I don’t want to be an author "brand"

How social media has altered the writing career. "I just want to be a normal writer," writes Donna Freitas.

Social media has shifted the writing landscape over the years. In this guest column, writer Donna Freitas asks this pertinent question: for the average published writer, is social media ultimately positive, or negative? In terms of mental health and emotional well-being — does it add satisfaction or does it deprive us of the sense of our own success? It's an interesting topic. For me, blogging and sharing my words online for all these years has helped me grow my career, brought me joy and introduced me to many new writer pals, but social media itself? It can be a great tool for promotion, but I would say it mainly brought about feelings of comparison, FOMO and flattened my world view. But it also grew my ‘brand’ and this in turn grew my ability to reach my readers. Fellow authors are being asked to ‘grow their following’ before pitching a book which seems at odds with the writing itself. It's a knotty subject, and I'm glad Donna has dug into it in this brilliant piece.