Publishing world is weird.

I have been trying to figure out how to best build an "author brand" or whatever. Meaning how to get people to know you exist and what you are doing so that maybe they'd like to read the book. You know, the basics. 

 I am not a social media gal. I have my private Instagram, which I occasionally overuse to ramble about whatever random things have caught my hyperfixation at the moment, but mostly I am quite passive. 

I follow cool people and comment on their reels every now and then, but I have zero desire to be a famous influencer. 

Or even famous. 

I was living under the illusion that if you get a traditional publisher deal (which I don't have, since I haven't even queried agents yet, but it's better to plan things out well in advance, aye?), they handle the marketing. 

 Well, they don't. 

 Publishers demand that authors do the marketing themselves too and sometimes to pay for their own part  out of their own pockets. It helps if you start doing it before you even query agents or publishers. I mean, that's a lot. In the past, it wasn't like that, but as the social media era dawned, personally representing your work has become the norm. Anonymous authors are rare, especially if you are a new author. 

 I should have written this bloody thing ten years ago, when things were simpler. I mean, I started to, and I have a draft from 2018 to prove it, but life just got in the way. Now, if you want to stand out, you either need to be famous, an influencer, or accused of AI-writing (but have proof you didn't do it), judging from H.M. Wolfe's two seven-figure deals. I mean, I am happy for her! Also a bit envious. But still, the controversy must have boosted her sales. 

Not to mention the AI-slop you need to compete with. I am not anti-AI on principle; quite the contrary, I use it a lot in my free time (I've had a smart home and Google Assistant since 2021; it's been a lifesaver) and even at work (data and information handling, email- and message triage etc.), but it does not write my stories for me or generate book ideas for me. I tried it out when I started to write again after a two-year hiatus, and I wasn't impressed. 

And then there are, of course, the copyright reasons. I am too territorial about my ideas and story to jeopardize the copyright of my work by using AI to write it. 

And it just does not get it right, you know? Lately the few most famous controversies make me shake my head. The Blue Fighter and The Serpent In the Grove, mostly. Two award-winning short stories. They look suspiciously familiar. Some sentences are word for word what Claude Sonnet 4.5 gave to me when I tested prompt writing in the summer. That makes you wonder, doesn't it? If you know, you know. 

And most vehement anti-AI people don't know, because they don't know the enemy. Its stories say nothing, but with drama. The endless metaphors! I mean, I use them too but not in every paragraph, dammit. It is hard to read, and might be the reason those stories won; if the judges can't understand what it says, they think it's the shit? Reminds me of modern art fans. 

Then again, I might be just too dumb and literal to get it. Metaphors like "Air thick as porridge skin" confuse the hell out of me. Porridge skin is not thick; it's a thin but stringy, viscous film. 

 Well, I better focus on my own writing and let the committees handle judging and investigating the origin of those two. 

Regards, 

The Author



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