I'm not generalizing here...I'm only referring to myself.
Yes, me. The quiet, inconspicuous person you don't see behind the online persona. In real life, when people talk, I'm the one who listens. I'm not the loud, obnoxious Uncle in the family reunion party, regaling everyone with his incredible tale of escaping the deadly bite of the garter snake he found in his garden (I'd be the one chuckling to myself because garter snakes are not deadly, nor particularly poisonous to humans).
In other words, I don't live for the spotlight. Instead, I make sure everything goes smoothly backstage.
That is who I am. And as I learn more and more about the publishing biz, frankly, I'm afraid.
Too often we hear how we as writers are expected to MARKET OURSELVES.
Build a platform Plan BOOK Tours BLOG book signings Join Google Plus TwEeT
Where's your FACEBOOK page? HyPeS Must do TumBlr CONFERENCES Blog Hops speaking engagements Interviews Contests!! SWAGS!! goodreads Amazon Pinterest is the NEW thing Promote, promote, promote...YOURSELF
We're expected to be loud. We need to be heard. We need to be seen. We have to be in your face because unfortunately, you and everyone else have the attention span of a 2-year-old... (if you're on Twitter, you've probably seen this countless of times. *coughspamcough*)
No.
That's not who I am. It's scary, isn't it? For an unpubbed writer, the pressure is ever increasing. For a pubbed or soon-to-be-pubbed writer, the pressure is doubly increasing. Whether you're on my side of the equation or on the other, the truth is, we have to sell ourselves eventually.
So if you're an introvert like me, this kind of stuff is what makes our nightmares. Can we just go back to the days of yore, when there wasn't a photograph of Jane Austen on the back jacket flap of Pride and Prejudice? Alas, no.
Tell me: Does the thought of being in the public spotlight terrify you or make you giddy? If you're an introvert, do you wory about these things, too, or am I the only weird one here? :)
