... and any award that would come to me after I actively shilled for it wouldn't be worth much. For me, anyway. Just saying. YMMV, and if it does, that's wonderful.
If that was directed at my recent post, Steve, I wouldn't be "shilling" if my work hadn't sold just barely more than 100 copies. Awards nominations is about the only way a small press book by a consistently overlooked author such as myself can get any attention. Seriously, I could care less about winning, but I care a whole lot about being on an award shortlist.
Try being in my shoes. No one wants to buy books from me, no matter how well written or "brilliant." And I'm getting old fast. At this rate I will be dead before I received enough notice to sell a novel-length project to a major publisher.
The post wasn't directed toward you at all, Vera. It wasn't directed to anyone specifically. It was a general notice that I'm seeing lots of authors promoting their books for various award right now. Hell, I've done it too, every once in a while.
Part of the business of writing, as you know, is promotion, but I hate that part. I hate being one of the crowd jumping up and down and waving their arms frantically saying "Look at me! Look at me!" I wish I didn't feel that way, actually. I wish that I were a stronger promoter of my books -- because, like you, I believe in them. But I feel weird metaphorically thrusting my book into someone's hand and saying "here, you gotta buy this!"
But I do that too -- look at some of the older posts here. Heck, I'll be doing it again in a few weeks when A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL is released. "Hey, it's out! Go buy it!"
I loath strong-arm sales tactics in general (in selling anything), and I'm actively repulsed when someone uses them on me. A pushy salesperson makes me actively not buy the product. So not surprisingly, I'm also not a fan of strong authorial book promotion, which strikes me as the same kind of thing.
Of course, someone could argue that my post is just a clever bit of reverse-shilling. "Please don't vote for my book for the Hugos/Nebulas. Poor, poor me. Don't do it!"
Mind you, I'd love to win a major award. I'd be thrilled. I'm just not willing to do so by asking all my friends to vote for me: I want people to vote for my book because they thought it was a great book that deserved the award. I want them to vote on their own because they feel that strongly about the worth of the book. I don't want them to vote for my book because they know me or like me. That's the wrong reason.
So no, it wasn't about you. It was about the business in general. I love the writing part, and I think I'm pretty decent at it. I hate the promotional half, though, and I pretty much suck at that, too...
We're all overlooked authors, to one extent or another. :-)
Here's the thing. Of course we're all overlooked authors, and we all believe in our work for the most part, and we are all struggling, and -- to be honest -- all of us hate to self-promo, which is demeaning and pathetic. Et cetera ad infinitum. That's the real baseline.
But to put things in perspective, we are not all handled the same lot.
And when no one else is there for us, and when lucks craps on our heads, we are our own best advocates.
See, if I won a major award, I wouldn't be thrilled. I'd be extremely grumpy inside and think, it's about damn time. Because, see, all the thrill and innocence of getting such recognition has long since died in me. Anything I might receive from this point onward is just going to be an inner grump and a cynical aggregation of "it's about damn times"s.
I don't want friends to read my work, I want absolute perfect strangers. Because that's what counts.
And, I have come to view other writers posting innocent or not so innocent promo-nudges a kind of endearing thing of necessity, and feel nothing but comraderie. In some cases, seeing such, I think to myself, damn, at least this person remembered that it's Hugos time, while I am so out of it I missed the deadline to remind people about my own eligibility.
So, the point of this ramble is to say, it's kinda all relative, and easy for any one of us to say... :-)
We all do things to promote our books -- though I do question how much that promotion translates into sales. Going to a convention might cost me $300 - $1,000, depending on how much of the tab the convention itself is picking up, the cost of travel (car, plane), and the hotel room. Even at $300, I'm gonna have to sell a raft of books to break even -- which isn't going to happen, frankly. Yeah, there are intangibles: networking with peers, editors, and agents, and making contact with potential readers who may buy your book down the road. But does convention-going significantly increase your sales? I doubt it.
We all have websites, but unless you're a John Scalzi with incredibly heavy traffic, I also doubt that you're going to pick up many sales that way either. I get maybe 70 people a day hitting my site, but those could be same 70 people every day, and in any case, 70 sales aren't going to make my book earn out.
Nor, I think, does getting an award help sales -- in fact, I suspect it's the other way around, actually. The Hugo, the Nebula -- they're largely popularity awards: the better known you are, the more likely your book will make the ballot. So having great sales for your book makes it more likely that book will get an award, rather than the reverse.
I feel like the best thing we can do for ourselves as writers is to write the best damn book we're capable of writing, and hope that the rest will sort itself out.
If I ever do win a major award, I certainly won't be thinking "It's about damn time." I'll be jumping up and down and squeeing, because it's my readers saying that they really liked the book -- it won't be because I asked them to vote for me.
You're right though, it's all relative, and there's no right way to do any of this, and we all have different approaches that we use because we think/hope they'll work for us. I'm not saying it's wrong to self-promote; I'm just saying it doesn't feel right for me. Hell, part of me is jealous of the great self-promoters!
Another post from you that gets a hearty "me too" from me. I've posted about this before.
It's like the difference between someone spontaneously saying "I love you!" and you begging "Do you love me? Don't you love me? Say you love me? Please, say you love me!" It's worthless then even if they do.
And although everyone's mileage may vary, but it's not about love and accolades at all, not in this rather unfair and imperfect world. It's about pragmatic career leverage.
Awards do zilch for your career. My World Fantasy Award winning novel didn't earn out. My Nebula nominated novel got a $7,500 advance, and the sequel, after that nomination, got an $8,000 advance.
The love and appreciation, on the other hand, is real... if you haven't poisoned the well.
