Tag Archives: social media

It’s Not a Reader’s Job

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A blog graphic with a dark plum background and large white text reading “A Reader’s Job” on the left. On the right, a cute illustrated purple cat wearing round yellow glasses sits reading a purple book decorated with yellow stars and a white skull.
I thought my shark from last week needed a buddy!

With how hard things are in publishing right now, I see a lot of entitled attitudes, misguided accusations, and a desperation to find the next “thing” that will move the needle, even just a tiny bit.

I know how that is, and I feel it still. Just because I found some slight success with Instagram Reels, that success was fleeting, and I can blame laggy reporting on my KDP dashboard or the natural ebbs and flows of the algorithms, but I’ve found that in the past couple of weeks I’ve had to post more often to find the reach that I was getting when I first started experimenting with Reels at the end of July. That’s stressful, because like any thirsty person dying from dehydration, you don’t want the water to turn off. You have no control over that though, and all you can do is your best. So, I know exactly what it feels like, but pushing that blame onto something or someone other than myself isn’t anything I’ve ever done. Sometimes there’s just no explanation except that’s the way things are.

I’ve seen the blame pushed on Amazon, AI slop, and unfortunately, readers not doing enough. I’m here to remind you that it’s not a reader’s job to do most of what an indie author wants or expects them to do, and you’re setting yourself up to have some rocky relationships with your readers and those in your chosen genre.

It’s not a reader’s job to follow you from publishing platform to publishing platform.
I know this hurts because we all want fans to buy and read everything we write and to follow us everywhere we go. But no matter how much you hate Amazon and detest any and every change they make to their programs, if you decide, for whatever reason, to pull your books, it’s not a reader’s job to follow you. You’re making that business decision and you’ll have to adapt to whatever benefits and consequences that come your way. I think it’s been pretty well established that KU readers will not follow you if you yank your books out of Kindle Unlimited. Readers will just find someone else to read, and trust me, there are plenty of authors to choose from. And it goes the other way too. If you’re in Kobo Plus and decide to go all in with Amazon, readers won’t all of a sudden start buying your books there. They have the Kobo app on their phones or tablets or a Kobo ereader. They built up their library and don’t want to lose it. It’s unfortunate, but readers are where they are because they like it there, and it’s not a reader’s job to change their reading habits because you decided to leave.

It’s not a reader’s job to be your unpaid PR department.
This is one I see a lot, and I’m not sure why this has turned into such a big thing. Authors these days seem to think that reading their book isn’t enough. They expect readers to make Reels and TikToks, create graphics and post them everywhere, and if a reader isn’t doing that, they’re a big disappointment. I understand it’s different when a reader decides to be part of your street team and specifically signs up, or downloads an ARC and there are some outlined expectations attached. An author approached me in my Instagram DMs not long ago and asked if I wanted an ARC to a book I told her I preordered. I looked at her form and the TikTok field was required. I didn’t have TikTok at the time, nor would she have been happy with the two followers I have now, so I said I’d just stick with my preorder. Then I could read it and not be expected to do anything else, which is how I’m really guessing most readers like to feel when they open a book. But somehow, only buying your book and reading it is a really low bar these days, when ten years ago, that’s all we wanted. It’s not a reader’s job to hype your book or give you word of mouth. It’s very nice when it happens, but it’s not a given. Expressing your disappointment puts the success, or lack thereof, of your book onto a reader’s shoulders, when it’s on yours.

