Monday, October 04, 2021
life of a read-swapper
OK I kind of fell into this addiction, addicted to making my ratings as low (good) as possible. I got into the top 500 short stories, albeit for only a day, but that's the idea. Put your book on the charts by having people read it.
The way they read it is basically you read theirs or someone like them. Someone read yours and you read someone else's, but it goes on like that until you have a pretty well-read book. If I were to keep putting the same book of short stories in the queue it might be better than the top 500, maybe the top 300 or 200. But I have a novel, haiku, and nine volumes of short stories to peddle, so I have to spread the love a little.
I got eight out of the nine short stories out of their three-mil doldrums; now only one is over three mil. None of the rest are even in the two-mils, all eight of them are either slightly over a mil or under it. Those are some real numbers as I look down the list. And in return, I've read a wide variety of books.
There is no problem with the system itself, but it's not perfect every minute. For example, now, I've finished my review, and am waiting to jump into the quieue with another book as soon as I can. But there's a book there that I've read, and so I can't jump in just because I'm ready or just because I'm impatient. I have to wait for someone to take that book and then jump in under them. Another example is when Facebook closed, for about four hours this morning. I was ready then too. But what could I do? If you can't jump, you can't. And sometimes people simply don't want to read your book. They could have 24 hours or in this case 25 to read a hundred-pager and still not want it. Just not enough people on the site, or not enough who have a few hours to click together between Mon. & Tue.
So there are times I'm stranded, and just can't make time on my ratings. I flipped three big ones this week, though, so my short stories are looking good. I sit on the edge of my chair waiting for the cycle to go again. Now, for example, my friend's book is up there - it's short, it's an easy read, but it's the one I just finished, so I can't take it, I have to wait for someone else to take it. And no one's taking it. For whatever reason, it's sat there for eleven hours, untaken. I know the feeling; that has happened to me; but if you don't fold it under (someone reads yours, you read someone else's), it gets tied up for a few days.
But the problem really is, as I wait, that I tend to not get anything else done. I can read someone's novel, as part of a trade on another site, but I can't really write or get involved in one of my going projects. Especially now, late at night, all I want to do is see if someone eligible jumps in the queue so I can too. Of course with each jump I have contracted to read a book and review it. But that's ok, I do that, and I'll do it again, and it's easily worth it for the good feeling I get when a three-million rating is suddenly below a million. I am putting my books in the best-seller lists! People are reading them!
It's partly because, having dropped those stories in the Amazon Sea for all those years, and got virtually no readers, it's really kind of a rush to have enough readers now that they are recognized. It doesn't matter to me that all those readers are writers who basically did it for the same reason I do it. They were not, in other words, just buying my book. They were trading, getting their own book a good rating, and reading mine in the process. They at least know who I am, though.
And that makes these good times.
The way they read it is basically you read theirs or someone like them. Someone read yours and you read someone else's, but it goes on like that until you have a pretty well-read book. If I were to keep putting the same book of short stories in the queue it might be better than the top 500, maybe the top 300 or 200. But I have a novel, haiku, and nine volumes of short stories to peddle, so I have to spread the love a little.
I got eight out of the nine short stories out of their three-mil doldrums; now only one is over three mil. None of the rest are even in the two-mils, all eight of them are either slightly over a mil or under it. Those are some real numbers as I look down the list. And in return, I've read a wide variety of books.
There is no problem with the system itself, but it's not perfect every minute. For example, now, I've finished my review, and am waiting to jump into the quieue with another book as soon as I can. But there's a book there that I've read, and so I can't jump in just because I'm ready or just because I'm impatient. I have to wait for someone to take that book and then jump in under them. Another example is when Facebook closed, for about four hours this morning. I was ready then too. But what could I do? If you can't jump, you can't. And sometimes people simply don't want to read your book. They could have 24 hours or in this case 25 to read a hundred-pager and still not want it. Just not enough people on the site, or not enough who have a few hours to click together between Mon. & Tue.
So there are times I'm stranded, and just can't make time on my ratings. I flipped three big ones this week, though, so my short stories are looking good. I sit on the edge of my chair waiting for the cycle to go again. Now, for example, my friend's book is up there - it's short, it's an easy read, but it's the one I just finished, so I can't take it, I have to wait for someone else to take it. And no one's taking it. For whatever reason, it's sat there for eleven hours, untaken. I know the feeling; that has happened to me; but if you don't fold it under (someone reads yours, you read someone else's), it gets tied up for a few days.
But the problem really is, as I wait, that I tend to not get anything else done. I can read someone's novel, as part of a trade on another site, but I can't really write or get involved in one of my going projects. Especially now, late at night, all I want to do is see if someone eligible jumps in the queue so I can too. Of course with each jump I have contracted to read a book and review it. But that's ok, I do that, and I'll do it again, and it's easily worth it for the good feeling I get when a three-million rating is suddenly below a million. I am putting my books in the best-seller lists! People are reading them!
