Tweet This....

I have been thinking a lot lately about social networking, Twitter and Facebook, mainly and have been given to wonder, how did authors sell books before these options existed?

Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, Shirley Jackson, and Daphne du Maurier come to mind first. Women writers who were also very private people and in some cases, introverted, and it would seem to me that they would be at a distinct disadvantage now. Would they be willing to blog, to Tweet, to post on Facebook? Would their great works ever be known? How about the Bronte sisters? Neither one was much for the spotlight, would Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre be the classics they are if they were published today?

I spend a good amount of time every week on social networking and marketing although I am not really skilled in either one. I don't know the "rules" of Twitter...all the thanks for the retweets...and what is fair game to retweet? How much time should I devote to these things when I should be writing?

I took a marketing class several years ago but I don't remember anything from it, in fact, the only thing I do remember is how much I hated it.

My nephew is publishing his work the traditional way, I don't know what that will entail for him in the future but I am hoping he gets help with his publicity and marketing although he has more training than I have in these fields and has a natural gift for social networking...apparently it is not in the "family genes."

I want to write, period. I am not fond of the editing that I know must be done but I understand that is part of it. But right now I spend more time doing the things I dislike the most and less time writing than ever before.

And in this world of obligatory social networking, I wonder of all the great authors out there that we might never know...