My First Radio Interview as an Author (Before)

Tonight, I will be a guest on The Morgan Show on WBZ News Radio to talk about my book, “ISSUES: The Opposite of Everything I Was Taught“.  This will be my first radio interview of this kind.

I’m very lucky, because I’ve known Morgan for 30 years; I honestly don’t know how I would have landed an opportunity like this on my own as an independent author learning the business of book promotion at the same time I’m promoting my book.

Still, the fact that he’s a friend of mine doesn’t mean that I’m taking this lightly. His show reaches 38 states –

38 states!  –

and I’m not going to be on as just a caller. I want to put my best Professional Author foot forward.

This was only just scheduled last night (we waited until I had a date for a bookstore book signing event – and I just got it yesterday), so you can imagine how ill-prepared I feel.

I’ve already done work on putting together a media press kit (yes, I wrote the book and published it before I did any pre-promotion work) – I’m even preparing to take pictures tonight to add to it – but I’m going to be facing Morgan wearing a different hat. He knows flighty, snarky, opinionated, too-talkative, and sometimes insane Susie quite well; but it’s Sue the Author that needs to be there tonight. Sue, who is able to convey what her book is about and why it’s relevant. Without using some of the words in her book, and without going off on many tangents (or at least limiting the number of different directions).

I wish I didn’t have to work today so that I could allow myself more time to prepare (by prepare, I mean google again every aspect about author self-promotion, get quite overwhelmed, then take a nap) – or at least do my hair. You know how important that is for radio.

Morgan’s talk show is late night; I’ll be on from midnight to 1:00 am EST.  I’ll actually be doing another one the eve before my book signing; hopefully, I’ll do better then – but I’m hoping to be ‘not bad’ tonight. If any of you happen to listen in and have any suggestions, I’ll take them here.  If’I’m totally sinking and you feel bad for me, you can even call in to the live show and try to rein me in!

Tune in tomorrow for the “After” update!

(Wish me luck!)

 

WBZ Radio Boston: https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/

Book Signing Event:
Readmore Bookstore, 330 Winthrop Street, Taunton, MA 02780
March 21, 2020  2:00 – 4:00 pm

 

 

Handling Twitter

Okay, I’m working on my time management regarding all of the bullshit an independent author needs to handle – primarily, social media for non-fun marketing and networking.

I’ve already covered that I hate the follow-for-follow game. It’s really pointless because you end up with followers in the same boat as you, and other than being able to offer words of encouragement, they will not broaden a network that suits you. (Unless, of course, you are in that sweet spot where your follower numbers affect whether or not you are ‘chosen’ and you have enough followers to make a difference – and if you do, you are probably not playing the game.) And then, you complain that you have all these followers that you don’t know or don’t talk to. What?

I follow someone I find interesting. I comment on posts I find interesting, and try to make posts that if they are found someone else will comment. I try to make real connections. Call me silly, but I do believe that will make a difference.

Anyhoo, I’d been playing around with the idea that I should give each platform a spot on a schedule. It looks like Sunday mornings before work is a fun time to scroll through Twitter and see what’s out there, because it’s not enough time to sit down and write (remember, too, I hate my writing being interrupted by work).

Today was my first official Twitter Day. I started late, because something in me felt motivated and I washed dishes (Yay, me!).

I even got a thought of something I wanted to write about – with the specific wording – and typed it all out!

I did my routine of checking Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It was then I decided to give each one its own time slot (except Facebook; I still use that mostly for fun).

I saw that I was followed by someone whose comment I liked. I scrolled through that person’s page and saw a lot I liked and connected with, so I followed back.

And then I got a DM ad from that person, a thank-you-for-the-follow-check-out-my-new-book.

Sigh.

So, I sent back an “I will if you will” message with an ad for my own new book.

I will make Twitter work for me.

On Sunday mornings.

 

Life’s Little Surprises

I didn’t expect to be writing here so soon, but a little happy event prompted this. I’ll admit, it could be my ego feeling the need for a follow-up so soon after a public declaration of depression – I have a hard time sometimes, admitting my ‘human-ness’. It must be the man in me. 😀

Yesterday was my day off from work, but because I work for one of the few places that does not participate in direct deposit I have to go in for my paycheck. When I got there I found a duffle bag with my name on it and a note that said simply “From a customer”.