It’s not a reader’s job to give you a review, and a positive one at that.
Readers don’t have to give you a review–they don’t even have to if they download an ARC. An ARC is a gift and a review should be looked at as a form of a thank you for that gift. I’ve seen a lot of authors say they aren’t doing ARCs anymore, and this is actually something I agree with. I’m not doing ARCs anymore either. I’ve been disappointed with the lack of follow-through and the quality of some reviews I’ve gotten on BookSprout (AI slop is everywhere). So I decided to give my next book away on my website for a couple of days before I publish it, and I’m going to say that a review would be appreciated but it’s not the reason I’m giving away free copies. Then I can take the expectation of getting reviews out of my mind and just enjoy treating readers to special early access before they have to pay for it or borrow it in KU. I’ve seen authors make fun of readers for their reviews, blocking them from ARC teams and street teams for leaving 3 star reviews, and authors getting angry because all their ARC copies went and reviews weren’t forthcoming. It’s getting harder and harder, but getting angry at readers isn’t the answer. Let them read how they want to read, let them review how they want to review, and let them say what they want to say in that review.

It’s not a reader’s job to care how you get paid.
I see this a lot: READERS SHOULD CARE IF AMAZON TREATS AUTHORS LIKE CRAP. And actually, no they shouldn’t. It’s not a reader’s job to know if buying your ebook will pay you more than reading it in KU. It’s not a reader’s job to know how much a page read is worth in KU. It’s not a reader’s job to understand why we have to mark our paperbacks so high to make just a couple of dollars. And it’s not a reader’s job to know that you make more if they buy/read your book over on Kobo rather than Amazon (I have no idea if this is true LOL). None of that is a reader’s job, and it’s not their job to fight on your behalf if you think Amazon is paying you unfairly. If you’re enrolled in Kindle Select, then you are accepting the terms and conditions, and it’s not a reader’s job to know what you think you’re giving up. It’s a very strange stance to think that readers should care how much, or how little, we make. My books are in KU, and I’m okay with what I’m paid or I wouldn’t have my books in it. If you don’t like it, then take your books out. But I’ve said many times that I’d rather have ten readers in KU than one who buys because I’m wide, and that’s not a fight I expect readers to fight for me.

It’s not a reader’s job to give you engagement on social media.
I saw someone post on Instagram something to the effect of, if someone is following you but they aren’t engaging or supporting you, they’re your opposition. Oh, hell, I might as well just post it:

White text on a black background claims that people who follow someone on social media without engaging or showing support are secretly monitoring them and hoping they fail. The post describes these silent followers as “spiritual security cameras,” calls them the person's “opposition,” and suggests that their lack of engagement is evidence of jealousy or malicious intentions.

Let me tell you how fast my mouth popped open. People following you, be it readers or other authors, don’t owe you hearts, thumbs up, shares, or comments. They can actually consume your content as quietly as a mouse and scamper off just as silently. But here’s the thing. I would rather someone scroll away without giving a post a heart or a share because that’s not something they do, and go buy my book because they liked the snippet! You have no idea that’s not what they’re doing, and it’s not their job to tell you, either. Many years ago, back when I was on Twitter, I followed an author I liked. I bought her paperback book and kept it on my bookshelf. That was my way of supporting her. But I didn’t engage enough for her liking, and when she culled her followers, I was one of them. I gave her book away. I didn’t even want to keep it after that, and now, if I ever see her pop up on socials, I block her because I know the true person she is underneath. Readers, and people in general, really, don’t owe you engagement. And posting things like this on your social media? It’s gross. I saw this because someone I follow reposted it, and now I wonder, is that how she feels about me? I don’t like her posts so I’m the enemy? I have a couple of her books on my Kindle. I guess it doesn’t mean that much to her.

Authors can invest months or years in their books, and when the response doesn’t match the effort, they start looking for someone to blame. A lot of times they choose Amazon, sometimes it’s the algorithm, other authors who they see as competition, readers who won’t review, followers who won’t share, or the market full of books (AI or otherwise) they don’t think are worthy enough to be bestsellers.

But I think it’s worth it, no matter how uncomfortable it is, to remember that readers are not the enemy. They don’t owe you anything and aren’t in the wrong for not giving it to you. There are plenty of ways to show an author support, the biggest one buying your book, and you have no idea if they’re doing that or not.

It’s not a reader’s job.

It’s only nice if they do.

