RANT: ADVERTISING (no format !)

I WANT to preface by saying no. don't advertise on other people's boards. now look, i get it. i don't mean to pull the 'i've been there' card but i really have. last year, march 2020, i had around 150 follows (and i'd been on wattpad for like three years or four just fucking about) and i only really started to write then. i went through the process of fretting about hey what if people don't like my book, what if it's flops, what if i'm not a good writer. like, i went through that. i worked hard to get whatever the fuck i have now. all these lovely people i've met along with just people in general. every comment when i started out (and still now) made such a huge difference. they were biggest confidence boosters ever and it just made me happy to see people enjoying it. i'm sure that's what people want when they start out writing.

there are many ways to gain this. one being just writing, and hoping for the best (the best tactic, surprisingly). there's just writing and trying to perfect it. making covers pretty, pretty description. making it aesthetic to the eye. these are ways of getting people to read your story. good graphic shops, good descriptions that aren't too long.

a shit idea is advertising on other pages.

i've only had a handful, but i'm sure most can agree self-advertising is agriviating. for one, it feels like you're trying to use somebody else's platform to jump-start yours. not cool dude. i guess this is just my own opinion on it, but i think that if you don't take the time to try work hard to gain followers, votes, reads etc then you don't really appreciate what you have. i mean sure, sometimes i don't reply to comments which makes me a bit oofie but i try my best to reply to them because i know how nice it is to be noticed and i guess appreciated or have your thoughts shared. and i think if you take the time to build up your acc and story, you learn to appreciate the little things more. you get happy and excited and it feels genuine.

what i don't like is people coming onto other peoples message boards and advertising their own stories. unless the acc has said something like 'oh hey drop your story i want to read new stuff' don't do it. and frankly, don't advertise your story in their books either. or anybody else's unless it's like they asked for it.

because coming from a confidence standpoint, stuff like that shoots down confidence so much. it's like somebody reading your work, commenting and voting and then just being like 'hey read mine it's better'. it's hurtful and suckish. if you feel like you don't like your work so much- ask for help. dm somebody and ask them for help, ask them for their opinions. you can ask somebody to beta or politely read your work to get feedback in the dm's. even that doesn't need to be on the mb.

please appreciate the fact advertising can be really hurtful and is generally not something writers want on their mb. mb's (message boards, i feel like i didn't mention that shortening JHFJHF) are for writers thoughts (in my case, you see me spiral far too much for it to be healthy) and updates and ideas.

so please, don't advertise. i get your proud of your work, or maybe want feedback. but advertising in other stories/mb's is not a good way of going about it.

— ro :)

PS: i might do a chapter on how to get people to notice books? like eg covers and stuff like that. thoughts??