Whelp, this is turning into a weird practice. But it’s all just part of learning social media, right?

This process arguably started with a comment under my [former post] on learning twitter. Here’s that comment I wrote:

“Update: 171 followers! And two new lessons I can add to my observations. First, I’ve had to comb through my followers due to some . . . I’m going to word that as weird interactions. I’ve set a date to comb through them again. Any profile that looks suspicious (like a private account with a two word bio) is getting blocked. Past experience from other places online says that I need to be ruthless. The other lesson? Misunderstandings abound. Non-absolutes are absolutes, and vice versa. Being on the internet is hard sometimes.”

I have also discovered that some people will follow me for a follow back, then unfollow in order to up their numbers. Increasing a follower count in general seems to increase visibility (beyond the obvious – I think it also increases it via the algorithm). But it’s disheartening to see people posting about monitoring their follower count or searching for people who drop them after a follow back.

That being said, I’ve also noticed A LOT of people who seem to seek out users to follow for the follow back for ONLY advertising purposes. And, yeah, social media is supposed to be part of our brand awareness / advertising campaign, but a twitter persona can still be more personable than a repetitive product page. I’ve opted not to follow back obvious advertisers. This leaves me in a bit of a weird dilemma.

Do I monitor my followers? What if someone follows me for a follow back but I lose them because the notification didn’t appear? (Yes, that really happens.) If it’s someone I might legitimately want to follow back, then I feel like I’m losing them in the shuffle of the algorithm. What about people who unfollow me after I follow them? How do I want to handle that practice? What if someone becomes an obvious advertiser, but they weren’t that when I followed them? And why do I keep getting weird interactions? Etc. Etc. Etc.

It’s VERY easy to overthink all this.

I’m still learning social media. And I have acknowledged on multiple occasions that, despite my age, I don’t really understand it. I don’t mind admitting that. I feel like I’m trying to create a twitter through one long, uncontrolled experiment that I barely know how to run. I clearly missed out on engineering an hypothesis and whatnot since, well, I keep trying different things without a clear agenda beyond learn the platform and connect with people / writers / readers / fellow sci-fi lovers. (And, yeah, anyone else who wants to connect, right? Within reason, I suppose. There’s a little note on this below at the end of the post.)

For now, I’ve decided to loosely sort through my followers (I think) about once every few months. I just want to see how I’m doing and how many people really do things like unfollow me after I follow back. I just went through it on my phone. Here’s a sampling of observations:

–I’m currently following about 200 people more than who follow me. Some of these are outside of the writing community (Sir Patrick Stewart, for example, is not going to follow me back). Following 856. Followers 658.

–Twitter seems to have missed notifying me about approximately a dozen followers since . . . whenever I looked through these last? This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, but I don’t recall a date.

–Felon Reviews? Really? Someone named their (fake) review service Felon Reviews. That’s not an advertisement. That’s a reminder that buying reviews is just another way of asking for the mighty hammer of Amazon to come crashing down on your books. Also, they’re way too expensive. The tagline (I think that’s what it’s called) lists them at $50-30 for review. Granted, that’s also not the order most people put those numbers in. I’m definitely not giving them a follow back.

–There’s an Indian guy who followed me who seems to tweet almost exclusively in hashtags. I decided to look at his page (turns out he’s an obvious advertiser). Almost every word is a hashtag! Even words like #the and #my

–There’s a private account that followed me that I don’t recognize. It’s set up to look like a gamer nerd, but I’ve learned to be weary of private accounts I don’t already know due to . . . well, um . . . some of those weird interactions I mentioned. I’m debating blocking it. It’s a French account, which is even weirder. Sure, I speak / read French, but I don’t really tweet in it. I think I’ve responded to a grand total of maybe two French tweets in French so far. That’s it. If I block this person, but it turns out that they know me, I wonder if they’ll tell me.

–“I am a ghostwriter and I identify as a ghost. WoOoOo/EeEeEm.” Really? Blocked.

