Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

As a storyteller I tire, as a reader I fear.



One day, perhaps sooner than any of us expect, there will be no more storytellers. The brave and creative souls that tear a bit of their soul off and reshape it into an entertaining, heart wrenching or exciting tale will no longer be able to craft their works. The return on their expenses will dwindle away to nothing as they lose the ability to communicate with their audiences and their work either gets pirated or devalued to the point where they can't even pay operating costs.


Already, many of the authors that I enjoy reading have slowed or stopped their work altogether. I wonder...when will they all disappear?

So you just read a book and you can't wait to share your feelings on it? Great!

But now, as you prepare to release your opinion to the world, you are suddenly unsure. What if people make fun of you? What if you get personally attacked for just sharing your opinion? What if you sound like an idiot?

Welcome to the world of every writer out there. No matter what it is you write you are sharing part of yourself with the world. It sucks to have people set up a fire pit and pull your writing onto the flames.

Faced with this reality a great many people turn and run away.

Do not be afraid. Here are a few tips to make a review that lets you express yourself without opening yourself to trolls.

1) Be nice - even if you hated the book make sure to resist the urge to get mean. Give the low stars rating then put a basic reason that you didn't like it. You can do this without personally attacking the author or any of their fans.

2) Reread before you hit submit - Check your spelling and the flow of you words. Make sure that you get your point across and aren't being unnecessarily harsh.

3) You don't have to be a writer to write a valid review - This is your opinion. Speak from the heart as if you were trying to advise a friend about this book.

4) One sentence is enough to be a valid review - I love this book. I didn't like this book. I couldn't finish this book. Make your points about why you liked it or didn't like it. Go into as much detail as you like or make it short and sweet. There is no reason for you to feel your review is not 'good enough' because it is short.

5) Finally, you need to realize that even with all of the care you put into this review someone is likely to get mad - Writers put a lot of effort into their work. Very few of them actually respond to reviewers. However, many of their fans get very invested into books that touch them personally. You can't make everyone happy.

You review is important.

Nobody else is going to be able to write your review.

Writers are always looking for more readers. The nicest thing you can do if you like a book is to review it for the author. On Amazon, B&N, IBooks, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, and anywhere else you can.

Bad reviews help as well. Not every book is for every reader. But a bad review can help an author tweak their work or how they market it. But no one will know if you don't sit down and write the review first...

I don't blog often. Normally it gets triggered by some silly BS flooding my notification window. Today it is umbrage and outrage at people being held accountable for what they do online. Or being outed as who they are in the real world.

GASP!

So, lets imagine that every time you get onto the Internet you had to take responsibility for every single thing that you did or said. You know, like you have to in the real world.

Did most of you just shudder in horror?
For some of you out there I'm sure that a part of you screamed in terror.

And well you should.

I'm an Ancient of the Internet. Back before the public could be here, I was here. When the military released it to colleges a lot of us came on with borrowed access and marveled at the beast.

We knew each other, if not by our real names than by reputation. We were harsh sometimes but we backed up anything we said. As access was widened to the public we looked on in disgust as people made up fake persona's and began spewing venom at each other.

The virtual world offered people the unprecedented ability to behave any way they wanted, without real world consequences. As far as they knew they were completely anonymous, so anything goes. The problem is that anonymity was a lie. It was pretty easy to track people down in the real world. If you knew how to do it.

You could find the country, region, city, town, and city block from the IP address that people were accessing from. What's more, the people who had that knowledge were often the target of those that did not. To put it simply, people that didn't know better were picking fights with 9000 lb gorillas

Not a good idea.

So all of a sudden the person that told people off online would have real world woes pop up. Like getting billed for thousands of magazines they never ordered. Or having identity theft. Or getting calls from people who saw their ad on Craigslist...for special meetings...ugh.

The point is that these folks never put one and one together to get two. It was a totally unconnected case of bad luck. Except it wasn't. Fast forward to where we are now.

I have watched people unload years of hostility in a single post. Work out being ignored or marginalized in a hateful diatribe against X. I'm sure it was cathartic. But it was also incredibly stupid.

