KKR on hype and the Big Fish syndrome

Great post and how I have felt a long time about some authors. Many hype to feel important. Why not just do your thing? If you are a success or doing well, you don't have to carry signs advertising that. People will see it for themselves. This goes back to some authors needing validation. Trade authors need it from pubs and indies need it from fellow indies. Some base everything on sales and they do measure others by sales which is wrong. It's rampant (or used to be) on Kboards. People feeling like if you didn't make a certain amount of money you had no right giving advice or commenting on things. Some didn't wanna hear from those unless they were "successful" but just because you aren't making thousands from book sales doesn't mean you don't know what you're talking about. That's when I realized how elitist Kboards had become. People basically telling those with less than a six-figure writing income to sit down and shut up. Also, you don't always know authors are telling the truth about their sales. Kboards is full of anonymous people claiming to be these huge sellers. Maybe they are but how much weight can we give to that when we can't see their books or know their names to verify what they say? So I don't take those seriously at all. If you are bragging but hiding, I roll my eyes. If you're big and bad then let us see your stuff. Let us see these books you claim are bringing in big money. Anyone can say anything if you can't verify it.

It goes back to being careful who you listen to if you're going to listen. I tune out the noise. I don't wanna hear someone who is just flashing their sales figures and not offering anything substantial. You can tell the difference. You do have authors who mention their sales and money to help others, but you have those who just wanna brag and impress. The difference is, those who wanna brag disappear when things are going bad. I have seen countless Kboards members who sold well through the years disappear then you see them on FB or another site talking about how bad sales have gotten and that they had to go out and get a job again. BUT, you don't see them yelling that from the rooftops like they were when they were doing so well.

If you are sharing your figures and income to help people, then you will be transparent even if you aren't doing good anymore. You'll not be there just for praise but also to show that yeah, things got rough for you too. But many just hype and care more about the idea of being successful than success.

Out of all the big fish on Kboards, I always liked Roslyn James and respected her because she was always honest. She shared stuff to help and you could tell the advice was genuine. She also didn't make herself seem like she was so great and she was open when things weren't going good. She fully admitted how KU scammers hurt her income drastically right there on Kboards. She didn't pretend she was still doing great despite stuff going wrong. These are "big fish" I listen to. The ones who don't act like they're above a bit of failure. That helps you relate to them.

The only ones who I see impressed by the hypers are newbies with stars in their eyes. Vets know better. We know that you can be selling great one year and next year scrounging for sales so hyping goes in one ear and out the other. We understand how the industry works and know there are ups and downs. If people are gonna shout out their successes they can share their failures as well. If not, keep it all to yourself. If you're gonna be transparent, be transparent or you're just fishing for praise and followers.

Just to clarify, are you saying you believe KU readers can download a book multiple times to generate reads? Because that's not possible. Never was, as far as I know. One reader can only generate one set of reads per ASIN. 

That detail aside, it's sure easier to get people to download a book on KU (just like it's much easier to get someone to at least begin watching something on Netflix vs. pay-per-view) but the page reads won't keep coming if the book is not entertaining. So I think you're being a bit hard on legit KU non-scammer authors. Some genres and niches simply do better in KU, and it's no wonder people who have legitimately done well in KU stay there rather than making a risky change.

I say this as someone with books and series in and out of KU, so I'm actually double-wide. I try to be everywhere.