I would like to share a thought. Maybe a bit too much, too deep. ** Spoiler Alert **: Self-Published Authors Are NOT Competitors.
My day job is wickedly competitive. And it can be mentally exhausting. When someone chooses a competitor’s service over my service, the opportunity is gone.
Just lost – for multiple reasons:
- the activity will not be repeated for years under normal circumstances
- the competitor chosen will add the customer to their own funnel, and keep them warm indefinitely, likely creating loyalty for any future action
- contractually speaking, a customer (client) is legally bound to the competitor they chose-immediately shutting the door to engage any of my services (current transaction).
The above is a high-level description of what goes on in real estate.
But this is writing where, for the most part, self-published authors are NOT competitors.
Why?
- No one is contractually bound to buy or read any one book
- Everyone can read your book, my book, their book – together, the same week, month, etc.
- Even ARCs with an ethical agreement to leave a review are not truly bound by any contract and a review is a gift
- Reading is a consumable commodity; it happens over and over, and often in different, albeit not all, genres.
Within our household, we have readers in a variety of genres; primary and secondary.
DAD
Thriller/Action/Suspense, History, Political/Conspiracy, Spec Fiction/Fantasy, Non-fiction
MOM
Thriller/Action/Suspense, Contemporary (NOT romance), Some Speculative Fiction
KIDULT 1
Strong, kick-ass women (dead royalty), Mystery/Suspense, Vampires
The point I want to express is that in our one household – we have a minimum of 9-10 different books that could be consumed at any time. (PS-one book crossed the boundaries of all of us…end of PDA for my book.)
I’d like to encourage the self-published community to recognize and remember, we’re in the same boat, with room for all of us. Think of it as a large cruise ship rather than a small life raft with limited seating.
Does that mean there isn’t a lot of noise to break through?
No, that would be a lie. But that’s why we all have long TBRs.
Literally the only type of book I strongly dislike, is the book written by AI. Strong, hard stance on that. The only one I compete with is me.
AI books are NOT competition either, but they add to the noise.
When we read, enjoy, and share books, they’ll resonate with people. Not everyone, but the ones they’re supposed to. We can help ourselves and each other out by remembering this.
I’ve posted nothing to intentionally incite competition. The only competition I have is my own. Writing and publishing a book is something I’ve wanted to accomplish for years, decades actually. I’m at the point where it’s time to sh!t or get off the pot, as the saying goes. I’ve drawn a line in my own sand. Nobody else’s sand.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Have fun writing your story!
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