Facebook. It's something people can't seem to live without. When I first joined up in 2005 (seriously 10 years ago??) it was for the simple purpose of staying in touch with friends overseas. Now I'm struggling to see the point of it.
As an author, my news feed is crammed full of blog posts about book reviews that aren't my book and from boasting indie authors about how many great reviews their erotica (yawn) /YA/romance novel has.
Instead of inspiring me, I discovered that it causes me to feel like sh*t. Seriously if you want to feel bad about yourself and your achievements, all you need to do is go onto Facebook for a healthy dose of egotistical bragging from indie authors and general ass kissing of the same authors by book blogs. I'm not lumping all blogs and indie authors in together on this, but for the vast majority, this is true. Case in point...
I had one goal with my writing and that was to get a book traditionally published. I was thrilled when that actually happened with Momemtum - a division of MacMillan for not one of my books, but three!
If a publisher wanted them, they had to be good, right? I know they're good but can anyone else see that? Of course not. My books don't get a look in over the done-to-death clichéd plot lines, cookie-cutter characters (same person, different name) and stilted speech of so called "Amazon Best Sellers".
And don't even get me started on covers and teasers filled with images that need an R rating.
Facebook is less a way to stay in touch with friends than it is one big platform where humility and modesty go to die. You may be wondering where this rant is going. I did too but as I wrote it, I came up with a solution. As much as I'd like to shut down my personal account, I can't. My author page is attached to it and in pretty sure my publisher will kill me for suspending my account.
What I am going to do is delete the app from my phone and delete the bookmark from my PC. I will update my author page with any writing progress or news so my fans (if a have any) can have updates but that's all. I'm going to give my bruised self-esteem time to heal and recover from the toxic platform that is Facebook.