The snow is coming down lightly outside, floating to the earth like pollen. It’s conspicuously quiet, just a few cars rolling down the street, a snowplow truck here or there, its high curved blade humming along the asphalt. The sound of children from the school down the road is absent in this weather: the temperature is 14 degrees but it feels like 2, and the school is closing down early, Pre-Kers getting out fifteen minutes before the rest of the students. There’s a couple of inches on the ground from two days back, half of it crunchy underfoot; the frigid overnight temperatures have turned the snow to ice. It’s quiet as Christmas day. It’s also happens to be a great time to write.
I’ve already had my cup of coffee (two cups in the measuring cup is one cup for me), and today I cheated a little—I had caffeinated instead of decaf, which may or may not upset my GERD. Beside me on the kitchen table is a stack of paper, the current manuscript I’m working on. It’s typed and has pencil markings all over it like the graffiti you see on the sides of the R train I used to take to different parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan when I was younger. I’m on page 175 of 503. I’m transcribing the edits from the printed manuscript back to my Word doc. It’s a choir I do daily, but it excites me, because I know a new draft will await me when I’m finished. Not that the MS will be done—it won’t. But I’ll have something fresh and clean to start editing all over again.
But that’s not what’s on my mind today. Transcribing the manuscript is really just busy work. No, today I’m thinking about the wild west of social media, and how you, dear authors should beware of your social media posts. I’m thinking about getting back to hunting for a literary agent. I’m thinking about how to get this book represented once I’m done, whenever that is—which I’m hoping is soon; I’ve been working on this novel on and off for eight years.
But back to the social media issue. I’m a political guy. I tend to push the line further than, say, your average person on social media. I’m passionate. I believe in activism and my writing reflects the causes I believe in, however subtle or not, however directly or indirectly I attack my subjects and themes. I try not to push these things down my readers’ throats, however agonizing it is to continue to see the same thing happening over and again throughout history. I don’t delude myself into believing my writing will cause change; I’m aware it probably won’t. There’s too much out there to not have your writing drowned out by the deluge of bloggers and political commentators, well-known writers and the award winners everyone knows about because they’ve won the Pulitzer or the Nobel Prize, the Booker, or some other prestigious writing award. When you’re at that level, I think you can get away with more things on social media than the rest of us can. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I feel, anyway.
Recently, I deleted all my social media account posts that have anything to do with anything other than writing. In this climate, as I’m sure you can guess, that means political posts. Yes, there is a lot of commentary and vitriol and facts and propaganda being spit out for the world to see and consume. Which means trouble—for employees, for employers, for neighbors, and for writers seeking to expand their readership and/or to acquire representation and, eventually, publication (this doesn’t apply all that much to self-published novelists). I’ve had an agent previously. I’ve been offered representation twice.
My decision to stop posting “controversial” posts, or political posts (they’re the same thing, in my case), has to do with what I want for myself, which is this: I want to complete my novel, acquire an agent who believes in my novel and becomes a champion for it, have an acquiring editor at a top publisher buy it and work with their team to get it published, and (again, I get it’s a pipe dream) get a little publicity for it, enough so that I’m able to reach a larger audience via more book sales, but also to create a larger platform for myself by doing more interviews, speaking on the topics that I care about (politics, women’s issues, civil rights, climate change, and a number of other things I believe need to be addressed). We all have voices—I use fiction to try to make sense of the world, and I believe we should use our voices.
Social media facilitated the Libyan Revolution, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the Ukrainian Revolution. It can be used for both good and bad, which is what my novel is about—how misinformation and disinformation affects our country and the world. We know all too well the addictive nature of social media. According to The Harris Poll, 60% of Gen Z spend at least four hours on social media per day, and 22% spend seven or more hours each day. That is a lot of time. I think that’s way too much time, but I’m a heavy user myself. Again, it’s what I’ve been writing about in my novel for eight years, so I have an excuse (though I do surf Facebook and others for nonsense as well).
So, there it is. That’s why I’m done with social media for now, or at least for anything other than writing my blog/promoting it, and for interacting with other writers about writing. Remember, people can see what you post, even if they aren’t your “friends” or connected to you on your preferred platforms. That means potential employers. You don’t want to be turned away because HR at your dream company saw you being held upside down in Cabo doing a keg stand, or, perhaps even worse, smoking a joint or, well, whatever it is you’ve done that you may not be all that thrilled for someone to find out about. Be careful out there. Everything you do is tracked. Even reading this blog (but not by me, I swear!) 😊.
Cully Perlman is an author, blogger, and Substantive Editor. He can be reached at Cully@novelmasterclass.com
I have run into this in, off all places. the fly-fishing community. I spent 15 years editing, designing, and ultimately publishing a book for a Russian biologist, Fly Fishing Russia: The Far East. This book is 600 pp long and took 40 years to write, but based solely on the title, people boycotted the reading and were very negative about it on social media. This is akin to boycotting a book written by an Inuit because you have issues with the idiots in D.C. Fortunately the few people who did come, including one Ukrainian gentleman, all bought books and actively promoted the reading during the reading. That was a bitter learning experience for me, who has both Ukrainian and Russi…
I have run into this in, off all places. the fly-fishing community. I spent 15 years editing, designing, and ultimately publishing a book for a Russian biologist, Fly Fishing Russia: The Far East. This book is 600 pp long and took 40 years to write, but based solely on the title, people boycotted the reading and were very negative about it on social media. This is akin to boycotting a book written by an Inuit because you have issues with the idiots in D.C. Fortunately the few people who did come, including one Ukrainian gentleman, all bought books and actively promoted the reading during the reading. That was a bitter learning experience for me, who has both Ukrainian and Russi…