My Complicated Relationship with Social Media

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1,612 words
9 minutes read time

laptop on blue background with red and white heart emojis above it. text on laptop screen says: My complicated relationship with social media

I don’t hate social media. In fact, I enjoy it a lot. I like to scroll Threads for current events and book, or writing community, news. Although, I limit how many platforms I’m willing to spend my time on, and I don’t always jump on the new thing. For example, I claimed my username on BlueSky but I don’t scroll or post there. I don’t have it on my phone. I haven’t done anything with UpScrolled. Or Mastodon. Or Tumblr (honestly, I don’t even know what Tumblr is), and most everything else that’s out there. Reddit. I have an account there (I give my reader magnet away on a free book subreddit) but I don’t have the app on my phone and don’t regularly spend time reading and/or posting there.

I update my personal Facebook profile maybe twice a month, if that, and that could be just me sharing a post or joke I liked. Half my “friends” aren’t really friends anyway, and I should just clear them out. They don’t care what I’m doing. My Facebook author page fares a bit better, but not by much. I try to keep it updated so that if a reader lands there, they can see that I do post and I do have books coming out. A dead Facebook author page could say more than “This author hates social media” so if I’m going to keep it up, I know I should keep it up to date.

I also post sporadically on Instagram, and I’m trying to do more there because it seems like the most friendly in regard to posting book content. I boost posts every now and then and for the first time in many years I have over 500 followers. That was a big accomplishment for me, especially since after leaving Twitter, a huge following seems like a thing of the past. When I left Twitter, I walked away from 13.5k followers (and 2k accounts that had mine blocked LOL). Just because of how little time I put into social media these days, that was probably my “peak,” and because having that many followers didn’t sell books, I didn’t mind leaving that account behind.

I thought I was doing pretty good on Instagram, but then they sent me my January insights, and I regret to say that I posted only four times in the whole month. I can probably do better.

screenshots of instagram insights. on the left, grey calendar with four purple squares. text reads: in january, you shared 4 posts. keep it up. consistently creating reels, posts or both is the best way to help your content get seen more regularly. On the right is a line graph. pink line gradually goes up. text says: your view have room to grow. you've shared fewer reels and posts lately. if you're looking to grow, sharing new content each week is the best place to start.
Thanks for the pep talk, IG!

So, I can say that I do like social media. I scroll Threads a lot and I added Substack to my phone, even though I don’t plan to blog or post there. It’s a place where I can get book news without the state of the United States thrown in and I like reading longer-form posts because lately that’s where the real news is.

What I have a problem with is engagement. Not getting it, because for as little as I post, I do get some. Responding to it. If someone tags me on Threads or Instagram or maybe replies to a post on my Facebook author page, I’ll see it, because my phone is attached to my body like almost everyone else’s, but I don’t respond right away. I catalog the tag or response, remember it, and don’t acknowledge for days or even weeks after. That . . . isn’t good. Not that everyone expects to have an instant answer–some of us watch TV without our phones or have jobs where we can’t be online–but it doesn’t look charming or mysterious (even though I’d like to think so). It looks rude. It looks rude not to return someone else’s energy. It’s rude not to acknowledge that they were thinking about me and gave me their time.

That’s the struggle I have, and I’ve been this way for as long as I’ve been active on social media in the book community. On Twitter, I’d answer all my notifications once a week, and when people saw that I was online, they answered my responses and I was stuck for hours. And I don’t want to say “stuck” like it’s a bad thing. I had lots of friends that I truly enjoyed talking to, but writing, even as far back as 2015 when I was writing my fantasy books that I would never publish, always came first. That doesn’t happen anymore. Nowadays I trade actual emails or DMs with a friend or two, sometimes what will be all-day chat if I have the time between errands and chores. I don’t get as many notifications on Threads as I used to on Twitter, mostly because I don’t post on Threads very often and the writing community there isn’t the same as what Twitter used to be.

