Stephen King Left Facebook And I Don't Know What To Do About It - Op-Ed Piece
Have you heard, your favorite author left Facebook?
“But Stephen King is not my favorite!”
Way to miss the point, wise guy.
One of the most prolific writers of our time, the modern Poe, the creator of It and Carrie, and the guy who wrote 400 pages to a book for backstory purposes, left one of the biggest social media platforms out there.
Why does this matter you ask?
You don’t read the man, so who cares?
It’s simple.
Stephen King is one of the few writers that has authority in the literary world today.
Guys like me, study him to learn, and I am not talking only about writing here, but his business approach too.
How does his website look?
What book conventions does he attend?
How does he get book reviews?
What is his profile picture?
What does his book look like?
What does he name his book?
What magazines interview him about his new book?
What are stops he makes when he goes on his book tour?
Basically, how does he conduct himself as a professional writer?
And remember, this isn’t even going into detail about his actual writing style.
How he feels about adjectives and descriptions.
How he is a pantser.
And how he overcomes writer’s block.
Facebook, the thing that King left like a bad relationship, is well… Facebook.
You are reading this online, so I assume you have some idea of this site.
If you do, don’t forget to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks.
(There is nothing like a shameless plug as I make my case)
The social media giant is one of the major platforms in the social media revolution we are living through, where public information of individuals is put online for others to read, comment, and share.
What was once the physical address for the 19th-century person, is now a social media profile for a modern person.
You used to send someone a letter, now you DM them.
We have gone so far here, that anyone who says they are not on social media feels unique— like that one person at a party who knows the trivia question.
I don’t know what the currency is in Nigeria. Don’t bother repeating the question.
Unknown writers like myself, writers who struggle with rewriting like Stacey, or who want to explain why a certain author is overlooked for writing novellas like Erika, are forced on social media to keep up with the new destination of the readers.
Like a bear to salmon, we go wherever the food lives.
Stephen King said no to something many accept and too many can’t live without.
Can you imagine if Charles Dickens would have stopped receiving mail back in his day?
It would cause a stir since his work was a part of the fabric of his time.
Much like King’s.
Now to be fair, King could probably get off of all social media and still sell a ton of books.
He is a name that many know.
Even those who don’t read him have heard of him.
Personally, I like to bring up fun facts about the guy when he is brought up, or when someone is watching The Shawshank Redemption.
· He wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman for a while when his career started out.
· He wrote that movie that is often considered as one of the greatest ever made. I mean, he wrote the book. Also Red is an Irish guy in the book, not a black guy.
· He has a hands-off policy with his books being adapted into films. He doesn’t intervene.
I was about to create a Facebook page for myself after I created my Twitter page.
I told the other bloggers on the site to get one as well since I thought it would help the blog.
But then King tweeted his departure.
It was as if I was a passenger about to get on the Titanic after beating Leonardo DiCaprio in cards, when someone pulled me over to tell me the truth about the ship.
“That boat right there?
The unsinkable ship, as they call it.
That can go down.
One hit is all it takes.
Don’t get on that ship.
It isn’t what they tell you.”
And get this, he was one of the boat’s engineers.
If you do like this post, please share this on social media. It means a lot to us. Thanks.
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About The Blogger
Greg Luti is an editor and blogger on pensandwords.com. His favorite writers are Robert Frost and Charles Bukowski. He enjoys reading up on history, watching comedies, and playing video games, when he is not writing down a few notes for his next piece. He started this blog out of his love for literature and hopes that the reader shares that same passion.
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