The bag was full of books – and not just any books, but books that pertain to me and my writing! Each book I pulled out was a book that had appeal to me, or some correlation to what I write about.

Without knowing at first who left it for me, I knew that this was one of the most thoughtful gifts I’d ever received – if it had come from a romantic interest, I would’ve considered it a marriage proposal. Have you ever had a batch of books curated especially for you? It would have to be from someone who understands you, who listens when you speak …

I did figure out who it was from.

I met a man and woman who come into my store, separately – they never come in together. Over the past 6 months I’ve been working at the store, I’ve developed a sort of friendship with them. We bonded over books and writing, and they were very interested in what I was writing about and asked how to get a copy of my book.

I found out later they were married to each other, and that they are reading (and enjoying) my book, together.

I can’t ignore how much wonderful-ness is in this little event: a surprise gift, a surprise thoughtful gift, validation as an author, connection, acknowledgment … and the little lift I get when I realize a married couple is reading my book (that’s the ego speaking; I’ve been accused of being a raging feminist who is against marriage). and the two of them, reading – and enjoying, as they said – my book together, makes me so happy.

They left the books for me.

And all of this came from the job I resent so much.

Isn’t that a kick in the ass?

 

Getting Back in the Saddle

Forgive me, Susie, it’s been – hold on while I check – 19 days since my last post. I wasn’t planning on writing here daily, but I think my original goal was at least once every two weeks.

The whys of a period of not writing for me never have the reason of “nothing to say” and almost always rely on outside circumstances. This is not my first blog; I’m now writing  3 separate ones (sorted by topic, somewhat). With the first blog – or the first time I tried to start one – my issue for delay was fear, plain and simple. Why do it? Who’s going to read it? Will I be taken seriously? I pushed myself into doing it. It took 3 separate starts before it ‘took’.  Then when I got into it and got a modest (very modest) following, it got easier – as in, less fearful.

*One thing I learned about fear in writing, as far as it goes for me, is that when I notice I’m most afraid to hit the publish button is the time that I have to. It’s a sign to me that what I wrote was my most genuine.

I think we tend to start new things when we realize we are in times of transition, and then later realize that it might have been better to have waited til the end of the transitional period to start something. Routine anything is hard to maintain when everything seems to be changing.

My original blog (the one that stuck) was put aside temporarily while I finished my book; I wanted to make sure I wasn’t writing the same things in both the book and the blog. Plus, those last few ‘hours’ of the rewrites and edits take an exhausting amount of time, and like most writers I have a day job that I can’t yet quit.

The next ‘blog interruption’ came in the form of marketing said book. All of my ‘free’ time was spent on getting the word out, contacting independent book stores (and visiting independent bookstores when I was able to put aside some money to buy a significant stash of books to deliver), tweaking all of my social media accounts to allow for promoting and selling, and then wasting time grumbling about how much more work it was to promote a book than to write it.

It was that grumbling period, though, that prompted this particular blog. I wanted to write about writing. I see many other people blogging about how to write, sell, promote (and I thank every one of them for their time and valuable information), but that wasn’t what I wanted to do; I wanted to focus on the life of a writer, my life as a writer-with-a-day-job, because I know my experiences are not isolated. All of us writers (those of us who are not yet fortunate enough to just be the writers we know we are) experience so many of the same issues regarding familial and friend support (or non-support), being taken seriously enough to be ‘allowed’ the time to write by our immediate circles – even my cats think they can dictate whether or not it’s time for me to write, dealing with insecurity and sense of worth regarding our work, managing our time to be able to write, and learning the steps of self-promotion (and all the new insecurity that gets dredged up with that).

Right now (obviously), my issue is with time management. I’ll be honest, right now this period of transition (and I have to force myself to look at it that way to make myself understand it is temporary) is especially difficult for me; I’ve been forced to realize and admit that I’m dealing with a depression I’ve never sunk to the depths of before. I may write more about that later, but for right now I’ll say that depression is a knock-out punch to motivation. I want to write, but sometimes can’t even work myself up into enough enthusiasm to sit my ass at the computer.

Another silly deterrent of mine isn’t time so much as enough time. Part of my previously mentioned ‘condition’ is a strong resentment (best I could say) to my job. Nothing frustrates me more than being at my computer and writing (happily writing) and having to stop because I have to go to work. We all have peeves with normal interruptions, I know, but I realized sometimes I would just rather not write than deal with the total frustration of that kind of interruption because I would go to work more resentful than I already was.

