All right, real talk. Can quality work that creates a lot of buzz and gets word-of-mouth build an audience and get more and more people to check out the book? Yes, it absolutely can. However, it's the buzz that's important. Because people are absolutely more than willing to check out and buy bad books, see bad movies, and so on, as long as there's some kind of buzz about them.
And if you're a creator in the modern day, then one of the major deciding factors in how much buzz you generate, and the visibility of your work, is the almighty algorithm. And it hates you.
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| Because it is what determines so much of your success in the modern world. |
Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!
Some Examples of Algorithm Impact
As most regular readers know, in addition to being a novelist, I'm also a tabletop RPG writer. In fact, I recently finished the 200th published piece of mine (more on that over on my sister blog, with the entry I've Got Over 200 TTRPG Credits Now!), and there are two, distinct incidents I've experienced over recent history that shows exactly how much impact the algorithm can have on your work's visibility, and thus your sales potential.
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| All right, let's break this down, shall we? |
So readers have context, I've been writing TTRPG content for going on 12 years or so now. About 2-3 years ago, my monthly earnings from the website Drive Thru RPG (which is where all my supplements and books are available for sale) was between $350 and $400, with occasional boosts pushing my earnings up to as much as $500 in a single month. That was, overall, pretty good for me in terms of earnings, and I was making some real progress toward building up my savings and keeping all my creditors happy.
Then Drive Thru RPG launched a new website... and everything got shafted.
Myself, and every fellow creator and indie publisher I talked to, had their organic discovery (the ability for people to find your titles through the search function or just be browsing the site) absolutely cratered! Incomes were cut in half for most people, so I went from getting close to an average of $400 to $500 a month for the 2-3 months before the release, to just barely managing to scrape $250 on a good month. My titles didn't change, there weren't huge upsets in the industry, and everything else was holding steady... but the way the site's algorithm shifted meant people couldn't find my work, and the work of countless others.
Our money was tied directly to the algorithm, and whether or not it let people find our titles. It didn't matter if they were good or bad, well-written or drek, if people can't find a book, they can't very well buy or read that book. Period.
But that isn't the only recent horror story regarding the capriciousness of the algorithm, and how it can literally make or break you as a creator.
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| And even when it doesn't, it will nickel and dime you. |
You see, several months ago DTRPG experienced a problem with Reddit. Normally you could just leave a link to a supplement on Reddit, and it would display the cover image, and give you a title... well, something went wrong, and it became impossible to share links that didn't look broken. This meant that if you wanted a proper title and preview image you had to either share the link through an interim site (like Pinterest), or you had to upload the cover image, and then in the cover image's description you needed to leave a link to the book in question.
Do you know why they put all the candy bars, cigarette lighters, and other junk right up by the cash register? Well, it's because people are WAY more likely to buy stuff like that if it's right in front of them, they're forced to look at it while they're in line, and it's easy to access. And while there were some people who were interested enough in a cover image or a title to check out the supplement in question, it was a LOT fewer people. I was seeing my earnings dropping further from that $250-ish level down to $180, and barely scraping $200 some months.
And you know what happened recently? Well, DTRPG got the glitch solved, and now it's right back to showing direct links like it used to. And the sales I'm making? Also shooting right back up to where they were before.
Because it was never about the quality of the books I wrote, good or bad. It was never about picking the right art, or being engaging enough. It was about whether people could click a single link, and get to the sales page right away. More than one click? Not worth it to most folks in the audience. But back to 1 click? Well, consider them interested again!
Your Actions Affect The Algorithm (And Us)
The algorithm is, in many ways, a mysterious, god-like force. Most people don't understand how it works, and we just try to interpret its will as best we can, and to try to stay on its good side by avoiding behaviors we know it doesn't like. However, something that is important to keep in mind is that the algorithm exists to serve you, the audience. Its entire goal is to give you the kind of content that will keep you on the site, and to make sure you keep engaging with it.
Facebook's algorithm wants you to keep scrolling. Amazon's wants you to keep shopping. YouTube's wants you to keep watching. And so on, and so forth.
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| They cheer for this one? He shall live another day! |
Because the algorithm bows to the will of the audience, it requires the audience to invoke it. The algorithm doesn't care about creators, because we are individuals. But if hundreds, or thousands, of people all signaled that the thing this creator makes is something they like? Well, that is going to put the algorithm in gear, and swing its all-seeing eye toward the creator in question to shine a spotlight on them.
This happens when a book hits 50+ reviews on Amazon; the algorithm decides it's worthy of notice, and starts sharing it with other people. It's why high-selling supplements on Drive Thru RPG are given metal awards ranging from Copper to Adamantine, each of which gives it an advantage over smaller sellers. It's also why videos on YouTube that get lots of comments and upvotes are shared to a wider audience, and why the posts made by creators with large subscriber counts are pushed out to more accounts on every social media platform out there.
Your interaction is what generates buzz, and like I said above, that buzz is what gets our books seen, and being seen is what allows us to make sales so we can keep doing this.
So even though it feels like I say this every other article I write on business matters, I feel it is imperative to drive this point home... especially because not everyone makes it to the end every time, so I have to repeat myself a lot. If you want to help push your favorite creators up, boost their signals, and get them noticed by the algorithm, do the following:
- Leave Ratings and Reviews: This directly gets the algorithm's attention, and it can take as little as 50 folks doing it. It's an important start, but still just a start!
- Subscribe and Be An Active Member of Their Audience: Subscribe to your favorite creators on YouTube, Facebook, Blue Sky, and whatever other platforms they use, and then interact with what they post! Leave hearts, reacts, comments of 7+ words, and share things... it all makes a difference!
- Tell People About Them: Whether you're making posts on a forum, giving shout outs in your podcast, or just talking about someone in a discord chat, big-up people whose work you like to others and spread the word. We can only do so much, and people believe you over us when it comes to our work.
It is absolutely helpful to support the creators you love in financial ways, as well, but since this blog entry is about the algorithm, I wanted to focus on that first. So remember to buy your favored creator's stuff, leave them tips if you can, and support them on whatever crowdfunding platform you can.
We're depending on you, because we need your help to force the wheels of the algorithm to move so we can actually get onto the platform where people can see and hear us. So join the good fight... the creators you love will be appreciative.
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That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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