Let me explain why. I will water down the technobable to make it easier to understand.

When you post to the internet what you are doing is actually communicating between your computer and the server that hosts the website you are going to. The website records each time you log in, where you are, and does the same thing when you post.

In essence, you provide your location each time. Not only that, you have to be identified by the server to post. So your account is being tagged to each post. So if you set up a fake account you would be fine, right?

Wrong. When you set up the account you likely didn't use software to mask your Internet service provider address. Nor did you go to a coffee shop out of town or a far away library. But even if you did that you would out yourself every time you logged on from home to post.

But that information is secure and the only way someone can get it is with a subpoena, right?

Nope. With the right software, which is available for free or for a small fee, you can strip a webpage down to the code. Heck, most browsers these days have the option built in. In many cases this will show the IP that you posted from.

There are a few free or cheap services that allow you to break down IP's to actual locations. With a little cross referencing you can figure out where someone posting to the internet lives.

In the real world. You can even use Google Street View to get a picture of their house. Their car might even be parked in the driveway in the picture.

Freaked out yet?

There is a movement going on to stop bullying online. One thought is to have everyone registered under a username that is tied to their real name.

This would mean if you said something you would be responsible for it. I think it is long past time. Especially since if you have the knowledge you can already do it.

Right now the issue isn't someone tracking you down in the real world because of something you said that they disagreed with.

The issue is that you felt like you could say and do anything because the internet isn't the real world. But you're wrong. The internet is very much part of the real world and our actions matter as much here as anywhere. More even because of how easy it is to reach people with just a few keystrokes.

My mom taught me when I was a kid that if you don't do anything wrong you don't have to worry about getting in trouble. As an adult if I don't break the law I don't have to worry about being arrested. And online if I never behave like a jerk I should never have to worry about motivating someone to track me down in the real world.

That isn't going to cover every instance. But if you behave badly you should expect to be held accountable for it. Being outraged that someone pierced your perceived anonymity is silly.

You were never anonymous in the first place. Remember that and be civil to each other and most of these issues will go away.

There is an upswell of questions surrounding hacking due to some recent celebrity nude pictures that have been showing up on the internet. The most disturbing thing to me is not that there are people that work out for a living that like to take pics of themselves naked. No, what I find myself flabbergasted by is that there is a school of thought out there that somehow the celebs are at fault because they took naked pics of themselves. Pictures they had secured and had in some cases had never shared. But its insinuated that because they have the pictures they are at fault.

So wait...if a hacker breaks through security settings and takes someones sensitive material it is somehow the fault of the person for having that material? What? Seriously? So in the same train of thought if a person had a gold watch and I kicked in the door and stole the watch it would be their fault for having the watch?

Discussion on whether or not the victim or the criminal should be blamed might make for good ratings but it reflects how fraked up we are as a society. Somewhere along the line we lost our way, big time. People got so caught up in wanting to color things with shades of gray that we have ended up with a absurdly gray landscape.

Are there situations when crime can be forgiven? Sure. Those are called extenuating circumstances. Like when the hungry person steals food. Or the cold person steals a blanket. Or the abused spouse plugs the abuser. But not every situation has extenuating circumstances. Sometimes you just frak up. Life is about choices and every day people make both good and bad choices. It is when they are not held accountable for the bad ones that our society slips one step closer to the offal pile.

I grew up with computers. Apple II and Apple IIE were in my elementary school. I learned to write code on them when I was young. I found coding somewhat interesting but it was tedious. Hence I did not grow up to be a great programer or master hacker. But I do have an understanding of how this stuff works. Most hacking works under a very simple principle.

People are stupid.

I mean that in the nicest possible way, but we all do dumb things. Like using a simple password or having password recovery questions that are easy for anyone to answer. For a celeb that has ever part of their life picked apart it is even easier to get this information. But I could probably get what I need from all of you by sending around a stupid Facebook questionnaire that most of you would answer. It is shockingly easy to get people to friend you and even easier to get all their info once you do.

Hackers exploit known issues in software. They use well known practices to reset passwords and change emails. People could blame the software coders and in some cases they would be right. Coders could blame lazy users for not following security guidelines and in some cases they would be right. But in the end there is only one group truly to blame.

