Have you ever liked a quote and then realized it's not the
best advice? (I know, quotes are not advices)
I used to like ''Do what you love, and you will never work
another day in your life.'' While it sounds great, it's the fastest way to ruin
what you love.
I love animals, so naturally, living in an urban jungle back then, I thought my dream job was working in the zoo. It was a world-class zoo with a sparkling reputation. I was fortunate to get a job there with little experience back then, although my skill was somewhat related. I wasn't involved directly with the animals, but it opened up my chance to interact with them. I could walk around the zoo, being paid for that, enjoy the green environment, and look at the animals any day. It was also a private jogging space for staff every morning, which no one else took up but me. Knowing the right people allowed me to cuddle with baby otters, lions, and tigers, looked at the back of the house, and learned many things about them. It was great.
However, working in the field you love also means learning about the industry secrets. There were many things I would rather not know, and there were utterly heartbreaking things. Just like everything else, there are always factors like business, greediness, unethical practices, reputation masks, incompetence, and ignorance, to name a few. I didn't work with only one company, but more than one zoo in more than one country, so I'm quite certain those factors are exclusive to one place. There are things that I still love, but there are reasons why I quit.
Same thing with writing. I thought the concept was simple enough, even though I knew there would be tremendous challenges. We write, then try to find readers. It's not easy, but it should be straightforward, right? It's like a direct line from producer to consumer regarding self-publishing. Traditional publishing is slightly different, and I'm happy for those who have the chance to try it in places that provide many opportunities to do so. I wish I had those chances, too.
I didn't know that the writing world is also filled with opportunists who prey on struggling independent authors. I mean, we are the smallest of the small fish! One of our biggest challenges is marketing, which is a fertile ground for scammers or those with questionable motivations. Hybrid and vanity publishers; there are legit ones, but there are many scammers behind those companies, too. I didn't sign up with any because I couldn't afford them, but I remember how much I wanted to, thinking they would help me tremendously with their services. But yeah, as I learned by reading about others' experiences, you need to fork out tons of money without getting much help back in return or any at all. Some authors ended up doing everything else by themselves.
And then there are review scammers; they mostly prey on authors who advertise their particulars through websites like Goodreads requesting reviews, and from what I heard, the books are then misused. There are advertisers and advertiser consultants. I tried this because they seem very legit, and maybe they are, because I did get some knowledge from classes they conduct about other things. The advertising itself, nah. I am too skeptical now with things that require advertisers to pay by click because there are people who are hired or bots to do the clicks. My ads got clicks, and I had to pay for those, but I believe only a small percentage of them were genuine, and none of them resulted in anything.
Then there are harassers. I am still trying to understand the motives behind the all-caps questions on the author's profiles. Many in my Goodreads group experienced this; fortunately, we could compare notes. But imagine if one didn't have a clue and read those posts, thinking they are personalized; they can easily crush your spirit because the contents are horrible. The harassers could be bots or some nasty, imbecile squirrels with nothing better to do (nothing against squirrels). They come from multiple accounts, all set in private, without any history of doing anything relevant to Goodreads or anything at all. No books, no reviews, private profiles; they exist mainly for this purpose, and they respawn. What are the things they write? They are so mind-boggling, especially if you don't know what they are and think the messages are directed at you, from calling you a flat wallet writer that is too poor to exist, forcing you to pay them to get their reviews or else, saying your work sucks, threatening about ruining your life, cursing you and your family to go and die horrible deaths in various creative ways. They are all in caps, and they are long. It had shaken many, and I was fortunate to learn about them before it happened to me. So, block, delete, restrict, and move on. Sadly, it also means we can't connect with genuine readers that way.
But of course, I still love writing. Even though the process of getting readers is hard and filled with these despicable people, the writing itself remains great for me as long as I stick to my motivation, which I plan to do. (I can't write erotica to get sales because I don't know how!)
That's all, folks. I just feel the need to rant after those ugly Goodreads spams.
Since it's a long rant, here are puppies' pictures to make it up. These are puppies we met this week. It's still a problem here, but we try to do what we can.
