Hello, my Freaky Darlings!

Here follows a wee bit of a rant. Sorry!

There seems to be this sense of entitlement going around in the publishing industry, and it pisses me off. I’m here to tell you that nobody owes you a damn thing. Reviewers and book bloggers don’t owe you. Readers don’t owe you. The book buying public doesn’t owe you.

If a reviewer or blogger doesn’t want to read your book, they don’t have to. If they read it and still don’t want to write that review, they don’t have to. If they do it’s because they are being awesome and taking the time out of their busy schedule and are being generous, so be grateful! Don’t be a demanding douchebag, don’t send a nasty message demanding that they write that review. And also – if you want a review, send the reviewer a free review copy. They aren’t going to buy your book and review it for you, especially if you’re going to be a schmuck about it. Sending that review copy is just good manners.

And if people are talking about other writers on Facebook or Twitter and aren’t talking about you, don’t burst into the conversation and demand that they talk about you instead, that just makes you look like an ass. Don’t do it! They don’t owe it to you to talk about you and your books. Seriously they don’t.

I also hate to break it to you, but even your own family and friends don’t owe you anything. If they don’t feel like buying your book or sharing that tweet or Facebook post you did about your book, they don’t have to. If they do, it’s because they really want to and because they love you, but they really don’t have to.

Also, nobody in the whole wide world owes it to you to buy your book or to tell anybody else to buy it. I know it sucks, but that’s life. And hopping around on social media demanding attention isn’t going to help either. Suck it up cupcake. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

The only person who owes you is you. You’re the only person who owes it to yourself to pull your finger out of your arse and do that hard grind to get people, like reviewers and the book-buying public, interested in your book. Nobody else is going to do it.

You want reviewers to review your book? Ask them nicely. Look at their review policy. Do they review the sort of book you’ve written? They do, great. Send them exactly what they ask for on their review policy page and remember to be polite. You’re asking for a favour, remember. Repeat the process with the next reviewer and the next one and the next one. And before you know it, people will be talking about your books. But it’ll only happen if you ask them nicely because nobody owes you a fucking thing.

So get off your arse and get to work.