Saying No to Social Networks

I know, I know. What kind of title is that for a thread on SPANnet?

 

Well, sometimes  I like to change things up a bit.

 

In that regard, I present Indie author Kerry Allen, who in her own words,

 

"..lacks the social networking gene. Due to my congenital inability to find such activities either enjoyable, beneficial, or productive, I’m redirecting my time and energy toward writing stories.

For those who choose reading material based on an author’s ability make friends(SIC). . . well, I wouldn’t have won you over on that front, anyway. For the rest of you, new stories will be available when they’re good enough to sell themselves without the benefit of my sparkling personality barfing self-promo glitter all over the internet."

 

 

How's this working out for her? Let's keep reading:

 

"10,000
POSTED ON DEC 3, 2010 IN BEYOND THE DARKENING, BLOG, FEATURED | 23 COMMENTS

As of the most recent batch of numbers available, that’s how many copies of Beyond the Darkening have been sold. Not too shabby for a short written by somebody nobody’s ever heard of, particularly when that somebody rejects the whole promotional engine as a lot of intrusive noise. Someone telling a friend “you have to read this” is far more influential than any obnoxious pushing I could ever do, so a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has purchased, read, mentioned, reviewed, rated, recommended, and otherwise contributed to this milestone.
Thank you also for proving I don’t have to jump up and down screaming LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! to get noticed. That frees up a lot of time for more important things, such as working on becoming a better writer so I can create new stories worthy of your continued support."

 

http://kerry-allen.com/2010/12/03/10000/

 

She goes on in the comments of that same post to further elaborate on her logic:

 

"When I cleaned out my unpublished posts bin a while ago, there were over 200 I’d had the sense not to publish (or published and had the sense to pull later). If they were only 500 words apiece, I could have written a novel instead in the time it took me to write all those pointless little updates. If I’m going to agonize over writing something, I’d rather it be chapters—even unusable ones—than blog content."

 

"Readers aren’t demanding more promo. In fact, if anyone paid attention to reader comments (here recently, or anywhere else the subject has ever arisen, for that matter), they’d know readers are repelled by being sold to.
We don’t have to answer to agents and editors and the publishers’ accounting departments. Readers are the ones who hold our fate in their hands, so there needs to be less focus on what would impress New York and more attention to what readers want from us, and that is not and has never been “MORE PROMO”."

 

 

 

 

Why am I sharing this with you? Isn't this all anti-social network, and therefor anti-SPANnet?

 

 

 

Whether Ms. Allen is against all social networks is something I'll leave for someone else to deduce, why I am sharing this on SPANnet:

 

Ms. Allen isn't advocating one way or another. From my perspective she is just an artist cutting the crap out from between herself and her medium, which makes it that much easier for her to tell the story that she wants to tell. She is no longer going to focus on shouting for attention, and will instead focus her energy on improving, and creating with, her craft.

 

In other words,

The best way to sell your book is to make it quality. The best marketing for your book is to tell the truth. The best way to craft a product is to put your love and heart and soul into it. Leave the popularity contents behind in high school.

 

I'll ask myself again, why am I sharing this with you?

 

Besides the fact that she has sold over 10,000 copies of her short story, here is someone who is actually focused on what matters. And that's what I'd like to highlight in this post. Ms. Allen is someone who realized that "barfing self-promo glitter all over the internet" is not the best, or even close-to-the-best, way to sell books. I get it, and yet I share her story because she can say it much more eloquently then I can. Plus she's sold 10,000 more copies of her work then I ever have, and maybe ever will.

 

In conclusion, and I say this from a professional perspective now - not an artistic one- the paradigm that I am highlighting here is one that focuses an authors energy on writing words that produce a quality product, not production of marketing copy or marketing slop. (And remember, everyone loves a quality product, but only pigs will eat slop..)

 

Also, it is OK to use Web 2.0 and social services, you'll notice that Ms. Allen makes great use of her blogs comments and does a great job engaging with her viewers and readers. She's just not getting on Facebook and seeing how many friends she can tell, or beg, or yell at to come visit her site.

 

Since I'm really just quoting, and paraphrasing her ideas, and also maybe judging a bit, I plan to email Kerry Allen and ask what she thinks of this post. Who knows, maybe she'll even join SPANnet and respond. Just don't try and friend her.

 

;)

 

 

 

And also, if you would like to see what all the noise is about, you can purchase her book, here:

http://kerry-allen.com/books/#btd

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credit for introducing Kerry Allen, and her success, to me goes to the near ubiquitous Mark Coker's twitter feed.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading.