Like many people, I occasionally get sucked into a little doomscrolling. The constant pitch from whoever about the greatest this, or that, or the best way to do this or that… I never knew there were so many secrets in the world.
I bit on one post about book marketing… “Feed these prompts into ChatGPT and watch your sales go through the roof“ or something like that. So for fun or should I say for boredom or curiosity I copied the prompt, and then sent it into ChatGPT.
It came up with a very detailed lengthy plan, which no doubt hundreds of thousands or millions of others have also used.
It came up with a schedule for executing all of the “necessary” pieces of the puzzle. Filming schedule and editing schedule a posting schedule a writing your blurb/high energy pitch schedule.
I let it sit for a day.
The clarion calls and insistences from the “authorities“ about the all important marketing, fill my feeds. I have to think about what’s important.
Sales. Are nice. The joy of writing a good sentence, the giggle of rereading it, finishing a chapter with a coax into the next. Those are happy-makers.
I calculate the schedule for filming for editing for lighting and even with modern fancy self service tools, the graphics and music. I look at the demand of the bot and the insistence of the experts.
And it really only takes a moment to realize, all the time that I spend doing all of those things we’ll steal all of the time that is truly happy-making.
So, I’m not going to worry about all of that business for now, or probably ever.
But I will continue to write, to feel good about doing it, and hopefully entertain a few.
If you are one of those few, tell a friend if you’ve read something that made you laugh, or cry, or spurred a memory, or tugged a heartstring.
And the friend that you tell, ask them to do the same. Each of you will receive the reward of having shared something personal. And neither of you will have been yelled at with an urgent call to buy anything.
xo, M.
