Writing About Yourself

Take a wallflower and tell it to toot it's own horn. There's nothing more painful for a wallflower to do than to attract attention to itself. I know, it's no fun talking about yourself, but if there is going to be any kind of meaning behind that name on the cover of that book, there has to be a person attached to it. Well, that's my opinion anyway. And isn't that the point of creating a fan page on either Facebook or Google+, or maybe some other forum? Isn't the whole point of attracting attention to sell books? Why else would it be called an author platform? To grow a following, to attract notice, to make friends?

Through my various interviews, I've told my story multiple times in various formats, and it always seems to sound the same to me. Of course, it's my story, so I suppose it would sound the same to me. Maybe I'm just getting tired of telling it and not getting much response. Maybe I should take my own medicine. Maybe I should write up a blog post about me and what moves me to write. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I have ever done that, though I've done a few things about me. Hmmmm

But then again, as I think back, it occurs to me that there are incredibly few writers that I know anything about (not counting those I've met on Facebook, following the same advice I am). Names don't come to mind, mostly because I'm incredibly bad with names. However, the author stereotype is the alcoholic mess, and that has to come from somewhere.

So now I'm beginning to doubt my strategy of helping writers in these blog posts. They don't want to talk about themselves anyway, and books are out there doing far better than any of mine, of course they've probably been doing this since they were kids, so they have experience and exposure on me. Anyway, how much does anyone really know about the authors of the books they read? Yeah, we all try to help each other, so some of us know each other, but I'm talking about all the others? Are you at all curious? Should I just drum up a list of questions like everyone else and leave it like that? Or should I forgo Author Spotlights altogether?

I asked this on Facebook and one reply I got differentiated between the list of question type interview and the blog post type interview. She preferred the questions, saying the blog post would put her in a bad light. I fail to see how, but that's her opinion. For her the the list of questions was easy, taking only a few minutes, while the blog post was too hard. Is my strategy just me being lazy? I do know that can crop up in me in the oddest ways.

Something for me to think about. Your opinions most welcome.