Some still operate that way (and we're grateful), but others have taken it to a whole new level.
I won't sit here and tell anyone they shouldn't promote their work or the work of their friends or authors they enjoy, but I will explain what typically happens on my end when authors do it incessantly.
[ what's that smell? ]
If you follow me on Twitter, I will likely follow you. If you do nothing but post links to your book or books, I will block you and vow to never read your work.
If I connect with you on LinkedIn and you immediately send me a message or an e-mail telling me to check out your book on Amazon, I will "disconnect" from you and vow to never read your book—especially when, as happened yesterday and thus prompted this post, I sample it and there is a mistake three words in. No, thank you!
If we're friends on Facebook and I've "liked" your author page—which is the page I expect to see writing updates generate from—and you go and post daily the same goddamn updates on your personal page, your author page, and every writing-related group you and I (sadly) belong to, even those that are not meant for such updates, I will block your updates, vow to never read your work, and find you to be a total wackadouche.
If you constantly post 5-star reviews on Amazon and then share those overblown, unhelpful reviews loaded with WHIZBANGPOW! adjectives and vague clichés like "it gripped me from the first word and didn't let go until the last"—which are obviously meant to A) kiss the (undoubtedly more popular) author's ass, B) hide the fact that you didn't actually read what you reviewed, and C) use his or her book as a piggyback to your own shitty book or books—I won't believe a word you're saying and more than likely will never read that author's book because your word can't be trusted.
(That's right, an absurd run-on sentence in a post where I criticize bad writing. Got a problem with that?)
The fact is, you're not helping anyone, especially yourself. Most of us promote our work in some regard, but some of you are OUT OF FUCKING CONTROL! I won't begrudge you your rights to be that way—that pushy, lying kind of self-promoter. You'll surely fool a lot of dummies out there. But I won't support you. And worse, I'll find it very hard to support those other authors that are unlucky enough to be promoted by you. They're the innocent bystanders in this whole thing. And some are probably damn fine writers, which is a shame.
In the grand scheme of things, the big picture, this post is just one insignificant opinion from a relatively insignificant dude...but rest assured, I'm not the only one with this opinion.
So do as you will, but remember this: You can't push or lie your way to the top. You can push and lie your way to a top, sure, but it's most definitely not the top.
11 comments:
Amen. Twitter is like the mecca for indie writers selling to other indie writers. I actually read a blog by one of those guys that suggested it was not excessive to post about your book ONCE PER HOUR. And a disturbing amount of people agreed with him. Jesus...really?!? I find once per day excessive.
Those people don't bother me. The minute I'm on to their schtick, boom: unfollowed. No longer my problem. Let them follow each other and cross-promote all day long. It seems to make them happy.
The Twitter tweeters don't bother me much. They're easily dealt with, you know; but the others, those posting on Facebook and stuff, they're much harder to get rid of.
I can block their updates, but that's only from my feed, you know. I still see the same post in a bunch of groups...and I didn't even mention forums and Goodreads, where these people will do the very same thing with the very same update.
Either way, this rant was about those who just constantly do this, every day, multiple times, etc. I'd like to moidarize them! Haha.
Have I told you about my.... :D
I really love your page set up and I like this piece a bunch!
I'm going to call everybody I know a "wackadouche". Thanks for the vocabulary lesson.
This is so timely. I'm terrified to being "that person" who only markets, but I think I err on the side of not marketing enough. Gar! But I agree that some people are insanely out of control, and I don't want anything to do with them anymore. I feel like I've become their audience, not their buddy.
I second that "amen" in the prior comment.
A part of me just cannot believe that anyone would ever say to themselves "Hey, you know that thing that annoying pushy telemarketers do? That's a great way to market my self-pubbed book!"
But my Twitterfeed (pre-purging) proves me wrong.
And I don't know about you, but I'm pretty skeptical about the positive reviews on Amazon that all read like the same over-enthusiastic person... Oh, you too? :)
There's nothing wrong with marketing when you interact with people on a genuine level. There's no need to kiss ass then, you know.
But far too many people think it's all about networking and nothing else; there's no heart behind it at all. And you can see right through that bullshit.
Just stumbled upon this blog after submitting something to Shock Totem. BRAVO! I completely agree that there's a disingenuous energy in the writing community of people "supporting" each other when its really just a matter of "I'll kiss your ass if you kiss mine". Some people are for real, but there's a lot of nonsense out there. At the risk of sounding like one of those people, check out my blog post on this VERY issue. https://americantypo.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/the-man-from-la-la-land-and-comrades/
If anything, its a humorous jab at all of this stuff.
This reminds me of the Shocklines days where writers sold to other writers. Gee. Yay. Hrmm...
The self-promotion has gotten out of hand.
To me, a post or two a day about your own work is fine provided those two messages are peppered between posts and tweets, etc. about other stuff.
Good post, man.
Hope I'm not one of those overpromoters that prompted your post.
Actually, on a side note, if a writer only has the Internet for their marketing platform, something is wrong. Very wrong. But I also understand that it's the age of the Kindle bandwagon and desperate authors are self-publishing (small press, midlist, etc.) because their markets dried up, but there's far more to self-publishing than just Kindle.
Sure, some have had stupid success with it--ask them why and they don't know why--but on average, self-publishing is more than just uploading your book and spamming the Net.
Nine years experience talking here.
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