Why my enthusiasm to help you turned into grumpiness (and this ranting blog post) #AuthorMarketing #Rant

[image error]I’m a sincere believer in ‘pass it forward’. I can’t even count the number of book bloggers who have had my back with doing promotions and writing reviews for my books. Some of them have been with me from the beginning when I had no clue what I was doing and stuck with me through my dangerously steep learning curve.

I like to pass this forward by helping other indie writers out there. I mostly help self-published authors because I know how difficult it is to get the word out there. Like me, many of them are climbing that steep learning curve in figuring out how to market their books. I try to lend a hand up, but sometimes I want to let go and watch them fall – preferably while screaming. That’s right, folks. It’s rant time.

Here are some examples of why I would gladly let go of a writer’s hand and gleefully watch them curse me out as they tumble to the ground:

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No sharing. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million gazillion times, if I spend the time to blog about your writing, you should at least stop by the blog and say hi! At a minimum. A like and a share would be preferred. I’m doing you a favor here, but I can’t do it all!

Can’t accept no for an answer. This is another of my pet peeves I’ve complained about way too much. There is a reason I’ve told you I can’t review your book. You should be happy I even responded. I offer almost every writer whose book I chose not to review an author spotlight. Can you not be happy with that instead of whining about me reviewing your book?

False bragging rights. Please, please don’t tell me you are a bestselling author when I can look on Amazon my dang self and see your book is ranked at 1,000,000th. Just because your book hit the top 20 on Amazon for one freaking day two years ago doesn’t make you a bestselling author. And I’m not very impressed if you’re #10 in a category that has twenty books. Do you think I’m stupid?

Cheap giveaway. I’m very much aware of how expensive it is to market your books. Pfff… I am down with that. BUT that doesn’t mean your giveaway should be cheap. And by cheap I’m talking giving away an ecopy of your own book. Seriously? What’s that costing you? Nothing? A dollar? Come on, that’s just pathetic. And we all know you’d give away a gazillion of those ebooks if you could get some decent reviews.

Inability to follow directions. I am not a professional blogger. I’m not earning any money with this. I do this in addition to the 10,000 other things I do a day. So, have a little respect and follow my guidelines when sending me materials for a book spotlight. I don’t need to be spending my valuable time formatting blog posts because you couldn’t be bothered to follow directions.

Failure to follow back. This peeves me. You are a brand spanking new author and yet you can’t bother to follow me on Twitter where I’m promoting your work? Grrrr….

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