I’ve been an indie author now for 6 years and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that support doesn’t come from where you expect it.
Some people might be tempted into thinking that if they have 600 friends on facebook, at least 10 will read their book. Although some people have an overwhelmingly large support base from people they know, this isn’t necessarily the case for most people. In actuality, having anyone you know read you is more challenging than you can imagine. This could be for a couple of reasons, but one of the main ones is that people are unaware of the power that they have or the difference they can make. On the one hand, getting anyone to read your book is a challenge when you’re starting up and that anyone reads an indie author can fuel their fire more than you can imagine. Additionally, if a book has no reviews and no one talks about the book, what chance does it have for success? So in their hands, there’s plenty of power to make or break an author’s dream.
Another thing that I’ve come to learn is that your tribe finds you, not the other way around.
On one hand, people who know you have expectations of what you can do or on the flip side, maybe they see a disconnect between the person and the creator. People who don’t know you as a person react to you as a creator first and don’t have to bridge the two personas. The best way I can describe it is that people who know you will say something like: “remember the little people when you make it big,” and leave it at that, while someone who get to know you through your work will go out of their way to support you in ways you would have never imagined, just because they want to see you make it big.
On one hand, people who know you have expectations of what you can do or on the flip side, maybe they see a disconnect between the person and the creator. People who don’t know you as a person react to you as a creator first and don’t have to bridge the two personas. The best way I can describe it is that people who know you will say something like: “remember the little people when you make it big,” and leave it at that, while someone who get to know you through your work will go out of their way to support you in ways you would have never imagined, just because they want to see you make it big.
Friends from high school and college, co-workers, even friends are sometimes a harder sell than people who’ve never met you. I’ve been fortunate that I have friends from most of my circles that have come out to see me at events and have bought and reviewed my work, but I can’t say it’s an overwhelming majority. People know you from contexts, they know you have a career so they think that what makes your soul smile is just a hobby when it’s actually what you’d like to spend most of your time doing. In addition, there’s that bit about feeling awkward about talking about your work with some people you know. It’s not like you’re a stripper and people found out because they were having a bachelor party and saw you twerking for the weekend, but there is a learning curve in regards to feeling comfortable when talking about what you create with people that don’t know that side of you. I’ve learned that it’s not something you can force and is best when it happens organically.
For me, it’s important to be thankful for the people who support you genuinely, who invest time in you, who honestly believe in you and how you do things, and I’ve been blessed with a lot of people who support me in countless ways. I always work hard to be extra thankful to the people who support me, who write me out of the blue to say something positive, to the people who read and review me, the people who bust my balls to write more and get cracking, the people who write me with questions about my books, and the people who inspire the best in me for the right reasons. So to all of you who are in this wonderful group, my cheers and my best to you always.
Peace, love, and maki rolls
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