Those Annoying Authors
It might seem exaggerated to compare authors to the title of a Japanese comedy show about aliens (Urusei Yatsura = Those Annoying Aliens.) But it just has a ring of honesty to it. Aliens belong to a different civilization from yours—hence the term “alien” is kind of self-explanatory—and their interactions with your civilization aren’t always the worried, philosophical dramas people make them out to be. Often they’re just plain ridiculous.
Authors are some of the biggest aliens today. They are a group of insiders sold into each other and each other’s books. Not into readers. Readers are the last thing on their minds and that's because they don’t have readers. 90% of the time, they don’t even have an audience except each other. They produce circular work that doesn’t correlate to what other people are experiencing. “Authors” have become “Readers.” They read each other’s work. They support each other. The vast majority of reviews on any book are from other writers and people in the book industry who offer services to authors. Not organically produced, real readers off the street. It’s a very rare book that gets that kind of outside interest from real people. Generally, there’s just some writers jumping to get a book to 50 reviews and make it look like people want to read it—or jumping to say something snotty and make it seem as if people don’t like it.
Because these authors believe they have an excess of power, they behave ridiculously to me and assume I care what THEY think about the book. I actually have readers out there. Real, organic readers I need to find. It’s been hard to locate them because most authors have to wade through the thick mud of this industry below the surface before they can break through and get seen by real people. I’m stunned at the fresh, arrogant tone other authors have taken with me because they assume they’re the only readers I could have. If they don’t offer that supportive network for me, I’ll plummet. Of course.
This is nonsense that just shows how circular and locked-in they’ve become. They cannot even recognize anymore whether a book would be interesting to people. The point is to support their little civilization and disguise that their industry has no actual investment coming from the outside. That’s like people having an attitude about you because they have green skin and bug eyes and you look like a human. After a while, it's not much of an insult.
And there will be more updates.
Authors are some of the biggest aliens today. They are a group of insiders sold into each other and each other’s books. Not into readers. Readers are the last thing on their minds and that's because they don’t have readers. 90% of the time, they don’t even have an audience except each other. They produce circular work that doesn’t correlate to what other people are experiencing. “Authors” have become “Readers.” They read each other’s work. They support each other. The vast majority of reviews on any book are from other writers and people in the book industry who offer services to authors. Not organically produced, real readers off the street. It’s a very rare book that gets that kind of outside interest from real people. Generally, there’s just some writers jumping to get a book to 50 reviews and make it look like people want to read it—or jumping to say something snotty and make it seem as if people don’t like it.
Because these authors believe they have an excess of power, they behave ridiculously to me and assume I care what THEY think about the book. I actually have readers out there. Real, organic readers I need to find. It’s been hard to locate them because most authors have to wade through the thick mud of this industry below the surface before they can break through and get seen by real people. I’m stunned at the fresh, arrogant tone other authors have taken with me because they assume they’re the only readers I could have. If they don’t offer that supportive network for me, I’ll plummet. Of course.
This is nonsense that just shows how circular and locked-in they’ve become. They cannot even recognize anymore whether a book would be interesting to people. The point is to support their little civilization and disguise that their industry has no actual investment coming from the outside. That’s like people having an attitude about you because they have green skin and bug eyes and you look like a human. After a while, it's not much of an insult.
And there will be more updates.
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