land-a-linkin'

I was making all these cool pop-art things and putting them out on Twitter, trying to use the right hashtags, so that as many people could see them as possible. But then someone pointed out the fact that you're still just dropping them on an endless sea of dropped advertisement. The secret, they pointed out, is interaction.

When I tuned into that I noticed that sometimes people would mention it was their birthday, and nobody would say anything. Everyone's totally tuned in to what they can get out of it, and sometimes not even reading what's out there. So I said "Happy birthday!" and got a friend. I'm not sure if this person will ever actually read anything I've written, but for a moment there I was happy. It's like real friends are far more valuable than empty eyes looking at endless scrolls.

So to rejigger my campaign a little: I will drop things on Twitter mostly in reply to people, and I will interact, namely, I will become part of the writing community as one who talks and talks back to real people. There is nothing wrong with making enough hashtags to get into every major social group. But writingcommunity is one where people support each other and answer back, and I value that.

As for facebook I think the same thing holds. What's the purpose of just dropping promotional ads on an endless sea of them? Some of these sites get forty, fifty posts a day. I presume some people look at some of them. But I am now figuring that most don't. Either I'll interact, or I'll do nothing.

Haven't even started instagram or linked in.

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm in my groove with writing, and actually finished my first novel; this is something I've been trying to do for almost fifty years. Finally I got the confidence, and just did it, and uploaded it on kindle, and am kind of staring at it in amazement. This is, believe it or not, the first place I've brought it up; if you are here, you are learning it first, although people on kindle or in tune with kindle offerings have already seen it. To my family and friends, this is huge news and will make a splash when it becomes known.

The bad news is that in a month of almost totally neglecting my blogs, they really took a beating. It's March 1, so I do the stats and see who's stopping by for a visit. It's getting pretty scarce. I'm a little curious how the coronavirus affects it - is it that with spring, people are getting back to their lives, and not endlessly scrolling around? No, it's that I myself am not giving the impression that these blogs are live and happening things. I'm just not on them.

Some good news on the ratings front. A while ago I thought five and six-million ratings were just downright unacceptable. Now I'm trying to keep them under two million. But that alone is an improvement. If they're under a million, people (at least I do) tend to say "that's a live one." And it is, it's a recent one, a happening one, a hopping one. Mine are all over the board these days, but I'm paying more attention to them, I'm becoming more kindle-oriented, I'm trying to make sure people have a good experience on them. And the ratings reflect that.

I track a number of my friends, and books I admire or aspire to being like them. In the process of tracking I see the patterns - in some cases losing a few hundred thou every week, which is something mine do a lot. I don't feel so bad, when I see it happening to everyone. I also tend to gear myself, psychologically, to producing the ones that keep selling.

I'm in a groove with some people - I read theirs and they read mine. I like that; it's like I have a good thing going. My $10/mo. kindle unlimited subscription is the best thing in my life besides the kindle itself. It means I can work on my own ratings while at the same time opening myself up to other styles, other genres, etc.

It gives me confidence that, as a writer, there is a future. I'm not just dropping words on an infinite sea.