I don't have time to do everything that life demands of me and write my book. I am a night-owl, and writing comes at the end of the day (or the beginning of the day on most nights). After the requirements of earning a salary are complete, the animals are sorted out, domestic life is organised and I get to sit down, the sand is quickly running out of the clock on my desk.
So, I need to write lots (and I can easily write 2000 words in a sitting) yet to get published I am told that I need to have an 'on-line presence'.
An on-line presence (OLP)? What's that all about then? Well, we live in an age of technology and at a time when everybody is writing a book. (You're reading this post so I guess you are too?). Therefore publishers can be choosy - very choosy - when it comes to parting with some cash for a new book. They need to be sure that the money invested in you and your work is going to be returned, with profit. So that's where an OLP comes in.
Are you marketable? Have you even considered how to promote your book and yourself? These type of questions are what publishers are asking when they consider your mss. The obvious way to show them you are - and that you've considered all of this whilst writing your masterpiece - is to have an OLP. After all, if loads of people already recognise your name, have had an interesting build up to the release of your book and have stayed with you over all these years, then you must be saying something right and you have a ready-made list of potential buyers of your book. This is what they are looking for on your CV which you took in behind the synopsis (why does that word always make me shiver?)
So, have you opened up a Twitter account to get out there? Do you have your own blog/site? These types of OLPs take years to build up, just as it took you years to write that book. So it stands to reason that you have to run these OLPs alongside your writing. Basically, unless you have written one of those rare masterpieces that sells itself, no OLP = no book deal.
Which brings me back to the title of this post. If I don't have time to write my book (and that's not a real 'if'), then how the hell am I supposed to find the time to create a substantial on-line presence?
Mm...
So, I need to write lots (and I can easily write 2000 words in a sitting) yet to get published I am told that I need to have an 'on-line presence'.
An on-line presence (OLP)? What's that all about then? Well, we live in an age of technology and at a time when everybody is writing a book. (You're reading this post so I guess you are too?). Therefore publishers can be choosy - very choosy - when it comes to parting with some cash for a new book. They need to be sure that the money invested in you and your work is going to be returned, with profit. So that's where an OLP comes in.
Are you marketable? Have you even considered how to promote your book and yourself? These type of questions are what publishers are asking when they consider your mss. The obvious way to show them you are - and that you've considered all of this whilst writing your masterpiece - is to have an OLP. After all, if loads of people already recognise your name, have had an interesting build up to the release of your book and have stayed with you over all these years, then you must be saying something right and you have a ready-made list of potential buyers of your book. This is what they are looking for on your CV which you took in behind the synopsis (why does that word always make me shiver?)
So, have you opened up a Twitter account to get out there? Do you have your own blog/site? These types of OLPs take years to build up, just as it took you years to write that book. So it stands to reason that you have to run these OLPs alongside your writing. Basically, unless you have written one of those rare masterpieces that sells itself, no OLP = no book deal.
Which brings me back to the title of this post. If I don't have time to write my book (and that's not a real 'if'), then how the hell am I supposed to find the time to create a substantial on-line presence?
Mm...
