Communication Overload

I am not a child of the internet. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but I grew up with a stationary phone, snail mail, and gasp, face to face conversations. Today we have land lines, cell phones, twitter, email, facebook, blogging, websites, and more I’m sure I’ve forgotten. Hopefully we can still jam in actually seeing our friends and family. And I mean SEEING, not watching over a webcam.

To my niece Ruthie this all seems like a wonderful world; full of an ever increasing network of friends and acquaintances she somehow manages with grace and intelligence. I can’t seem to do that. Or maybe I just don’t want to.

I keep in touch with the people I love via “old fashioned” methods; my cell phone, seeing them, and email. But as a writer, there is also the need to keep in touch with one’s fans. I had to really think about that. I love my fans. Heck, just the idea people who don’t know me are buying my stuff is such a thrill. But it has taken me awhile to truly believe they would want to know me. And I want to give them something of myself. But I am also a private person, and, the idea of keeping up all of those communication sites just seemed overwhelming.

So here is what I picked. I decided on a website. That’s pretty static; I do update it from time to time, but that’s not too much work. I keep a non writing blog with my husband about our dancing. I now have this writer’s blog. I keep two email accounts, a home private one, and a public one which is accessed from my website. I have a private cell phone number, of course. And that’s it.

Other writers do it differently; I know some authors who have a huge presence on the web via many different kinds of sites. This just isn’t for me. As a writer you have to decide what’s right for you. Here are some things to consider in how you wish to communicate: how much and what kinds of information to do you want contribute, to whom, and where. Also how much time do you have, and how fast do you write. Then stick to your guns. You will get lots of advice telling you what you should do, but don’t make yourself crazy. Pick a few ways of communicating with your fans and leave it at that.

Besides, you want to make sure you actually have time to…write. :-)