Bre Faucheux's Blog, page 46
December 4, 2015
December 3, 2015
December 2, 2015
My Struggle with Likelihood
In my observations, I’ve noticed that many authors have the same struggles. They feel like these struggles are singular to them and their own personal situation. The reason why is because very few authors actually get together and talk about their struggles unless it’s on a forum. I know some who get together weekly or have writing groups, but the very real struggles go on feeling very singular to the individual.
I would like to discuss one such struggle of mine. Even though there are many and I could fill a book talking about them.
There is a stronger probability that my writing career won’t succeed than it will be victorious. That’s just the facts. People always say, “follow your passion and the money will come.” I’ve been self-publishing for nearly three years and that hasn’t been my experience. At least not yet. To be fair, from the beginning there were a lot of things that I just flat out didn’t get. Like how to get a proper cover, proper proof-reading, and a website for starters. Many could look at my career and point to various causes was to why certain things haven’t worked like I have hope. One huge one being that I should have focused on one pen name. But I had this itch for writing romance that needed to be scratched. So I scratched it. Now I’m back to the one pen name.
I was in my room this morning reading an article about how self-publishing for a living was on the out and it was a fantasy to think that anyone new could do so. Being that successful means writing a ton of books and getting the right kind of visibility. AKA: IMPOSSIBLE.
Then I walked out of my room and heard my dad grumbling to himself on the computer. I asked him what was wrong. He said some random computer or oil company laid off thousands of more employees. This wasn’t the first time he’s told me the stats of people getting laid off. For those of you so thrilled with gasoline (in the US) being so cheap right, let me tell you that it comes at a price. People are losing work or unable to find it because barrels of oil are so cheap right now. Even the Saudis are panicking over it according to a different article I read recently.
Moral of the story, there are lots of people out of work. There are lots of people looking for work who can’t find it. There are lots of people who go to regular day jobs and hate it. There are many friends of mine from uni that have moved back in with their parents or in with a boyfriend because they can’t afford to live on their own. And who can in a city where $1,000 a month for a 600 sq ft apartment in a mediocre neighborhood is considered really cheap?
Every time I start feeling the stress of, ‘this book will never sell. I will be thirty years old one day and living at home. I suck at life. Why am I doing this? The likelihood of success is getting smaller and smaller no matter how hard I work.’ I have to remember that even people who have those regular jobs aren’t fairing too well. More than one group of friends of mine who are married live off of one income and don’t know what they would do without it. And that is equally frightening.
I’m having a stern look at my computer and telling myself… soldier on! Because writing right now is my job. I have nothing else and I would be miserable doing anything else. So I have no choice. Keep going. Then maybe one day I can tell lots of other writers out there from a stand point of success that I truly feel their struggles. They were once my own.
Big dreams. Small chances. What else is new?
December 1, 2015
The Problem with Visibility
Few people realize how hard it is to get visibility in the self-publishing world. Heck, it’s difficult enough to get it in the traditionally published world. I’ve heard horror stories of authors finally getting their book published through traditional publishing for it to fall flat not because it was bad, but because the publisher’s didn’t bother spending more than twenty minutes marketing the book.
Why do I bring this up? I have something slightly controversial to say. Something that it seems most others disagree with and vehemently despise.
Amazon recently had a huge lawsuit against sellers on Fiverr.com for selling reviews for books in exchange for the sum of five dollars. Amazon claimed it was false advertising. I know some authors bought tons of reviews and readers were mislead into believing that sub par work was better than it actually was. But I’m here today with a small mic and a crowd of people who are likely to disagree to say that I can see why some authors resorted over the years to buying reviews. And I certainly don’t think that they have sold their soul in doing so as other claim. Or that they are bathing in a sea of dishonesty and shame.
Through Amazon, you don’t get visibility through high ratings. You them them by the number of reviews you have. Something can have three stars, but if it’s reviewed thousands of times, it will get exposure and visibility through the Amazon algorithm. Not fair, but that’s how it generally works. Some authors were buying tons of reviews (which I don’t agree with AT ALL), while others were buying maybe one, two, or three. Not many. Just a couple here or there.
Here’s the thing. To sell books, you have to have reviews. But in order to get reviews, you have to sell books. People have to know that you exist. So the logic for some is that if you buy a few reviews, when you run an ad your book will have at least some small form of credibility. Enough to get a small glimmer sunlight and a small hope of surviving in a sea of many books. Self-published and traditionally published. And giving away books for free (as I have learned) isn’t the answer. The amount of reviews I received when I had books on permafree vs the amount of downloads I gained was less than .01%. Yep. You read that one right.
People are complaining that having fake reviews gives room for false advertising and you are claiming something is better than it is (even thought these complainers often haven’t looked at the work in question). But here is my point. The starving artists of the world can’t always wait for readers to get wise. They deserve a fighting chance. To get others to even SEE your work (not buy it, but see it), it has to come with some small ounce of credibility in the form of reviews. I don’t see the real harm in giving a book a push by having purchased a review. I can see why some authors might do it. And I don’t think they have sold their soul to Satan for having done so.
No one is going to stay in a hotel that has no reviews. Or eat in a restaurant with no reviews. It doesn’t matter if they have giveaways or give out free meals or rooms to the homeless, they have to have some credit out there in the universe in order to have a fighting chance of being discovered. Some people complain about these companies putting up reviews for friends, each other, or for themselves. Unfortunately, I see the logic in doing so. To fight, you have to have a sword at hand. Many writers don’t even have access to a sword to fight the battle known as publishing. And many who say that those who buy a review are evil incarnate have either, a) already experienced a lot of success, or b) haven’t experienced abysmal sales that threaten to eat their souls with a spoon.
So that’s my take on the whole “buying reviews” drama out there right now. I see how it can be bad. I see how readers might think they are being mislead. And in many cases, they might be. But I also see from an author’s perspective how getting a review for an unknown book by whatever means possible can mean whether or not they eat dinner at night.
My take on the drama. That’s all.
:::hides from flying pitchforks:::
And no. I do not buy reviews. I give out ARCs. It took me a long time to learn that it was perfectly okay to ask people to read my book.
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