Fandango (not sure if he wants a link after his WP disaster) has the dubious honor of being the first commenter here on my resurrected blog. He’s also the only commenter (so far), but I expect that to change eventually. This blog is not a secret even though I haven’t made a BFD about restarting it. I kept it off the Google index, but that doesn’t mean people can’t find it, though it doesn’t appear anyone is looking. Isn’t that funny? I am completely public, yet barely a soul peeks in… and when I tried to be discreet, I screwed it up and was discovered. That’s when I learned that nothing is reliably private on the internet, and you should proceed accordingly. If you would be embarrassed to have your sweet little grandchildren read your words, think twice about publishing them, even on your supposedly “locked down” Facebook account. This is why I have unpublished my romance novels (aka erotica); I don’t want my grandchildren to find those books someday, and since the books don’t sell anyway, pffft. This isn’t a guarantee of course ~ a few people have my novels languishing on their Kindles and know my pseudonyms, but since I’m not planning to run for President, I doubt anyone will bother “outing” me. I have 11 books available as Paula Light anyway, soon to be 12. Buy those. :)
So, Fandango mentioned that I had been writing for Medium. Yes, I dabbled there for a little while. My friend D recommended the site, but unlike D’s savvy political essays, my angsty poetry and pointless rambles didn’t do too well on Medium. I spetd a ton of time liking and commenting on others’ work to get only a tiny return, and it just wasn’t worth the energy/time investment. Most months, I didn’t even make back my $5 subscription fee, not that money is the most important thing, but I didn’t feel it was the right place for my writing in any case. Many of the Medium writers had been there for years and already swallowed up the small available audience for poetry/fiction (same as on Twitter/X ), and I was grabbing for the crumbs. The exact same thing happened on Substack, so I’m not even going to bother starting a new paragraph to describe it. While I gave Medium several months to work for me, I said bye to Substack much faster.
It’s like dating. At the beginning, you’re all upbeat about finding love (or an audience), so you have the emotional energy to persevere when things aren’t going well. But as time goes by, you’re less and less inclined to give a dating/publishing site a second, third, or fourth chance, so eff it. I am all about the ROI, baby, and if I am not seeing results, after trying to contort myself into the parameters, then forget the whole thing. I might as well just babble into the abyss because it makes no difference either way. I am not going to find either a soul mate or fame/fortune as a writer by gadding about the internet. Some have, of course, but I’m old and late to the games, plus I no longer have the mindset to force myself to do unpleasant things for the remote possibility of achieving my goal someday. I refuse to chat with 99 creeps to find that one nice guy, and I refuse to spend 25 hours a day marketing my writing to get one sale. If only I had jumped onto Match.com in 2002, after my ex and I split the first time and I was still in my 40s, or if only I had written monster erotica for Amazon in 2005 before the market was saturated, then we would be having a different conversation now. (Maybe.)
That brings us to KDP. I like it! Publishing my books directly to Kindle via Amazon satisfies my OCD impulses of finishing a project, creating a perfect cover, and having everything neatly organized in one place. I rarely sell anything, but that’s OK because I don’t expect to. The writers who sell have specific niches or are repped by agents and houses in the dead tree world as well as online, and/or they simply have connections. I sold a handful of books when I was willing to do a smidge of promo, but I hated hawking my work, so now I sell nearly nothing. I’ve never been comfortable with tooting my own horn, whether in an interview or on a dating site or to my blog readers/FB friends. It just feels icky. Similarly, I resent being marketed to by friends, except minimally. Sure, it’s fine to let us know that you have a new book out or some cute bracelets on sale at Etsy or an enormous, unexpected vet bill you need help with, but this has to be rare. Anyone who is constantly in my face with their marketing/begging gets muted ~ pin a link and be done with it. Is that unreasonable? I don’t think so. And don’t get me started on new followers at Bluesky, people I’ve never interacted with, whose entire purpose seems to be a cry for funds. Perhaps they truly need help, but perhaps they’re just a scammer. How would I know? I block them.
Maybe that sounds harsh, but I don’t have money to blow and already give to legit charities.
Speaking of charity, I will always laugh at the writers who ask me to “buy me a coffee” or subscribe to their Patreon. Hey guys! I too am a writer… why don’t you buy me a coffee?! It cracks me up especially when we’re talking about people I’ve known for years, who know I am a writer because we have had conversations about writing and publishing. Why do they think I should give them money for staring at the screen when they haven’t given me any? Where is the logic? It escapes me.
I get this. I am not sure where I am with my writing. I still want to be published in dead tree format, but it seems increasingly unlikely. I am continuing with my novel because it's fun and E wants to read it when it's finished. I found E online (through my blog, not a dating site), so maybe finding a publisher/audience too is asking too much.
ReplyDeleteI'm on an FB group for Jewish writers, editors and publishers post-7 October. It is intended for self-promotion and help to avoid the antisemitic blacklisting, but I think it sometimes goes too far. Someone the other day wrote something about, "I re-read my novel for the first time in a year and, yes, the reviewers were right, this is an engaging novel with interesting characters [etc.]" and that seemed a bit much (to be fair, I think they originally wrote it on their private FB and someone reposted to the group, but still). OTOH, I wish I could be that positive about my work!
Right? I find it very hard to promote my own work. Every once in a while I mention Ghosted somewhere, but it's usually in context. For a while, I put my Amazon link in my WP sig, but people just ignored it. I cringe at blurting out that I have books for sale apropos of nothing!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time to come back to WordPress, Paula. You still have a lot of friends there and they miss you and your quirky posts (and rants). But I know you've just started this blog on Blogger and I'm no longer your only commenter here, so maybe that's the encouragement you need to stay here instead of “coming home” to WP. 😉
ReplyDeleteI think it would be OK, ethically, morally and socially, for you or any writer to self-promote, and the more positively, the better. Think of the people, say, certain politicians, who do this all the time for nefarious and sinister purposes, yet we hesitate to announce something entertaining, maybe, and/or fun, or at the very least, distracting in a non-destructive way, and certainly not sinister or nefarious.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am thinking KDP now. Why the heck not?
That was me. Weirdness surrounding comments.
ReplyDeleteFandango, thanks! I appreciate that. This lowkey blog is more my style now, so I will be hanging out here. WP is simply too frustrating. :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I highly recommend the KDP experience!
ReplyDeleteWhatever floats your boat, Paula. 😉
ReplyDeleteI completely feel you about you never being totally undiscoverable on the Internet. I mean, I removed my last name from all the blog posts that had it included and got an E-mail address that doesn't have my last name in it for my blog, but I bet most of my regular readers remember and as a result will be able to find me on Facebook if they so wish. I didn't use to care, but now I sometimes do.
ReplyDeleteI have no experience with Medium or KDP. Give me WordPress any day. However, I can see it's too frustrating for you, as there's a lot of hassle in building a blog.
Astrid! Hello and welcome. Yes, I ultimately found WP too frustrating, but a lot of that was my own OCD. I'm happy here for now. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a little frustrating being on blogger.com and so few people on Wordpress don't seem to want to "come over" to read a blog post. If that's even what's happening. The comment glitches don't help--that's on WP as well as Blogger. Anyway, I'm on bloggercom for the duration.
ReplyDelete