Writers, connect with your readers already!

Please pardon me for shouting, but I will shout it here once more. WRITERS, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS ALREADY!!! It's easier than ever, with the million gazillion social media networks out there. Still not convinced to get on Twitter, and Pinterest, and Google+? (I'm assuming you're on Facebook already). Why not? The benefits are huge. Let's use me as a sorry lab rabbit here. A year ago, I started out by quitting my career to write full time. Who am I? A nobody. What do I do? I write fantasy books, but sorta twisted sick dark fantasy, a little over the top with descriptions fantasy, and fantasy that is very green, meaning, I'm a young writer, a newbie, and I don't yet know how to properly write novels or fantasy, still learning. So who in the world would read my stuff? Why? Who cares about it, when there are big names out there like J.K. Rowling, and George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman, and, oh my God, a million others? But people do, which still makes me look like this: O__O I had a little over 300 beta readers plunge into Siren Suicides, and people are actually buying it now that it's published (have yet to make a report on sales numbers) and reading it, and liking it. I was honestly astounded at first, wondering, why on earth would they do that? Then it hit me, sometime this spring. They do it because of me. I have yet to get to the level of my stories speaking for themselves (not there yet), but people are reading my books because of the interactions we had on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, or on whatever other place on the Internetz, or in person. You can do it too, and you should do it. In fact, I insist, it's very important for you to connect with your readers any way you can. Why? Because...

...listen to readers' feedback, it's golden. I hear a lot of negativity around the feedback the readers give you, especially if it's bad, or bad reviews. It goes like this... oh God, how could they? They have no idea what I was trying to say, and they just want to bite me, they are just these people that like writing bad reviews just for the fun of it, just because they can, etc, etc. I find this strange. Nowadays, with the book market flooded with indie books the way it is, any review, bad or good, is golden. I mean, somebody actually spent time reading your shit? You know this is amazing, right? You've been competing for someone's time and you won a whole 8 hours or however long it took that person to read your book. They took their time away from their significant other (if there is one), or kids, or dogs, or kittens, or knitting an orange sweater for their cousin Bob, or whatever, for YOUR BOOK? That alone is huge. Wow. And then they took out the time to give you feedback, too? That's beyond amazing. I always thank everyone personally (well, I try, because so far I don't have that many reviews, so I can do it), for their time and effort, and I read everything. There is always something that rings true for me, and while I can't change things in the published books, I can pick up things that can help me write better books in the future. By now I know that my weaknesses are excessive descriptions and my dialogue is a bit stiff, and I don't yet know how to engage secondary characters fully, and a bunch of other stuff. If not for my readers, I would've never known that.

Talk to your readers about anything and everything. People will read your books, when you just start out, not because you have a reputation or a name (cause you haven't yet), but because they know who you are, know your personal story. For example, many people bought Siren Suicides not because they wanted to read the actual story, but because they were curious what I came up with, how I battled my depression and suicidal tendencies through writing a novel, well, a trilogy (yeah, it expanded into 3 books over 5 drafts), and for a slew of other reasons. I know because those people told me so, writing me letters and private messages and emails and whatnot. This, again, is awesome. If they did happen to like my first book, there is a chance they might come back for more of my work. How cool is that? I think it's beyond cool. I'm still pinching myself every time someone orders signed copies of my books or I get Amazon emails telling me I got paid. I mean, I give out all my books for FREE on my site, and still people buy them. Because, again, as they told me, they want to help, to support a writer. But why would anyone want to support me? For the same reason I listed above. Because they know my history, my daily moods, my failures, my successes, I don't hide anything at all, and this is a true connection between me and my readers, it's like we have a blood vessel between us, sharing everything. It's a very scary thing to do, but I can tell you that I've connected with people on a deeper level than I ever imagined, on a deeper level than even in some of my past real-life friendships.

Share what your readers say about you with others. The good and the bad and everything. In the end, it's not what you tell people about yourself, it's what people say about you. You can say you are smart and sassy and whatever, but people will form their own opinion about you, whether you want to or not, and it's a good thing. It will actually show you sides of yourself you didn't know. Well then, be humble, and share it. You're a writer, your life is no longer private by definition. As much as you will try to camouflage it with stories, every single book you write is rooted in your life experiences, and there will be repeating events from your life, repeating themes. Essentially, by writing a book, you not only invite people into your life, you invite them into your very brain. How much more un-private can that be? Imagine now that you're trying to come off as standoffish. Too late. People already know your secrets. Well, let them have fun! Let them muse, let them talk, let them bitch and moan, or adore and praise. Whatever they do, it's about them, not about you, but it will help others discover you. It will make your readers happy and open up a dialogue, be it on a social media network or in person. You can even jokingly introduce yourself with some word or phrase people call you or your work, like: Hi, I'm Jill Nill, and my readers call me Yellow Jello because all of my book covers have a canary tone to them, and I mention canaries in my books a lot. Or whatever. You get the point. By letting your readers do with you what they want to do, you essentially letting them own you, letting them call you their own, and truly own your books, so that they become theirs. That is the most brilliant thing any writer can ask for, for each reader to feel like the book was written for them and them alone. That's how you get readers for life.

What else? Let's see here, beyond those big philosophical points, interacting with your readers is simply fun. These people know so much about you, and yet nothing about you, and yet they do, on some other level. I'm an addict, personally. I love talking to my readers to death (gosh, I hope I don't bore them to death and they love talking to me too!). Anyway, there is nothing else to say, except, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY! 

