IWSG: Frustration of 'Futile' Book Marketing

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. My post for this month’s IWSG mostly consists of the question for the month and my answer to it. The question: In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you?

My answer to the first part of the question is that what stresses me most in my writing isn't so much the writing itself. It’s more so the promoting and marketing of it. There are many times when I feel like no matter what I do to promote or market my writing, book or blog, no one sees or responds to it. Yet it’s no one person’s fault. It’s the fault of the social media and search engine systems for playing favourites with paying customers who buy their advertisements. 

Now I can't say for sure because I'm not a technology expert (only a technology enthusiast), but I always suspect it’s the commercial-driven algorithms of search engines and social media, especially Facebook, that prevents promotions of my books and blog posts from being seen. Even when I use the most (or at least said to be) effective marketing and promotional methods, there are too many times when I see zero purchases of my books or near-zero views of my blog/social media posts about my writing. The average number of views for each post on my Facebook author page is under 10 regardless of what time of day I post. 

I really do believe that the internet, or the Web at least, is supposed to be fair game. It's supposed to give equal access and opportunity for success to users. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, has pretty much wanted it that way. However, like with every invention regardless of who invented it, some greedy force will do everything they can to own it for themselves and the corporate establishment has been doing that with the internet for the last decade or so (that might even be an underestimate). 

Now to answer the second part of the question: What delights me about my writing is, of course, when my books sell. But I think it’s even more so when people read my work--whether it's one of my books, my blog or an article I wrote for a publication--and say how much they liked it. 

Does marketing your writing frustrate you or do you have an inclination to it? What delights you about your writing?

Today’s IWSG  is brought to you by these super co-hosts:  PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . .