So my little informal poll ended last week – thanks to everyone who voted!
Writing and Revising were pretty much neck in neck. Which I think is totally understandable, since those are really the main things we need to worry about as writers. Getting a quality book out is our number one priority.
Querying, Social Media and Industry contacts were also topics of interest, but they lagged behind a bit. Though they’re still important, querying stops being so important once you have an agent/contract. Social Media is always important, but must be balanced with our actual writing time. And Industry contacts I think come with time, especially now with blogs and facebook and twitter.
Basically, this just confirms to me that we’re all still worried about writing an interesting book, and turning that book into something readable. That’s what keeps me up at night too!
photo credit: h.koppdelaney’s
It also depends on where people are with their writing. If someone is still in the drafting and writing stage, then that is going to be important. If someone has sold and is approaching their release date, marketing is going to be important.
Right now, marketing (as you put it, social media) is very important for me as I have two works to promote, one that's coming up on me soon. I still have to do all that and produce quality work that people want to read.
One thing that really bothers me is that I don't write as much. I'm doing so much more that it's hard to get over the loss in production amounts. However, when asked to do a thousand different things by your publisher, your friends, your fans, you have to do it. In my case, I want to do them. It's just that "writing" seems a lot more complicated than it used to!
Really good points, Krista. I know when I was querying I was totally obsessed with that, and while editing, that was all I could think of. It seems like writing is really cyclical. Hopefully you'll be able to step back a little from the marketing and be able to write more soon!