The Whole Website Thing

I didn’t anticipate making a website, despite all of the knowledgeable folks over the years suggesting any wise indie author do so.

It’s weird, considering I operated a stilted sort of blog even as a child – first, reporting on updates to a then-small game service called ROBLOX, then later embracing my more creative inclinations and writing mythology-inspired short stories exclusively to post to my unadvertised, undiscoverable blog. I’m not sure what changed considering I was ecstatic at the idea of websites and blogs at the time, whereas now I shy at the idea of a website supplying a perhaps egotistical amount of information about me – as if I’m so interesting.

One thing that hasn’t changed in all that time, however, is my utter lack of marketing prowess. I’m not so good at social media, nor at maintaining my interest in it. In much the same way I’d post short stories to my blog as a child, putting no care into the advertising and word-of-mouth necessary for people to actually read them, I’m still prone to fumbling the marketing even as an adult. It all feels a little uncomfortable, frankly; even making a simple tweet announcing a book release strikes me a bit like standing on a mountaintop and announcing details about my life no one asked for… in this case, on a somewhat abandoned mountaintop, but the point remains.

Anyway, with that confessional out of the way, I think I’d just like to express that I’ve never intended to consistently blog or operate a website dedicated to selling my stories, and that’s been precisely the problem for a while. I need to evolve as a person and as a writer if I want circumstances to change, so we’re going to give good advice a try. Ideally, I won’t be stopping at a website, since social media is a similar anomaly that’s eluded my understanding for a long time, and I hope to change that.