Authors Need An Audience To Keep The Fires Burning

Normally I have a clever introduction, or some example of a situation that I want to expand on when it comes time to start one of these entries. This week, though, I wanted to get straight to the point. Because when you're an author you need your work to be seen and discussed. Praise is best, of course, but even arguments, disagreements, and outright hate still means people are at least seeing it.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing worse than silence.

Silence echoes between your ears. Silence makes you question everything you're doing. Silence tells you to turn around, and go in a different direction because there is nothing the way you're going. Silence smothers your fire, and leads to burnout faster than almost anything else.

And this shit is HARD to light back up again.

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. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Inspiration, Motivation, and Desperation

Writing is generally a solitary activity. While you may have beta readers, editors, and people you work through plot snares and story issues with, a majority of the work is done by yourself. Not only that, but the work could go on for hours when it comes to writing an article, weeks for composing a short story, or literal years when it comes to writing a novel.

And if you're writing something for no reason other than because you want to, then the only result that matters is that you like it. That you had fun with this project, and you're satisfied with the result. However, those of us who write professionally have concerns above and beyond that. We need to know if our audience likes the direction we're going in, if this project is sustainable, if it's profitable, and whether it's something our readers want us to dedicate more time to or not. Unless we're sitting on a massive nest egg of earnings, inheritance, or previous work that's paying royalties, we need those eyeballs to come our way, and we need to hear what the audience wants from us.

And when we're left in silence we're basically left flipping a coin and hoping for the best.

Are they watching? I can't tell anymore...

This is complicated by the fact that so many of us are limited by the means we have to actually reach our audience. I had a prime example of this come back to me recently.

Shouting Into The Void (And Hoping For The Best)

The following post was shared not just on my own Facebook wall and professional page, but in many groups where my work appears regularly.

A Request For Aid

As a lot of folks reading this know, I write for a living, and a large part of my income is from RPG content. However, I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit, give folks an idea of how the sausage is made, and ask for some specific help today.

For me to cover my bills (rent and utilities) for a month based on sheer traffic (not asking anyone to buy anything today), I would need to get roughly 90,000 reads on articles in my Vocal archive. That is a frankly absurd amount of traffic, especially when you have to fight the algorithm every step of the way. However, since good things come in threes, I have a specific way all the folks reading this can help.

Please take some time out of your day to read the Silver Raven Chronicles. This re-telling of my group's run through Hell's Rebels currently has three installments, and they're filled with atmosphere, mystery, unique characters, and kicking devil-worshiping fascists in the teeth! And if you like what you see (or don't have time to read but still want to help) please leave a like and a share to help me boost the signal!

The goal behind this was to get folks to read the Silver Raven Chronicles, a collection of free, fantasy short stories I've been putting out over the past few months. There are over 700 people on my personal friends list, over 800 on my business page, and groups I shared this post in, along with links to the stories in question, varied from a few hundred members to over 100k members.

So why isn't this a celebratory post?

Despite sharing this post pretty widely (for an independent operator, at least), and getting a signal boost from a lot of fellow creators, this basically went nowhere in terms of actual response. Because while I blared the horn as loudly as I could, the actual results of all this effort was 20 reads. Not even 20 reads per story... 20 reads in total. Barely a nickel's worth of activity for hours of promotional work, to say nothing of all the energy that went into writing the stories in the first place.

The question I was left with, then, was what caused this silence? Was it my signal being throttled by the algorithm? Was it that I was telling stories about Hell's Rebels, rather than another adventure path? Was it that RPG tie-in stories just weren't popular? Was it that this was short fiction rather than something longer? On and on the questions went, because nothing kicks attempts at pattern-recognition into overdrive quite like something going wrong. And since no one responded in comments or left any feedback, there weren't even straws to grasp at in terms of trying to course correct.

Think of it like when professional wrestling tried to keep having matches during the pandemic with no audience. Without the crowd to give feedback to help guide the course the match takes, and to help decide how the performers act, it really struggled to maintain the level of energy and enthusiasm that kept it interesting. Same thing, and with the same issue of trying to reach an audience on the other end of the screen.

What You Can Do To Help

I've said this several times, but anything true bears repeating when appropriate. You, the readers, are the ones who make or break us as creators. You are the ones whose time, energy, clicks, and purchases we base our work off of. Because while I have no plans to write a sequel to my dystopian thriller Old Soldiers right now, I'd reconsider those plans if 10,000 people all bought copies and started asking when the next one is coming out. I actually have a sequel planned for my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, but it's never sold well enough for me to spend a year of time putting it on the page.

When you demand, we listen. But when you stay quiet we move onto something else, even if you may have wanted to see where that other project was going.

Like this one, for example.

So if you don't have money, but you want to help, here's a list of things you can do.

- Follow my social media pages found on my Linktree.

- Like and share my posts to help me increase the number of people who see them, and to fight the tyranny of the algorithm.

- Read my posts (this is particularly important for stuff in my Vocal archive, which pays me based on reads, but which ignores clicks that don't involve scrolling or other activity).

- When you see me make a post, leave a comment of 5 words or more, and preferably one that starts or participates in conversation. That stuff always increases ripples!

For readers who specifically want to help boost my numbers on the free fiction I have out (especially if you're stuck inside on a snow day like I am here) make sure you take a look at Devil's Night, From The Ashes, and The Raven's Nest, which are the first three installments of the Silver Raven Chronicles... a free fantasy series all about punching fascists and undermining a corrupt government of devil-binders! And for folks who are more interested in grimdark sci-fi, consider my other stories Waking Dogs: A World Eaters Tale, which is about a fallen space marine who takes the first step toward reclaiming his honor, and Field Test, which is about an inquisitor who's using an ork invasion for target practice to test out a fresh weapon she's been cultivating.

And for those of you who DO have money...

If you're one of those readers who does have a bit of spare dosh to throw around and you'd like to help give me a boost with it (my thanks in advance), I'd suggest the following:

- Become a Patreon patron! Or if you're not ready for a big commitment, buy me a Ko-Fi as a tip.

- Buy a book! My recent release Tales From The Moot is a collection of quality Werewolf: The Apocalypse fiction, but I've also got my hard-boiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats in addition to any other books I've mentioned above.

- Buy an RPG supplement (or five). I've got 130 titles on the market at the moment, and they're all on a convenient pin board!

Any combination of these things is good for me as a creator, but in addition to the tangible benefit it provides (which is sorely needed), it also gives me some numbers to actually work with. The more copies a particular kind of book or supplement sells, the more likely it is to be further explored down the line. The more reads an article gets, or the more buzz a particular topic gets, the more of that stuff I'm going to produce until people signal they're done with this topic.

I cannot stress enough that there's only so much that I or any other creator can do. Because we need our audience. Your views, your purchases, your reviews, your comments, buzz, and word-of-mouth are what sustain us. Without that, sooner or later the fire is going to go out.

So take a moment to throw a few twigs into the embers, will you?

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!