Just take those days when you were productive as they come, or else writer guilt and anxiety will slow you down even more.
I’ve got the “slow” part down. I just need to work on the “steady” bit.
I may not be online all day every day, but I do lose track of time more than I’d like to admit. # Not A Party Get To Work.
Share all manner of unrelated posts. Don’t pin a post for their book. Believe follower numbers are what matter most.
Wildly enthusiastic without having the most basic grasp of grammar, punctuation. . . Usually poets. (I may get some flack for this one. LOL.)
They were away from social media so long we held a memorial service and then BAM, they make a triumphant return for a week or so before returning to the netherworld.
Zero book talk with nine bazzillion retweets of idiot politicians etc. Like we didn’t get it after the first bazzillion. ( 😀 😀 😀 It’s a near certainty I’ll get an earful over this one.) My @EABarker1 twitter page has been taking potshots at the various nouveau fascists cropping up in Canada, but we are nearing a federal election, and I’m still serving up a delicious banquet of book tweets as I rant. # Not A Hypocrite.
When you visit their page you see: Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, more me, me, me, me . . . . I rarely follow back these types. It’s highly likely they will unfollow you a short time later anyhow. Eff you @taylorswift13. 😀 😀 😀
They answer comments directed to other people. They don’t get how threads work. They send posts to random hashtags before checking them out. This was me a few years ago, but I can laugh about it now. I once sent a bunch of erotica book tweets to #Reading. Seemed harmless enough at the time. It turns out there is a town named Reading in the UK. Who knew? Don’t fall for #booknook either. It’s not B&N. #DirtyMary might be a children’s book. Don’t ask. I don’t want to talk about it. I deleted a bunch of posts after a teacher got in touch. #Shame #Take A Frigging Tutorial.
There are worse things than editing.
Just today, I had to refill the sugar bowl.
😀
I am certain this applies to all serious nonfiction writers who dig deep into a topic, and it also explains the weak journalism we are bombarded with today. Those writers don’t want to look at the ugliness . . . they prefer instead to write what is desired by their editors and publishers, collect their large cheques, and go live their superficial lives; never producing anything meaningful because there is no longer a market for it.
My latest roadblock to finishing The $1.99 Author came from twitter in a not widely shared tweet about independent bookstores attempting to rebel against the rise of a trillion dollar corporate entity bent on complete ownership of the written word.
It inspired me to write something.
There is nothing fun nor funny about it that I can use in my new book. Here it is in all it’s sadness.
Progress on The $1.99 Author has been slowed, in part, by how discouraged I’ve become with the book biz, and where it is heading.
I’ve experienced adverse reactions from some authors, who I know to be intelligent individuals, when I have posted anti-damazon sentiments. I presume they are married to the mega-corp because of their time and money spent, or the income they derive from ‘affiliation’.
It should not fall on the shoulders of authors and bookstores to wage a war against an entity attempting to gain a monopoly on thought and what can be published, but it has. Governments are ‘influenced’. Book distributors refuse to take a side while taking money from both. Publishers like money.
In a poolroom, another shark once asked me, “Why don’t you hustle that fish?” I replied with, “I don’t want to take food out of his kids’ mouths.” His comeback was unforgettable. “If you don’t, someone else will.” This is how the majority rationalize immoral acts.
‘The easiest place to sell books is on damazon.’ This statement is not wrong. ‘Everyone is there.’ Almost.
Does struggling to make something of yourself in the present justify flushing everyone’s future?
If you really look around at what people look the other way from, the answer is a resounding yes among the majority. Should the majority rule? That is a question for another day.
1 Major book publisher.
1 Global book distributor.
1 Major book retailer.
On the upside, supporting damazon is less overtly destructive than say Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Data, Big Food, or the Military Industrial Complex. Maybe this is how we arrived at the prevailing author, publisher, and book distributor rationalization.
Every book author’s dream of having an influencer make them an overnight success can be written off by their unwillingness to make the effort to get their book in the hands of people who matter.
If I had to choose . . . I’d rather risk $200.00 to mail out a dozen print copies to influencers than have my book being promoted on social media for a year.
The $1.99 Author update:
I’m actually working on it again. Don’t make a big deal out of this though, we all know how fleeting my creative juices have been on this one.
Would you believe. . .
Another week—another interview—and an amazing list of “reasons” why I’ve hardly made any progress on The $1.99 Author. It’s as though there must be a certain planetary alignment, correct weather patterns, a business manager, a cup of dark energy, a chef, and a housekeeper before I can settle down to work on a book these days. I’m committed [Or soon might need to be.] so it will happen. . . and sooner rather than later. “Damn the torpedoes!”
They [the so-called book experts] tell us we must do advanced promotion of our books. This is one of only a handful of notions from them I cannot disagree with. I suppose evil-non-book-writing-me will argue:
He is trying to turn you into a social media addicted phone drone. Has anyone got the number of a good exorcist?
Thanks again, Samantha.
It was just over a year ago when I noticed I was willing to do anything except work on what would become my You & I Erotic Tales Trilogy, and here I am again, one year later, doing the exact same thing with my half-written work-in-progress: The $1.99 Author.
The session begins.
Last year, I remember claiming the stress of a long-awaited issue finally being resolved as my reason for taking some me-time out of “the chair”.
This year I have a new excuse. I somehow conjured summer-like weather into November which kept me outside more than usual—and out of that god-forsaken chair. Besides, I published three e-books and a trilogy in paperback, and then did all the marketing crap we authors must do these days so someone will read our work. I deserve a break. Don’t I? Also, it’s 2020 with the world ending and all that. A little self-indulgence isn’t so wrong, is it?
FINE! I hate Fall. There, I said it. Mother Nature paints a post-apocalyptic horror scene every year which we must endure daily for months. There is no escaping her. She’s like a crazy street person who won’t leave you alone. Hotties in their costumes at a Halloween party is the only redeeming quality of the season, and this year the parties didn’t happen.
I love turkey dinners . . . so much so I used to travel hours to have one surrounded by ungrateful people who couldn’t give a flying f-ck if I showed up or not.
F-cking great. The least amount of daylight marking the beginning of another f-cking damp cold Canadian winter. F-ck you and your glass-half-full bullshit.
*****
The truth of the matter is I get into the Christmas spirit by looking at all the lights in my hood. Christmas songs start playing in my head. I like pretending to be grumpy, and hating on all those people who put their trees up before the American Thanksgiving. Don’t tell anyone though. So far I’ve made myself three turkey dinners already and it’s only December 12. I also had reasonable success trying my hand at Yorkshire pudding for the first time. I’m good. I hope you can find peace somehow in these strangest of times.
*****
How long has it been since you were thoroughly f-cked within an inch of your life?
New Year’s resolution: Install a new shrink in my head.
*****
If you want a little more Christmas 2020 cheer, try my Ms. Creant blog and/or my You & I blog.
E. A. Barker's The $1.99 Author a.k.a. Blog Madness 
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