There’s something strange, I think, to be told that someone is reading one of my books, stranger still for someone to tag me in a post and say they enjoyed it. Not odd in the fact that happens, but odd in the way I perceive it, and I wonder if this comes from not having confidence in my books. I’m proud of them, and I know I wrote them as well as I could for that time of my life. Someone on Instagram just tagged me in a post that said she was re-reading an old third person book of mine. A re-read implies she liked it enough to read it again, and of course I don’t want to say anything bad about that book because that would insult her taste. I’ve re-edited it a couple of times since I published it, but I feel like the plot is flimsy and a reader has to suspend their belief quite a bit–especially since what’s been happening recently with police activity and social media. It was just one of those books that I didn’t think through because I was so damned happy writing it. I replied back thanking her, because there wasn’t anything else I could do, and I am thankful and humbled she read anything I wrote, took time to make a graphic and add my name and book title to it, and tag me when she posted it.

I don’t mind putting myself out there–I do it here every Monday on this blog. Sometimes I get comments, and I take just as long to reply. Sometimes I see my blog posts out in the wild, like once I saw someone post my Canva tutorial in a Facebook group I’m in. That was surreal because I responded as well, just a watered-down version of the instructions she was asking for (most groups think it’s bad manners to self-rec). I can see in my referrers where some of my traffic comes from, and I tracked down a couple of people who shared my posts on Threads. I didn’t respond to those because I feel like that’s intruding on reader territory and I never want people to be afraid to talk about me or disagree with me. I’m a big girl and like discussion. I’m always open to learning and hearing other people’s opinions. I also have kind of a snarky sense of humor and not everyone can tell when I’m trying to be funny, so they don’t always take my blog posts in the spirit in which they’re meant. I could defend myself when that happens, but there’s really no point to that.

You would think then, that if I have such a terrible time responding to people, that I would just not post anymore, but I have to get over the uncomfortable feelings I get when people reach out. I don’t know why I wait to respond, especially since it wouldn’t take more than a minute when I see the notification on my phone. I don’t want people to be hurt or think they did the wrong thing. Also, sharing their content gives me content and my four times a month posting schedule on Instagram proves I could use more of it.

I think, overall, at the risk of sounding like Al, that I work quietly, and besides writing about my updates here, I don’t talk a lot about my process or how much I get done. I don’t post word counts or any kind of progress like that–not where fiction readers can see it. The posts that are about my books require a different kind of creative brain and when I open up Canva, I usually have no idea what to make. I have several books to choose from, but I just never know what kind of post to create. A snippet post? A one-liner? Then what background to choose? A character sketch? A video? A carousel? I mean, all of them at some point, obviously, but I get sucked into the technicalities and just go back to what I really want to do: write.

So, yeah, I have a complicated relationship with social media. I’ve made a lot of resolutions in the past, but I can never stick with anything. I don’t depend on social media for sales, which is a good thing, I think, since it cuts out the desperate urgency of having to post, but I admit that it could help me too, if I could commit.

I need to try harder to have better response times on social media and reach out to people who reach out to me first. I like social media, but that doesn’t mean I want to participate.

And lurking is okay, but I can’t be so content in the shadows that I can’t step into the light.

Because, after all, that’s what social media is for.

My readers and characters will thank me.

Dealing with Digital Anger: When AI Gets it Wrong

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1,873 words
10 minutes read time

Last week I had a shock when I went on Facebook. I had a notification that said they removed a photo due to explicit content regarding a minor. The picture was from eleven years ago, and knowing that, I can guess what it was: a picture of my daughter on our bed snuggling one of our cats. Harmless. I would never put anything online that had the potential to hurt either of my kids, and the accusation, from nothing more than a Facebook bot, upset me a great deal. I felt dirty and gross, and honestly, confused because that picture had been up for eleven years.

