For an aspiring writer,
Social Media is a mixed blessing. While blogs and tweets can help a
writer attract new fans, and update loyal fans about upcoming
publication dates, there is also a significant time drain updating
Social Media accounts regularly. One writes about writing projects,
instead of finishing up that writing.
But sometimes the
Miraculous happens, and some minor Social Media victory is achieved
which shows all that time invested was well-spent, and not merely
squandered.
Here is a short
story to illustrate my point:
A couple yeas ago,
when I got my first paid article published, some people were happy
for me. At least, they were politely enough to say so. I had spent
months researching microfilm at the public library's Historical Annex
finding every article and photograph Frank Herbert created for Santa
Rosa Press Democrat before his
sci-fi novel Dune made
him a best-seller.
But
one angry little fella spitefully informed me, “Well, you can't
live off what you made
from that article!” His hostility shocked me, and I patiently
explained that getting my first
paid article published was part of my long-term plan to get my
second, then third, article published, and then…
“Oh
yeah? Well, you're stupid
for writing that article when you want to write screenplays!”
Again, his hostile shouting shocked me so much I couldn't get
offended by his grade-school name-calling. I patiently explained that
my Frank Herbert article, which the magazine editor asked me to
write, only took a couple hours to write, whereas a screenplay could
take more than a year to complete and polish.
I
also tried explaining how publishing my article positioned me as a
“Frank Herbert expert,” and
this would increase my chances to get hired to adapt one of his books
into a screenplay, and all part
of my long-term plan. “Oh yeah? Well, how are you going to that?”
the angry contrarian demanded triumphantly. “See? You're stupid!”
Then
I remembered this miserable DreamKiller had
no accomplishments of his own, except for angrily contradicting
people, which explained why my own accomplishments insulted him so
personally. Eventually, I moved away from Northern California to work
on my writing where rent was less expensive.
About
a month ago, I published my first Free ebook which included three of
my articles about scif-fi writers, including my Frank Herbert article
that angry contrarian told me I was stupid for writing. For my
article about Jack London's near-forgotten sci-fi works, I reached
out to several established writers for quotes, and got back responses
from Norman Spinrad and Michael Moorcock, which I included in my
published article.
About
two weeks later, when my ebook had about thirty total downloads, I
got a Facebook “Friends Request” from Michael Moorcock. As I
figure it, one of those thirty people who downloaded my book was
friends with Mr. Moorcock and informed him about his quotes in my
article. I'm guessing that Mr. Moorcock then
read my article, and liked it enough to look me up on Facebook. I
can't imagine that he took the time to find me on Facebook just
because he heard that I quoted him.
I
have been an admirer of Michael Moorcock's sword-and-sorcery writing,
and his anti-hero Elric the wizard-emperor, since sixth grade. In
fact, I have long been interested in adapting his Elric novels into a
screenplay. So having one of my childhood idols view me as a peer,
and reach out to befriend me through Social Media, is a
dream-come-true that I never dreamed of.
More
importantly, this showed me that establishing myself as a sci-fi
historian, as part of my
long-term strategy writing
screenplays and book adaptations, wasn't a waste of time no matter
what angry little DreamKillers might scream at me.
Then
another thing happened today. While checking my Twitter account for
the first time in a long while, one of the Frank Herbert-related
accounts I follow, @DuneJacurutu, reposted an article fromSombreroBooks.com about the origins of Dune.
Naturally, this was relevant to my interests and I checked out the
article. I was very surprised to find myself as a primary source for
this article. Even more surprising, they cited the earliest version
of my article from SRJC Oak Leaf News, my college newspaper.
 |
| Cited as a primary source on Sombrerobooks.com |
As
a historian doing independent research, but standing on the shoulders
other historians to learn where to start looking, it is an amazing,
magical feeling of accomplishment, of arrival, to discover other
researchers standing on my own shoulders.
It
is a strange, encouraging turning point realizing
the Dreamer has become the Dream
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