read marketing

In the past I've been an advocate of read marketing. Go out and read lots of indie work and get lots of random other indie writers to read yours, I would say. For one thing, as writers, they're fairly discriminating readers, and can give good advice when you ask. For another, any reader is a good reader who will ultimately, or may ultimately, tell other readers you're there and point people in your direction.

But here are the downsides of it, which have been weighing quite heavily on me. It's not that I'm ready to drop $50 or $100 on Amazon ads, though I might; I've just lost my enthusiasm for reading thoroughly through all these indie books. First, you don't get enough in terms of other readers to make it worthwhile. Your book sits in this site as a comment, and lots of people see it, like a free ad, but only one person reads it and that person may actually cheat or not care a whit about it. Readers who want to read your book are much better than readers who, like me, are just doing it to pick up a few readers themselves.

In general the world of authors is not a world of on-the-up honest dealers. I've found that I have a number of reviews that were written by people who most likely didn't read my book, because if they did they would have found something better to say than a conglomeration of everything else anyone said, or a rewriting of the blurb in their own words. I don't need either of those things, though of course I appreciate the 5. And if all of my reviews are like that that not only casts into doubt the 5 average, but simply makes it appear that nobody in the reading audience actually took the time to read it; that doesn't help me at all. The other side, I guess, is those who say, "it's ok but it's not my genre," which is a kind of pointless comment though most likely true, in most cases. Who needs to go out working for such reviews? LIfe is short, and I'd rather people just fall upon my books, read what they want, and review when and what they want. It's a little more random that way, but far more genuine.

Because time has become precious, I've backed off considerably on this system. We authors can and should support each other because we are careful, discriminating readers and we know the craft. If we say things right (and that is, after all, our jobs) we can be very helpful. What we need, I think, is to always consistently do it on our own terms. I'm not quite sure what I mean by that. But one should be able to develop a market in some better way than page by page. It's got to be possible.