Too Much of a Good Thing

Gellinger via Pixabay

When I was in high school, my mom could always tell which boys I liked by the frequency with which they made it into our conversations. I never had much of a poker face -- or whatever the verbal filtering equivalent is -- and I still don't. Nearly three decades as a school counselor have taught me  to measure my words more carefully, but when I'm excited about something, I'm like the Pointer Sisters song -- "I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!"

And the thing I'm excited about right now is my book that's coming out this month. Every little detail, change, development or event is share-worthy!

Until it's not.

Lately, I've been feeling as though I'm straddling the line between the eagerly anticipating Pointer Sisters and The Big Bang Theory's work-the-fact-that-I've-been-to-space-into-every-conversation Howard Wolowitz.

Too much?

Yes. Yes, it is.

While I don't think I've quite crossed the line, it's definitely in sight without need of corrective lenses. In my defense, self-promotion is now part of the author package. Limited budgets at publishing houses put the task of getting the word out right back into the lap of the person who wrote the words in the first place. It's expected that we'll share our impending release with friends, family and everyone within shouting distance of us on social media.

It's not all bad. I've discovered that I really enjoy creating visuals to post -- using sources like Canva to create graphics that take small segments of words off the page of the book and illustrate them. This has led to my spending more time on Pinterest pinning these visuals and building boards, as well as finally opening an Instagram account (after some nudging from my publisher). And, although I'm pushing myself to take advantage of more video-based opportunities (I'll be on the CatholicMom.com Facebook page on Thursday at 11, for example), I haven't yet decided if this is an area I want to pursue or one I'll abandon, deciding I don't have to be good at everything.

This seemingly small decision is actually a really important one, especially since each day still has only 24 hours in it. I've heard many authors complain about how promotion takes too much time and it's hard to balance such tasks with writing time. I can't disagree. But, if my goal is to be an author who sells books and wants her writing to be a career, I need to invest some of my time and energy in promotion because that's a part of the business I have chosen. That's also why I choose to invite other authors to the porch swing from time to time. Who better than another author to understand that every little detail, development or blog post is exciting?

All that said, I do try to keep the porch swing as advertisement-free as I can, updating the Know Thyself information over at Organizing by STYLE since it's more relevant there. Sometimes, though, I get a little excited, sharing events and updates here. If that happens, I hope you'll sit with me for a while and share in my joy.

Or, if you'd prefer not to stay, just type Wolowitz in the comments and come back another day.

one_life via Pixabay