Be Whoever You're Gonna Be.

Forget the hustle-grind grifters who take up entirely too much space in indie authorland.

For this one I’m gonna go a bit off-the-cuff.

I was gonna just repost my blog entry for today about I Think You Should Leave, but then I saw something and it sparked an idea.

A big part of my whole thing is I bristle against a lot of the advice doled out in the world of indie authors. I’ve been around for a while and have seen the different micro-eras.

Right now we’re in the era of the grifter. The grifters don’t always know that they’re grifters, but they are. You see, they’re authors, but they’ve got something to sell you. It isn’t their novels, it’s their experience. No, not all of them are bad. There are some that mean well.

Last week there was some drama with a woman on TikTok who’s, well… rather young, and is selling a $2,000 mentoring service based on her, ahem, 25+ years of experience. Mind you, that includes her time from infancy where she was a child actor. You’re getting the whole “creative” package here! Last year around this time there were author grifters trying to sell authors on NFTs.

These digital trinkets are the wave of the future! Adapt now or be left out! You don’t like them? You’re afraid of technology and the savvy author who gets invested NOW NOW NOW will have a career while you? Who knows?

Right this moment? We’ve moved onto generative AIs. ChatGPT, Sudowrite and all the other bullshit, now that’s the wave of the future!

Are you unhappy about your books, blog posts and other information being fed into these algorithms so they could learn? Fuck you! You’re afraid of technology! You Luddite! Adapt now or be left out in the cold! This technology is the future and you can get on now and ride the wave or feel its crushing weight crash down upon you and leave you a broken husk of your former self! Trust me, I’ve been using this shit for a handful of months now! Buy my course!

It’s all… bullshit.

Earlier I saw a discussion happening that’s happened multiple times before where authors are discussing how to become a six-figure (or more!) author. The answer? Well, it’s hard to say because these folks all got in publishing to KDP as soon as it launched! So take that for what it is, but let’s forget that for now. The other advice is that you’ve gotta work HARD. Because nobody wants to WORK HARD anymore. Everyone wants things handed to them on a silver platter. Can you believe it?

How hard do you need to work? You need to become a bespoke factory that vomits up formulaic books that are a minimum viable product. If you don’t know what it means, well, it means the shittiest possible product you can produce that someone will pay for and maybe even enjoy enough to snag more of. You need to work so hard that if you aren’t actively destroying your personal relationships, you’re not working hard enough.

Shit, I still remember when I was in school for writing and the common knowledge was that to be a well-rounded artist and writer, you needed to experience life. That means going places, seeing things, meeting people and learning the whole way. It’s reading a lot and always be working on your craft. It wasn’t worrying about marketing, algorithms or abandoning all the things that make you uniquely human to churn out #content.

Today I took my kids to our local children’s museum, and that ate up a three-hour chunk of time. By the logic circulating around indie author circles, I just don’t want it enough. I just can’t work hard enough to make it all come together. Spending time with my kids is a dire mistake.

Do not ever listen to these people. Stop giving them your time, your money or anything else. There are too many grifters and bad actors around. Don’t let them destroy you, or break you down and convince you they have the keys to success. In any other business, running at the hilariously narrow profit margins successful indie authors run at would make anyone with any business sense have a heart attack. Any reputable marketer would see the awful marketing advice, money being pissed away and tell them they’re doing it wrong. Any artist worth their salt would tell you destroying your life and relationships to churn out content is the worst possible way to live life.

Do not listen to these people.

“You don’t wanna be a creator
Doesn’t mean you’ve got nothing to say
Put down the pen, don’t let it force your hand”

I’ve been hiking 3-4 times a week, writing whatever I want and have been pushing the existence of these folks out of my mind. I suggest you do whatever it is that makes you happy as well, and if you’re an indie author or creative of any kind, know where to find these people and ignore and discredit them.

Subscribe to my bullshit and toss me some money. Or don’t. Whatever makes you happy.