book « Robin Writes

Yeah, I smoke. I’d tell you how long I’ve been doing it, but in this day and age when we’re supposed to be tolerant of EVERYTHING ELSE, I’d probably just precipitate a long comments section of lectures.

Last Thursday, I bought an e-cig starter kit—the idea is that it delivers nicotine but not the rest of the crap in regular cigarettes. Water vapor, no secondhand smoke, etc., etc. I started using it Friday afternoon, after charging, and have so far, by alternating, cut my cigarette consumption in half. Not bad.

Except.

There’s a definite learning curve here—who knew? And I’m likely getting even less nicotine during this trial period, since I’m not very good at this new method. Anyway, the less nicotine, the less I’ll want it. Theoretically. Like I said, I’ve been doing this a while . . .

Someone pointed out a little factoid this morning: what happens when SHTF and we can’t charge those e-cigs? Well, we’re already going to have to find ways to recharge other things, and there are plenty of options, so it shouldn’t be an issue. If you plan ahead, of course.

Now, I’m a little old school—or old, take your pick—and I haven’t lived my entire 50 years with the technology we use daily and often take for granted.

This is why I need to get with the program: charging your cigarette pack is just plain sci-fi space age stuff!

Let me think about this for a moment . . .

I’ve been using computers since 1989, although I didn’t own one until 1992. Can’t imagine NOT having one now. Car phones, too, have been around for a while; that’s what they were initially called, and they were plugged into and stayed in one’s vehicle. It was considered tres cool, believe it or not—I had one in, let’s see, 1995 at least. Pretty much haven’t been without one since.

Twenty years of technology—but an e-cig? Odd. Eventually, of course, all bad habits will disappear when SHTF. We’ll all be too busy surviving, or trying to.

Think about it—if you get any of today’s dread diseases and illnesses, you likely won’t survive them, just like our ancestors also didn’t make it through cancer, measles, even pneumonia. Guess you can look at it two ways, probably just as they did: either you enjoy what you have and don’t obsess over “health,” or worry yourself into an early grave anyway.

That’s kind of how I look at smoking, anyway. Over my lifetime so far, I’ve heard of dozens, if not hundreds, of “things that will kill you.” And some of those, depending on the year and the expert, were contradictory!

So do what you want, as long as it works for you, and of course, as long as you’re prepared to quit or carry on, one way or the other.

I’ve touched on this before, the importance of marketing yourself and your book(s) and how you conduct yourself on social media, but today I’m going to take you step-by-step on how to do this effectively.

Step One:

Who are you? Take some time to think about this. Then think about your book(s). How do you relate to those books you’ve written? Where did the character come from, or the plot? Surely, it’s a part of you.

Step Two:

Think of all the qualities that make up you, and then combine that with the characteristics of your books. Some of you write in more than one genre, so there may be a third combination. The only real difficulty would be if you wrote both children’s books and erotica; that could pose a problem!

Step Three:

As a writer, you’re also a reader. Probably, as a writer, when you read you become the character, yes? Do you ever notice yourself doing or saying something that, at least in your head, SOUNDS like something a book character would do or say?

Step Four:

Create your look. Think of yourself as a successful author of [fill in the blank]. How would you look? How would you dress? Let’s say you’ve been invited to appear on the Today Show. What would you do or say to complement your book?

For myself, I’d still wear jeans and boots and my leather blazer. I write dystopian fiction—I don’t want to look as though I write romance. An author must “fit” with her book. If I DID write romance, I’d opt for probably a pink suit (cliché, yes!), stockings, heels, fancy hairdo, perfect manicure, etc.

How do you picture yourself in terms of your book? Don’t you “get into character” when you write? Quite often, but not always of course, a writer projects much of his or her own quirks and mannerisms into a book and/or character. Use what you’ve got!

Step Five:

Your voice is important too—your speaking voice, not your writing style. Think about all the authors you’ve seen or know of who make professional appearances and study what they say and how they say it. Modulate your tones to complement your book.

Look at this way: if you watched a non-fiction author of, say, an historical tome about the Holocaust, doing a live TV interview, and she was giggly and distracted, what would you think? I would think she’s kind of an airhead and just maybe her book is also full of distractions and possibly not very well-researched. Maybe that’s unfair, but hey, first impressions . . .

Step Six:

Pull all this together and you have YOUR IMAGE. This is it, there may be a few tweaks over time and with more experience (and more books!), but now you have an image and it’s time to plaster that image all over the Internet and anywhere else you can.

Step Seven:

Be consistent.

I already covered the dos and don’ts of Internet promotion, so I’m just going to add that it’s VERY IMPORTANT to stick with this image you’ve created. Even on your “personal” pages and accounts, to a point. Sure, you can talk about personal stuff, but ALWAYS remember your image.

Particularly important are those times you mess up—using “to” when you mean “too,” “apart of” when you mean “a part of,” and other things like that. Frankly, it makes you look like an idiot and really, who wants to read a book full of that?

HINT: If you simply make a mistake, and are not truly an idiot, there is an “edit” button on Facebook and you can delete the Tweet and re-do it. So it’s completely inexcusable.

And finally, stay out of arguments, political, religious, or actual or imagined slights from others online. That person you have a problem with is online, and that person has friends and acquaintances. You could have a huge blow-up, and that’s going to hurt your image, unless, of course, your image is a whiny, self-indulgent attention seeker. But that’s not going to help your career.

All of this sound familiar? It is. And it bear repeating, over and over. Your image isn’t something that just occurs to you one day, and it’s not automatic. It takes work, just like writing. Go do it.