Flashback Fridays #7

I skipped a bunch of posts about my writing plans and progress in editing The Slaying of the Bull. They are interesting to me in a documentation way, but since many of those plans changed and The Slaying of the Bull wasn’t the hit I thought it would be at the time, I won’t bore you with all that. I chose the post below as it is still relevant.

In this week’s look to the past, I talk about how Indie authors are a huge target for scams and people trying to capitalize on dreamers. I think this happens in all the arts, and it is unfortunate. Making Art is easy. For most of us, it is just our nature to create, but selling that art or being successful in the art business is incredibly difficult with lottery-type odds of making it big. This makes us prime targets for swindlers. There is a prevailing notion, one that is often glamourized, that we all must suffer for our art, that if we really believe in ourselves, we should give it our all–including every last cent. True, some have made it big with their sacrifice, but you only hear about the miracles. You never hear of the millions who sank everything into their dream and failed.

When I published the post below, I was only a few months into this game with only one book on KDP, yet I was already being bombarded with emails from editors, marketers, book cover designers, publishers, trailer makers, book bloggers, etc. All were promising me avenues to greatness. It is even worse now. I receive upwards of 20 of these emails in my spam box a day. Now, almost all are AI-created and coming through Gmail accounts. They use my online content to try to trick me into thinking that they have actually read my work, and then make statements about how great it is and how it deserves a larger audience. For those of you like me, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The problem is, sometimes I think that having some marketing help, or some assistance getting my name out there, would be great. Unfortunately, there are so many scams that it’s hard to know what is legit. A few burns along the way don’t help either. Also, even with someone who knows their stuff, there are no guarantees that it will help. At least when I do it myself, the blame falls squarely on me. I don’t know if I need another conflict in my life when I pay money and don’t get meaningful results.

Anyway, if you’re a writer following your dream, be careful. Art is light, energy, and humanity’s greatest gift to itself, but light can attract wicked things. As I state in this post, be wary, stay strong, and keep creating. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is.

Cheers!

Snake oil sales