Keeping the Marketing Machine Moving

What does one write when he has nothing to write about? I’ve often asked this question of myself, in various forms, when considering the problem of marketing myself constantly. It’s not that I feel self-conscious about marketing myself. (No, indeed! If you ask people who are close to me, very many of them will laugh and tell you how shameless I can be about it. You have to be!) It’s that I often question what really is news worthy, or at least worth the time to blog, tweet or post about.

You see, I’m not the sort of Twitter user that posts about the eggs I’m about to sit down and eat this morning, or the Facebook or Instagram user (I don’t have the latter) who needs to take a picture of it. To me, it’s just noise in an already dreadfully noisy internet. Nor do I see much value in posting that I wrote 1,000 words today or that I started a new painting (though I may resort to these in desperate need). Especially when I’m writing a new blog post, I feel I should have some angle worth reading about. But I suppose that’s the point of a blog, to just write whatever is on your mind (something like a journal, but perhaps a little less personal).

If I have it wrong, do forgive me. I am new to this. Only a few months ago I resolved to post and tweet more often, and the results have been favourable. My Twitter (http://twitter.com/jm_desantis) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jmdesantis.writer.illustrator) followings have slowly grown weekly. I only hope this blog is helping grow my visibility and fan base as well (or at least keeping my fans informed and interested). Though until this blog is working as it should, I won’t entirely know (see December 26th’s post for more information on that). Perhaps I’m just still getting used to the idea of marketing myself at this level (and I still feel I could be doing more).

But, despite my gripes about having nothing to write about, I haven’t been idle. Work on the latest Chadhiyana project (which I still promise to reveal more about in April) is moving forward. I’ve been contacting more review sites to review the current Chadhiyana comic (which you can purchase on IndyPlanet if you haven’t already: http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7869). More convention applications have been going out, and I’ve even been preparing for a talk I’m giving on February 5th for the Comic Clinic at Mt. Sinai in New York (it’s a private affair, I’m afraid). And that’s just to name a few things. But, really, none of it, I felt was worthy of an entire blog post in and of itself (though I’ll be certain to post about my experience with the Comic Clinic next week).

Perhaps that’s not fair. I could find a good angle to write about any or all of these things from. Again, maybe it’s just the growing pains of a new-born blogger (despite my two years with Game-Flush.com). What’s more, I never planned that every week I would be writing a full 500 word post. Indeed, sometimes, sometimes, all I may write is “New artwork in the fantasy illustration section” or “A new story sample in the short story section.” That’s all. Though, now that I’ve been writing a full blog post weekly, I almost feel that’s cheating you, constant reader (whoever you are). Maybe that idea is something, too, that I need to get over. But it’s a process, like everything else.

Well, that’s all for now. Back to work. And here I thought I had nothing to write about!

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