29 January 2014

The Business of Being Me

The other day I read an article Rob Delaney wrote for the Guardian about the right to safe, legal abortion. Rob is super-popular on Twitter and has about eleventy-billion followers, so I thanked him for sharing his opinion which, I'm afraid to say, is still not universally embraced by members of our government.

Then I wondered if Rob had made the smart marketing choice by writing about such a contentious topic.

And that thought scared me.

If you follow Rob on Twitter, it's fairly obvious he doesn't give a shit what people think about him. But, in some part of my brain, I've calculated the risk of being truly myself on social media as I navigate this path toward publication.

A few months ago I attended the Popular Romance Author Symposium at Princeton University. The topic was author identity and the panel included Jennifer Crusie and Eloisa James. It was a very interesting discussion about personal vs. public identity, social media, and the author as product and opinions differed as to how authentic one should be on the Internet.

Publishing is a business, after all, and if the goal is to make money it's best to appeal to the masses. But how does one do that without sanitizing their soul? How can I be Megan Coakley: Author, without being Megan Coakley: Woman who believes in reproductive rights, a living wage, marriage equality, and universal healthcare? How much of myself am I willing to deny to sell books?

Every so often, I take stock of who I'm following on Twitter and edit my feed. I like to think I do it to remain a more positive person, because some days Twitter can be an endless torrent of negativity. But more often than I care to admit I follow someone because I think they might be beneficial to me down the road a bit, or I delete an account that might be considered offensive to the majority. And I do all this as an UNPUBLISHED AUTHOR. It doesn't even matter yet.

Whenever I attend a conference, there's always discussion about branding yourself, building a platform, how to reach readers through social media. In some ways, I began doing that the moment I started writing The Lone Woman Diaries. But three years later I would probably advise myself not to write something so confessional. At the very least, I'd edit all the times I said "fuck you" to my kids because, you know, that doesn't paint me in the most flattering parental light.

I've been paying attention to the media advisors, but their advice makes me itchy. I ask myself how much I need to know about an author to appreciate their books. Would I stop reading them if I disliked their personal opinions? I'm not sure.

Are you?





18 comments:

  1. Nah. I'm pretty indulgent about author's opinions and advocacies because they have a right to be people, even people who differ from me, and I can still like and appreciate their work.

    Unless they're child molesters. Then they can rot in a prison cell with some beefy guy who thinks they have a nice ass.

    But apart from the extreme of committing child cruelty, nope, authors' online presence/brand/product/etc doesn't affect what I read. They can prefer baths over showers, Bush over Obama, Ann Taylor over JC Penney, and I don't care one way or another if I like the book.

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    1. I think it's a fairly new phenomenon, knowing so much about our authors. The Captain and I were talking about it after we saw the preview for Ender's Game, a book he loved when he read it. There had been such negative publicity about the author and talk of boycotting the film, and I thought what a shame if people don't read the book now!

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  2. The attitudes and beliefs of an author that come through in their books do have an impact, to some extent. I guess it's all in how important the belief is to both me and her and how strongly she advocates for it there. There is one author I gave up reading because, while a very talented writer, her books contained thinly disguised editorials. And a LOT of them.

    But personally held beliefs don't have a huge impact on me unless, as Lora says, it's something that I truly believe is evil. I don't mind disagreement as long as there is some openness to discussion and dissension. Does that make sense?

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    1. It makes absolute sense because the work was affected, although I imagine most authors have a viewpoint hidden in their work because so much of ME is in mine!

      And wouldn't it be nice if everyone thought disagreement is fine as long as there is openness and discussion? A more wonderful world it would be.

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  3. Funny, I'm about to do a non-credit continuing ed class at our community college (i.e., just for fun) on Sense and Sensibility, and in a way, that's what the book is about. Elinor continually edits herself to fit into people's expectations, Marianne just lets it all hang out. I guess it's not a new problem.

    Since I've had to stop reading a couple of authors once I got to "know" them and their opinions online, I find that now I try to avoid any of that stuff so I can just read their books without knowing how they vote, etc. It's not always possible. I think only good can come from thinking through how you want to present yourself to the public and being thoughtful about that.