It didn’t help that this came after TikTok decided a couple of my carousels were made with AI, and in a fit of anger, I deleted both of my profiles. It wasn’t the accusation, not really, but those two carousels performed worse than most of my others and I assumed that was the reason. I wasn’t going to put time into making content for a platform that was going to accuse me of doing something I wasn’t doing and then punish me for it by shadow-banning my carousels and videos and suppressing my account. Especially since whenever I scrolled I saw lots of AI content with a ton of likes–so you know those videos and carousels were being shown. Maybe I was too sensitive and had a knee-jerk reaction, but I had also gone a few rounds with them before with a different account. I had my videos and slides taken down for going against community guidelines when I would post steamy scenes, but then I’d see other authors post much steamier than what I was and not only get away with it, their posts were pushed to the “for you” page.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I was scrolling Instagram, and my boosted post showed up, but the description wasn’t what I had written to go along with the graphic. I had forgotten to turn off the AI option to rewrite my description, and while that version wasn’t too messed up, it didn’t sound like me. Going forward I’ll turn it off, but it was an irritating lesson all the same.

I wasn’t able to let go of Facebook flagging my photo for a long time, and writing this post after the fact is probably a good indicator I still haven’t. I’m more upset about the loss of my TikTok account since for once I was having a bit of fun creating content, and I was getting likes and saves of my carousels. It’s disappointing not to be able to use a platform a lot of authors are using to push their books, and the hypocrisy behind why I can’t or why I won’t will rub me raw for a long time. I could have appealed–not doing so probably just seemed like an admission of guilt–but I also know from experience that once TikTok starts eyeing your account, it’s almost impossible to get them to leave you alone. So, for my mental health, I gave up.

Incidents like this aren’t going to go away. In fact, as AI usage ramps up, things like this will continue to be a common occurrence. Fighting it seems like a wasted effort, like bailing out a sinking boat with a spoon, so what can we do to at least not hang on to things that are beyond our control?

Get out if/when you can, and if not, be prepared to fight
There are certain things that get shut down that you may not want to live without, like your Facebook Author Page that you run ads off of, or your Amazon KDP account, if we’re being drastic but still realistic. Accounts like that are shut down simply because bots make a mistake and when it comes to Meta and Amazon, talking to a human to get things resolved is almost impossible. Some never win against Facebook and some only win against Amazon if they have an advocate like a representative from the Alliance of Independent Authors reaching out on their behalf. Sometimes it’s not easy to walk away, but it’s better for your mental health, like me deleting my TikTok accounts. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t because I was in the mindset to try to use that as a real way to reach readers, but I wasn’t going to put up with a platform that undermined all my work, especially when what they were accusing me of wasn’t true.

If you decide to fight, having a plan will help. Figure out who you can reach out to, be it someone at Alli or an IP lawyer. If you decide to walk, make peace with it the best you can. TikTok’s hypocrisy will rub me the wrong way for a long time. I just need to get into the groove of posting somewhere else, like IG, which doesn’t seem like it has such arbitrary guidelines to follow.

Remember that it isn’t your fault
This is a big one with me and that Facebook accusation. I would never post anything that would hurt my kids and knowing they took down a photo because of something like that will make me feel icky for a very long time. I know that there’s no way possible for a human to look at the amount of content that gets posted every day, not to mention all the content that has accumulated over the years, but that doesn’t make it better. And the hypocrisy here too, makes it sting because we all know Zuckerberg was at Trump’s inauguration, and Trump has a questionable reputation at best.

No matter what platform is giving you a hard time, there’s a 99.9% chance that what happened isn’t the result of what you did. (There are always going to be people trying to game the system, and unfortunately, when things like this happen to people who haven’t done anything wrong, they’re collateral damage.)

Don’t let AI hurt your feelings or make you feel bad. There are plenty of real people who will do that for you.

