Care to support an independent writer?
A plea from the heart of my bottom
The astute among you will notice (and the rest of you will quickly catch up) that I used the above image for volume 3 of my recently released series of “Rambling Musings” on Kindle and in paperback and hardback form. These volumes are a collection of my self-titled ramblings and musings since the end of the lock down and up to and indeed including the present day. As is seemingly always the case an off the wall or left field idea took root, one volume became three and in March 2024 alone I self-published four books. In less than 18 months I’ve published eight books and seven e-books with one further book already written, primed and ready to go at the end of May 2024.
16 books in less than 18 months is laudable in anyone’s language, as is the creation of a Youtube channel from scratch that had 330 long form videos available within 2 months. There’s a Patreon account and a PayPal me thingamajig, a Buy Me a Coffee option and I’ve promoted my creations to the moon and back several times over and, well, I’ve published more books than I’ve ultimately sold. I tell myself that I’ve left a “legacy” of sorts for my son. Not a financial one but an independent way forward for his writing someday, a simple path that if a simpleton like me can follow it, then so can he. The latter is true, the former less so as I haven’t left a legacy, more a frustrated shell of my former shadow who doesn’t even look at his Amazon sales figures as quite frankly, what’s the point? I’ve worked (very subjective as writing isn’t work) but I’ve put my heart and soul into the past 18 months and one TikTok video of a cat playing with a ball of string will have garnered the owner of the cat a vast fortune compared to the tiny royalties Jeff Bezos’ company begrudgingly passes my way.
So this is my appeal for your support.
The rub of course is that based on my Medium/Substack figures (which are laughable to the point of non-existence) suggest only a handful of people (and mostly bot accounts) will ever read this message in a bottle, and that’s the biggest rub of them all. I could but I’m not going to go on a tirade at how Medium is a damaged brand full of AI/Chatbot/Chatgpt garbage, but that’s as true as the ugliest truth of all: I simply don’t have an audience. Twitter ignores me. Instagram is full of Medium style grifters and vampiric energy suckers and I’ve tested the patience of my old friends and remaining family on Facebook. The past couple of sentences sum up why I don’t have an audience.
As you can see I’m not very good at self-promotion and my depressed head and mind tells me this is all a complete waste of time as usual. I realise money and financial matters are as tight as they’ve ever been but if you’re able to support me in any way, I thank you from the heart of my bottom.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering and the right way up in an upside down world.
This really resonates with me. Sometimes it feels like you’re just sending out content into the void. Hang in there though. If it makes you happy, then thats all that matters. Love your stuff, especially articles on the prem and heartfelt ones like this!