I'm a little MIA this week (it promises to be the Busy Week of Business and just expect my default setting to be "out of the office"), however to keep you company I have my Twitter (and garbage day) buddy, author R.C. Murphy!
Read on for her guest post and don't forget to say hi!
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Fairy Jizz and Author Happiness by R.C. Murphy
Every time you Google an author’s name, a fairy orgasms.
No, really. I’m serious.
Being an author, especially a new author, is kind of like shouting into a dark, empty house. You know no one is there to hear you. Yet a small portion of your mind holds out hope that, despite the cobwebs on the banisters and dust on the tables, someone will hear you calling and answer. Or a serial killer could be hiding in the broom closet waiting for you to saunter further inside. Either way, all authors want is some sort of recognition.
I can’t count the times I’ve stalked the stats on my blog and grinned ear-to-ear that someone actually searched the internet for my name. My. Name. They didn’t land on my page by some freak Google-fu accident. Really, how the hell does “They held her down and tortured her belly with a knife” lead someone to MY site? Don’t answer that…
But when they search for the author by name, it means they want to find us. Sometimes what they find isn’t up to snuff or their cup of tea. That doesn’t matter because they still looked at the blog/website/inane spray-painted ramblings on the inside of a bathroom stall.
Writing is lonely. A lot of people far smarter than I have said it. But you know what? Marketing yourself is even lonelier. Think about it, some poor soul who has been locked in their office for over a year, at the least, suddenly thrust into public and forced to make coherent statements—all in the hopes of selling a book that they’ve poured blood, sweat, and booze into.
If you’re a self-published or small press author, you do it on your own or with very few people to help. And that’s where the guilt comes in. “Am I annoying people by advertising my book?” “What if they get tired of my attempts to make a living off of my brain-vomit?” It goes on, and on, and on, until finally you drink enough rum to drown it out…and fall into an alcoholic coma.
The gleaming light at the end of the tunnel, folks, really is fairy orgasms. Those few people who take time out of their lives to search for said sad, lonely, insane author. And I thank them endlessly for it.
About the Author
R.C. Murphy spends her nights writing urban fantasy novels and a slew of short stories for her blog, The Path of a Struggling Writer. By day she is a not so mild-mannered housewife, wrangling vampires, demons, and various other nasty creatures. R.C. has joined forces with fellow writers, artists, and actors to form the Zombie Survival Crew where she reviews movies, TV shows, as well as penning articles on important survival skills.
Her first novella, Be Ours Forever is available in paperback via Amazon.
You may contact her via Twitter, @RCMurphy.