This is a typical Substack from a person who is always entertaining the possibles. But not ever going outside of the expected. Like a ping-pong ball enclosed in a box.
I love that you pointed this out and am going to use it as ammunition for the rest of my life. A while back I did a statistical analysis showing no relationship between how many Instagram followers an author had and sales. The notion that a random person posting on social media can do the same as a professional marketing campaign is ridiculous
This is either encouraging or discouraging . . . I'm choosing encouraging. I think my Facebook account is gonna be history soon even though it's the part of my so-called platform with the most "followers." Instead of endlessly posting on socials, I'd rather focus on writing really, really good books that have a chance of making readers sigh at the end and clutch a book to their chests and say, "This was so good I don't want it to be over." Word of mouth is really the only way to achieve a wide readership (unless you have The Publisher Push).
I studied a BFA in the early 2000s and even way back then, when blogging was just starting to get popular, we were taught that publishers only wanted authors who already had an audience. This thing isn't new, it's been building for at least 20 years now, probably longer, that's just as long as I've been aware of it. It's disheartening but, despite the odd breakout successes, I don't really see it changing any time soon, unfortunately.
I loved the video you did too! Such great points.
Thanks so much!
This is a typical Substack from a person who is always entertaining the possibles. But not ever going outside of the expected. Like a ping-pong ball enclosed in a box.
I love that you pointed this out and am going to use it as ammunition for the rest of my life. A while back I did a statistical analysis showing no relationship between how many Instagram followers an author had and sales. The notion that a random person posting on social media can do the same as a professional marketing campaign is ridiculous
I hope I remember this forever & I hope lots of authors read this because everyone needs to know this.
This is either encouraging or discouraging . . . I'm choosing encouraging. I think my Facebook account is gonna be history soon even though it's the part of my so-called platform with the most "followers." Instead of endlessly posting on socials, I'd rather focus on writing really, really good books that have a chance of making readers sigh at the end and clutch a book to their chests and say, "This was so good I don't want it to be over." Word of mouth is really the only way to achieve a wide readership (unless you have The Publisher Push).
I studied a BFA in the early 2000s and even way back then, when blogging was just starting to get popular, we were taught that publishers only wanted authors who already had an audience. This thing isn't new, it's been building for at least 20 years now, probably longer, that's just as long as I've been aware of it. It's disheartening but, despite the odd breakout successes, I don't really see it changing any time soon, unfortunately.