Find alternatives
Fortunately, there are a lot of places to hang out online. I don’t need Facebook. In fact, after that happened, I was tempted to take the app off my phone. I rarely post on my personal page and only post on my FB author page a couple times a week, if that. The only thing I would lose not posting there anymore would be the ability to run ads, but I could still do that if I didn’t scrap my account altogether. Instagram is a good alternative to TikTok and there are other places that I could post to that I never have before like Pinterest. I’ve heard Lemon8 is popular but they’re owned by the same people who own TikTok so I’d probably end up with the same problems. Best not to repeat any of that. But finding one platform that you like that you can commit to will take some of the sting away of having to avoid others.

Or figure out what you can live without…it might surprise you
Once I got over the anger of having my carousels tagged as AI, getting rid of TikTok didn’t seem so bad. Even though I was getting good at it, making carousels took time. Not only did I have to make the graphics in Canva, but I also had to pull the snippets. Not having to do that anymore was actually a blessing in disguise and took off a lot of pressure I didn’t know was there. I was trying to build an account from scratch and every post save and like encouraged me, but in both good and bad ways. You start to build momentum and don’t want that to stop. I was able to blame TikTok for stepping away instead of myself, but whether it’s a valid excuse or not, it was a relief. I know I said above it felt like a loss when I deleted it, but I can always turn my carousels into Reels. I just haven’t taken the time to do that yet.

You may decide not to post on social media at all, and that’s fine too. Finding different ways to get your book seen, like running ads and buying promos, can fill in some of that gap, but AI is everywhere and it may take some testing to see if you’re jumping from the pan into the fire. I haven’t run FB ads for a while, but I hear turning off the AI components is getting harder and harder to do. Instagram is still easy when you boost a post. Find the toggle on the right and turn it off.

Screenshot of Instagram boosted ad page. Enhanced ad toggle is on the right (pink arrow).

Whatever you do, take care of yourself
When it comes right down to your choices, you have to do what’s best for you. When the universe closes a door it opens a window, or something like that, and maybe something that feels like the end of the world actually opens you up to other possibilities. I used to really miss Twitter, but I don’t anymore. There are a lot of nice people on Threads, and getting away from the toxic environment was good for my mental health in the long run.

Will Facebook ever take down another photo? Maybe. I have a lot of pictures of my daughter when she was small cuddling on our cats. How Facebook decides what’s explicit, I have no idea, but it could happen again. I’ve had my FB account for seventeen years and I might just take ten minutes every day and start deleting albums from around that time. No one is going to go back and look at those pictures anyway, so there wouldn’t be a big loss in getting rid of them. They give you an option to download before you delete, so that’s always something you can do too, if you think you need to purge some old content there. It sucks you have to do it at all, but since I’ve become an author I’ve started to very carefully weigh what I put online anyway.

You can’t control the bots, the mistakes, or the algorithms. But you can control where you go next. AI is here to stay, so take precautions, take care of yourself, and if you let him push you around, let him push you somewhere better.

As part of my “favorite things” segment, I’m highlighting romance author Jennifer Probst’s nonfiction books and her Substack. I love the down-to-earth way she thinks about writing and publishing. I have to admit, I’m a bit behind and I only read the first one, but the other two are on my list, and I read her Substack whenever she publishes a new one. You can find the links below (they are not affiliate links.)

graphic of Jennifer's book covers. l-r: write naked, write true, write free. background is a peach color

Write Naked: A Bestseller’s Secrets to Writing Romance & Navigating the Path to Success
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Naked-Bestsellers-Secrets-Navigating-ebook/dp/B01N16FESI

Write True: A Bestseller’s Guide to Writing Craft and Achieving Success in the Romance Industry 
https://www.amazon.com/Write-True-Bestsellers-Achieving-Industry-ebook/dp/B08FLGFLL5

Write Free: Personal Essays on Craft, Career, and the Writing Life
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Free-Personal-Essays-Writing-ebook/dp/B0G1D358TW

If you want to subscribe to her Substack, you can do it here: https://substack.com/@jenniferprobst

Thanks for reading! See you next week!