A lot of Noise
Over the weekend, I was sorting through social media and some emails, and I started to get overwhelmed by all of the books that are out there. My eyes started to glaze over. While some graphics and book covers were pretty and made me pause, my eyes began to glaze over once the book descriptions, author interviews, etc came into view. Then I realized that none of these efforts that these authors have put into their marketing were sticking with me. I felt so overwhelmed by it all that I mentally checked out. I thought, “This is a lot of noise.” It’s like white noise. Noise that you can easily place in the back of your mind while you focus on other things. Since I am an author who also must promote so people know my books exist, I realized that what I am doing is creating noise as well.
This is an unfortunate side effect of a culture that’s inundated with the internet. There is so much out there. It’s hard to keep focused. It doesn’t help that we are accessible by phone even when we’re not home. I can’t tell you how many times I wished for the days of the rotary phone when I was grocery shopping but had to stop in order to speak to a teacher about something in the middle of a school day. And since we are in an instant gratification environment, we pretty much expect to get what we want quickly. We can order something online and usually have it delivered later that day or the next. Texting and chatting can be done instantly whatever you are. I remember taking one of my sons in to see a GI doctor (and running other errands with him that day), and someone started giving me a hard time about the way I handled a particular situation. (I’m not perfect. I do my best. Sometimes my best is not enough.) But this texting continued on and off from about 11am to 7pm. I only continued since that person would have gotten back to me in another day if I didn’t address it then and there, and quite frankly, I don’t like having things hanging over my head like that. So I dealt with it. But at the end of that day, I was so exhausted that I was unable to do anything but sit in front of the TV and watch movies the next day.
I am overwhelmed. There is so much to do. There’s never enough time to do it. I can’t be the only person who feels this way. I can’t be the only person who gets to the point where all of the promotional stuff authors do turns into noise. I feel guilty for feeling this way because I am an author. I understand why they need to do it. How else is an author going to be noticed except by word of mouth, and word of mouth only happens after someone finds your book and tells others about it?
Honestly, all I want to do is write the book. I do love picking out a cover and getting it out into the world. I even enjoy rambling on this blog because doing so clears the cobwebs in my head so I can think clearly in order to write. This blog is my online journal. I opened my story today to start writing but realized I couldn’t because I’m overwhelmed. So I came to this blog to write about how I’m overwhelmed, and already, I feel much better.
The world seems to be lost to people who just want to write. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do to get noticed. Well, I have ideas, but I have no magic bullet. Believe me, if I did, I would still be making a living with my writing income. I have some ideas, though, so why not jot them down. Maybe no one else will find it inspiring, but I need a pep talk. I’m feeling bummed out because it’s hard to sell books in an era where there is so much noise that I can’t even think straight. (The crazy inflation we’ve seen since Covid has not helped. I realize a lot of people are struggling like I am to pay bills, etc. If we could go back to pre-Covid prices, then this wouldn’t be hitting so hard, but that’s not going to happen, so we have to deal with what we have.)
So anyway, these are ideas that I hope will get me back on track, rather than being stuck in this land of overwhelm:
It’s okay to just want to write the book.
Obviously, this comes with the caveat that this is not the most effective way to get visible. Back in 2009-2012, you pretty much could, but times have changed. That doesn’t mean all authors have to want to market their work. Writing is the fun part for some of us. It’s where the magic happens. We want to play in our characters’ world more than we want to do anything else. So why should we feel guilty if we aren’t excited by the prospect of marketing?
Yes, money is important, but surely, there can be a way of managing the money so we aren’t so dependent on our writing income.
I need to work on this one. It’s actually my main goal right now. I’m sick of feeling like my finances are out of control. While the writing income isn’t the full equation to this dilemma (because there is the inflation rate that went nuts on us), it’s difficult to write when you’re stressed out about money. I can tell the quality in my work based on periods in the past where I was stressed about making money and based on periods in the past where I wasn’t stressed about it. I know the books that didn’t live up to their potential, and even now, I think if I had just taken more time to write them, they would be so much better. Money matters. I’d love to say it doesn’t, but it really does.
Side note: It doesn’t help when readers say they will only read your free books, even though you are their “favorite” author or that they just “love” your work. If someone loved my work, they would be willing to pay for it. I really think that the whole “I love your books so much but can’t afford to pay $0.99-$3.99 for them” is a ploy to guilt trip authors into giving everything away to someone for free. I’ve seen some of these people in the past go on to brag about their new car, their vacation, their tickets to a brand new movie they just saw, or their expensive dinner out. You can’t tell me that all of these places are giving these people those things for free. So if an author decides not to give this person free books, they will feel like the jerk, and no author should feel like a jerk for wanting to get paid for their work.
Back to the actual topic: If an author can’t make more money because sales suck, then what? How can an author alleviate the stress from not making it? Obviously, removing excess spending is an easy way to get on good financial footing. Pay off debt. Don’t spend more than you make. Etc, etc. We all know this. These are the basics. This is your financial foundation. So I have stopped eating out. I make everything at home. This does mean less time writing because I spend more time in the kitchen now. I have found eating out to be the biggest non-essential expense in my house. I don’t know what yours is. But if you can work on that area, at least you can put that extra money into getting into a better financial position.
