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A collection of snippets of the books I write and, occasionally, my life and the things that inspire my writing...
Showing posts with label professionalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professionalism. Show all posts

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Bad Bedfellows

Which of these three does not belong in the group?

1. Author promotion. (Facebook, twitter etc. Developing online contacts, making friends, becoming visible as a writer, author, blogger = Potential seller of books.)

2.Social media. (You know :-) facebook, blogging, twitter, Goodreads, Amazon forums etc.)

3.Politics
****

Unless you're building an audience while claiming your 15 minutes as an armchair pundit--or you have an online presence/ branding associated with politics?  Guess what? Politics is the choice that does not belong.

I've recently noticed that a lot of my publishing industry contacts, followers...people, are getting political.

It's everyone's right, of course. And while I understand the passionate feelings behind.political posts, diatribe, and rants... this is not a good idea.

Use lists. Separate "professional" contacts from others.  And please don't expose the professional contacts to your political ideology. Especially if once you get started, it is scathing, laced with profanity, and  lacks any semblance to the facts. In either case, it really is best left private re: professional associates.

I don't have any data to back this up. It's all conjecture.  But, I think you will alienate potential support people if you mix politics with publishing/writing.blogging/facebooking/tweeting.

These are my facts: I have begun to "unsubscribe" from professional contacts who insist on politicizing their posts and-- via comment,  the posts of others.  I might resubscribe after November--to some of them. Who cares? I know I'm just one person. It might not be a big loss to lose me as a subscriber or follower.  But, I don't think I'm ringing the outer edge of the bell curve on this point.

~sigh~

Friends, dreamers, creative musketeers. I adore you all.  But that doesn't mean I adore your politics