Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
if you want to give it a try then why not?
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gmw.
I enjoyed your drunken reply.
I think we suffer from the same writerly delusion: good writing will eventually out. (the creme rises to the top). And that is just that--a delusion. There are endless great books out there that will never be read. I mean, masterpieces. Fifty years ago it wouldn't have been the case. Some writing teacher or writers' group member would've recognized the brilliance of somebody's work and pointed it out to somebody who pointed it out to somebody else who eventually pointed it out to an editor or an agent and the book was discovered. That's not to say it can't happen today. But it's also not to say that a meteor won't hit the earth and kill us all before you read this.
Visibility is something an aspiring author needs if they want sales.
Say what?
If they want sales??? A long time ago a writer friend told me: "If you're not writing to be read (sales), you're keeping a journal."
Now, do I want the money from the sales? I suppose so, but it's much more important to me to be read, to get validation that my stuff is worth anything, to know that the hard work I've been putting into my craft is paying off.
I believe that Vydorscope's example and advice - giving away at least one of your books for free* - is probably some of the best advice there is for self-publishing.
That can work for some people. It didn't work for me. I gave away 2k of one novel and it led to a handful (Less than ten) reviews and (again, less than ten) sales. And believe me you will get some terrible reviews if you give your book away. People click on it just because it's free. Maybe they click on it just because of the cover. Then they read it and are like, "This book stunk. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on it." And all because they didn't take the time to read the blurb (like a paying customer certainly would). My two worst reviews from that self-same permanently free (no longer btw) book were from freebies.
Short fiction doesn't sell. There is some really well written collections of short stories out there that the writer can't even give away. (Which doesn't mean I'm not going to try it. Maybe I'll be the first to make it!)
What I have done is put a lot of free flash fiction (1K or less) on my website. It's drawn a fair amount of attention (29 hits two days ago) but hasn't led to sales. (And I've had to get the word out on Twitter to get the hits I did.)
From this, I hope you can see that the idea of writing and publishing anything that isn't what I want to write seems like a pretty big waste of effort - to me.
See, now I see the pretty big waste of effort being writing the stuff I want to write that nobody even knows it exists. Hey, if it was up to me I wouldn't to any marketing. Just live the writer's life. Wonderful. But also fantasy! The world is what it is and if I have to write some short non-fiction to get my other stuff noticed I'll do it. (And I hardly agree with jandrew about people looking over some books and seeing a non-fiction book in the mix and turning up their nose and walking away. If a book grabs them it grabs them. And if they're not interested in the non-fiction or fiction for that matter they just don't look at it.)
Yes, my brand might be best if I stayed consistent with the serious fiction that I like to write. But it will also stay invisible and unread. If I have to do some things not to my utter preference to get that going, I'll do it.
Lastly is considering trying Amazon's monopoly grabbing KDP Select, something I have avoided like the plague (on principal). But from what I've heard the books in KDP Select enjoy such preferential positioning in SEO searches etc etc that it is a tremendous advantage to be in there.
So it seems I'm considering abandoning all integrity! LOL (Only half kidding.)