I detest expending effort to update my Facebook author page. Engagement is nigh impossible. I even offered to purchase five indie authors' books and I got four takers. I used to post something daily, but questions I asked received zero responses, so I'd go back and simply delete them. On the rare occasion when I promoted one of my books, it was like whispering into the wind. No one could even bother to click "like". And it's not as if I don't have followers. The author game on Facebook is one of reciprocity -- I'll follow you if you follow me. But more and more it's become a one-way street. So, I'm not interested in doing it anymore. I'm going to let my page go dormant.
I don't like Instagram and I fail to see the point of it. Unless you're a celebrity, you receive zero traffic, except for those who want to sell you something. When I first decided to try Instagram, I posted regularly, but I eventually asked myself why. Just to say I did it? I'm not going to visit Instagram anymore.
My Pinterest "business page" is a total bust. I don't even bother to click on the site. It's unworkable unless you have a non-business page, where you can post your memes and recipe tips. Every time I tried to add a new book to my "Novels" pin, it insisted on creating a new standalone pin that was missing any sort of context. And, of course, Pinterest wanted me to invest money to further promote this jumble of crap. So, I'm done with Pinterest.
I've spent my last dollars on marketing. No more. I have one final promotion starting October 1, but that's the end. (If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have.) How did my previous promotion do? I sold four books, a net loss. But sucker that I am, I thought, "just one more try". Done. No more marketing.
I'm tired of paying for website domains (I don't pay for this one and it's my favorite). I have an author domain, a band domain, a digital magazine domain and a domain for my long-standing music blog. I'll keep the author and band ones -- I owe it to my partner to at least keep our music out there, and my author site might someday be visited one time. I'm going to let a couple of the others expire. If I ever actually publish my book of essays, I'll just create another Blogger account that ends in "blogspot.com". Who'll notice anyway?
I'm not going to pay for Canva premium anymore, just on the off-chance I might need to create another book cover. That proposition right now seems doubtful and I suspect my covers are too simple to be eye-catching. Even though I like them a lot. But I'm not the one who's supposed to be buying my own books, so who cares what I think?
I'm done reading articles sent to me from book promotion sites that extol the successes of other authors who use their services. How many authors? One? It's all BS. Unless you have a publishing house behind you or a wide circle of contacts who'll lie to others about how great your book is, you're screwed. My mistake is not creating one of those promotion sites of my own. I could get rich from empty promises. But kudos to them. They're making money; I'm not.
It's time to cull the herd. I'm spending far too much time doing things that offer no return on investment. I haven't deleted any of my above accounts yet, but I feel that time is fast coming.
Other things I'm no longer interested in doing? Right now, one of those is writing. Maybe I'll change my mind; maybe not. If I'd ever received but a modicum of encouragement, I would be gung-ho to write. I love writing, but if I want to write only for me, I've got this blog. It's as lucrative as any of my novels and it doesn't cost me a penny.
Mostly, I'm simply done kidding myself. I gave it a good shot. I really tried. I did everything in my power to achieve just a smidgen of success, and I couldn't even manage that.
I'm no longer interested.
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