So, now that 2024 is done, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching on my pursuit to be an author. Frankly speaking, the more I ponder this, the more depressed I become. I have to address facts and try to make arguments for continuing this pursuit that either overcome or bypass the many obstacles I’m facing right now. Maybe this is the reason why, in my daily life, I try not to think too much about the future.
I continually question my vision and my skills. I know I have deficits in certain areas. The avenues to backfill these voids are expensive. This is the unfortunate truth of being a self-published author. I could list these shortcomings, however, doing so would be more trouble than it’s worth. I know what I need. I merely lack the funds to obtain them.
Yet, the biggest problem I face is building an audience – my “tribe,” as another author put it. They’re out there. I see you. In fact, that’s the advantage of having such low sales volume, especially online. I can see when someone picks up THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, then comes back a couple of weeks later to buy a second book, then a third. This has happened several times in the last 2 years. What’s heartening is that I’ve tripled the number of my Amazon followers since 2022 and doubled the number of people following me on YouTube. The problem is that, in order to get somewhere, those increases need to be greater.
What’s worse - my biggest fear - is that the audience that appreciates my stories may be an invisible mob, and the path to them is hidden. I’ve seen them. They’re showing up to buy books at in-person events and some of them follow me from one event to another. But, aside from that, I have no way of easily reaching them and informing them that I have a new book out. I have an online store, but I don’t suspect I’ll see many sales from it in the near future. I don’t think they go to Amazon and I’m pretty sure they no longer go to bookstores as bookstores no longer cater to them.
I really don’t mind doing in-person events. Yet, the biggest problem I have is that these events are more expensive than selling products online. What I make, I often lose in expenses: hotel bills, table fees, mileage, and so on. And, to do these events, I have to register as a business which comes with a whole new set of complications like keeping books, reporting taxes, etc. All of this leaves me less money and time to write.
I could use this post to implore my hidden audience to subscribe to my email list, however, I’m not even sure they’re following me on social media. Or maybe they are? I just don’t know.
My gut feeling – and it has yet to be proven wrong – is that my “tribe,” is probably pretty large. The challenge before me is to find them. My biggest obstacle is not knowing how to do that.
In the end, my focus has to remain fixed on producing books. After that, everything is secondary. I think that a change in direction for this site might be worth a try. So, I’m going to ditch the monthly updates – I tend to do weekly updates on social media anyway – and start producing more content for the blog.
I’m not sure that this will attract that hidden horde of readers that I need, but what I’m doing now isn’t working.
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