I don’t have a large social media following. I don’t sell tens of thousands of books upon each release (at least not yet), so why do I bother reading every single page of my novels on social media, one by one?
It’s a valid question. It’s a valid question. My wife often reminds me that taking a day off won’t make anyone miss my posts, and in some ways, she’s right. But my daily posts aren’t just for the audience—they’re for me, too. In reading each page aloud, I’m not just sharing my work; I’m reconnecting with it. In some ways I want the audience to know what it’s like to connect to my work through me. Most readers don’t realize that by the time a book is published, it’s been nearly two years since the work was completed. It’s been, perhaps, one year since the final edits were done, maybe six months since a galley review. That means by the time the book is actually released, it’s difficult for me to remember why I made some of the writing choices I did—whether to include or exclude a comma; whether to extend a character’s paranoid delusion; whether to bring back the love interest or let the reader think they died off the page and will never be seen again.
When I read each page daily on social media, it’s about me reconnecting with my own work, removed from the expectation of writing and now moved into the camp of reader—I get the thrill of discovery all over again. I get the beauty of the sentences all over again. I also get the cringe of finding areas where I could have edited now that I’m in a different mental space than when deeply immersed in the weeds of the story.
I am not a re-reader by nature. It’s rare that I will pick up a book that I have finished in the past, no matter how much I loved the book. How many times have I read my favorite novels—if I’m being honest? Three times each, at most. I love the stories for what to meant to me at the time I found them and reading them again at different times reminded me more of how they came to me and why I loved them originally. But upon re-reading them, I don’t love them the same. I can’t love them the same. My experience with reading my own works on social media is similar. I have loved each book I have written, but I have loved them as a writer. I have loved them as a creator of worlds. I have loved them as I have breathed life into them. I have loved them as I have first burned the characters into being and then watched as they revealed their true selves to me. But that is different than finding these elements as a reader, learning alongside the characters, exploring the world alongside these characters, embracing the story alongside the readers—as in wondering, questioning, or giving into the whims of the story within the parameters set by the author.
This story could have been about how to grow a social media following. It also could have been about the joys of re-reading your favorite novels at different stages of your life. Instead, this is about the joys of re-visiting your own works but in a public setting. I know writers who would never re-read their published works. I hear the same from actors and directors, that they would never revisit their work—including greats like Julia Louis Dreyfus, who on her podcast stated she never watches her shows or movies after they’re aired. I understand this. I was that way for years, feeling it the same as never reading the comments or reviews about your work. It’s too far gone. The work is done and unchangeable; why bother revisiting it?
When I first started reading pages of my novel Life Between Seconds on social media, it was a way to engage with an audience differently than what I saw other authors doing. It felt novel. It felt right. It was 261 days of content I had in my back pocket (because that’s how many pages the book had). But as I read each day, as my social following stayed the same, as I sold books or didn’t sell books or heard from friends they followed my posts or heard from family they had read the book, it became much more than posting. I found my love for the stories all over again. Another secret authors don’t generally talk about is how much they hate their novels by the time of publication—why? Because of how many times they have written, read, revised, written, read, revised, and written read and revised all over again. Life Between Seconds took 11 years to write and publish. My latest novel Girl in the Ashes took five years to write and publish. Between the two of them, I lost count of how many revisions and rereads I had to perform before they were publication ready.
These readings on social media aren’t rushed. It’s one page daily each weekday. It requires time. It requires dedication. It requires focus. The same things you need for writing a novel. Does this mean my social media is flooding with followers? No. Does this mean people are clamoring to buy my books? I’ll have to check the sales. Does this mean I’m becoming a better writer? Probably not.
Instead, it reminds me why I started this journey in the first place: to create, to share, and to continually fall in love with the craft of writing.
Find out more at https://www.douglasweissman.com/
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Article published in The Relatable Voice Magazine - November 2024. Downolad the full magazine at:
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