But Will It Sell on U-Tube?

[Peg Herring]

Today's author can get buried in "how-to" advice, to the point where she just wants to scream and hide under the covers. Build a website, and don't forget to update regularly. Do a blog -- no, do half a dozen. Make a trailer, put it on U-Tube. Get radio interviews, better yet, do television. Go on tours. Write the sequel. No, do some short stories to get your name out there. Send out postcards. Or bookmarks. How about funny t-shirts?

What happened to my dream of creating entertaining stories, things that draw me to pen and paper or keyboard with the desire to tell about the time, place, and people that dance through my head and become so real that I know what they want for breakfast?

And where's that (quite silly) hope that people would buy my books just because the word is whispered from ear to ear that the stories are pretty good?

Writing requires a split personality: half Pygmalion, half Gantry, and I know for certain which one is not my favorite, even as I plan that U-Tube presence.

[Barbara Fister]

I think it's overdone to the point that as a reader I'm fed up with it. (But I have low tolerance for advertising anyway.) When I do the math, the ROI just isn't there for so many of these efforts.

I really wonder about trailers - with the millions of YouTube videos, will anyone bump into it? Or is it meant to provide info about a book someone is already interested in? For me, in the latter case, I'd just as soon read some info on a website as watch a video. (I mean, if I liked watching videos, maybe I'd be watching television instead of reading books!)

[David J. Walker]

My sentiments exactly, Peg. So here I am, trying to figure out what to do with my new Crimespace page, and longing to get back to my work in progress.
Dave