Hackers. Because they are breaking the law. Hence they are criminals. When you choose to do something that you know to be illegal simply because you can that does not make you right. Until we start treating hackers and electronic crimes as seriously as we do other crimes this will keep happening. This week alone there have been reports of doctors office systems invaded, banks, retailers even small businesses compromised. By people that are overseas and thus out of the reach of our law enforcement. How long before you end up with something you didn't want shared with the world posted out there for all to see in the name of free information? Or your identity gets stolen by someone who doesn't think they should have to play by the rules.

The next age is going to be electronic. Each day people do more online. Bills are paid online, banking is done online as are loans. If we don’t find a way to police this new frontier and bring more of these keyboard bandits to justice it won't be long before they start running the show.

The other day I was perusing through the internet when I saw someone writing about how incensed they were about the price of an ebook. Their take was that since the book wasn’t printed on anything they should get it cheaper. For a few seconds I contemplated the idea. The author of most ebooks does normally make more than a print book. But the idea that three or four dollars is the hard limit for a book was disturbing. To put it in perspective I pay more than that for a sandwich. A sandwich. Something that is going to go in by belly and be forgotten an hour later. Is a good book worth less than a sandwich?

That is when I stopped to consider the plight of the good book. I have written before about how I love to read. From non fiction, to reference, to fiction, to pretty much anything else. I once had someone ask me what my kind of book was. I told them one that was well written. And there lies the rub, doesn’t it? What I think is a well written book and what you do might be somewhat different. But not much.

In the last few years the ebook world has exploded with millions of new books. With so many new books it is hard for authors to get visibility. So a great many of them give their books away. At least for a promotional period. This has gotten a large segment of people used to getting something for nothing. The hundreds of hours that author spent crafting that book are given away for free. But instead of appreciating that and at the very least writing a review most do not even read the book. It just goes onto their reader with the rest of their free books. Because if you didn’t pay for it why would you make it a priority to read?

Blogs try and recommend books they like, but most focus on one or two types of books. The majority I have seen are romance or chick lit. That is because most of the people who run the blogs enjoy those kind of books. Amazon, Google+, B&N, GR and every other site tries to help by having people review books. But reviews have become less than helpful.

Most of the sites let you read the first few chapters of a book. This is the most reliable way of seeing if you should buy a book. Back in the olden days, when you had to actually go to a bookstore to buy books, I often skimmed the first chapter to see if I would like it. I read fairly fast and would normally find at least two books I wanted to buy at the store and either buy them both or write the titles down for when I had the money.

I was a poor kid. I was in a good sized family that didn’t have a lot of disposable income. Even though my parents loved reading they loved being able to feed us kids even more. So when I wanted a book I had to earn it. Even later in life when I was an adult, times were tight, I made buying books a priority. If one click had existed back then I very well might have starved.

By the time I had to make a big move in my later adult years my book collection resembled an episode of Hoarders. Now almost everything I have is digital. It makes dusting a lot easier. My point is that when I bought my digital books I never thought about the price when I bought them. And I am not rich. I thought “Do I want this book?� “Will I read it more than once� “How many hours of enjoyment will it bring me. The answers were often “YES� “Absolutely!� “Tons!�

There are books out there that do elicit negative responses from me. I am often surprised by novellas that are priced the same as regular books. Steven King can do that...I’m not sure many others can. At least not and sell to me.

When it comes to ebooks I have the luxury of buying them no matter where I am. I can carry as many of them as I want. And I can read the first few chapters before I make the decision to buy them. So, how much is too much? I guess each of us will need to make that decision for ourselves. Part of it may depend on genre as well. There are not as many books out there for some genre so people might be willing to pay more for books when there aren’t as many available. For myself I think the fact that I can test any book I buy before I pay for it is one of the greatest things ever.

If I like a book I am going to buy it. The paperbacks I bought were always five to ten dollars. I would buy hardbacks for full price once in a while. If there was a new release in a series I could not wait to read (I am looking at you J.K. Rowling). Or if they were on the discount table. It is hard to pass them up when they are that cheap.

