social media & me

The thing about any author in the 21^st century (even a tiny and unregarded author) is that part of the job is maintaining a social media presence and the thing about maintaining a social media presence is that it very rapidly expands to fill whatever time is available to it. It’s sort of got to the point that I’m feeling that all of the peripheral activities that the industry tends to call “author platform” are distracting me from things like, y’know, actually writing. So I’ve been pondering how to restore my social-media/life/work/writing balance.

And the long and the short of it is that I’ve decided to have a Twitter-free December and see what that’s like. I do actually, in principle, really enjoy Twitter as a medium. It’s kind of like a big party and it encourages silliness and chat, which I enjoy a lot. But at the same time it’s a big party you can’t ever leave. So basically December is me having the equivalent of a fag break on the back patio.

And should you wish to, um, access me for whatever reason, here’s a quick round up of where I tend hang out and how I use it:

Facebook: I don’t really use my own timeline very much because I’m rubbish. Sorry!

Goodreads: I, err, post the occasional informal review over here when I’m moved to do so, but generally I don’t interact much because there’s awkward power dynamics between authors-as-readers and readers-reading-authors. Though if you say hello to me I won’t scream and jump out of the virtual window or anything.

BookLikes: I think my GR stuff gets cross-posted over here. I do not know. Basically I exist on Booklikes. Maybe?

Pinterest: This isn’t really a talkyspace but I’m weirdly addicted to it.  For which I blame Santino. Or rather, I blame myself for mocking Santino for his Pinterest boards so it would become ironically apt that I would end up using Pinterest more than he does. If you’re into book-inspiration visual extras then … feel free to *eyebrow waggle* check out my boards, baby.

Email and the like: If you want to talk to me directly, the best way is via my assistant Mary, who can be reached at Mary(at)quincunquevult(dot)com. I really love hearing from readers and try to answer emails in a timely fashion (though I do not always succeed).

Here on my website: While there’s a bunch of book-related extras you can find around the place, the site still needs updating because I’m disorganised. I’m also kind of hoping to do more blogging that isn’t, err, just me tearing my hair out at community politics.

Newsletter: I have a newsletter which I very much enjoy inflicting on people. It’s, intermittently regular (or regularly intermittent) if that makes sense. But if you want to know what I’m up to and what’s coming up next, you can sign up for it below.