–I’m no longer a student. Why did an obvious advertiser account for a HIGH SCHOOL TUTORING SERVICE (yes, it’s really in all caps) follow me? I’m not giving them a follow back.

–Why did a Korean book cover designer who tweets in KOREAN follow me? I think she’s looking for business, but I can’t read Korean. Also, I think she’s a cover designer? I may be wrong about that.

–A random guy followed me with the tagline #Minneapolis. He has a couple of standard anyone-could-have-said-it happiness snippets but ends it with just #Minneapolis. Why?

This has actually been more interesting to blog about than I thought it would be. I might do more posts like this in the future. (Note from the future: I did do this again [here].)

(By the way, I’m not following back anyone with political opinions that I consider problematic. I know, that sounds very closed off. I just got threatened in person the day before yesterday by an idiot in a Trump hat for . . . I don’t know, breathing? He was ranting about vaccines and waving around a court affidavit he’d written about how his own research debunked the CDC guidelines. Someone I know who witnessed this called him a whackjob. She had to intercede and ask him to leave since my repeated statements weren’t getting anywhere. I shouldn’t have to tell some idiot that I’m calling the cops if he really comes back with a gun. But, at this point, this is normal to me. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I’m not subjecting myself to that sh*t on social media too. In fact, I’ve been blocking those sorts of opinions. Anyone that expresses one gets a block. Because I refuse to deal with it on a platform that lets me block people.)

(I’m well aware this review isn’t displaying well. I’ve tried, but I can’t seem to fix that for the time being.)

I’m to the point in my professional journey where I’m having to reassess too many of the choices that I’ve previously taken for granted. That’s a fancy way of saying that I’m redesigning aspects of my author brand, marketing materials, sales objectives, etc. And I’ve come to a harsh realization: my old designs are holding my books back. I’m a passable artist, but not a professional when it comes to book covers. (Anyone familiar with my twitter may recall that I paint as a hobby. But, it’s just that: a hobby. My books mean more to me from a professional perspective.)

This wasn’t an easy decision to make. But, ultimately, I decided to have the cover redesigned. I’ve kept the old ones around where they’re findable on the site, but all future marketed covers will be designed by someone other than me.

I made (I think) around six prototype covers for It Began with a Dream. When I tested them, I ran into a lot of ambivalence. Since I have a presence on twitter now, I also reached out for opinions on social media. Most of what I heard back online amounted to gentle pushes to hire an artist. Here are several of the prototypes I made:

I still appreciate having made them. I’ll miss designing my own covers in the future, but I stand by my decision. The cover I have now looks beautifully professional:

It Began with a Dream is now published! I’m glad it’s finally released. It’s currently only in ebook form, but the paperback version will be released soon. This is the first time I’ve used a cover artist, so there are additional steps I have to go through for the paperback version. Historically, November means a noticeable dip in horror sales, so I made the decision to release the ebook version first. I discussed my journey with the cover in It Began with a Dream’s [cover reveal] post.

This is the part of the release post where I’m supposed to hype up the book and give you an irresistible offer. I do not find marketing intuitive at all, and I don’t mind admitting that. So, I will leave you with the summary. If my book interests you at all, please check it out. I’ll try to get some copies in the local libraries, but I no longer live in Virginia, so . . . . .

Goren would be perfectly satisfied living life off his father’s savings, content with no real aims or goals. However, it seems that life has other plans for him when, one night, he dreams of committing a grotesque murder as a blue-grey monster. His fractured brain puts him in denial. Then a friend tells him some horrible news: there’s been a murder. It’s a horrifying scene that’s put the city on edge. When Goren immediately starts recognizing the details, he jumps into panic mode. What happened to that monster? And what about that dream?

Oh, yeah, I’ll also give you this: [It Began with a Dream on Amazon]

(To those of you who question my post dates: Amazon emailed me on Wednesday to inform me that my ebook was officially published on their site on Sunday. I submitted it Saturday, so I think this is the fastest any of my books have made it through Amazon’s approval algorithm. I had a very long day yesterday and was so drained that my tweet got out, but my official website post did not. Today is Thursday, so I made this post this morning.)

