I feel this deeply as an indie author myself. Being able to get your book in front of the kind of readers who will like it is incredibly hard. Not all books are for all people, which is fine. The best to me seems to be reviewer blogs and- for the moment, maybe- some Twitter hashtags, which I need to commit to and just be careful with (engaging on that place scares me as someone who has a real job). These are places I find my most of my reads these days. Writing groups are hard, too, especially in the Catholic space as I write in a darker tone while many are focused on more traditionally child-friendly stuff. I have a short-story I'll be reposting where the word 'ninja' was deemed unacceptable for a description of a Church-sanctioned special operator on its original publishing website. You see a desire for this stuff, but the people who want it, some of whom are secular, are hard to find, particularly when you are not a demographic match for them- and have that real job.
We just must keep on keeping on. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, here goes-- er, Amen."
You're right, we just have to trust that the right person is out there who needs to read what we write. What's especially mystifying is that someone can read it, absolutely love it, and we'll never know since they didn't leave a review or anything. But, we did our job, that's what matters.
I feel this deeply as an indie author myself. Being able to get your book in front of the kind of readers who will like it is incredibly hard. Not all books are for all people, which is fine. The best to me seems to be reviewer blogs and- for the moment, maybe- some Twitter hashtags, which I need to commit to and just be careful with (engaging on that place scares me as someone who has a real job). These are places I find my most of my reads these days. Writing groups are hard, too, especially in the Catholic space as I write in a darker tone while many are focused on more traditionally child-friendly stuff. I have a short-story I'll be reposting where the word 'ninja' was deemed unacceptable for a description of a Church-sanctioned special operator on its original publishing website. You see a desire for this stuff, but the people who want it, some of whom are secular, are hard to find, particularly when you are not a demographic match for them- and have that real job.
We just must keep on keeping on. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, here goes-- er, Amen."
You're right, we just have to trust that the right person is out there who needs to read what we write. What's especially mystifying is that someone can read it, absolutely love it, and we'll never know since they didn't leave a review or anything. But, we did our job, that's what matters.
Great article, Zephyr! Keep on story-telling - I love all your stories so much! :)
Thanks! It's been great to have you on board so far.