One of the biggest plusses you have as an author is the advent of social media.

Unfortunately, it’s also one of an author’s biggest minuses.

Here’s the thing: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and my blog enable me to interact with readers and would-be readers from all over, to extend my reach beyond my friends, family and neighbors, and most of it without spending much (or any) money.

What it does cost me is time, and when you’re a single working mother, that time is oh-so-precious. Every hour I have to spend scheduling tweets and posts, or taking pretty pictures of books, or coming up with blog content is time I’m not spending on my writing. Which is not ideal.

Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast, and in today’s market, a presence in social media, particularly when you write YA, is critical.

So I spend six hours, one day a week front-loading a bunch of this stuff. I take my phone into the bathroom with me to retweet authors I know and “Like” the everloving hell out of Facebook and Instagram posts. I scour Reddit before bed at night and on lunchbreaks at my day job for interesting articles or really cool pictures to share, so I’m not always talking about my book. Everytime somebody posts a hilarious meme anywhere, it gets copied and re-used. I have posts set to duplicate out from the blog to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr and from Instagram to Twitter, as well. I am a one-woman social media machine.

It’s the price of admission, if you want to stay on the ride.