Phase 1

1

“Name?” A woman was speaking, sweet and calm-sounding. Like she was pretending to care.

“Goren.” I heard my own voice say. I was talking, finally. Thanks to that ghost. I could still feel the tingling up my arm, like a series of chilled needles were lingering just beyond my skin. I knew better than to shift position; that would only make it worse. So, I stayed still and endured it. I’ll admit I did tense and untense my feet, but that was not enough of a distraction for my weary brain.

“Your full name.” she said sourly, a distinct bit of impatience creeping into her. My eyes were still closed, but I could feel some disdain radiating off of her. That first nurse must have told her about me.

“Goren.” I repeated, listening to my own voice say my own name. Again. I was sounding a bit distant. The woman sighed, tapping her pen against something metal.

“Your father’s name?” She asked.

“Lee Henry.”

“Your father’s brother?”

“Harvey.” Why was she asking about him?

“Is your father still with us?” Not as a living human. Although that was a ghost I hadn’t seen yet.

“He died.” I said bluntly. That sounded so cynical out loud. I could feel my heartbeat flutter, knowing just how much that scared me. Seeing my father as a ghost? Just the thought of that was almost enough to put me in here again. My heartrate must have jumped on the monitor, but we both ignored it.

“How does that make you feel?” She asked. Was she joking? I was in a state hospital; they were not known to joke around. And I already knew she could read my heartbeat. Although I’d rather not think about her watching it – that would only serve to make it go faster. I was still staring at the insides of my eyelids. Glaring red with several marauding blood veins.

“This isn’t about that. Let’s talk about something else.” I insisted.

“Why don’t you want to talk about it?” She asked. Because then I might have to see you. And seeing you could mean seeing anything.

I didn’t explain. If I did, my voice would be dripping with self-loathing. Was that true? How would I know how he really felt. But it certainly felt true. And I certainly felt that it felt true. Because of course I felt that way.

“Do you know where you are?” She asked.

“In the hospital.” I shifted to tilt my head away from her. I felt like a toddler, stubbornly keeping my eyes shut. My hand began to grow cold. That was not a good sign.

“Good. Do you remember why you are here?”

“Yes.” How could I forget?

“Are you willing to talk about it?”

“You’re giving me a choice?”

“Maybe.”

“I never wanted to. . .”

“I know.” She interrupted me. My unspoken words clung to the tip of my tongue, jamming my mouth with dry air. A silence came and clung to the room, our only solace the vague humming of the electrical work. It was incessant, droning. Was I really going to talk about what put me in here? Vaguely, I heard her shift position. I’m sure she introduced herself, but I could not, for the life of me, remember her name.

Ahem. She cleared her throat. I suppose that was my cue. I should quit being childish, right? But keeping my eyes shut was so much easier! I could feel a freezing, airy massage moving up my palm – I knew I’d see someone there. But, slowly and begrudgingly, I did open my eyes.

It was Serena. I’d estimate her age at about ten years old. She was dressed up for some sort of occasion in a lace-covered, black holiday dress. Why was she still here? I didn’t know. But she was bouncing up and down with her thick, fancy-made curls, half-blocking my view of whoever it was that I could glimpse sitting behind her. I ignored whatever Serena said, choosing instead to look beyond her.

“I think you need to talk about it.” Declared the woman I’d been speaking with. Her eyes were staring into me, the brown of her iris framing a prodding abyss. I blinked, wondering if she was right.

“This is all confidential.” She clarified, gesturing with her hand to encompass what I thought I glimpsed as an old-style clipboard. “And it has no bearing on your residence.”

I thought I sensed some humanity in that. And what else? Empathy? She grabbed something from the table and reached it towards me: a clear cup of water. I tried to pull my arm out of the hospital sheets, maniacally detangling it like I was yanking up a stubborn vine. But of course that didn’t go right.

