The Snork Effect

What caused it for me? http://stephenbrayton.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/the-snork-effect/

I have pretty much stopped promotions.  You really need a thick skin and just keep plugging.

Well, it's not like I have somebody not liking my stories, but something like this gets a little ridiculous. I can take critique and I can take another writer telling me a scene doesn't work. Some reviewers have mentioned they don't like certain aspects of some of my books. Fine. But when I hear that a book discussion group is tired of authors, I just do not understand it. I don't necessarily take it personally. I assume the next author to call in might have received the same answer, but this fall into the same line of crap I endure trying to promote. Either I get cancelled on, one librarian didn't do homework and realize I wasn't self published or I never get return calls/emails saying thanks but no thanks. Hello! You're libraries. People come to read books. Here is an author with a book. Where is the missed connection for some people?

Well, writing is replacing reading as a recreational activity. If you look on Wattpad etc. you will find hundreds of thousands of writers of all ages. They want people to read their work. Not content with the enjoyment of writing, they want to share their work with readers. On these sites, if you want readers, you have to read. Most of the time, it's like watching paint dry. But you have to say nice things otherwise they won't read your own efforts. All the writers believe they've written something worth reading because the feedback encourages them to think so. 

The reading public who do not write are less kind when it comes to assessing work written by unknown authors. They are genuinely fed up with self-published or small press published authors. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your books, Stephen. It does mean that those who went before you presented inferior work and failed to entertain their audience. 

How do we solve the problem? We can't. The reading public really do know what they want, what they really really want. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes, but his readers refused to let the character die. They didn't take to Conan Doyle's serious works and demanded that he bring back their favourite character. 

If you write stuff that readers want to read, you will be in demand. Very few authors reach that status. That's because of marketing and the way people behave. I don't foresee any changes any time soon.

That is one of the downsides to this expanded market and small publishers. Easier for writers to get published, but most, if not all of the promotions and marketing is done by the author. Even the big six aren't doing promotion as much. You could be correct in saying some people just aren't interested in authors they don't know. I find it disheartening though that local people are supposed to patronize local businesses and support the library, then the library(ies) in turn pull this crap. I was just reading a FB post on my blog about an author who was told by an indie bookstore that she should try harder to get published by a NY company.

When I first started writing, I was unaware of any writers in the area I live, but I've since met several online, which suggests there are many more I haven't met.  

At my local golf club, I was daft enough to mention that I published books. Out of the blue one day, I was on the car park with my husband when a member struck up a conversation. He invited us to follow him to his home for a cup of coffee. We met his wife and soon received an invitation to dinner. Lo and behold, during the meal it was casually slipped into the conversation that their son had written a novel, which was, apparently, very good. I didn't ask if he was looking for a publisher.

I think you will find that your local library group has been at the mercy of several local authors that they felt obliged to support. As they said, they are fed up with authors attending their groups to promote their own books.