Greetings. This may come off as slightly controversial to some, but hey, my word is just as good as anyone else’s. I don’t often feel the drive to write about writing and publishing, but today I read a post from an author bemoaning her author rank. As someone who has published several books, I was curious. What the hell is that? So, I read on.
Now, before I go on, I have been in this game for at least a decade if not my entire life and have tried nearly every book marketing advice and I have finally decided to f*ck that shit and focus on writing. My author platform exists from the numerous books I have written, nothing more and nothing less. My platform is over a dozen of published books in nearly every genre – fiction and nonfiction. Heck, I even wrote a song, which was beautifully recorded. That’s it. And so it goes.
While thinking of this woman’s post and reading the good-intended advice I concluded that book marketing is like dating and I suck at dating.
In today’s modern era, dating requires a personal bio and an online platform. We answer questionnaires and research potential mates and go on countless dates with people who couldn’t ignite a smidgen of conversation. My response has always been, I have better things to do with my time and surprisingly I am still single.
This is book marketing, and well, I have better things to do. My success as an author, resembles my success in romance and I understand why. I don’t play by the rules.
Don’t get me wrong, for the highly practical and pragmatic, they are successful most likely in both publishing and romance. They do the research, they put their time in to build readerships and platforms. It works. There is no denying. It’s just not for all authors, not all creative people have the time and the patience. It is just fact.
In my current state of rebellion, I think of those who have inspired me. I honestly cannot imagine John Steinbeck polishing his bio, or Kurt Vonnegut struggling to build a platform. Sigh. And so it goes. Or Hemingway researching his competition. Pass me the gin. They didn’t gather around in chat rooms. They didn’t offer to review each other’s work. They wrote not what was expected of them, but what inspired them. They drew on their experiences and perceived their world without concern of their genre.
I understand how in this day and age this could be seen as revolutionary, and of course, these men were masters of their craft. Who am I to compare? Today, we all must adhere to a genre to be successful, we must placate others in a certain genre and be party to cliques. This may sound a bit discourteous, but I participated only to be frustrated with the results. It’s not for me, and I’m sure there are other authors out there who feel the same.
Yet I fully understand, in order to win at the game, we have to play it; however, the question remains if so many authors are playing the same game, doing the same things to get
higher ranks to sell more books, we are all just contributing to the same process making it more difficult to stand out and shine and isn’t that the point...to have our babies shine.
Breakthroughs come not by doing what everyone else does, but by forging our own paths and the first thing we need to do is separate ourselves from the pack and ask ourselves some basic questions. Why do we spend countless hours writing novels? Is it for fame and money? Is it because we love to write and tell stories? Do we love the sensation of inspiration and getting to know our characters? Is it because we have something we wish to share with the world? And does it really matter what our rank is and how many 5 Star reviews we have? I mean think about it. What is our sole and our soul purpose here?
The answer for me is simple. I write because I have to. I write because I would go mad if I didn’t. I write for all my characters nagging me to tell their stories. I write to share my experiences and my perceptions. All else is gravy – the money, the reviews and any sort of fame. But the truth is, I continue to write and will continue to write regardless if I don’t make another penny and I am last on Amazon ranking. And so it goes.
Sure, I may sound idealistic in my rebellion and I guess I still believe in the magic of the world of literature and romance. Love can be found in the real world, far away from the online dating sites and pick-up bars and authors and books can be successful without algorithms, rankings and reviews. All we need to do is find the truth in our intention. And when we get down because of low Amazon rank, a bad review or a dreaded rejection, remember why we are writing.
Now, before I go on, I have been in this game for at least a decade if not my entire life and have tried nearly every book marketing advice and I have finally decided to f*ck that shit and focus on writing. My author platform exists from the numerous books I have written, nothing more and nothing less. My platform is over a dozen of published books in nearly every genre – fiction and nonfiction. Heck, I even wrote a song, which was beautifully recorded. That’s it. And so it goes.
While thinking of this woman’s post and reading the good-intended advice I concluded that book marketing is like dating and I suck at dating.
In today’s modern era, dating requires a personal bio and an online platform. We answer questionnaires and research potential mates and go on countless dates with people who couldn’t ignite a smidgen of conversation. My response has always been, I have better things to do with my time and surprisingly I am still single.
This is book marketing, and well, I have better things to do. My success as an author, resembles my success in romance and I understand why. I don’t play by the rules.
Don’t get me wrong, for the highly practical and pragmatic, they are successful most likely in both publishing and romance. They do the research, they put their time in to build readerships and platforms. It works. There is no denying. It’s just not for all authors, not all creative people have the time and the patience. It is just fact.
In my current state of rebellion, I think of those who have inspired me. I honestly cannot imagine John Steinbeck polishing his bio, or Kurt Vonnegut struggling to build a platform. Sigh. And so it goes. Or Hemingway researching his competition. Pass me the gin. They didn’t gather around in chat rooms. They didn’t offer to review each other’s work. They wrote not what was expected of them, but what inspired them. They drew on their experiences and perceived their world without concern of their genre.
I understand how in this day and age this could be seen as revolutionary, and of course, these men were masters of their craft. Who am I to compare? Today, we all must adhere to a genre to be successful, we must placate others in a certain genre and be party to cliques. This may sound a bit discourteous, but I participated only to be frustrated with the results. It’s not for me, and I’m sure there are other authors out there who feel the same.
Yet I fully understand, in order to win at the game, we have to play it; however, the question remains if so many authors are playing the same game, doing the same things to get
higher ranks to sell more books, we are all just contributing to the same process making it more difficult to stand out and shine and isn’t that the point...to have our babies shine.
Breakthroughs come not by doing what everyone else does, but by forging our own paths and the first thing we need to do is separate ourselves from the pack and ask ourselves some basic questions. Why do we spend countless hours writing novels? Is it for fame and money? Is it because we love to write and tell stories? Do we love the sensation of inspiration and getting to know our characters? Is it because we have something we wish to share with the world? And does it really matter what our rank is and how many 5 Star reviews we have? I mean think about it. What is our sole and our soul purpose here?
The answer for me is simple. I write because I have to. I write because I would go mad if I didn’t. I write for all my characters nagging me to tell their stories. I write to share my experiences and my perceptions. All else is gravy – the money, the reviews and any sort of fame. But the truth is, I continue to write and will continue to write regardless if I don’t make another penny and I am last on Amazon ranking. And so it goes.
Sure, I may sound idealistic in my rebellion and I guess I still believe in the magic of the world of literature and romance. Love can be found in the real world, far away from the online dating sites and pick-up bars and authors and books can be successful without algorithms, rankings and reviews. All we need to do is find the truth in our intention. And when we get down because of low Amazon rank, a bad review or a dreaded rejection, remember why we are writing.
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