She gave up waiting and put the rim to my lips. I felt the rush as she tilted the water towards me. The rim itself was stiff, almost batting my teeth. I drank, feeling a pleasant, cooling soothe in my throat. But then it stung when it hit my stomach. Willfully, I finally got my hand out to grab it from her. I’m not helpless!

But then I saw my injuries. Well, I saw what felt like a miniscule portion of them. I had burn lines running up my arm, and bandages around the area between my index finger and thumb. How did that happen? All I remember was firing a gun!

Overtly-sweetly, the woman wrapped the cup into my grip, manually arranging my small, boney fingers with her’s. She gave me a rather patronizing smile, with a little tilt to her head.

Well, at least I knew how seriously she’d take me.

I gave the requisite awkward grin in return. I’d been informed by staff that I’d have to talk to somebody. Maybe if I scared her enough she’d just let me go.

I know. Wishful thinking.

But I began my monologue, adding in some dramatic flair:

“This wasn’t a dark nor stormy night. It was just a regular, everyday sort of night. One that could have happened to anyone. I didn’t choose this. You know that the events just sort of happened. They pulled me into them. Me, the hapless victim.” I could feel my voice trailing off. By now, she had retrieved my water cup and backed her way into her seat. She held a pen, poised and at the ready, her eyes intently watching me. I pointedly ignored the child ghost I felt playing with my fingers. But that chill was starting to spread up to my shoulder.

I continued:

“I am the sole inheritor of my father’s wealth. That’s been enough for me to live reasonably and comfortably alone.” I emphasized the word alone but she was already scribbling away with her pen. I took in another breath:

“I own my father’s old home, but I have no real work or goals in life. I suppose I was a ripe target. But, of what? Even I don’t know.” My dramatic façade was cracking, breaking into a near ramble. I think I was somewhat dodging the real subject. Although, she had brought up my father, and now I couldn’t quite refocus. She was staring at me. Her pen was poised in her grip, like a team’s banner at the ready.

“Get to it! I want to know what happened!” Serena was screaming at me, trying to climb up and jab her way into my viewpoint. The cold of her touch was creeping up, threatening to encroach on my torso and ribcage. Her knee made it up to the bed next to me, but she repeatedly passed through the real-world object. Involuntarily, my heartrate climbed. I didn’t need her screaming like that.

“It’s alright. I’m here to listen. I don’t judge you for any of this.” The woman was trying to reassure me, gesturing again over her clipboard. Her eyebrows had begun to fall towards the outer edges, a distinct blend of pity and intensity growing in her eyes. I can’t stand being pitied. Even in her, I could still see Shelley Osborne, someone who I was desperate not to think about.

I took in a deep breath, starting again:

“I don’t think I’m insane.”

“You’re not.” She interrupted me.

“Well. . .”

She was running a recording device. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I saw the thin clip wire and dot-like lens around her ear. Seeing tech like that made my skin crawl. I could almost feel on my own skin where the wiring ran against her’s, like a fiery itch was burning just above the surface. Maybe it was better to just get this over with.

I began again:

“It all began with a dream. . .

[Link to amazon page]

[Link to return to novels]

[Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc.
www.gobookcoverdesign.com ]

Most of you probably know that I’ve been struggling with the cover design for IBwaD (It Began with a Dream). I love designing my own covers, but, honestly, I’m not a professional. I’ve reached the point where I’ve been pushed to acknowledge that my own designs look too amateur. Effectively, they’re holding my books back. So, I’ve been in the process of scouting cover artists to redo / create these covers for me. I made six prototypes covers for IBwaD, but none of them tested well.

I came across the website I linked to above via another author’s blog post. I fell (to use the idiom) head over heels for one of the premade covers. It fits Domes (WIP) phenomenally well. You’ll see that cover next year. After scrolling through her designs more thoroughly, I picked the above design for IBwaD. After making so many of my own prototypes, it’s harder for me to mentally take a step back and give that degree of creative authority to someone else for IBwaD. That being said, this design fits the themes of the book. It also fits a good number of scenes. I do appreciate it. And I am excited to finally reveal the official cover!