As a consumer I have to spend money when I have it. And of course I want to get value for what I buy. But I also want the authors that I like to keep writing books. If that means I have to pay them seven, ten or fifteen dollars for an ebook I will. If I want to read their book. What other product lets you sample up to twenty percent of it before you pay for it? None that I know of.

So I will pay what I need to for the entertainment that I love. I try and keep in perspective the fact that the books are mine forever. I spend as much if not more on fleeting items that I use once. Food, video rentals, a movie ticket, a six pack of beer. All very enjoyable things. But when I compare the price vs enjoyment factor the book I just bought always wins out.

So, when I was a kid I lived in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. My closest neighbor was about a half mile away. We didn’t have cable or video games or much of anything to do. What I had was my imagination and piles and piles of books. My parents had a love of reading, one that they nurtured in me as well. From garage sales, auctions, used and new book stores we collected our bounty.

Here I discovered some of the writers that helped me escape the world when things go too real, too painful or just too stressful. The Hardy Boys by Franklin Dixon. Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov. Just about everything by Stephen King. Ed Greenwood. R.A. Salvatore. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Just to name a few. I read everything I could get my hands on. My local and school libraries provided me everything from Sweet Valley High to the most recent Encyclopedias. Yes, I was the kid that read the Encyclopedias. They were great. Try it sometime.

Back then there was a limited supply of books to read. You had the classics, the pulp novels and all the new releases. I kept an ongoing record of titles by authors I wanted to read and when they were coming out. At one point in my teens this info was in a special black book, that I think some assumed was a very different kind of little black book. Sue me. I was, and am, a nerd. All the way through my younger days I kept up with this little ritual. Then I got out on my own, ran out of money and had to get my reading at the library when I could.

Luckily, I moved to a bigger city with a more extensive library. So for awhile at least I had my book addiction covered. Once I had enough money I started buying books. At last count, before I moved and had to sell them or gift them to my parents, I had hundreds of books. I kept a lot of my hardcovers (many bought off the discount rack) and old favorites. When I got my first ereader things got easier to organize but harder to keep track of.

Things started to get seriously hard to keep up with. Besides the traditional authors you had a whole crop of independent authors. My tracking system of even my favorite authors got out of control. So what do you do when you are faced with too much to read? You overload. That is what happened to me. I started reading a book or more a day. The intellectual gluttony was one step past stupid.

Burn out set in and I turned to other pursuits. Writing had always been a pastime of mine. I had short stories, a huge epic fantasy story I am still working on, and had written a ton of adventures for various role playing games over the years. See previous nerd comment. So beyond playing video games I wrote a lot. After a break from reading I came back and tried to get this all organized into a manageable system.

Yeah. Right. Not going to happen. Have you been out in the electron universe lately? There has been an explosion of just about everything out there. Want a book on emotionally unstable farm animals that want to stop computers from being built. I kid you not, someone has probably written and published it. Yowzer. Before search engines it was impossible to find anything on the internet. Now even with search engines it is impossible to find anything.
There are websites out there that try to help people find the things they like. But how do you find the site that talks about the kind of book you like that has the book you might want to read. Yeah. Reread that sentence and you start to get an idea of how enormous this problem is getting.

So the only way that you are going to be able to fix the problem? It is time for readers to use the internet and get social. I am not talking about FB. They are turning into a corporate juggernaut that has only one interest. The bottom line. Nor any successor they might have. This problem needs to be fixed at the grassroots level. You need to do your part.

First? Find a book that you LOVE. Not like. Not want to curl up with once and awhile. One that you would go out and buy in HARDCOVER. Then? Go to every website like Amazon, B&N, Google, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, etc and write a review. Post the stars but then jot a short, or long, note about why you feel that way. Don’t worry about whether or not it is Shakespeare. Just write what your opinion is. After that you tell anyone you know that likes books about that book and tell them they should buy it.

If each and everyone of us does this we not only help others find the books they will now love, we will also help the authors we love to keep writing. Remember to do this from the heart, to make sure that you put your energy into helping books you love find readers that will love them.

