Retweet, like, follow, rinse, repeat. Feed the algorithm. Keywords, promos, giveaways, ARCs, reviews. Build your brand, build your base. Work the room, network… prowl. As daunting as it is disillusioning— the hustle is real.
One powerful review can spark another while one bad review can set you back. Don’t get too hung up on either. Believe in your work or don’t publish it. The reviews are a technicality, a necessary evil to the indie publishing world— but they don’t define your work anymore than the art on the cover.
Eager, hungry #writers lurk in every corner of social media. Collectively, they are the same. Desperate not for fame or riches, but for their words to mean something to someone other than themselves. How do you separate your voice from the chorus?
It takes time. It takes patience. And when it does it usually happens organically. People are smart and numb to the endless stream of advertisement they are subjected to. It is the long con that separates— building real relationships with digital people. It is the slow play six moves ahead that pushes you to a critical mass. And it takes help… lots and lots of help.
Keep working. Stay humble. Stay hungry. You have to feed the algorithm. Write, link, blog, post. Content…content…content. Linger in the background, answer the questions, earn the rep, earn the likes, earn your stripes. You gotta keep moving. You gotta hustle.
Want to encourage an indie author? Follow their blog, their site, their half a dozen social media accounts. Write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. And most importantly keep reading. As much as we write stories for ourselves, they are meaningless if we are the only ones to read them.
Thanks for reading.
Salt and Ruin,
-Brandon
Real McCoy Books 