But it’s another level of humility to acknowledge that my own designs were not able to do enough for this book. I’ll leave the prototypes where you can already find them on the site. I’m actually considering doing a separate post to walk you all through the process and how I came to this decision. I’ve also resolved to redesign my former covers. I’m working with a different artist for Into the Unknown. I’m debating using another of Robin’s designs for Will to Speak (or maybe doing a custom one). Victim is up in the air right now.

This book release has been a wild ride. It was supposed to be out in May (whoops). I want to get it out before November, so hopefully it’ll be released in the next few days. Everything else has been done for a while now – I just needed more time for the cover.

Book launch in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Just. . . . Why?

I added a new page today to make my site inclusive of the painting I do on Youtube. The problem? It seems to have disappeared into the ether. I have a link:

Artwork

The wordpress program recognizes it. Maybe the page will appear on its own? I hope so. I also went through and put my pages in order, but that seems to have no effect on how they display. I’m too tired for this today. . . . . . . . .

Or for the why not of it?

Disclaimer: I did not create Maze (Mazikeen). I’ve been watching Lucifer on Netflix.

Here goes:

(Setting: random dive bar)

Maze looked up from reading my twitter feed. I was already weary of the harsh look on her face.

“Did you really do that? Ask a bunch of drunks how to fill in plot holes?” She demanded.

“Yes. I did that sometimes when I lived abroad.” I explained, wondering how Linda must feel. Admittedly, maybe that wasn’t normal human behavior. Some of my human friends also think it’s strange that I find it so easy to approach people. Maze looked like she was rolling her tongue, chewing mildly on the inside of her lip.

“So, how’d you do it?” She asked.

“Well, I don’t drink.” I started, getting ready to explain–

“Yeah, I noticed.” She interrupted, eying my cranberry juice. I tried not to hold that against her as I resumed:

“So, I pay attention to people’s energy in how they carry themselves. For example, yours screams that you don’t want to be messed with. And, if I did mess with you, that I’d regret it.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” She agreed, nodding with a subtle, demonic grin.

“Well, I pick a group, or person, with very amicable energy. Then I absorb that feeling and approach them with some type of lead in or introduction. From there, I would basically just pitch the problem scenario and see what they say.” I explained, confident that I’d handled it well enough. Maze was nodding at me like an ardent sage.

“I want to do that.” She decided. I raised both eyebrows and gave her my best surprised face.

“You?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure.” She shrugged. “Why not?”

“Uh. . .”

“My show has plenty of plot holes.” She took a big swig from her drink and slammed it back on the table. I watched her storm theatrically (in a hyper-masculine manner) away from where I sat. She approached a group of college-aged brits.

“I’m absorbing your energies.” She declared loudly, domineering her shoulders and stance like a drunk dude-bro. “And I have a problem.”

I facepalmed in the background.

Almost, Maze. Almost.

I get so frustrated sometimes with Amazon’s response system. I’m in the process of soliciting reviews (which is fine under the community guidelines as long as they’re honest and you don’t buy them). What does soliciting reviews entail? That’s a good question. There are lots of different ways to do this. For example, you can go through services like booksprout, pubby, and various blog tour options. You can also contact bloggers and potential reviewers directly. I’m sure there are other options, but I’m not going to go through them here since that isn’t the purpose of this post.

Here’s what Amazon currently says about Customer Reviews:

(Full disclosure: I trimmed the tabs / taskbar off the image since you don’t need to see how many tabs / programs I have up.)

Here’s the message I just sent them. I could go on a tangent about how their help categories leave off certain topics, but that’s also not the purpose of this post. I’m looking at soliciting reviews through booksprout:

“My apologies if this question is in the wrong category. My books are enrolled in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited. I understand that my enrollment grants exclusivity to the kindle store. Can I still give out ARC copies? Does that include sending out ARC copies through an ARC service like booksprout? Thank you in advance for your response.”