Yeah, I’m working on that.

There’s also an odd dichotomy at work for me, too. I’m promoting a book that I am actually very enthusiastic about and proud of. Sometimes I feel like I’m two people: on one side, I’m the sassy, opinionated female and writer I want to be – or know I am;  and then there’s the other side: the depressed, under-employed (overworked), menopausal, and trapped slug.

In a clearer moment, like right now, I can see a little benefit in the lessons I’m learning about time, change (which I’ve actually always been a big fan of), and synchronicity. It’s the synchronicity and small serendipitous ‘coincidences’ (and I don’t believe in coincidence) that I’m so happy I still have my wits about me to notice.

My first ex used to call me a “Fucking Cheerleader” – and he never meant that in a good way. Since I do believe negativity is a choice of focus, I can see how annoying I would be to someone who wants to believe that the world is a terrible place and that life is supposed to be hard. I can even see how annoying it is for me when that inner cheerleader shoves those fucking pom-poms in my own face when I want to wallow.

She is here with me now, and I’m letting her sit next to me for now. And I’m writing.

And I’m going to hit the ‘publish’ button in a few minutes, even though my original plan was to write about the ideas I came up with to ‘help manage writing time during changing times’ and I never got to that.

Because, at least, I’m back in the saddle.

Rah-Rah-Rah!

 

A Journey Through ‘Anti-‘ Social Media

I got a MySpace page way back when as a means of spying on my daughter (she knew, by the way). I jumped on Facebook as a place for me to keep in touch with friends that I already had across the states – I called it “MySpace for adults”. I loved it back then, and I still love it now.

About 7 years ago, a friend of mine called me a Facebook Whore. He’s right, and I wear that badge proudly. Facebook is my play area. I keep strange hours, have had jobs that bounced me around state-to-state with really weird schedules. For about 4 years, Facebook seemed like my only contact with the outside world. Because of a limited time schedule, I would plan events – not simple get-togethers – to see my friends. They started calling me “the Julie McCoy” of gatherings.  (Pfft. Look it up.)

That same friend was trying to start a business promoting bands. Because of my Facebook ‘status’ I was invited to every event he held, free of charge and with a free drink or two included. He knew that I would be posting all over Facebook before, during, and after the event. It was a win-win; he got semi-free publicity, and I got to feel like I actually went out once in a while.

That was my introduction to marketing on social media. Since then, I’ve learned a lot of new words (and got a lot more headaches).

When I started using Instagram 7 years ago, it was only for sorting pictures. I began to get into photography and was already using pictures for scrapbooking and various paper crafts and I needed a place for my ‘special’ ones, the ones I planned to use later in some way.

Then I started publishing books and was told I needed a ‘platform’ (I really only like that word as a description for a type of shoe).

Honestly, I didn’t want to ruin my friendships on Facebook. I’m enough in their faces, but I didn’t want it to be now for a sales pitch. I created an author page where I’d post my blogs, with the occasional ‘pitch’ on my main page.

I decided to use Instagram for the ‘platform’ and now have to revise the way I do my posts there. (That’s where I learned about the Follow-Unfollow game.) My problem was that because I’m not a niche writer, my page did not look like everyone else’s who had what seemed to be the same pictures all over their pages. Mine is more of a story about me – and I stuck with that. My most recent book is a collection of essays, which are basically opinions (my opinions) covering various subjects, and since I don’t have a ‘story’ to sell, I am essentially selling myself. If you like me, you may like my book. If I offend you, you definitely won’t like my book. Either way, I am my ‘brand’. Sheesh.

I never intended to ‘use’ Twitter – did I mention I hate limits? – but got an account because I “needed one as an author”, and basically hacked my way in by automating my Facebook posts to transfer over. That got very messy. I stopped the auto-transfer, deleted the many duplicate posts, and planned to get back to it later.