There is a certain level of spirit crushing inevitability that comes with a thankless job. Knowing full well that no matter how hard you work, no matter how much of your self you put into a task or how extraordinarily you do it that no one will care at all. This level of absurdity would normally cause a person to question the validity of what they are doing. Yet, it is often these thankless tasks that are absolutely necessary for the fabric of our society, for civilization itself, to continue.

It would be simple if these tasks were heroic. We could make movies or music videos about them to thank those that did them. Or write books or write songs about these people. But the task are normally quite mundane and boring. And each and every one of you, at one time or another, has completed one of them.

Maybe you grumble in your head or under your breath about the lack of gratitude for what you have done. Perhaps you decide to never do this thankless task again. Let some other sucker do it. After all, no one seems to care that you did it. Right? If you followed through on that the only one who would ever realize it is you. For everyone else it would just be a thankless task waiting for them to complete it.

But if you did this task, over and over again, did it ever cause you to think about other thankless tasks? Perhaps even wonder if there was a way to thank someone, even in a small way, for doing a thankless task? Or were you too wrapped up in your own misery to consider the plight of someone else? Sadly, most of us are limited by our perspective to our own wants, needs and complaints.

The tasks that are done, everyday and night, by countless faceless people go unappreciated and unrewarded. Until today. As one who has spent countless hours toiling away on thankless tasks (both the paid and unpaid variety) I would like to stop the cycle. Therefore, I would like to take a moment out of my life to stop and say thank you to all of you out there working at thankless tasks.

Thank you - teacher that buys school supplies with their own money. Thank you - grocery store clerk that uses their own change to help a patron who is short purchase their item. Thank you - parent that takes the time to listen to their kid and then stop and spend time with them. Thank you - passerby that buys the homeless guy a sandwich for no reason other than he is hungry. Thank you - for picking up that litter that someone else left on the ground. Thank you - for never failing to pick up the phone even if the person calling is annoying. Thank you - for giving a smile and a nod as you pass a stranger in the street. Thank you - for letting that person merge onto the highway in front of you. Thank you - for giving someone a tissue that needs it. Thank you - for helping with directions for someone who is lost. Thank you - for carrying those groceries to the car. Thank you - for making sure that everything goes into the package that needs to and nothing that doesn’t. Thank you - for knowing your job well enough to make informed suggestions to your customers. Thank you - for being patient when it would be far easier to lose your temper.

Thank you - for letting someone else take the last one. Thank you - for not causing harm when it would have been so easy. Thank you - for knowing the difference between being right and being just. Thank you - for telling it like it is even if it wasn’t easy. Thank you - for making the right choice. Thank you - for helping them get home when they were too drunk to drive. Thank you - for giving someone a mint without embarrassing them about their breath. Thank you - for knowing how to make someone smile. Thank you - for keeping people safe. Thank you - for knowing the words to that song. Thank you - for keeping it in your pants. Thank you - for knowing that laughter is the best medicine. Thank you - for knowing the heimlich maneuver. Thank you - for pulling that person back from in front of that car. Thank you - for holding yourself to a higher standard.

And for any of you out there that I missed? Thank you - for being understanding. Caring. Kind. Loving. Patient. Gentle. Graceful. Grateful. Joyful. Peaceful. And for doing all that you do even though no one has ever thanked you for doing it. You rock!

Once upon a time there were three little pigs…Then the internet came and blew their house down. When exactly did the internet become the big bad wolf? From the very first day. Let me set the wayback machine for the old days. The internet was owned by the government and the only way to be online was to be a teacher. Or to have teacher credentials. Ahem...which may or may not have been the case for someone who wanted to play Star Trek (which looked like a slightly cooler version of the original Asteroids) online with others. Aaanyway.

So back then the only way to be online was to be identified. Who are you? Teacher John Brown from Blah Blah University. Oh, okay then you are authorized to be online. Carry on. Then the military decided they didn’t need the monster anymore so they threw it out the door to the general public. And the monster started to eat.

