Why I Don't Do Selfies & Videos Online

Now, nobody has ever asked me why I don't post many pictures or videos of myself while promoting my work online but I'm not one to let the fact that the question hasn't been asked keep me from giving you the answer. :-)

The simple fact is that I just don’t like how I look in photos and I find my voice irritating in videos. I recorded a web interview with my publisher, Newman Springs Publishing, not long after the release of The Ascension Legacy - Book 1: The Shamed Ranger, and I hated it. Even though I eventually posted the video to my social media page, it took me months to come to terms with how I looked and sounded. I am still coming to grips with the inevitable ravages of time and the realization of just how hillbilly I must sound to other people though I don't hear it myself when I speak.

I have had others talk about doing FB Live events with me to help do promotions for the books and have considered doing video announcements rather than just text posts but each time I chicken out. Part of it is that I am somewhat antisocial, a bit of a recluse, and the thought of being broadcast like that seems too much like being in a crowd for me and it makes me uncomfortable.

The irony in all of this though is that by trade I am an IT consultant who routinely participates in video conference calls and (pre-COVID) had to stand up in front of dozens of people in suits to give detailed presentations, answer questions, be accountable to projects that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more), and do it all with a smile and a polite demeanor.

There is something about doing it as part of my job because I have to versus doing it voluntarily that keeps me at odds with the idea. I don't necessarily enjoy doing it for work but know that it is a key part of my job and part of what I was hired to do whereas when doing promo posts on social media for my books it seems more like something extra that I can choose to do, and often choose not to do as a result.

Now, if someone came to me and told me that without fail using photos and videos would boost my sales through the roof then I would do it but at this point, I don't feel comfortable enough to volunteer myself to that degree of exposure. It has nothing to do with a lack of self-confidence, which my wife will verify, but just more about my unwillingness to be in front of people. That and partly because I don't want me to be the subject of people's discussion but rather people talk about the books. I don't want people to focus on my heavy southern accent, graying hair, or anything else when the whole point of doing promotions is to promote the books, not me.

Or at least that is my justification for avoiding being in front of the camera.