Booksprout (as I understand it – I haven’t used there service yet) provides a limited pool of readers with free copies in (hopefully, since we can’t demand it) exchange for a review. You have to create an account and go through the sign up process in order to access any of booksprout’s books. In other words, they’re behind a sign in wall. I tested this with a book that I know is on booksprout: Shu Daizi’s Iris and the Secret Library. As of this post, here’s the link: https://booksprout.co/arc/64220/iris-and-the-secret-library-book-7

I know, it’s erotica. Blame twitter.

Here’s what the booksprout listing looks like:

Yes, the link is findable through a search on google. This means that an algorithm could theoretically find the link through a search engine. What happens when I click Get this ARC?

I get directed to login or signup. I can not access it without an account.

Here’s the response Amazon provided me with:

What does booksprout have to say about using their service while a book is enrolled in KU? They say yes and no. I can’t find the answer I read yesterday (otherwise, I’d include it in this post). I found a forum thread on kboard discussing it [here]. The responses contain different answers. For example, one says they contacted Amazon and received this answer:

Admittedly, that was in 2018. It also does not list booksprout by name. Other posts say you cannot use booksprout while enrolled in KU. Then there’s this gem:

So, can I give out ARC copies through booksprout? The response says I can not make the ebook available through another site. So, presumably, I can give out ARCs if I don’t go through a public website. Meaning that this question could be resolved if booksprout put their book listings behind a sign-in wall, as opposed to just the ARC copies. I know from experience that freebie giveaways on Amazon don’t really generate reviews. Also, providing them with the downloadable ebook file is effectively the same thing as providing them with a free copy, right? And what about the (however many) people who use booksprout anyway and don’t get flagged by Amazon?

A former choir director at my church growing up had a “Bang Head Here” sign on her wall. Sometimes I think I need one of those.

(To those of you who are more literal minded: No, I’m not really going to bang my head on the wall. I’m just thinking about it.)

There is so much conflicting information out there. The community guidelines aren’t always particularly clear either. In this blog post, I’m going to go over two recent things that have happened.

First, I got a 1-star review on Into the Unknown. The reviewer was clearly taking issue with the fact that I have my pronouns in my bio. They also critiqued the fact that I have a genderfluid character whose pronouns I actually respect. It consisted, overall, of a long rant claiming I had an inability to put basic sentences together. I panicked a bit and reported the review to Amazon.

I also messaged a writer I know on twitter about how to handle the situation. The advice I received was basically to report it myself and convince as many people as I can to also report it. I got lucky – it was taken down in less than three hours after I reported it. The reason I’m writing about it here? In a blog post with this title? It made me question why I was targeted in the review (beyond the obvious).

The reviewer explicitly called out my pronouns in my bio. They misquoted it and tried to use my own words against me (I have a snippet in there about working in the school system). Part of the problem might be that my pronouns were at the top of my bio. I have also used my non-normative pronouns (they / them) for the bulk of my bio, as opposed to the more normative he / him.

I am proudly non-binary. And I have been out for years. I know I don’t pass particularly well (and my author pic gets read in a few different ways, most of which work against my pronouns). But the pronouns were clearly visible after my name. I have since moved them to the bottom of my bio. That way, I don’t feel like I’m compromising myself by lying or stepping backwards. But, at the same time, lazy trolls would need an extra click to find that info.

I also have a pronoun-free version of my author bio that I have used for anthologies. I’ve learned the hard way that the vast majority of editors I’ve worked with DO NOT accept they/them pronouns. It’s uncommon for someone to overwrite my bio with the wrong pronouns, but that has happened in the past. I am strongly considering putting the pronoun-free version on amazon. I’ll still include the paragraph I added at the end requesting they/them or he/him pronouns, but the body of the bio would be pronoun-free.

I am tremendously grateful that the review got taken down. However, it’s hard not to think about how to prevent that from happening again in the future. In all honesty, I’m not sure I can prevent it. I just hope that there’s a balance somewhere. And that I’ll be able to figure out where that balance is.