First, it ate porn. Lots and lots of porn. The biggest part of the fat old internet is still porn. Human nature. Go figure. But, after that came news sites. Entertainment sites. Message boards. The very first time that half wits were allowed to post anonymously. Cue up the music for the douche canoe extravaganza. Suddenly, everyone had to tell us all their opinions. And they could do it with absolutely no negative repercussions. You could be as vicious, hateful and evil as you wanted. Worst case scenario you just made up a new user name. Neat huh?

Fast forward to present day and we have the bloated, slime coated monster that is our modern internet. There is very little more oversight. Still, Facebook makes you put your name on everything right? But there are still plenty of places to go be horrible to your fellow humans with no chance of being called out on it.

I have been the old man on the mountain of the internet. My seat here was present before most of you even knew what the internet was. The ugliness has gotten out of hand. People are horrible to one person or another. Then that person gets their back up and responds to the abuse and they are called a bully. Hmm.. My name is Lester. I was the youngest in my class growing up. I had two older brothers and three older male cousins. I know a bit about being bullied. That is to say I have been emotionally, verbally and physically abused by the best. And I am getting a little tired of the word being abused. Defending yourself from baseless attacks isn’t bullying. Baseless attacks are. Most times the people that are accusing ohers are the actual bullies trying to get their PR ahead of the issue. It is mind boggling.

So I think I have a great idea. Let’s get rid of anonymity. You can say whatever you want. Hell, it is one of the freedoms we have in America. But you have to stand up and be counted when you say it. The founding fathers didn’t write anything in about this to the Constitution because back then if you said something someone didn’t like you ended up dueling at dawn. Another words, own your words and actions.

It is not a question of privacy. The internet has removed almost all true expectation of privacy. Once it is on the internet it is there forever. Even if you delete it. Your anonymous posts are not really anonymous anyway. It is surprisingly easy to track down not only who posts these things, but the internet tracks you real time back to your IP address. Which, by the way, tells people your location. It is a very small thing from there to identify someone’s name and address.

So let’s just get it all out in the open. Just have everyone sign on as their name. Have everything they say and do tied directly to them. It will usher in a new age of personal responsibility and civility. Right?

I’m old. Well, I’m not T-Rex old but I remember when there were saturday morning cartoons. And four channels on broadcast television. When every house, car and hotel did not have air conditioning. When the internet was a military network that had just been given to universities. I also may, or may not, remember playing Star Trek video games against people under a teacher's account on said internet. Depending on who asks. :)

Computers ranged from filling entire buildings to the rare desktop. I wrote code and programs for Apple II and IIE desktops in high school. Granted, it was pretty simple back then. Video games were in places called arcades. And you had to go there to play it. So during my watch on this mudball we have zipped through cable television, ac, internet and video games all being standard parts of our life. Well, there is another big thing that has changed since I was young. Books.

Back in my day (yes I did that in the old man voice) if you wanted a book you actually had to go to the bookstore to look for one. Or a library if you were frugal. Then there were the half price and discount stores as well as auctions and garage sales. The only way to find out if a new book was coming out in a series was to check with the people who sold them. To get published authors had two options. Either you got a publisher to take you on or you self published. Self publishing back then either meant you paid someone to print your book or you setup your own print shop. Either way cost really limited the amount of self published work that was out there. Distribution limited how many people actually saw it even more.

So publishers truly ruled the day. However, as with all the changes we have had over the last twenty years books have changed as well. Now we have e-readers. A dizzying array of e-readers. Multiple formats of books and devices make it so anyone who wants one can have a library at their fingertips. You can even read these books on your smartphone. So not only can you have a ton of books with you at all times, no one has any idea what you are reading.

If you want a book you can download it from anywhere that has internet access. Or cell phone service. You can browse titles, set up alerts for books you want to get, make list of to be read or future purchases, pre order titles, and just about anything else you might want to do. Building a gigantic book collection doesn’t even take a lot of money. There are more free books than you could ever read and the ones you pay for start at a dollar.

Needless to say, this has changed the self publishing world quite a bit. There are a metric ton of electronic books available. Classics, popular authors and of course self published. So while readers benefit from having e-readers to carry their books and even hide what they are reading from others (I’m looking at you erotica readers) they also have to deal with the daunting task of finding the good books among the bad.

