Terrific article by Cristian:
A lot of self-publishers publish their books, create a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page they don’t even bother to update. Some might even go as far as to go on Shelfari, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and other similar websites. And I find that the vast majority of them are just doing all this because they’re read about it.
It’s like following a recipe word for word, never bothering to add one more pinch of salt – they’re unwilling to experiment, to stop and analyze if what they’re doing is helping their sales or not.
Self-publishing is all about trial and error. It’s not fixed. It lends itself to improvisation, constantly evolving. Most writers blog and tweet mechanically – some even go as far as to write about themselves in the third person, like they’re the Dalai Lama or something. The vast majority of self-publishers are using the same techniques, marketing their books by tweeting six times a day bits of reviews and mentioning the 67 five star reviews they have on Amazon. CristianMihai »
Improvisation would be nice. Another thing authors need to remember is why they want to write and distribute their books in the first place. And another thing is they need to give a swift kick in the head to their egos. Otherwise, the little self-publishers are just asking for self-defeat.
Jiving Jackalope 