Regarding the book giveaway debate. (Article) - 4/28/2013 7:18:33 AM
Rocky Balboa is a appropriate analogy. I sense a lot of authors seem to think that they will make money with their work. Historically, very few authors have. Today, with the Internet, it is very easy to get published. Getting published is no guarantee that anyone will read your work, especially with the time crunch that most people have to take the time to read.
The idea of the starving artist is historically correct. Van Gogh never sold any of his work. Many authors that we consider to be famous only wrote one book that was famous. I'm with you that I think the most important thing is to be read. Like you, I get very few reviews except if I do a tit-for-tat. Reviews don't necessarily help sales either. Whenever I ask people that have read my work, they always say that it is “very good.” I take that with a grain of salt, because most people do not want to say anything bad to your face about how poor your writing is. I did get that from one literary critic, but I understand where he was coming from. In his novel and movie, Thinner, Stephen King cast the villain with the same name as this critic, leading me to believe that King had received some bad reviews from the man, too––and rightly so––considering some of the trash King has produced with his fame.
Like you, I'm going to keep writing and giving them away.
Ron
