My three-year-old son has a unique kind of logic. You can’t always follow it, but it’s sure fun to go along for the ride. Here’s a conversation the other morning between he and my wife:
Son: I love everyone! I love everyone in the whole world.
Mom: Oh, that’s very nice, honey.
Son: Even you, Mommy.
Mom: Oh. Don’t you mean especially me?
Son: I love my teeth. I brush them.
Mom: That’s very good.
Son: It’s good to brush your teeth.
On Saturday, I went to the coast for a “Writing Technology Day” with a bunch of professional writers, where I spent the majority of it helping friends with things like using WordPress and putting stories up on Kindle. It was also an opportunity for me to brainstorm and bounce ideas off some sharp minds about what it means to be a writer in the digital age. It was fun, and it was one of those rare times when my day job (I’m an Instructional Technologist for a university, where I’m chiefly responsible for supporting the online classes) intersected with my writing life.
One of the things I got to thinking about was how online a writer should be. Here’s a little scale I created so that writers can see where they fall in the continuum:
I do think every writer should have at least a moderately updated web page, with contact info and credits, but beyond that I think it depends a lot on mindset and goals. Personally, I think if you’re serious about being a professional writer, then you really can’t afford not to explore some of the opportunities the Internet provides. But it’s always a question of how much time you’re willing to commit and how much you enjoy it. Writers like Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, Jay Lake, Michael Stackpole, and Jeff Vandermeer are people I can think of right away that are on the high end of this scale, and they are all doing different things well. Check out their sites and you’ll quickly see that these are writers making heavy use of all the digital tools at their disposal.
However, I’d actually rank someone like Neil Gaiman — who has a million followers on Twitter, and has one of the most visited blogs on the Internet — lower on the scale even though his Internet traffic is off the charts. He’s certainly engaged with the online community, but not to the extent of the other writers I mentioned. His enormous web traffic is coming almost entirely from his work. If you write bestsellers, and if you win major awards like the Newbery, you’re going to have a Web presence. You don’t even have to go looking for it.
To me it’s a reminder that if you want to be a fiction writer first, and not a blogger first, make sure the vast majority of your writing time and effort is devoted to your fiction. To prevent the Internet from becoming a major time sink, you might draw up a chart figuring out where your writing time goes, as I did:
| Percentage | Activity | Hours Per Week |
| 40% | Writing fiction | 8 |
| 35% | Reading | 7 |
| 5% | 1 | |
| 5% | Website updating/blogging | 1 |
| 5% | Twitter/Facebook/social networking | 1 |
| 5% | Marketing/mailing | 1 |
| 5% | Internet reading/surfing | 1 |
With a day job and a family, I aim to spend 20 hours a week on writing-related activities. If I’m spending more than 5 hours of my 20 hours a week on anything outside of writing and reading, then I figure my balance is out of whack. And yes, I do figure reading into my writing-related activities. I don’t know how you can be a writer if you’re not reading heavily. It’s our creative fuel.
I don’t think there’s any right answer here. If you have professional aspirations as a writer, then you should probably be at least at level 2. Anything less probably hurts you when an editor goes out and Google’s your name — which pretty much happens automatically these days when a publisher is considering your work. Does the writer have a Web presence? If so, is it a good one or a bad one? Are they out there making themselves look like an idiot?
Beyond that, it’s a question of how much time you’re willing to commit versus what you think you’ll get out of it. If it’s fun, that makes it easier. I actually enjoy posting on Facebook and Twitter ocassionally, but I have to be careful or the Web sucks me in like a black hole. Take this blog post. I could have spent this past hour working on fiction, but I wrote this instead. Was it time well spent?
For me, it was, because it falls within the guidelines I set for myself based on all the criteria I mentioned — criteria which could very well change just as my career does. But every writer will answer that question differently. My advice to writers is to 1) be aware of where you are on the chart, 2) and be conscious of the choices you’re making with your time.
The 10’ers is a livejournal community of young adult and middle grade authors whose books are debuting in 2010. Lots of great stuff on the site. I recently joined, and you can find my introductory bio here: http://community.livejournal.com/10_ers/322902.html. I might cross post there from time to time, if the subject matter also seems appropriate for that site.
There’s over 80 other authors listed on the site. Check them out!
Me: You know, looking at a lot of the online self-promotion that writers do, I sometimes wonder if most of it is just being seen by other writers — book trailers, guest blogging, that sort of thing.
Poe: Is that such a bad thing?
Me: Well, the hope is that your promotional efforts reach plain old readers too.
Poe: Aren’t writers also readers?
Me: Well, yes . . .
Poe: In fact, wouldn’t you say that writers are quite likely to be the most avid readers out there — not only buying more books, but also being the type of person most likely to thrust that beloved book into the hands of someone else?
Me: Hmm. What’s your point?
Poe:My point, fellow scribe, is that if your goal is to reach the most enthusastic readers possible, then you’re quite likely to find them among your fellow writers. It’s like in Malcom Gladwell’s Book, The Tipping Point —
Me: Wait a minute. You read that book?
Poe: Certainly. It’s on your bookshelf there.
Me: But you’re like four inches tall. How’d you–
Poe: I’m locked in your office all day. I have a lot of time on my hands. The point is, Gladwell writes about how those early enthusiasts of any product, call them early adopters or what have you, can by instrumental in getting the word out about any product — whether it be shoes, technology, or even books. I think it’s quite likely that by promoting your work to other writers you have a decent chance of reaching enthusiastic readers who might just spread the word to those readers who aren’t writers.
Me: Ah. You’re pretty smart for a piece of plastic.
Poe: Don’t insult me. I’m a poet.
A lot of people know that I’ve got an Edgar Allan Poe action figure in my writing office at home, complete with a miniature raven on his shoulder. He sits by my computer and looks on while I type. After a while, I started talking to him, sharing my concerns about writing, family, and life in general. One day, amazingly, he started talking back.
