Sue, I understand you're new here. But even so, you should have read our Newbie Guide, and if you have, you'll remember that our one rule is "respect your fellow writer". You're on the verge of breaking that rule here, with your tone and use of capslock. Be aware that while it can be irritating to not get the answers you want, people are nevertheless giving their time, effort and expertise to help you.
If any of my posts have come across that way, it certainly hasn't been intentional and I apologize sincerely to anyone who I may have hurt. Any use of caps lock has only been intended to stress a specific word. I haven't caps-locked entire sentences. I will find better ways to do that in the future.
As far as appreciating people's time and efforts in their replies, I absolutely do! I've endeavored to make that clear from the start! That's one reason why I've responded to every person who took their time to respond to my questions. I've never been much of an emoji person and, not wanting to come across as insincere or fake, I didn't want to keep using exclamation points at the end of every sentence or to keep repeating
"Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to respond!" to each person. I've just tried to speak normally or add clarification. Again, I apologize if the tone of my posts have come across any differently. I haven't been irritated with a
single person on this forum!
And I
do take the time to read through sticky posts. (More than just a minute or two.) There are just so many of them that it's impossible to read through them all before posting! I've also performed many searches to find old threads that address my questions. Unfortunately, I don't find the search feature here that effective because it searches each word individually instead of as a phrase. When I've searched for single words, the results haven't always been in the correct context. I'm not complaining, simply explaining.
Moving on: some publishers and agents will want you to have a social media presence, while others won't care so much. Some writers have huge followings, others have little or none; and some writers are dead by the time they're published so can't use social media. It doesn't seem to matter in their cases.
My advice? Go to our Book Promotions room. Read the "SEO Dweeb" thread which is stickied there. Open accounts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and put up some sort of holding page and your basic information there, even if you don't intend to use them, so that you have some control over your name, at least.
Thanks for this. One of the things my searches have shown is that many people advise protecting the control over your name on social media. It's definitely something worth seriously considering.
Meanwhile, write your book. Because if you haven't written a book, revised it thoroughly, and submitted it appropriately then all this talk is for nothing.
Note, too, that very few people are given trade deals for their first, second, even seventh book. If you want a trade deal you're going to have to work very hard for it.
With all due respect, it's not for nothing to me. It's been extremely helpful in clarifying some things, saving some time, and taking a big question off my plate. Enough so that it got me writing. I'd say that's pretty productive for one thread!
As for trade deals, I accept the facts. I expect nothing less than hard work and earning my way. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Out of any of them, Instagram would be the one I could see myself actually enjoying if I needed to.
