. Immediately found a source where my peers were sharing their professional interests in the following thread:

     how to read a comapss

     dude, your link is not working on my side

     the link works for me

     check yr spelling

The same site invited me to become a “memeber”.

All this also followed up on a long conversation I had with my son a month or so back concerning making social media work for me as a marketing tool. Raising my profile. He is a video maker and has pursued this line with great success. I’ve found in general that the text industry doesn’t share the same sort of experience as video does on the Internet, but I still had to admit it was worth a try. And that’s how I found it. Very trying.

First off, it was surprisingly difficult to find any forums on the subject of writing or reading mysteries at all. I thought that at least would be a slamdunk. I never had any problems finding forums on UFOs. Which didn’t work out for me either, but that was for different reasons. (My brain has stopped glowing now …)

I finally found one — not the site I quoted above — that seemed relatively pertinent, but only one devoted uniquely to mysteries. However, once again, the tenor of the conversation didn’t entice me in as a group of my peers sharing their professional interests. These people obviously enjoy their chat, and I applaud them for that. But the issue did not engage me. Of course, the biggest obstacle to making social media work for me has always been having to be social.

Someone wrote a “cozy” with a ghost in it. What should the writer call it!? Is it a “cozy” or a “paranormal”? What’s wrong with “cozy with a ghost” someone suggested. Someone else: I consider ghosts “paranormal”, but maybe publishers don’t? Another party: “supernatural” is a synonym for “paranormal”. Yet another voice: you might find a better word than “supernatural”. Another: one’s dark and spooky, and the other has more twinkle lights.

I’m sorry … I didn’t really search out this forum to discuss with my peers our professional interest in “twinkle lights”.

So, with my wife’s help — she suggested searching for “intelligent forums” — I came across another general literature site that I thought might just be worth an afternoon’s experimentation. I went through the process of registering, posted an introductory bit on myself, replied to someone else’s introductory bit hoping to strike up a conversation, and posted on two threads already going concerning authors I like. Saying something about what went before, and trying to introduce some thoughts of my own.

A week later, no one’s replied to my introductory bit, the other new person didn’t hold up their end of the conversation, and the flow on the two author threads jumped over my remarks as if they weren’t there, the person commenting after me replying to the person who posted before me in both cases.

So in my efforts to raise my profile with my peers by “showing my new connections that I’m the real deal by joining in on conversations related to my shared professional interests” I’ve managed to render myself and my writing completely invisible!

I feel like a ghost in a cozy. Maybe I really do need twinkle lights.

The upshot was the next day I checked out a list of 65 online mystery publishers instead, and actually found 4 worth following up on. This is an unheard of return on an Internet search for publishers, if you’ve read my previous postings on the subject. So now instead of being ignored by my peers or delving into endless discussions on subcategorizing to death what I’d like to be writing, I’m concentrating on getting that first mystery manuscript into shape and getting it out there.

Hoping to unlock a real world of potential.

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REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

This week:

Continuing The Twitchy Gal with Chapter Thirteen posted on Monday and Chapter Fourteen coming on Friday, September 26th at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

I said there was a lot of sex in this book. Things get too hot for some characters to handle in Chapter Thirteen. Resulting in some intriguing fallout in Fourteen.