To Rant or Not to Rant-Things you might not know about loving your favorite author.

I've started this post probably a dozen times and stopped it. I don't want to come off as rude or whiny. I'm 100% thankful for each and every person that interacts with me, shares my stuff, leaves a review, takes the time to read, and clicks like every now and then. I still get frustrated though.

I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes. Here it comes, right? The obligatory author complaining about social media and people not posting reviews. Well, sure, I suppose you're right.

I'm not begging for you to do those things though. I want you to, yes, but only if you want to. The indie community requires support from all around. I enjoy talking to my readers and the people that follow my page, bloggers, other authors. I share when I can, when I see it. Unfortunately social media has taken a huge dive recently. I'm sure you've seen all of us posting "can you see me" statuses. Thousands of people like my page but on any given post I'll get 1 or 2 likes. That doesn't make sense to me.

I know...I know...we're always shoving our promotion down your throat, and asking for reviews, and posing questions that are geared toward getting interaction on our pages. It's true I'll admit it. And yes it gets annoying. It's annoying for me too. I don't want to sit around and plan what to post on my page when really I just want to be real. I try to infuse some of me into all that promo but who knows what your even seeing. It all feels useless sometimes. And that's why I keep thinking about writing this. It's always hard to know how a business works from the outside. So maybe you don't know...maybe you think we're greedy, attention seeking, validation wanting animals.

Maybe you're right.

But here's the deal. If you like an author, their books, their personality, whatever it may be that you love about them and want to see more of...click like, hit share, comment on something. Get to know them. We love it. I promise! We can talk about whatever you want. Our books, shows we watch, music we love...I can go on and on. Leave reviews! Honest ones! I know I want to now what you think of my work. I learn from reviews. And they really do help our books get seen and give other readers and idea of what they are in store for. Vendors have all these fancy algorithms that I can't even begin to understand and they determine who our books get shown to and when and how many times. Your reviews and shares change those algorithms. The more you like and comment, the more our posts are seen, the wider our audience becomes (more algorithms) and then--then we can give you more books! We can share more with you. I've posted giveaways that had no entries because interaction on my page is so low. And yeah I know maybe people don't want what I'm giving away...well...what reader doesn't want Amazon dollars? I know I do! It's all about likes, comments, shares, reviews, google searches, Amazon searches, tweets, retweets...the list goes on and on and on and on...you get the idea.

I'll stop rambling...I promise!

I'm not saying you have to do these things for every author ever. Just the ones you like, love, or fangirl, the ones you want to keep publishing books. We do notice and we really do appreciate it. I suppose I can't speak for everyone but all the authors I know and chat with say the same things. We love you guys! We really do! But this business is frustrating and time consuming. It takes our heart and soul, our sleep, our money, our time with loved ones and we do it all for the love of telling a story.

I wouldn't take back one second of the time I've spent on this dream of mine but I do hope you all know you make a difference.

I'll step down from my soapbox now.
Until next time.

Lived and Learned

3 years...

That's how long I've been doing this writing thing. I love it. I still can't believe I do this for a job. I'm so incredibly thankful for everyone  that's taken the time to support me, read my books, leave a review, or reach out to me.

I've learned a lot in those 3 years.

The publishing industry has changed a lot since I entered into it. I went into this knowing that not every story is for every person. There will always be someone who hates something and someone who loves it. While I'll admit that sometimes bad reviews bother me I try hard not to let them get me down. Like I said some things just aren't for everyone. So I'll keep doing this. For me as much as for you.

When I first started this journey I was with a small press and I'm now on my own. So I've changed just as much as the industry. It's up to me to make sure my work is ready to go from beginning to end. I'm responsible for all of it. Finding an editor, the perfect cover, formatting, and proofreading as well as marketing. It's all me. My time. My money. My effort. It's been trial and error but I've enjoyed every second of it.

I've said before that every time I write a story I leave a part of myself on the page. That's even more true now. So for everyone that's taken a chance on me ... thank you! You mean more to me than you'll ever know. I'd love to hear from you and I love to read your reviews, good or bad. As long as they're honest I don't care.

Until next time...