Write, write, and write some more.

I have to admit, when I first published my book, I thought social media was going to be the end-all. I would get on there, promote my work and share the hell out of it, and in return, I expected I would make sales and get reviews, and life would be okay.

That is not at all how it worked out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to make millions, but I did expect people to actually want to read the book. What I found was a culture that has become dependent on popularity. By dependent, I mean this: "It depends on if others think it's good enough whether or not I am going to read it."

Sure, there are some great people out there who support indie authors and some who are willing to try the new and untested, but a vast majority of the social media browsers are not there to find something new. And even fewer are there to find a book.

Unfortunately, the world of social media is not a new author's best friend; it is, at best, a tool that was forged at the wrong temperature. It will fail you more than it will help you unless by sheer dumb luck you make it through the cracks of the wall that is the algorithm.
So, this leaves us with the question: What on earth should we, as indie authors, do? Well, we do what we were meant to do; we write. We step away from the distraction that was put in front of us under the guise of fame and fortune and return to our natural state.

It may seem counterproductive to step back and not utilize what we have been sold as a tool for our success, but the truth is that we are really the tools to our success, not a platform filled with fakeness and exploitation.

If we are going to improve our craft it must be done free of distraction and free of the mind melting, brain atrophying, thing that is social media.

Remember, to be a writer, you must actually write, not just say you write.

A note to writers: your masterpiece is there; you just have to remember to write it.
A note to readers: Don't be afraid to try something new 😉