Community and Observations
I rambled a bit in this one.
Community
Community support for anyone is a major and wonderful thing. It doesn’t matter what that community support is for, if it helps you then its a good thing.
I have an amazing writing/author community. This community spans several different platforms. Discord is my go to for my community. There, I belong to a group of amazing and creative people that will hold you up and be honest with you about everything. I also have some on YouTube and Facebook and surprisingly, for me anyway, on Tik Tok.
Before the Great Plague of 2020, I was floundering. I had no one to support my dreams, no one to ask questions that I had, and no one to help me go in the right direction. One day I turned on YouTube and looked up videos to help me become a better author. There I found a couple I started following. Eventually, I would see they were live streaming and watched from the shadows. One day I started chatting. And they chatted back! I was so surprised.
To this day, I still talk to those authors. In fact I call some of them my close friends. Community is everything I have ever wanted it to be. Do we all agree on everything. No. But we don’t tear each other down. We talk and understand and give advice when we can.
Find your community. Find those that you can talk to without being judged. There are many types of community groups out there. Find yours.
Thoughts and Observations
I have been seeing some things within the writing and book communities that have me concerned. We all work hard to write our books. Our worlds and characters are a part of us. That being said, we are excited to have someone read our books and review them. It’s a wonderful feeling to have someone excited about something you have created. I have seen content creators ask for books to review. Receive those books, free of charge, for an honest review and a video clip about that book. Then, nothing.
I don’t understand the concept of asking for a book to review and not following through. If you wanted free books, or even to do ARCs, Alpha readings, or Beta readings, there are plenty of pages authors use to do that. Free books to read and review. But to outright ask for a book to be sent to you to read and a promise to review without following through is scammish.
It frustrates me, as an Idie-Author. We spend our money creating this beautiful book. If we send it to someone who asks us to for a review, we, naturally, expect a review. Period. If you can’t do it, don’t ask.
Okay, enough of that. If you don’t agree with anything I said, that’s fine. I tend to ramble about things. But this has been bothering me for a while.
I hope life is being kind to you all.
Until next time my friends.
