Ask Me Anything!

Question From @MarilynVix

Hi Amanda. I'm a regular on the writer/reading board: Kboards.com. It used to be Kindleboards.com back in the day when you were hanging out on it. I was wondering if you were thinking of coming back and participating again. Lots of people talk about when you were there, and I remember you sharing what was happening to you that summer you started selling a lot of books. All the regulars would love to hear about all the things you've learned so far. So, would you consider coming back and posting on some threads? Love to hear from you. URL now is: kboards.com. ;-)

 

I think I should explain why I stopped posting. It's two main reasons.

The first is that I started feeling incredibly overwhelmed by everything. Sales took off, and the story of my publishing success was everywhere, and everyone wanted me to be their poster child for the self-publishing movement. My life had come to represent something a lot of people, and they had very strong opinions – both good and bad – about every decision I made involving my career and my life.

I'm not saying that exclusively happened at Kindleboards – in fact, most everyone there was incredibly kind and supportive of me. But it was happening all over the internet, and I was a very shy, quiet girl who didn't want to upset anyone, and it was too much for me, so I started refraining from posting places. Even places that had been very happy and helpful to me.

The second reason that I started feeling a lot of survivor's guilt. I self-published around the same time as a lot of authors on at KB. We were all together, talking about what worked and what didn't, struggling and learning together. They wrote good books with good covers and priced them the same as mine.

But for some reason, my books took off, and a lot of others did not take off as much as mine. So then I started feeling really bad. I didn't understand why they weren't doing well and I was. (I still honestly don't know why).

I started feeling like I couldn't post things without sounding like I was bragging or gloating. No one told me I was doing this – but I just felt that way. I felt like I didn't have anything to contribute to the conversation. So I posted less and less, and eventually, I stopped posting at all.

It's still a wonderful community, one that I am forever grateful for. Without everyone there, I'm not sure that I ever would've been able to figure out self-publishing or navigate all the pitfalls.

Tell everyone that I say "hi" and "thank you."