The area I’m targeting is investing. With writing, I have to keep getting more books out, and I have to hope those books will sell more than before. For years, my sales have been going down. (Obviously, I suck when it comes to marketing. I have been told if I did X, Y, or Z to market, sales would just take off. I’m exhausted with marketing. It’s become a lot of noise to me. I think that’s why I suck at it. Plus, I would rather be writing.) But with investing, I can use the Always Be Buying approach and have the chance of seeing actual money growth for the long term. I pick something with a good track record to invest in and have the money grow for me while I sleep. Personally, I like the S&P 500 since it’s a collection of the largest 500 US companies. It’s a wide basket, and over the past century, it has an upward track record. (Some periods dip, but overall, it has been going up.) I am not able to contribute much, but I keep telling myself that something is better than nothing. For the record, I’m 50, and my husband is 52. I just opened a Roth for both of us last year. We are not going to be millionaires when we reach retirement age. We started late. I say this to offer hope to others in my situation. A part of me dies every time I hear someone say, “If you didn’t start investing in your 20s or early 30s, you’re screwed.” Don’t give into that mindset. Something is better than nothing. And not everyone needs to be a millionaire to make it in retirement. I believe it’s in how you manage the money you have. I’ll be honest, though, I am still trying to figure out how to be better at it.
Sadly, the paragraph above is easier said than done, and sometimes authors do run into unexpected expenses that deplete their emergency accounts or require them to go into debt. God help you when that kind of thing happens because it’s depressing. A year ago, I reached this point, and it’s why we had to sell the house. It was the only way to get back on track. All I can think of for that is to rebuild the financial foundation if you’re able to. I have very little, to be honest, and that’s because of the years we wasted money. When I made great money at writing, I blew through all of it like an irresponsible kid. My dad did warn me when I was in my 20s. I can’t say that I didn’t know better. I did. I just lacked discipline. So did my husband. Things were going to eventually implode. I’m just relieved we aren’t out on the streets.
And now for my final idea:
Being genuine matters.
When I was sorting through social media and emails, one thing I noticed was how “same” everything seemed. That’s why it was so easy to glaze over everything. Writers pretty much end up saying the same kind of things. I’m guilty of this, so I get it. We think the same way in a lot of areas. While I think that’s good in some respects, it does have the drawback of making authors blur together. I get why book covers need to look similar in a certain genre. You are targeting that group of readers. You need to look similar. For example, no one wanting a romance is going to pick up a book with an alien ship on the cover. There are things authors need to do in order to package their books correctly. Even book descriptions are going to have some similarities because you need to tell the readers what tropes and plots you’re covering.
When I say be genuine, I mean to be who you really are. Let people see you. Yes, your books are a part of you, but you are more than your books. The things you write/talk about matter. The things you care about matter. In a culture consumed with things and social media, I think we’ve lost a lot of human connection. AI is only making it worse. I don’t see AI going away. AI is too convenient. And AI isn’t all evil. There are some good things AI does, like helping you find a location while you’re driving or helping you research a topic you know nothing about. But AI has also done some damage. The obvious one is people using AI to write the actual book for them. That is wrong, and I worry about the consequences this kind of thing is going to have through the author community. It’s why I stay away from AI for anything to do with writing. I don’t want to get tangled up in it. I am speaking more than what AI is doing by writing books. I am speaking about how we are replacing real people with AI “people”. I saw a commercial about an app that has an AI “person” that you can have a conversation with. I even saw something about an AI girlfriend app. We are replacing people with AI.
There is something AI can never be, and that is genuine. AI can only be what you feed it to be. It will have no original thought. It will have no free will. People will probably befriend it. People will even probably fall in love with it. But it won’t be real. Real connections aren’t perfect. Real people aren’t perfect. AI might seem perfect, but it’s not real, and since it’s not real, it’s not meaningful. I realize that some of us are introverts who thrive more off of being alone. I’m an introvert and require a lot of alone time to build up my energy to deal with people. But even introverts require some level of meaningful human connection. Humans are social creatures. We need other humans. We need connections that are authentic.
So if you’re an author who doesn’t have the most exciting personality around, that’s okay. There is something you care about. There are people you care about. It’s okay to focus on that. You don’t have to impress everyone. (It’s impossible to do that anyway, so there’s no point in making that your life ambition.) But you will connect with some people. It doesn’t matter if that’s a large group of people (which is what extroverts thrive off of) or a small group (which is more manageable to introverts). What matters is that the connection is real. You care about the person, and that person cares about you. I’m not saying everyone needs to be a close and personal friend. I’m just saying that even people you connect with once in a while can be meaningful as long as the acquaintance is authentic.
Let me end this with a quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” That is by Maya Angelou.
***
That concludes my rambling. Now you can see why it was so difficult for me to write this morning. All of the above was swimming around in my mind. I feel a lot better now that I got it out of the way. 
