In an effort to not be immediately cynical or somber, I’d like to start this post by sharing a small victory.
I went to my very first book fair, and it was an incredibly positive, uplifting experience. I met people who were legitimately interested in my works, and I sold books! I was only able to buy about 25 of each, but I almost sold out of The Devil Went Down on Georgia. It was a validating experience, and I’m so grateful to anyone and everyone who spoke to me that weekend. I hope to attend more in the future! Please, if you happened to purchase one of my works, consider leaving it a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I’m one of those authors who does not heed the advice of my fellow man and I tend to read every review. Honesty is appreciated, because I want to grow and improve.
If anyone from the book fair is reading this, I hope you will look forward to my next book, which will be romantasy. I’ll start adding more details about that in a future post.
With that out of the way, I’ve run into some… Issues. To be fair, I’d say 90% of these issues can be chalked up to my own lack of forethought. I really want to get away from Amazon being the main place my books are marketed, but as I have come to discover, that requires money, which is something I don’t have. Not in just a, ‘what a shame, I can’t keep my 5th streaming service’ way, but in a, ‘I’m lucky to keep the lights on every month’ kind of way. The poverty stems from my father passing suddenly in 2024 and having to step back from my business ventures for the sake of my mental health. There are weeks where every day is a battle to keep my head above the tide of grief. I do better some months, and I do worse during others. I am in therapy (thanks largely to financial aid) and it has helped, but environmental stressors (such as being a queer AFAB in the US right now) make the tightrope walk all the more complicated.
If I had been more thorough on the front end of my indie author career, I would’ve chosen to not initially publish on Amazon and instead go for Ingram Spark, which was a name I’d heard tossed around but had no idea the in’s and out’s of the indie publishing hustle. There’s so much I just chose not to research and it would’ve been so much healthier for my career if I had. As it stands now, I can’t even afford $85 to buy the ISBNs I had assigned to the books via Amazon. It blows, but I don’t feel like I can blame anyone but myself at this point.
Last but not least, I’d like to take a second to vent my frustrations about social media and people’s expectations. I don’t think anyone who has read my books will be surprised to hear me say my ideologies are progressive. I stand for women’s rights (which includes trans women, eat shit Rowling), respecting sex workers, and putting my money where my maw is. When Twitter became X, and then became a playground for AI and the man-child known as Musk, I deleted my accounts. When Meta announced its policy change, which would now allow women to be called household objects and LGBTQIA+ mentally ill, I stepped back from Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. When Tiktok started waving Trump flags, I left there, too. I have a Bluesky, and I love it there, but I also don’t get the same level of engagement I got from the other platforms (Threads especially). And, I start to wonder if me leaving these platforms really hurt anyone but myself, because I seem to be within the minority.
An important person in my life told me that if I chose to go back to any of these platforms, it would be like making lemonade out of lemons in a sense. I would be using something that spurned my existence to keep myself afloat, and it’s a thought I’ve been chewing on. I really think its over between me and Meta, but knowing the success other indie authors have with Tiktok makes me want to try again. I don’t know. That’s where I’m at, and if you read this whole post, thank you! If you haven’t purchased my books, please consider picking one up below. This cryptid hopes you are eating well, getting enough rest, and being reminded of how loved you are constantly.
Aloyster Crowlay 