It's partly because, having dropped those stories in the Amazon Sea for all those years, and got virtually no readers, it's really kind of a rush to have enough readers now that they are recognized. It doesn't matter to me that all those readers are writers who basically did it for the same reason I do it. They were not, in other words, just buying my book. They were trading, getting their own book a good rating, and reading mine in the process. They at least know who I am, though.
And that makes these good times.
Friday, October 01, 2021
blog report
First of the month, I do my blog reports, a whole page of stats, giving me the all-time total, the running average, and anything else. I have thirty-two blogs on my personal system, four of them dead, and six on my commercial system, plus I take care of CESL's old blogs though I don't do much with them except let them sit there and be a museum.
This fantastic July is working its way through the system like a mouse going down to the bottom of a snake that swallowed it. It affects the running averages but not that much, and next month, when it's gone altogether, they'll tank. In that month inexplicably I got hundreds of extra views. In September they were totally back to their anemic selves, showing us that if I don't really have time to keep posting on them, google doesn't bother to keep pointing people to them.
I do however post on twelve a month, and this month I had my autobiography so I very easily posted on more than that. That will at least keep a few of them alive, though I could do much better than that with a little effort.
Really they need a kind of makeover. They're slowly becoming more commercial, and part of me resists that, and lets them be as sleepy as they've always been. But they should have neon signs on them that say "Tom's Writing! Tom's Writing!"
Of course, my writing is taking its own snail's pace toward success. One method I've found is I-read-yours-you-read-mine which means I have a lot of new readers, and I really like that, and my amazon ratings reflect that success. I can look down at the top five or six now, and all of them are below a thousand, and that's because people are reading them, even though I've paid for it with my eyes, and I'm tired. Actually I'm tired of fantasy. When I get a good crime novel or some other kind of novel, it's actually instructive, though it's bad for my writing itself, since I can't seem to do both (read and write) at the same time.
Back to the blogs, though, my work is cut out for me. I have a kind of a baseline. I can look at them and know I could be doing better, and I will. The only one that takes care of itself is the personal one which I add to quite naturally and which almost 3,000 people a month come and visit. It's all lower-case, it's full of family photos, and it plays a starring role in the autobiography, which means it has texture. You can dig in there and find all kinds of things.
Just in general, I'd say that going forward feels good. Getting people to read my stories is huge as they've sat there unread for years. Now people, some people, a very few, are recognizing me as a short story writer. I've waited years for that. If they never go any higher in rating than they are today, it still will be a success, because at this moment at least half of them are actually doing well. The novel was a success too - if only I could write another one. I have things on my plate to do, and I'm getting to them - it's not easy, and it's pressing my time. But I feel that with read-for-read I've at least found a path to some readers. And that's way better than none.
This fantastic July is working its way through the system like a mouse going down to the bottom of a snake that swallowed it. It affects the running averages but not that much, and next month, when it's gone altogether, they'll tank. In that month inexplicably I got hundreds of extra views. In September they were totally back to their anemic selves, showing us that if I don't really have time to keep posting on them, google doesn't bother to keep pointing people to them.
I do however post on twelve a month, and this month I had my autobiography so I very easily posted on more than that. That will at least keep a few of them alive, though I could do much better than that with a little effort.
Really they need a kind of makeover. They're slowly becoming more commercial, and part of me resists that, and lets them be as sleepy as they've always been. But they should have neon signs on them that say "Tom's Writing! Tom's Writing!"
Of course, my writing is taking its own snail's pace toward success. One method I've found is I-read-yours-you-read-mine which means I have a lot of new readers, and I really like that, and my amazon ratings reflect that success. I can look down at the top five or six now, and all of them are below a thousand, and that's because people are reading them, even though I've paid for it with my eyes, and I'm tired. Actually I'm tired of fantasy. When I get a good crime novel or some other kind of novel, it's actually instructive, though it's bad for my writing itself, since I can't seem to do both (read and write) at the same time.
Back to the blogs, though, my work is cut out for me. I have a kind of a baseline. I can look at them and know I could be doing better, and I will. The only one that takes care of itself is the personal one which I add to quite naturally and which almost 3,000 people a month come and visit. It's all lower-case, it's full of family photos, and it plays a starring role in the autobiography, which means it has texture. You can dig in there and find all kinds of things.
Just in general, I'd say that going forward feels good. Getting people to read my stories is huge as they've sat there unread for years. Now people, some people, a very few, are recognizing me as a short story writer. I've waited years for that. If they never go any higher in rating than they are today, it still will be a success, because at this moment at least half of them are actually doing well. The novel was a success too - if only I could write another one. I have things on my plate to do, and I'm getting to them - it's not easy, and it's pressing my time. But I feel that with read-for-read I've at least found a path to some readers. And that's way better than none.