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    1. The most interesting part of the question for me has been trying to determine what serves ME and what serves the BOOK, and not in a mercenary way. Of course I want to be published and sell lots of books, but do I want my audience to enjoy the BOOK or do I need them to like ME? It's the question I pose to the drug-addict me. And I still don't have the complete answer.

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    2. That is an interesting distinction that I hadn't thought of. I think that would be good for me to keep in mind even while just writing blog posts. I just found this because I came back to ask if I can use this post in my class as a modern example of the applicability of S&S- will e-mail you. (is applicability a word?)

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    3. I am a new writer so I don't know if other writers feel this way, but it's hard to separate my FEELINGS from my WORDS. I've lived with the book words for a long time, the story is personal is some ways, so it's more difficult to be detached about criticism. But I don't worry too much about the blog. Once I've chosen to write about something here, I try to be really honest about it because the Diaries are about universality. I want people to read them and know they aren't alone in how they feel. I want to be open, so you don't have to!

      You're absolutely allowed to use anything from the blog for your purposes as long as you credit the source. It's all good!

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  4. Oh, but I'm so very judge-y! I have a super difficult time separating anything. Personal/private, it's all the same to me! You all know how I OVER share........

    Do what works for you. And we'll support you.

    (I think that's probably just good advice, in general.)

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    1. I can also be knee-jerk judgey. I'm trying to look beyond my initial reactions to people based upon their affiliations, as a way to practice open-heartedness. It ain't always easy.

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  5. In general, I think you should be yourself. Your true people will find you and stay with you. Sure, you might alienate some people, but I think that's better than being mushy don't-offend-anyone. Of course, I keep a private blog so that potential clients and employers won't see stuff about me, but I think of it more as a good way to lead my life, as in not letting just anyone all the way in. People have to earn their way into the most private aspects of my life.

    There is one author in particular I stopped reading once I found out about her belief system and how she led her life: she was proud about never seeking public assistance when she and her husband were so poor, yet it was okay for them to shoplift food when they were that poor. Food stamps were less honorable than stealing?! Yeah, that finished my interest in her writing.

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    1. I think it's important to keep a part of yourself private, but I don't think I'm doing such a great job of it! When I started the blog it was with the intent to share my life with all my imperfections. I wanted readers to know they weren't alone if they were struggling in the myriad ways that I have, and I wanted to share my hope. Maybe it comes from having spent time in 12 Step programs where the main purpose is to help the still suffering addict. I have suffered, and life is good. No matter what happens, that will always be my message. (And that five kids is bordering on too many.) ;-)

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  6. Well, I would read your book(s) no matter what because I am family- and I love you. That said, I do not look to find out personal information about an author prior to reading their book; I read for pleasure and rely on reviews and personal recommendations more than anything else to shape my choices.
    p.s. I would not follow you on Twitter. I don't use it. :)

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    1. And I will expect you to fulfill your familial obligation and read all of my books!

      I cannot recommend Twitter to anyone because it is a complete time suck. But I am at my most pithy when limited to 140 characters.

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  7. I go with the "be yourself the day you meet your new in-laws." I think we've all unfollowed a beloved author because their twitter feed or facebook page was full of terrible political stuff we just couldn't get behind. I don't need to know all that about them, and they don't need to know all that about me. I can still be myself without letting it ALL hang out. If I wouldn't bring it up in 'polite society' - whatever that is these days - then I won't blog/tweet/post about it.

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    1. I think that's true and good advice. There are boundaries I don't need to cross, although I might be accused of over-sharing on occasion! Perhaps it's this tendency that makes me interested in other writers' lives. I want to know what informs their stories, the details that spill onto the pages.

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  8. I like the personal stuff on blogs--like the things you write, about your family etc. And you don't tend to write much that's political. Your blog as it currently stands would be a great author blog in my opinion. It's fun to see The Person Behind the book that you love.

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    1. Thank you! I think you can figure out where I stand on political things if you read enough of the Diaries, but my main goal is connection. I offer details of my life here and in my book(s) in order to close the distance between us. I don't know that I want to stop doing that, even when I get published.

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Thanks for reading! Unlike other Diaries, this one isn't private. Feel free to share your thoughts. Politely, of course.