Blog Post 2: Tiktok, and Cutting a Wrestling Promo for my Book

I got of social media for good in the Spring of 2017. Yes, yes. I did it for my mental health. The world was just too polarizing. Nobody could listen to reason. Everyone was so uncharitable. And if you were wrong about something, even in good faith, it was seen as a mortal sin, one which the internet lynch mob would never let you forget.

No. I’m not talking the Presidential Election and the national psychosis that followed. I wasn’t smart enough to get off social media for that reason. I’m talking about a KD led Golden State Warriors team trouncing Lebron’s Cavs in the NBA finals. I talked a lot of smack about how Lebron and company was going to beat, and potentially even sweep the “Dream Team.” After game 3, I just couldn’t face logging back onto facebook. Those Warrior fans were merciless.

Nevertheless, I absolutely benefited from unplugging. My productivity and happiness saw an immediate boost from getting out of the narcissist chamber that was facebook at the time. And when I finally got around to reading the Coddling of the American Mind a few years later, it didn’t take long for my righteousness neurons to fire. How superior I felt listening to my podcasts and meditating while others were losing their damn minds about Elon buying Twitter, or a craze of young teenage girls acting like they had turrets after having watched the same Instagram videos. And that brings me to the topic of this blog post, and where I find myself, a 42-year-old millennial, in the process of advertising my first book: Tiktok.

Ok. So the Chinese don’t let their kids on Tiktok, at least not the version that we have. And while I am not a conspiracy theorist, is it all that implausible that the social media platform is the world’s first internet driven, cultural weapon? An ingenious stratagem by the CCP to degrade the collective intellect of our country and further polarize us? Um…I could be convinced. But in my somewhat limited research, it seems that Tiktok is the place for authors, particularly indie authors, to increase sales. Hell, apparently there is even this thing called “booktok.” All that to say, I have furiously thrown myself into the world of Tiktok content creators and will soon leave the lecture hall and enter the proverbial lab of downloading the app and creating content myself.

Now I’ve received a lot of advice from some very proper people about the “right way” to market on Tiktok. I’m not going that route at all. This is mainly for two reasons. First, in a world where even a woman’s womb has a market value through surrogacy, I think a lot of people are longing for something that isn’t transactional, something authentic. So while I can’t say exactly what my content will be at this point, it will be my face you’ll be seeing in most of those videos—I’m far more attractive and easy to listen to if you’ve had a few drinks, so get the shot glasses ready now—and it will be my personality that will come through. This may win me a great deal of hate or contempt, or even worse, apathy. But this is only going to work if it’s sustainable, and I can only sustain it if its genuine and coming from my heart and mind. So, I’m ordering up a side of vulnerability and exposure along with my self-consciousness.

Second, I want to have fun with this. That plays directly into the sustainability point made earlier. But I also think if I’m having fun, my viewer will as well. In this regard, it seems my author persona on Tiktok may allow me to live out a childhood dream differed. As a kid, I always wanted to be a pro-wrestler. That wasn’t in the cards for a lot of reasons. But I always admired a well delivered wrestling promo. Every wrestling fan knows a superstar that’s hot on the microphone can win over the crowd, in spite of deficiencies in physical appearance and even in-ring performance. I don’t watch wrestling anymore but I still sometimes go back and youtube some of the all-time greats on the mic, from the Rock and Steve Austin, to Ric Flair. I used to envision myself on the mic. What crazy shit would I say to help me get over with the crowd?

Now, with the advent of social media, where we are all the stars of our own reality show, and with the purpose of generating interest in Book I of the Sigma Series, I find myself approaching social media marketing in much the same way a wrestler might approach cutting a promo. Like the wrestler, I’m trying to generate interest. Like the wrestler, I need to draw my potential reader into a minor cult of personality. And like the wrestler, I need to give the crowd a compelling reason to watch my match. Except in this case, I need them to read my book. In this way, I see my author persona as both an authentic slice of who I really am, and, at the same time, an exaggeration of who I really am, one that goes the extra mile, says the extra thing, and makes every attempt to connect with my target audience as well as be an ambassador for my book.

I’m just learning the ropes of Tiktok marketing. I may still change my mind and go the more conventional, “safe” route, if I watch enough videos of Tiktok marketing gurus advising me thus. Most of my content will be book focused, not author focused anyway.  

Yet, even if all the wisest advice goes against this marketing strategy, writing and publishing this book has been a lesson in vulnerability, walking in dark places where I wasn’t sure where my feet would land, and trusting myself. I know this sounds whoo-y as hell, and I’m not whoo at all. But I deeply feel that this is what the journey looks like for me. This is my book, my dream. This is my soul in a very real way. I could be very melodramatic and, like Terrance Howard in Hustle and Flow, say “this shit’s got to work.” But no matter how you cut it, giving this book the best chance to succeed means putting myself out there, subject to ridicule, embarrassment, and disappointment. So expect to see my face in just about every video. If I need a break, I’ll film my dog.