Ditch Social Media for a 6-figure Book Deal
$2.99 eBook for IN THE HOUR OF CROWS
Hey, y’all. Remember me? That person you subscribed to because I promised to share my “struggling-author to sold-at-auction” writing journey. Yeah, that’s me. Guess what, I fizzled and burned out.
Before I get to my writing journey, In the Hour of Crows eBook is available for only $2.99!!! Hardcover and audiobook are both heavily discounted as well.
Now onto the other stuff…
I know you came here for the writing journey, but I need to give you a pinch of my life the past few months. (Or feel free to skip to the MY WRITING JOURNEY portion below, you won’t hurt my feelings none. I won’t even know!) The first six months of 2024 was simply chaos on crack. Anything and everything happened, all at once. We sold our house where we raised our boys (talk about an emotional train wreck.) And then we moved. During all that I was promoting the upcoming In the Hour of Crows to release on June 4th and touring. All the while I was racing toward my deadline for my next novel Grave Birds. (Coming July 2025…you like how I snuck that promo in there?) It took 10-12 hour days to do it all, so when In the Hour of Crows released, I collapsed. Heck, I didn’t even send out a newsletter to celebrate its release! Did I mention my daddy had triple bypass heart surgery? Yeah, that happened in the mix of all the other chaos. And the youngest kiddo graduated and went off to college this fall, which brought on a whole new set of alligator tears. Holy Moses, I don’t know how I’ve survived.
Needless to say (a southern phrase we use right before we say it anyway), I was overwhelmed. I had my fill of social media and promotions and moving and author responsibilities and helping baby birds fly from the nest, so I just fell off the porch and rolled underneath and laid there for a bit, pretending like I didn’t have a world I was supposed to be living in. (That was a metaphorical porch, not a real one.)
But you know what, I’m here. I survived! I didn’t let it beat me. But I ghosted my newsletter and social media and damn if I don’t feel bad about it, too. But life happens and I had to focus on the priorities—not that you, wonderful reader, are not a priority in my life. But family comes first. And in all that guilt for neglecting my social media and author life, I realized something very important, social media is the devil. And that’s what I want to talk about for “My Writing Journey” this episode I want to talk about ditching social media.
My Writing Journey
HOW I DITCHED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR A 6-FIGURE BOOK DEAL
Social media is the devil. If I had my druthers, I’d never get on it again. But it’s a necessary evil for my career so I participate because I have to. Now, I’d be lying if occasionally I didn’t enjoy it. I love getting a good laugh making fun of myself. And of course sharing good news always feels great. But as a whole, I hate it. Social media, or rather ditching it, I believe was a HUGE contributor to why I sold a book for six figures. Why? Because once I cut out all the noise and distraction of social media, I was able to seriously focus on the writing.
When I started writing ITHOC in 2020, I had not published a book in four years. Around that time the pandemic started and politics was in full effect, and I found social media to be filled with negativity. Most of my time spent on there was depressive, mind-numbing scrolling. At that time, there was no benefit to me personally nor professionally. In fact, I was say it was hurting me. Eventually I decided to ditch it. And in those 3 years it took me to write ITHOC, I might have posted on social media 15 times, if that. Where do you start?
HOW MUCH TIME ARE YOU REALLY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
This is an important question, because I’d venture to guess, it’s a lot more time than you realize. iPhones have a feature where it can tell you your average screen time on certain apps. I was spending anywhere from 1-3 hours a day on social media! Like are you kidding me?! And it’s not like I was building my platform, I was just scrolling. Most of us don’t scroll social media for 3 hours straight. It’s 5 minutes here, 15 there, a half hour there. And all those little nibbles of time add up to 3 hours. That’s 3 hours a day I could have spent writing.
I’d love to tell you that epiphany caused me to get off social media immediately. But alas, it actually took a month for me to figure out that there was no such thing as occasional social media use for me. And while I got my time down to under an hour a day, then eventually under 20 minutes a day, there was really no point to being on social media until I had a career to build. So I ditched it, and man did it pay off.
HOW DID I KICK THE HABIT?
This seems obvious but REMOVE THE TEMPTATION. Delete all the apps. Log out of all the websites, on all web browsers, and on all devices. Now the hardest part, break the addiction.
You’re going to pick up your phone twenty times a day to check social media, only to remember you don’t have the apps anymore. And you’ll be tempted to download them or log into the browser just to check this ONE tiny thing. Don’t. You’ll miss it at first. You’ll find you don’t know what to do with yourself at times. But after the first week, you’ll pick up the phone less and less, until finally (around the week 3) the habit and addiction will just fade away.
Now use that time to write. Sounds logical, right? Easier said than done. But it’s easy if you do this one thing. And when I tell you I hate this next cliché writing advice, I mean I HATE it. But it works. Sit down and fucking write. (aka Butt in chair.) What’s the point of cutting out social media if you’re not going to use your time wisely? Social media is simply mind clutter. And once I realized that, it lead me to the next critical step in finding my writing flow.
CONE OF SILENCE
Cut ALL the noise out of your life. Literally. No podcasts. No news. No music in the car. No audio books. No TV on in the background. No music while writing. I spent most of my days in silence, even when I wasn’t writing, because without all the visual and auditory clutter, my mind was able to focus on the story. And that is when I was able to write the best book of my career…so far. My writing became leaps and bounds better than all the previous books I had written. Without the constant distraction of social media interrupting my day, my train of thought stayed fluid and the words flowed easily. And we all know how yummy delicious words can be when you have good writing flow.
Social media can be a time suck. And if you are in the process of building your social media presence and can’t cut it out completely, then make a plan to limit your access and stay on task. Which means a lot of planning and scheduling before you get on the app. Set a time limit. Put a lock screen on the app after you allotted time is up. Set boundaries with yourself. Because as I always like to say, “This book ain’t gonna write itself!”
Bookish News
I’m sure most of you heard (if you follow me on social media) but just in case you haven’t, In the Hour of Crows was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick!! You guys!!! I had no idea until a high school buddy on FB messaged me a congratulations after seeing my book on there. And of course the big baby I am, I cried. Especially when they showed my book on the New York Times Square banner!!! What an incredible honor to be chosen. Here’s the video from GMA if you want to see it:
If you’ve read this far, you’re the best. You should get like a sticker or a lollipop or something. I have guilt for not sending out a newsletter, but I’m human. And I’ll try to do better going forward. Hopefully what I share makes a difference in your writing life. Many someones gave me advice along the way, and I hope what I pass on to you has value in your journey.
Quick Note: Damn if I don’t sound like a broken record repeating that I sold my book at auction for six figures. But 1.) I’m proud of myself and 2.) that’s why you came here, right? To hear about that part of my story. If you think my advice might be helpful, then forward this free newsletter onto a friend. And if you want to support me, you can always leave me a positive review, recommend my book to a friend, select my book for your next book club, reserve or request a copy from your library, and of course you can always buy my book. Thank you for letting me share a piece of my life with you. Until next time.
xo,
Dana
Awesome advice. So true!