The Struggles of Indie Authors/Creatives [***RANT SESSION***]

 For those of you that actually pay attention to my videos, this is the continuation of an episode of "The Rough Draft" that I shot; Episode #48, to be exact.  Felt the need to blow off some steam, and set the record straight, and apparently...I need to blow off a little more steam.  Been feeling really frustrated & disrespected lately, and I think that I need to go deeper in depth...

As an indie author, I'm carrying the same mentality that I had when I was still involved in the film & television world, being a screenwriter; I wanna work in the industry, not for it.  I choose to be independently published b/c I know the headache of trying to find a (decent) agent, or at least, a good small publisher to publish your book.  Also, you know your story best, so you know how & who to market your book to, no matter what genre that you write in.  I know plenty of authors that write speculative fiction that can attest to that.  Not to mention, the rash of consolidation within the publishing industry within the last two decades, or so...?  The publishing world is getting smaller & smaller by the day (if not, the waning minutes).

 

At the same time...I don't have an MFA.  I have no connections to any literary nonprofit organizations.  I've never held a fellowship.  Nor do I have a well paying day job that allows me the financial flexibility to pay for reviews, or a publicist.  My hashtag #AlwaysOnMyLiteraryGrind has meaning BECAUSE I'm actually ON my literary grind!!  Whatever accolades (which ain't many) that I receive, it's because of my hard work to promote my shit, & get the word out to the public.  NOBODY helps me to do shit, when it comes to my writing career.  My grind is really MY grind.  Nobody promotes my books for me, or does any type of outreach for my books.  I've even created a mf video series to help me promote my writing career in "The Rough Draft" (that apparently nobody watches).

 

It's a little infuriating to see people just brush you off, and dismiss any & everything that you do, as if it's big joke, and nothing to be taken seriously.  They don't watch the videos & comment, they don't buy & review your books, nor do they come out to any events that you organize and/or participate in.  Out of the fourteen books that I've published, I'd pre-promoted the last seven books ahead of their publication.  Hardly anybody joined the gd Facebook Events that I created for them; I didn't even crack TWENTY people to accept the invite. Whats' the fucking point?!?!?!  😡😡😡😡😡     

The sales afterward have been even more abysmal.  Htf is it that I know all of these different people, activist,  & organizations, but can't get none of you mf bastards to buy a copy of my books?!  And, even if you do actually buy it, do you even bother to read it, and leave a fucking review for it, or even recommend it to your circle of friends and associates...?  Hell...I'd be happy with a personal dialog with you, just to get your feedback on the book. At least then I'll know that you actually read the motherfucka!  Which character(s) did you like...?  What worked for you?  What didn't..?  What was your favorite chapter/scene...?  What character(s) didn't you like/hated..?  Did I intend for you to hate them, or did you just not like the way I wrote that/those character(s)...?  This is the type of feedback that I'm looking for & crave; they make me a better writer.  It also lets me know if I achieved my goal with that particular book, as far as your response is concerned.  Or...I know that you're not the right audience for that particular book, depending on your response/understanding of that particular book.

Would it kill you to actually watch the episodes of my vlog series, and leave a mf comment?!?!  Even if you don't have a YouTube account, can you nuccas say SOMETHING under the post?!?!  None of that 'good job' bullshit; that's so fucking generic.  Say something about the mf episode, whatever tf the discussion topic is!  Don't just press the 'like' button, and keep it mf moving!  I hate that shit!!!  It is so mf disrespectful!!  This isn't a mf joke to me; it's my calling, my mf career!!!  How would you like it , if I acted all dismissive about something that you were passionate about...that you felt was your purpose in life...?  Writing the books...producing the vlog series...and promoting the books is VERY time consuming!!

STOP acting as if my writing career is some huge joke!  It's not a fucking hobby that I don't take seriously, or don't really care about! I'm not some one-shot bucket lister, writing a book just to say that I wrote a mf book, and check it off my bucket list!  I've been writing for fucking YEARS!!!  Just because some of you out there don't have any passions, that doesn't mean that I don't!  I need more out of life, other that just getting liquored up, getting high, or randomly getting sexed up!

Feel however you want to feel about this post; I couldn't give a shit.  I'm tired of feeling disrespected, and not supported.  You dumb niggas know that my shit it out here, available in more that one format, I might add...but still won't support my career, or my books.  But...you niggas will jump on any bandwagon, and prop up some author with a name, because the mainstream media (white ppl) told you to do so.  Fuck y'all.

That's my rant session....

Holiday Economic Support Initiative 2021

 It's that time of year again.  We're getting close to the end-of-year holidays.  People are busying themselves with what they wanna buy for Black Friday, and get their kids their Xmas presents (and for those of you who celebrate it, Kwanzaa as well).  It is at this time that I want to promote my Holiday Economic Support Initiative.

I started this campaign around 2016, promoted in the aftermath of the uprisings in Ferguson, the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and many of the others that have fallen due to the extremes of police brutality, and the systemic racism that plagues our society.  If you didn't feel like marching in the streets, as you might feel intimidated by your workplace, or just couldn't risk losing a paycheck as the sole breadwinner for your family, I wanted to create an alternative means for us to fight back.  We can still participate in the movement, but don't necessarily have to take to the streets to do it.  As I've learned in my own activist experience, not every soldier has to take the same battlefield to fight.

The Holiday Economic Support Initiative in not a boycott per se, but a divestment from the system of oppression that we currently live in.  We use our dollars to invest in OUR OWN businesses & entrepreneurs, and financially support them.  We love to constantly complain about not having our own businesses, especially ones that service our neighborhoods, but rarely do we financially support them on a consistent basis.  You also have those fake @$$ n*ggaz that'll talk shit about Black businesses having poor customer service, but will continue to spend their money with 'alien' businesses that don't ever treat you with respect, or them fake @$$ 'woke' ppl who will spout off rhetoric about supporting a Black-owned business...go ONE time...and then act like they did something important.  This is NOT that type of gesture.  This is an ideologically strategy used to bolster our businesses & entrepreneurs, and provide them with the support that they so rightly deserve.

If you want to participate in the Holiday Economic Support Initiative, you can participate via social media, and use you social media powers/influence to help promote those businesses and entrepreneurs that you know & follow.  Use either of the two hashtags #HolidayEconomicSupportInitiative or #HESI, tag a business or entrepreneur that you know, and help promote their product/company/business to your followers.  Everybody needs a little help with promotion, especially if you don't want to seriously come out of pocket with it.  Some businesses & entrepreneurs may not have the financial means to pay some outrageous fee to promote their business, or their products.  This is a strategically grassroots way for us to promote our entrepreneurs & Black-owned/Latino-owned businesses to the masses.  The Initiative lasts from Black Friday, all the way up until New Years Day of the following year.

 

Please use the hashtags to promote any businesses & entrepreneurs that you know.  I will include my own works into this campaign.  If you are worried about the "supply chain slow down" that's affecting most of the country (if not, the world), my books are ALL available in eBook format, so you can easily download them, instead of having to wait to get the physical copy.  They are available through Kindle, Nook, Kobo/Kobo+, iTunes, Scribd, and internationally through Tolino and Vivlio.

 

So, for this year, and hopefully beyond, don't spend you money with the big box stores and major corporations.  Spend that money with your own.  Support the small businesses.  Support your local entrepreneurs.  Buy Black.  Buy Brown. Shop Latino.  Shop local.

 

Keep the fist raised.

 

#AlwaysOnMyLiteraryGrind