The Social Media Catch-22

This guy has probably been trying to figure out how Facebook Insights work. Good luck, dude.

Catch-22 is an amazing book, and one that I had to read twice before I started to get the hang of Joseph Heller’s complicated prose. The gist of the true Catch-22, of course, is paradox.

In Heller’s book, John Yossarian wants to be declared unfit to fly combat missions during WWII. Pilots who volunteered to fly crazy, suicidal missions would be considered insane, and thus unfit…but in order to be declared insane, you had to ask for an evaluation. Too bad that asking for an evaluation was a sign that you were sane. A Catch-22.

I started my new job this week. It has been awesome, and I’m sure that it will be a great fit for me. While I feel like I’m drowning in new information, I know that will pass. The problem that I’m struggling with is something silly, and one that I guess really can’t be considered a “problem” in any normal sense of the word.

Because I’m busy at work, I can’t engage in social media to help connect with other writers and grow support for my work. I’m still in the editing phase of my first novel, but my goal is to start querying in the spring. I’d like to be able to continue the tweeting and the facebooking etc etc…but social media seems like a full-time job! And I just got one of those. Things were much easier for my writing career when I was under-employed.

Of course, I could slow down on the social media, and take a break. But then a new problem arises. From what I understand, a social media presence is practically required these days to get a book deal and then sell your books. If I cut down on networking through social media in order to focus on my book, I could potentially be hurting my book’s chances!

The circular logic makes my brain hurt a little. Maybe I am over-thinking this. I am a baby author, after all, and I have a lot to learn. Any advice?