You're building a mirage where there's something external you can do that'll magically transform things, when the only thing that will is writing something so good people can't ignore it.
I'm not even all that shy. No, I'm not the most social person at the party, but hell, get me up on a stage and I'm there hamming it up with the best of 'em. I confess to being an applause addict; I love it when people like what I'm doing.
But that self-promotion stuff? It just squicks me out for some reason. It feels wrong.
I am aware of your lack of shyness, Mr. Fan/Writer/Musician GoH. :)
And yes. Self-promotion of that kind certainly feels wrong.
I've gotten over the idea that _all_ self-promotion is bad. Anytime someone says something nice to me at work, I ask them to please tell my boss, because I'm a contractor.... But that's different. They've already said it, I just make sure it goes to the right ears. :)
I don't think you were being sarcastic; that's exactly the way I feel. It's hard enough even to tell people I have something on the ballots without feeling like a shill.
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Try being in my shoes. No one wants to buy books from me, no matter how well written or "brilliant." And I'm getting old fast. At this rate I will be dead before I received enough notice to sell a novel-length project to a major publisher.
*sigh*
From:
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Part of the business of writing, as you know, is promotion, but I hate that part. I hate being one of the crowd jumping up and down and waving their arms frantically saying "Look at me! Look at me!" I wish I didn't feel that way, actually. I wish that I were a stronger promoter of my books -- because, like you, I believe in them. But I feel weird metaphorically thrusting my book into someone's hand and saying "here, you gotta buy this!"
But I do that too -- look at some of the older posts here. Heck, I'll be doing it again in a few weeks when A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL is released. "Hey, it's out! Go buy it!"
I loath strong-arm sales tactics in general (in selling anything), and I'm actively repulsed when someone uses them on me. A pushy salesperson makes me actively not buy the product. So not surprisingly, I'm also not a fan of strong authorial book promotion, which strikes me as the same kind of thing.
Of course, someone could argue that my post is just a clever bit of reverse-shilling. "Please don't vote for my book for the Hugos/Nebulas. Poor, poor me. Don't do it!"
Mind you, I'd love to win a major award. I'd be thrilled. I'm just not willing to do so by asking all my friends to vote for me: I want people to vote for my book because they thought it was a great book that deserved the award. I want them to vote on their own because they feel that strongly about the worth of the book. I don't want them to vote for my book because they know me or like me. That's the wrong reason.
So no, it wasn't about you. It was about the business in general. I love the writing part, and I think I'm pretty decent at it. I hate the promotional half, though, and I pretty much suck at that, too...
We're all overlooked authors, to one extent or another. :-)
From:
no subject
But to put things in perspective, we are not all handled the same lot.
And when no one else is there for us, and when lucks craps on our heads, we are our own best advocates.
See, if I won a major award, I wouldn't be thrilled. I'd be extremely grumpy inside and think, it's about damn time. Because, see, all the thrill and innocence of getting such recognition has long since died in me. Anything I might receive from this point onward is just going to be an inner grump and a cynical aggregation of "it's about damn times"s.
I don't want friends to read my work, I want absolute perfect strangers. Because that's what counts.
And, I have come to view other writers posting innocent or not so innocent promo-nudges a kind of endearing thing of necessity, and feel nothing but comraderie. In some cases, seeing such, I think to myself, damn, at least this person remembered that it's Hugos time, while I am so out of it I missed the deadline to remind people about my own eligibility.
So, the point of this ramble is to say, it's kinda all relative, and easy for any one of us to say... :-)
From:
no subject
We all have websites, but unless you're a John Scalzi with incredibly heavy traffic, I also doubt that you're going to pick up many sales that way either. I get maybe 70 people a day hitting my site, but those could be same 70 people every day, and in any case, 70 sales aren't going to make my book earn out.
Nor, I think, does getting an award help sales -- in fact, I suspect it's the other way around, actually. The Hugo, the Nebula -- they're largely popularity awards: the better known you are, the more likely your book will make the ballot. So having great sales for your book makes it more likely that book will get an award, rather than the reverse.
I feel like the best thing we can do for ourselves as writers is to write the best damn book we're capable of writing, and hope that the rest will sort itself out.
If I ever do win a major award, I certainly won't be thinking "It's about damn time." I'll be jumping up and down and squeeing, because it's my readers saying that they really liked the book -- it won't be because I asked them to vote for me.
You're right though, it's all relative, and there's no right way to do any of this, and we all have different approaches that we use because we think/hope they'll work for us. I'm not saying it's wrong to self-promote; I'm just saying it doesn't feel right for me. Hell, part of me is jealous of the great self-promoters!
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It's like the difference between someone spontaneously saying "I love you!" and you begging "Do you love me? Don't you love me? Say you love me? Please, say you love me!" It's worthless then even if they do.
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And although everyone's mileage may vary, but it's not about love and accolades at all, not in this rather unfair and imperfect world. It's about pragmatic career leverage.
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The love and appreciation, on the other hand, is real... if you haven't poisoned the well.
You're building a mirage where there's something external you can do that'll magically transform things, when the only thing that will is writing something so good people can't ignore it.
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There's a saying, a man who has just eaten a feast cannot understand a hungry man....
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And people who campaign 'too hard' and strike me as being 'pushy' about themselves don't get my vote.
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But that self-promotion stuff? It just squicks me out for some reason. It feels wrong.
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And yes. Self-promotion of that kind certainly feels wrong.
I've gotten over the idea that _all_ self-promotion is bad. Anytime someone says something nice to me at work, I ask them to please tell my boss, because I'm a contractor.... But that's different. They've already said it, I just make sure it goes to the right ears. :)
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