Really, I'm just typing out loud, but any suggestions would be welcome...
I accidentally published a book. It may or may not have sold some copies in places other than Amazon. If I do not find out some details soon I may explode, but that's a different dither. I really couldn't use Wannabe Sybil as a name on the book, and my own name that I have in my boring real life is no good (trust me!) so I picked a name at random and came up with the name Lyssa Medana. I then carefully set up a blog and a twitter account in the name Lyssa Medana, because I thought I ought to.
Apparently I ought to write an entertaining blog as Lyssa Medana. But all my entertaining words come here, because Wannabe Sybil is where I feel comfortable. Besides, Lyssa Medana is an author and probably blonde. Wannabe Sybil is a failed housewife and going grey.
It would make sense to shut down the Lyssa Medana blog and have this as the blog linked at Amazon and Smashwords. It's not as if anyone looking for Lyssa wouldn't find Sybil. However I am a bit worried about this. On the one hand I feel safe here. I have had such wonderful support and kindness from people reading this. There is no real reason why that should change, but I am afraid that those who have been reading this blog for years would find it less welcoming because there are bound to be more references to the writing stuff and I am not sure how interesting it would be. I mean, how interesting is a dither about a comma?
Actually, I'm really scared about letting the whole scary business of writing a book and people I don't know reading it into big parts of my life, and this blog is a big part. And I know how silly that is as there are so many people out there who are lovely and I will be really glad to meet them on here. I am not sure what to do. OH will be able to help me out on this and I am very grateful.
2 comments:
I would recommend keeping the author blog but keeping it regularly updated even if it is only with small excerpts from the books, giveaways etc. Marketing books is a difficult process but several authors do this successfully and simply. Basically you are trying to keep your work in the public's awareness. I would also suggest you join a writing group even if this is just an online forum. It means you get advise and support for free and don't have to worry about asking questions because they are questions all authors worry about. I would suggest you take a look at Dianne Parkin's blog Tales from Baggins Bottom and follow the links from there to other author's blogs.(She used to belong to my writers' group) Some will write personal stuff but only as it relates to their writing. The other thing to remember is that most female writers having greying or grey hair, they have families and challenges and many of them use those experiences to write short stories, articles, fillers etc which help to pay their bills. You could have (still can) use your experience with Bear's lunchbox to do a letter to the editor of various parenting magazines or a filler (some magazines pay £25 for 80 words or so). Your escapades with the cats could be transformed into anecdotes and fillers and short stories if that is something you are interested in. I wish you success with whatever you choose to do.
Sarah - thank you for taking the time to make such a lovely and thought out post, it is really kind of you. It has given me a lot to think about. WS xxx
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