It had been awhile since I downloaded anything that wasn’t suggested to me by a friend or fellow author. I got my dad a kindle and set about showing him how to set up an account and search for books. When we got done searching the free books I realized just how hard it is to figure out what is a good book and what is not. True there are the reviews and the star system. But if the problems on Amazon and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ have taught us anything it is that those systems are extremely flawed.

So readers, poor innocents simply looking for some good entertainment, are forced to wade chest deep through the glut of electronic books on the net. Among their resources are bloggers and websites trying to sort through one genre or another. Each tries their best to showcase the titles they have read and loved. However, for each good book pulled out of the sea into the readers boat there are hundreds they may never get the chance to enjoy.

The problem is daunting. At present there is no good way to find a book besides sifting through the chaff yourself. That is a horrible thing to have to do when all you are looking for is a good time. Of course, the longer you do it the easier it gets. Eventually, you can find sites and bloggers that like the same kind of books you do. This in turn leads you to books you otherwise would not have found.

Also, many self published authors work diligently to network and promote their own work. Some are able to secure contracts with publishers this way while others chose to decline contracts and continue the work on their own. These success stories are based upon a herculean effort of work, make no mistake, and I tip my hat to them. From email lists to blog tours to signings they generate buzz to get their book out there so you have a chance to know it is there.

In the end readers are forced to up their game. It almost becomes like a scavenger for entertaining reads. What was once a less social hobby now has morphed. To find the good books you have to talk to others, join online groups of like minded people and network. The one thing I have noticed beyond that is people who meet in real life that never would have simply because they love the same kind of books.

So in the end, I guess things are better in a lot of ways. You just have to take the good with the bad and decide what you want to take away from all of it.

An open letter of encouragement to those authors that do not sell a lot, but are told they have a good book.

Hi there you,

Having a rough day? I hear you. You rolled out of bed and grabbed your phone, like you always do. You looked up KDP, Amazon, Good Reads etc., like you always do. And there staring back at you from that uncaring screen are the results. You have sold little or nothing. You have no new reviews, no new to be reads and your book is languishing in the dark corners of the internet. Why? How could this happen? Especially after all the feedback you got from others telling you how good your book is.

You tried promoting on Facebook, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, and all sorts of other websites. You feel like you are shouting into the maelstrom for all the good your efforts have accomplished. Bloggers were sent ARC’s, a decent amount of reviews were posted, and you followed all the advice out there. Still your sales are laxidasical and you are feeling down. As a writer part of your self-worth is tied to your ranking on Amazon, the amount of reviews (good or bad) that you get and of course how many people pay to read your work.

That is part of the hardest part of being a writer. In the past, there were a lucky handful of published authors in comparison to the oceans of writers who labored at other jobs while still writing. Now, everyone can publish and many do. This leaves instead of an ocean of unpublished writers an even vaster ocean of books available to read. While this is not a bad thing it does make it that much harder for those writers who deserve recognition and success to achieve it. The constant struggle to write, promote the book or books you have and balance it with your day job and everyday life can start to grind you down.

So, what is a discouraged and downtrodden author to do? For me, I try to remember why I write. Don’t get me wrong, I would love commercial success, I just never expected it. I wanted to write stories that I would like to read. I wanted to use my imagination, like I have all my life, to entertain those around me. Someday I wanted my son to pick up one of my books and say “Wow dad that was a really great story.� Now, if you write only to make money and have success than nothing that I or anyone else says will help you feel better. Only the rush of success will salve your wounds. Instead, my encouragement is for those that write because they need to share the story. Those that desire to entertain and engross the reader. It may be a cliché to say it but “run your race� and don’t worry about anyone else.

Write for the readers that you have now, not for the readers that you hope to get. As a storyteller the people that are already listening to your story are worth ten potential readers of the future. They already love what you have done; they want more and are waiting for you to put it on the page. For those people, and yourself, keep writing. Eventually, if you are good at what you do, if people truly like your work, than it will be appreciated. Just remember that it may be years after you pass from this world, but don’t let that discourage you either. Instead, be happy that you are someone who was born with the ability to leave part of yourself behind for others to enjoy on the page.