I've felt a bit footloose since my Blog Tour ended. Okay, I've been forcing myself to work my way through a second draft of Kith and Kill and I'm sorting out the formatting of my next ebook, Death Line, prepatory to sending it across the Pond to Hitch, the lovely American lady who turns my out of prints into ebooks. so you can see I haven't been idle. Just dealing with my email inbox takes half the day as I'm on so many lists. But, apart from all that, I don't know what to do with myself. And I don't know why. It's not as if I haven't done intensive stints before - God, I've had eighteen novels published (not to mention the unpublished ones) - but this seems different, somehow.
Perhaps it's because I've actually - in responding to the comments - been interacting with other human beings. I don't get to do this a lot as I rarely do signings or attend conferences. I, like other midlist authors, have found bookshops not much interested in hosting us for signings. And conferences are so expensive that I wouldn't be able to afford anything else if I attended all of those I'm supposed to attend as a crime author. So, apart from my husband, I spend a lot of time alone, just working. and no, it doesn't seem to make me noticeably more productive as part of the time is spent in replying to all those emails that flood my inbox.
Do many of you get to signings, conferences and other events? Do you sometimes feel that they take up an awful lot of time or money and that you get little back? I put up a link to a video made by another writer a little while ago and it showed the reality of signings for the majority of writers: sitting, staring into space, surrounded by your books, but alas no punters. And the one conference I went to seemed full of snobs who only wanted to know you if you were famous. So it seems I'm not really missing much. What do you think? Perhaps another Blog Tour beckons, one where I can interact with all those lovely readers who do love midlist writers. The only question is: can I find the stamina?
Perhaps it's because I've actually - in responding to the comments - been interacting with other human beings. I don't get to do this a lot as I rarely do signings or attend conferences. I, like other midlist authors, have found bookshops not much interested in hosting us for signings. And conferences are so expensive that I wouldn't be able to afford anything else if I attended all of those I'm supposed to attend as a crime author. So, apart from my husband, I spend a lot of time alone, just working. and no, it doesn't seem to make me noticeably more productive as part of the time is spent in replying to all those emails that flood my inbox.
Do many of you get to signings, conferences and other events? Do you sometimes feel that they take up an awful lot of time or money and that you get little back? I put up a link to a video made by another writer a little while ago and it showed the reality of signings for the majority of writers: sitting, staring into space, surrounded by your books, but alas no punters. And the one conference I went to seemed full of snobs who only wanted to know you if you were famous. So it seems I'm not really missing much. What do you think? Perhaps another Blog Tour beckons, one where I can interact with all those lovely readers who do love midlist writers. The only question is: can I find the stamina?
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