Rantings on Establishing a Pre-Published Author's Platform

Last night, I made a decision. (Woohooo and there was much rejoicing!) Um, Yeah. Okay. Whatever.

Back to my ranting tangent... the thing was I had one of those moments where I'm sitting there thinking about my career path as a writer and--*ding*--oh look another email with yet another blog post that talks about... blog presence, social media, twitter me this, facebook me that, like me here, like me there, writing craft, book review, promo this, promo that, the state of the publishing industry... and somewhere in there, I just sort of snapped. (Sort of?) Okay, I confess. I snapped. (There. Does that make you happy, you harpy of an internal editor living in the golden palace conveniently furnished by my demented mind?)

And before anyone gets the idea that I'm an advocate of no promo types of discussion for social media or industry discussions, you couldn't be further from the truth. I think those types of discussions are great. I mean, there's a tremendous amount of dissemination of information that helps me in more ways that I can ever repay. Perhaps in this case, help isn't quite the right word. Opens my mind to a different perspective? Hmm, yeah, that'll do. For now.

I snapped mentally, because... well, according to Myers-Briggs I am an INTJ--with some serious emphasis on the I for introvert.  Oh, it's not that I'm a wall flower who runs and hides at the first sign of social contact--oh no, I can handle the social contact. That part of the social interaction thing is a given considering the lessons drummed into me back home in Virginia about Southern hospitality by the matriarchs of my family (and trust me, there were quite a few of them--lessons and matriarchs). But even though I've got that whole Southern thang going on, I'm still an introvert who is more comfortable playing in my mind than I am with others. 

So yeah, what does this have to do with me snapping mentally?

Because it (the build your platform, self publish, the big 6 in NY are goners or soon-to-be goners, tweet this, retweet that, facebook me this--argh!) is overwhelming and requires premeditated, yet spontaneous interaction with people I don't know. About subjects that I may or may not be an expert on, ignorant of, passingly familiar with---oh and don't forget how my comments may or may not be received.  I mean, how many folks reading this blog have ever been misunderstood and blasted before you even have a chance to finish the first sentence you started? And try defending your comment in less than 200 characters' strings? *sigh* Not that this has ever happened to me, but the possible endpoints that can happen from what begins as an innocent quest to obtain a web presence can turn deadly. In a flurry of twitter posts that get morphed and twisted faster than a rumor in a girls' high school locker room.

As if that isn't enough to keep me up at nights... toss in another dose of argh, because thinking over this conundrum also interfered with my writing time--this week and last week.  And THAT is bad. Oh so very bad. Intolerable for me and those poor souls who deal with me around the homestead, because it makes me grumpy and irritable. Grrrrrr.

Look, I know I'm ranting. Hey, it's my blog, I can do that. But my main problem with all of this information dissemination is that there isn't one right way to establish a platform for a pre-published author. And YES there is a LOT of great advice out there. But there isn't one--oh wait--yeah, there is ONE serious rule that should (IMHO) be observed by all pre-published folks out there and that is... before you can brand a product, you gotta have a product. But beyond that basic principle, there is no set way of creating a platform. It's different for each person. And I'm here to tell ya that if you try to apply all the words o'wisdom that trickle down through emails, blogs, tweets, facebook, et cetera... you may just find yourself in imminent danger of snapping and failing.  (Anybody else hear that ominous voice say, "Failure is not an option."--Okay, maybe it was just me. Doubtful, but hey, stranger things have occurred.)

I don't know about you, but failure is not an option for me. I've invested a tremendous amount of time, energy, heart, mind, body, and soul into making it this far on my journey to publication. And I'll be damned if I throw it all away because of one miscalculated tweet that began in the name of pre-published author web presence building. Or even worse... presenting myself to the world as the extrovert that I am soooooo naturally not. LOL--like I could carry that one on longer than the length of one Tupperware party from hell.


And on that note... my platform is to be me. And the me that I truly am wants to say... thank you, my dear readers, for enduring my rantings. I always appreciate your comments and thoughts and well wishes. I respect your right to be an introvert and lurk--just as much as I enjoy your comments. You can follow me on twitter if you like, but just know that I'll tweet when I have something to share.  But until then, I'm headed off to work on my product.  Once that product is done... then we can talk branding.

Until then... wait! So you know, I've got a hankering to start talking about my Tales of WOE world and the writing of the first book that (IMHO) is aptly named Deus Ex Machina.  So be sure to check back and nag me to give you a glimpse into this world of elves that somehow has managed to merge itself into our very own world.  So until then...

Take care and happy musings!
~EK's author