If a writer won't help a writer, who will?

It's been a while since I wrote a marketing post, and I've never actually touched on the subject of writers supporting other writers when it comes to marketing books, AND to encourage other writers to keep writing. Because if a writer won't support another writer, who will? Of course, there is the reader's base, the fans, but when you're only starting out, who is there to support you? Other writers. They know what it's like, they've been there, they're the only ones who will sympathize with how it feels, getting your book out into the world and sitting on a rock, waiting, biting your nails. Before I dive any deeper, I must make a confession. You are welcome to brandish admonitory fingers at me, use the most outrageous profanities, and otherwise display hostility. I'm okay with it, because I've tried, I failed, I decided to be okay with being who I am after all. Being an indie writer myself, I don't read many indie books. Well, not anymore. I tried, I honestly did, and I simply couldn't. There are so many that are... well, not MY books, and that don't speak to me, don't inspire me to write, that I retreated back to classics and to big names, although I brave an indie book once in a while. In light of this, I support writers by other means, tweeting to them, about them, or posting on my Facebook wall, or writing blog posts for them, on the topics they ask me to, or simply talking about things that relate to writing and not just blasting stuff about my books constantly. There are a gazillion ways of doing it. Here is why you should do it too.

If you give, people will give back a thousandfold. We have this interesting notion (no fucking clue where we got it) that the world operates by GETTING STUFF. Perhaps this is what our parents taught us when we were little, or the neighbor kid who took our bike, by force, and we decided this is how things get done. In any case, especially when we were little - you know, toddlers in the sandbox - we got things by GETTING them. Remember? Just take that shovel from that kid, and presto! If he cries, hit him on the head. Or, better, douse him with sand. We've all done this, we might not remember this, but we did. With luck, we had mom or dad or nanny or whoever tell us, hey, that's not nice, don't do it like this, do it like that, ask first. But some of us didn't have that education, so we go around life, GETTING things. This is not how the world operates. The world operates on GIVING. It is a much scarier prospect, of course. Just try explaining this concept to an ad agency, for example. They will think you mad. What? No way. You shove things under people's faces. The more you shove, the more you GET. The return is fast, immediate, and here are numbers to report to bosses, so the bosses are happy. GIVING is a much longer road. You have to give, and give, and give. But the thing is, once people get it that you have no hidden agenda, THEY WILL GIVE BACK 10 TIMES MORE. Because we love to help, it's in our nature, but we got so scared after being burned multiple times, that we're very cautious, especially writers, who are very sensitive people. Let go of your fear. Try it. GIVE. You will see what I mean.

 All a writer needs sometimes is an encouraging word from another writer. This is not so much related to marketing books, but it can be, in a way. No matter what a writer does, writes a novel for the first time, self-publishes a book for the first time, it's scary. There are so many things to do, all of them sound so complicated, that it's easy to give up. Again, remember, we are sensitive emotional folk, we're often tempted to skulk, or hide, or throw our hands in the air and quit it. I mean, our worst horror is the blank page! There are friends, of course, who can encourage us, and family. But oddly enough, sometimes they simply don't understand what the big deal is. Only another writer will understand it. Some people call it karma, I simply call it love. When you give love to people, it makes you happy. It's how we were designed by nature (yeah, well, we won't go into THAT discussion right now). Try it. Give another writer some love. Support them with an encouraging word. That said writer will be first shocked (I get a lot of this), but then so grateful, that you will be astounded. One positive word can carry a writer through a week of hell. It totally can. And it's so easy to do it, for you, but it can literally mean quitting or keeping writing for that someone else.

Support writing to make the world a happier place. Many writers are vary of competition. They are very jealous of their work, they are afraid someone might steal their ideas, they copyright and protect everything they write. Yes, there are cases, but for the most part, trust me, a writer writes something because a writer is passionate about the subject. So it's impossible to steal that passion. And writing is not really about making big bucks or becoming famous. Yes, it does happen, but most of us don't focus on that. It simply makes us happy. Think of it this way. If you like to knit, do you knit because you hope to win the World Knitting Cup? Nope. You knit because it makes you feel good, it's fun, even if all you managed was an ugly scarf that your friend politely called "lovely". Who cares? What matters is that it gave you good mood, it made you smile. Same with writing. Will all of us win a Nobel Prize? Or Pulitzer? Or become the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling? Nope. Is that why we write? Nope. We write because we can't NOT write. We love it. It makes us happy. Now, think about it. How wonderful it would've been if everyone in this world was happy? It would be awesome, wouldn't it? Perhaps we would never have wars, or abuse, or murder. Wouldn't that be swell? Well then, my dream is for this world TO BE FLOODED WITH INDIE BOOKS. That's right. it doesn't really matter if anyone reads them. What matters is the people who wrote them became a notch happier. We will all benefit from this. How to do this? ENCOURAGE OTHER WRITERS, OF COURSE! 

If you're reading this, doubting if you should give it a try, do it. Giving is such an awesome feeling, giving without expecting anything back. I give as much as I can. I tweet every day about writing and reading, and I try to respond to as many people as I can, encouraging as many people as I can (I do get into dark places sometimes and fail to encourage others, sorry). I try to answer every email and do everything I physically possibly can to help. There is only me, though, and there are only 24 hours in a day, and I do need to sleep and eat, and love my family, to keep myself writing. So please, help me. Help me encourage other writers, together we can do so much more. Together we can change the world.