Let's be honest here - I created a blog site to go with my new web site. I created the web site to go with my professional e-mail account. I created the professional e-mail account because it seems to be expected these days that authors in search of an agent and/or a publisher will have a professional e-mail account (in their own domain name) and a web site and a blog and assortment of social media accounts. Gone are the days where all you needed was a really good manuscript, lots of tenacity, and a fair amount of luck.

Not that I object to using the Internet to further my cause, but I'm reminded of the e-mail joke that's been going around about the guy who couldn't get a job as a janitor at Microsoft because he didn't have an e-mail address. He uses his last few dollars to buy a bushel of tomatoes, sells them at a profit, and over the years builds up a successful produce company. At the end of the story, he still doesn't have an e-mail address and someone wonders where he'd be today if he'd had e-mail all these years ago. His reply? "I'd be a janitor at Microsoft."

So here I am. I've devoted the holiday weekend to creating a website (almost ready to launch) and a blog site, when what I really want to be doing is working on the final editing of my novel, Hunter's Way. But where's the happy medium? Where do you draw the line between working on your craft and promoting it?

Do you know? Any artists or craftsmen or independant professionals that struggle with this issue and want to share their insight? Or their frustration? I'd love to hear from you.

~ Linda