August 30, 2014

Writing into the abyss, or why readers don't matter

Photo by Ana Luísa Pinto — Photo by Ana Luísa Pinto

There is this nebulae of phantasmagorical opinion (God, where did this vocabulary come from?) about the absolute (I mean, I swear, some phrases that come to my mind baffle even me)...absolute what? Oh, yeah, we were talking about the abyss. So, there is this opinion floating in the vast recesses of writers' minds (I must be on a roll today) that whatever genius prose exhibiting strong literary merit and strong calves (can prose have strong calves?) they produce (today I'm exercising in long sentences) shall be and must be and deserves to be read. Let me repeat it, because I'm sure I have lost you by now. Writers think (see, simple words) that what they write must be read. Or they hope. Or they set out to write with that soul-cleaving wish that whatever they produce will have hordes of readers running to them and begging them for their masterpieces. Can I laugh here, or should I laugh later? You still with me? Well then.

Yesterday we had a curious discussion on Twitter about whether or not it matters if anyone reads your work. There was a wide breadth of viewpoints, and, interestingly enough, those who have written a lot tended to not clamor for readership, but those who were starting out often shouted that, Yes, readers matter. There was a third, bitter category of older disgruntled writers who said that, How the fuck would they pay their bills if they had no readers? I thought, Hmmm, this deserves a blog post.

This will shock you.

August 24, 2014

How to get readers interested in your book

by Ksenia Anske

Dylann Rhea asked: "I'm just curious about how you get readers interested in your book? I have followers on twitter (which are mostly companies and other indie writers) but no one seems to be interested in reading my story. I know I'm really new to the writing world and I'm just grasping how to advertise and all that jazz but I still can't figure out how to get readers interested."

I have a very simple answer for you.

DON'T.

It's harsh, but it's true. If you work hard at "getting readers interested in your book", as in, you will shove it in their faces, you will foist it in their hands, you will shout at them on every corner how they absolutely must read your timeless masterpiece and how if they don't, you will follow them all the way home and nag them there until they take your book just to get rid of you and later barf on it or give it to their dogs or burn it or throw it in a trash bin where raccoons will pee on it in the night, oblivious to your literary genius shining forth from the pages within. That's not how you get people interested in reading your work. Want to know why?

May 18, 2014

Why my books have ShareAlike license and more questions answered

by Ksenia Anske

I got this email from Christopher Garry, a fellow writer: "I am an editor and a writer. I have two quick questions for you...you use "Share Alike" license inside your books. Does that mean that people can modify your writing and then re-distribute it? Do you see any of your fans doing this? What is your favorite way to interact with your reader community? Clearly you are highly visible on Twitter but do you have maybe a newsgroup forum or any other way for readers to discuss your work? A wiki? A guide to the worlds you have built? That sort of thing?"

Well, it's 7 questions total, but hey, I'll answer them all! So here you go. (Also, if you read this whole post, you will convalesce from your all your illnesses. That, or I owe you a cookie.)

1. What using ShareAlike license means.

Let me begin with the official name for the beast. The license I self-publish my books under is called "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported". The full text about it, including the lengthy legalese, can be found here. What does this mean? It means that you can do these things to my books:

May 7, 2014

Writer's authority and why you have to have it

by Ksenia Anske

I'm the boss of you, and don't tell me I'm not. You come to me, for me to be the boss of you. You're a reader. You search for authority, for that voice that can sweep you off your feet, swallow you whole, make you raise your head from the book, hours later, wondering what hit you. You look for it, in every book. You open it, you hope for it. It's why you read. And here I am, a writer. I'm at your mercy. You can toss my book into a swamp, you can use it as a door stopper. You can burn it. Worst of all, you can open it, glance at a sentence or two, and never read it.

You have authority over me.

Yet I have authority over you.

That is, if I have it. If I do, I will catch you with my net. I won't let you go until you're exhausted, until your eyes hurt and you start sticking matches between your eyelids to keep them open. You will walk with my book into traffic. Cars will stop inches from you, honk at you, you won't hear. You will tumble into open manholes and continue reading. My words are just your palate. My sentences your relish. My stories your tin of canned sardines because you loved canned sardines since you were five. You are under my authority.

April 5, 2014

On fear and writing

by Ksenia Anske

I'm afraid. I write every day and I'm scared shitless. I'm scared about everything. Will I be able to write a good book, a book good enough, good enough in my eyes to share it with the world? Will my readers like it? Will strangers who never heard about me like it? I'm afraid every day and I write every day, and I'm still afraid. It never goes away. My 10 year old son has started readingROSEHEAD, my 2nd novel, and I have yet to publish it on other sites besides Amazon, like I promised, and put up a free ebook file on my site, like I promised, and when my son tells me that this book is the best he has read all year, I'm afraid again. I'm afraid he tells me that because I'm his mom and he loves me and just wants to say nice things to me. I asked him. I asked, would you have said it about this book if it wasn't mine? He said, yes. Still, I'm afraid. He recommended it to his friend in school, and his mom told me today that he is reading it and enjoying it, and my son told me that he said his friend likes it. A LOT. Still, I'm afraid. I want to ask, are you sure? Really? REALLY???