I long for the good ol' days where a writer could just...write. *sigh*
Yeah, I spent some time on that thought yesterday. If I'd started this when I was under 30, like a normal person, I'd have established...something?...by now. Or moved on to do something else with my life.
The thing is, I'm not sure how much social media really helps, in terms of sales. I've met a few readers that way, which has been nice, but sales? I think it's impossible to tell, really. If your work doesn't get picked up and talked about by the right circles, you're going to have trouble.
Spouse tells a story of an old math class that I think is a good analogy. Kids in the class were carping about "We don't use this in the real world," and the teacher said, "Actually, you're right. Only about 10% of this is going to be important for any of you. The trouble is, I don't know which 10% is going to be important for which of you, so we all have to learn it all."
I don't
know if Twitter and Facebook help me. That's probably not something that can be properly analyzed. I've no idea if Goodreads giveaways gave me anything more than the warm fuzzies of mailing books to actual people. I doubt it'll do me damage to give it up, though.
Realistically, I need to start updating my blog more consistently before I start expanding my social media circle. I always say I'm going to do that, but I haven't. And no, not all authors have a regularly-updated blog, and mine doesn't get enough readers for me to believe on any level that it expands my readership. (Chuck Wendig has famously posited that his doesn't sell him books, and indeed I read his blog all the time and have never read one of his novels *hanging head in shame*.) But it's a thing I can do that feels natural to me, and I don't think the social media thing works if people sense you're forcing it to try to get them to buy stuff.
Twitter is fun, but I impulse-tweet sometimes which probably doesn't help me! Facebook is easy to use, but you reach such a small percentage of your followers with each post unless you pay them.
I don't know. I've got a couple of tasks on my plate that I've been ignoring, and I expect I'm better off trying to do the work than weeping over a lost promo tool I don't even know was effective.