Write 80%, Promote 20%.

These days, with the written word immediately accessible and competition for our voices to be heard growing ever stronger, it's no longer enough to just write. Promoting what we write has become part of the writers' lot, especially when going it alone with ebooks and self-publishing like I am. And that seems right, because I'm unknown and need to establish a platform from which to make my voice heard. Alternatively, I could write 50 ebooks next year, not impossible actually, but no, not for me. 

I have it on the highest authority that the best strategy is to write 80% and promote 20% or close to that. Promotion means making yourself visible, very visible, in the best way possible and social media is the obvious means to that end.

Now, for someone who had never blogged or tweeted until several months ago, I quickly found myself spending more and more time on promotion and less time on writing. For a newbie to the realms of social media, I had no idea how many blogs there were in the world, or how much twitter traffic there was every minute of the day and night, let alone where to start and who to follow. 

I'm not sure if there's a quick-fix solution here unless you're online 24/7 trying to see the wood for the trees. Maybe age is against me, and I came to social media too late, but several months in, I still find it all extremely time-consuming, mind-boggling and wearying!  I was spending 80% of my time promoting...writing this blog, tweeting, reading other blogs, searching more blogs and tweets...and 20% or less writing. 

Promotion was taking an hour or two a day. Not a lot when I "work" from home, but as some of you know, I have Chronic Fatique, and after two hours of concentration, my brain tells my body that it's had enough for the day, go and rest. So I do. I must, or I burn out. Before I started promoting several months ago I spent all my time writing. That was cool, now it's not, as I need to get the balance back. The answer: Write more, promote less. So from next week, this blog will be a once-a-weeker and will be written on Friday. 

I'm sure you'd all agree that good health is a priority in life. I LOVE writing and I FEELING like writing. So stay well everyone, and have a great week.

See you next Friday,

Leonie

Tree of Life.