Here’s the second thing that’s happened: I was watching another video on Youtube that aims to teach new indie authors about publishing on Amazon. It was a list of rules not to break (that Amazon conveniently doesn’t necessarily tell you). One of the functions discussed in the video could easily be wielded against LGBT / minority authors. That is certainly frustrating, but it’s not the part that stuck out to me the most.

He basically argued against newbie authors seeking out reviews. There was no alternative provided, and the best the comments / summary could do was to tell us to let it happen organically. Reviews were the bottleneck to my sales / publicity for years. Sure, I have other areas to improve in (social media being an easy example). But there’s a reason why so many authors focus in on getting reviews.

Reviews are like social credit. They let someone else provide an opinion on our work. Sure, they can be heartbreaking (and, to some extent, nerve-wracking, especially at the beginning). But they definitely have their place in providing value. Beyond the social credit provided to readers, they also provide feedback to authors.

Sure, not all reviews are high quality. One of the first reviews I got on Into the Unknown was “I enjoyed reading this book.” The reviewer gave me five stars, but no real feedback. However, that five stars was my first review on that book after my pen name change. Having even just one review for a book looks a lot better than having none. Sure, a book with no reviews isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just that no one has contributed an opinion yet, so it becomes much riskier for a potential reader.

This youtuber / author accused review services (like Pubby Co, Booksprout, Author Marketing Club’s Reviewer Grabber Tool, etc.) of preying on authors. There are times when that’s probably true, especially with some of the shadier options I’ve seen on the internet. He was also adamant (in 2019) that Amazon will strike down these platforms and punish the authors that use them. I think, if Amazon actually tried that, they’d have a class action suit to contend with. But I may be wrong in that.

On the other hand, growing reviews organically? The internet doesn’t seem to know how to do that. In fact, I know it’s common for traditional publishers to solicit reviews. This means that even traditionally published books do not get all their reviews organically. But this is still a pointed reminder: regardless of what I do to market my books, they are still at risk.

What do I mean by that? I can not fully prevent piracy. I have a 50-page PR copy I can send out (as opposed to a full PDF), but someone could still use coding to manipulate the software on their Kindle to pirate from KU. (Yes, that happens. Don’t believe me? Google it.) I also can not prevent the mighty hammer of Amazon from crashing down on my books. Nor can I prevent people from exploiting that function I mentioned by targeting LGBT authors.

But, do you ever wonder what happened to John Locke? He’s the early kindle millionaire who famously admitted to buying fake reviews. And he still has his books on amazon [here]. His most recent blog post is from 2012, but I’m sure he still makes sales. Admittedly, I’m not a millionaire. But he publicly admitted to buying reviews and his books are still there. I think Amazon’s enforcement of the Community Guidelines is more selective (or, perhaps, algorithmically unintentional) than what they say publicly.

From what I can find, this Youtube content creator doesn’t offer any suggestions for how to “organically” grow reviews. He advises against soliciting reviews, but doesn’t provide an alternative. Nor does he really account for the bottleneck that reviews can help resolve in marketing books.

Don’t know what I mean by bottleneck? A book with no reviews is a bigger risk in the eyes of the consumer. Even one review offers some social credit.

As a side note, that last [blog post] by John Locke is a really fascinating read from a marketing perspective. You could study it for either blog or email marketing. The lead is great and personal (which helps connect with the reader), it doesn’t look like an advertisement until the end, and it’s much more subtle than other attempts I’ve read. Admittedly, you didn’t see so many of these types of posts in 2012. No wonder he sold so many books, right?

On the other hand, does that make this blog post a lesson in what not to do? I’m not leading the reader into something about one of my books. This post isn’t technically literary citizenship either. I’m making some observations and posting them online on a platform I control. Sure, I have barely any readership on my blog. But, in theory, I’m still expected to use it for marketing. Not the weird combination of venting / observations / anti “hot takes” that I usually use it for.

(Hot take: Noun. “A piece of commentary, typically produced quickly in response to a recent event, whose primary purpose is to attract attention.” (Source: Google). None of my posts are anywhere near that short. Yes, I know I have a weird sense of humor )