While on Instagram I started studying what everyone else was doing. I began to notice people were either following a formula of some kind … or selling one. Then I noticed how they were marketing their formulas – all in the same formulaic way. The same set-up, the same hype, the same font, the same ‘special’ deals, the same everything. It made me think of the time I wasted many years ago researching work-at-home jobs (before social media) and would be redirected to the  ‘free’ ebook page with the same pitch:

What would YOU do if you had money?
[Testimonial], [Testimonial] … [Testimonial] (ad nauseam).
The promise to show you how to make real money (not like the others).
The question: How much would all of this be worth to YOU?
[Testimonial], [Testimonial] … [Testimonial] (ad nauseam).
The price: an EXTREMELY reduced rate that would only be good for a limited time before the price went back up to what it should be.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! For just the cost of shipping, we will ADD the information we implied you were getting in the original packet!
*I click to leave the page*
BEFORE YOU GO (Are you sure you want to?), how about THIS lower price?

 

**Has anyone noticed yet that the sales-pitch pitch hasn’t changed??

 

I’m ashamed to admit, I read a 39-page ebook online (oh, my eyes!) only to find out in the last paragraph that the pitch was to sell Herbalife (pfft. Look it up).

Because I filled out contact information to be able to ‘access’ that non-information, I’d be contacted via phone and email. I had a pat response built to shorten the contact: I already know what I’d do with the money. Stop the pitch and give me the damned bottom line!

Even the first few writing seminars and classes I took over thirteen years ago were pushing certain formulas for ‘writing with an eye to marketing’.

When did creativity become so methodized? I accept that I have to be aware of marketability and marketing to some extent, but to the point where I lose my focus? Yes, some formulas do work, but they always start out as something original that was emulated – and they always have a saturation point.

I’m on Twitter now, and finding out it’s more about the same Follow-Unfollow game I learned about on Instagram, only instead of sales pitches to buy followers the pitch has become ‘batch following’: I’ll post a bunch of people’s names, you like and follow them and they will follow you.

The irony of irony is that after they get a number of followers, they retweet a post that says, “I’m wondering why there are so many people on my follower’s list that I don’t talk to.”

What? Really?

The second part of that post is the ‘test’: “If you are reading this, respond with a pic/gif about your day (or your breakfast).”

All of this is just marketing to get numbers – and the numbers won’t matter if your page is all about numbers. The powers-that-be that made the numbers so important have begun to realize that people are hacking the numbers game. Even the famous ones, with the ‘bots’.

Which brings us back to square one. Social media is definitely (and will always be) a medium that can be used for marketing, but the main aspect is the SOCIAL part. The real networking, the friendly networking; like-minded people finding their tribes – and the people they can actually market to.

I started paying attention to my numbers and noticed that I would have new followers that would drop off in a day or to, and it seemed to be because I didn’t immediately follow them back. In my opinion, the Follow-for-Follow game is the social media equivalent of agreeing to be little Johnny’s girlfriend in the first grade just because he was the only one who asked you. So what if he ate paste, right?

I have since stopped paying attention to my numbers. I’m not going to sweat the un-follow of the people the follow just to get my follow back. I don’t want followers I have no connection with because they will not be interested in what I may be trying to sell. I don’t want followers that I have no common ground with, because I don’t want their posts – the ones I have no interest in – preventing me from seeing posts I do want to see.

It’s the social aspect of social media that gives us the opportunity to make real connections and build businesses in a personal way without trying to make ‘personalization’ a business tactic. Padding the numbers of followers is like embellishing a job application; even if it gets your foot in the door, people will learn your real substance. A fall from grace can be worse than a slow forward movement.

I do have a LinkedIn account, but I find it’s a little too stick-up-ass for me. I cannot pretend I’m that business-oriented.

Seriously, we’ve made it more work to find work.

I’ll use hashtags. I find they are a valuable tool for connecting with the right people, for business or play. Keeping up on social-media-with-a-purpose is work, and I’m already working a lot. I cannot please everyone, and I’d be foolish to try. If I have to sell myself in any way, I’d rather it be to the people who are actually interested –

–NO DM’s, please!

If I’m going to look around, I’d rather be looking at things I want to see. There’s a reason I never go to a Fish and Tackle store.

For the record, I do take a look at the pages of people who follow me. If I see anything I find inspiring, interesting, or shiny I will follow back.

If you follow me: thank you.

If you don’t: thank you. Your time, attention, and money are just as valuable as mine.

***

What’s funny is that this here rant is nothing new, and nothing I haven’t written about before.

 

Which brings me to yet another social media marketing buzzword I learned: evergreen.

I’m getting a headache.