completeconfusion

(This was a post that followed one writer using the word "blind" metaphorically, next to a couple of other pejorative words, and the next post in the thread wherein another, blind, writer, took very real offense to the word "blind" appearing in such a sentence. Slightly corrected since.) Jessica, as legally designated crip myself, I just have to go with Istvan on this one point re disability, an issue dear to me. I regret to say it, but I believe you do the rest of us with disabilities no service at all by conflating his proper metaphorical use of the word blind with an insult to the visually impaired. I understand that you haven't said he intended that as an insult, but the truth is there was no insult, nor misuse. I don't buy his overarching thesis, but that's another story. By now, I'd say the same about "lame". I confess I rather wish it hadn't become common parlance, recently. That's because I cringe when I hear it used, even though it too is being used entirely metaphorically. But I have come to see that's my problem, nobody else's. I cringe because I am lame, because I hate being lame, and because I am sometimes genuinely embarrassed by *both* of those facts. (Meta-embarrassment!) Even so, despite my not liking this truth; it is a truth that there are obvious and useful parallels between physical disability and... well an immense number of other things. Making this metaphor very useful. I won't make language and thought poorer so that I don't have to be conscious of being different. I'm not going to ask millions of people to drop a very useful, pithy metaphor to save my feelings, when I'm the master of those feelings, and they had not the slightest intention of harming me. I know, as I expect you do, that in general people are far too fearful of putting a foot wrong, in these politically correct days. I really notice this when I'm in my electric wheelchair (which is not all the time). It gets in the way so much, and it just takes one disabled person in a hundred taking offense without a strict need to, to keep that cycle going. That's how severe the embarrassment non-disabled people feel is, when they think they might have embarrassed those less-abled. (Again with the meta-embarassment.) I know it's not your intention to make social intercourse even more artificial than it already is in this day and age, but that's what I think the result of your comment to Istvan is likely to be. You may well differ with me, but I hope you will consider this alternative point of view. I think it makes me happier. Not happier than you are, necessarily - I can't know that. Just happier than I would be otherwise. Ask yourself, should we now withdraw Thomas Hardy's "The Return of The Native" from circulation because he uses physical blindness as a central metaphor for more general spiritual and psychological lack of comprehension - and do this so that no blind person ever flinches when reading this book when they grasp the metaphor? No. Nor consider Hardy to be an insensitive "product of his times", etiher. If the metaphor fits - genuinely fits and isn't a lazy metaphor that betrays an underlying prejudice - let the character wear it.

I think we all know that what Amazon were able (willing?) to do just months ago for Indies, and what their algorithms and KDP do now, are two different things. As I understand it, there's a huge contrast there. For my part, I don't assume that's Amazon's "fault", and it may be just the market developing and changing without Amazon's intervention. But some of us do wish we hadn't missed out on the best of that party! Yep, it's bad form to grumble about this, but it's pretty human too, and I wouldn't be shocked if that's part of what's happened in this thread. Amazon doesn't owe us publicity. By definition few books are superior to almost every other similar work and therefore richly deserve to be highlighted. 'Tis true. We all think our works are deserving or we wouldn't bother, but we all know that most of us - or at least a very large number of us - are wrong in thinking so. I'm still looking for good wrinkles, re marketing, and trying out new things. I don't expect a direct path, or for anybody to just tell me the magic way or hand me some magic beans. The way marketing works, what got someone attention last year, probably won't get you nearly as much this year, if only cause now everybody does that. The best course is to find a new wrinkle yourself. If you do, you may well keep that secret to yourself if you intend to publish more ebooks. I agree with Pj that the quality of the book itself is the primary way in which any author can control, and boost, the later process of marketing. I think he would agree with me that you can't ever stop there, of course, and that many great books have been late, even posthumous discoveries. That's just history. My guess is that one hundred people have to read your book through (not download it to their unread pile) just to give you even a real chance of building word of mouth; and that a thousand is a much better lottery ticket. Getting that done is not a trivial task, especially not for first-timers, and until somebody reads the book, the quality of the book can't possibly influence its marketing. Even the quality of the blurb can't help until you can drag a pair of eyes to the book page. PS - I'm amazed how many authors, and I don't mean those in this forum, misunderstand the main use of the blurb, for the Indie. I stand to be corrected, but my view (based on other marketing experience) is that the primary purpose of the blurb isn't just to tell what's in the book, that others like the book, to praise it... the main thing you can do with a blurb is to convince a prospective reader that you are sane, that you can write entertainingly and sincerely, and that you know how not to waste your readers' time. Not to mention that you've mastered grammar and spelling, at a minimum. (I think I've probably neglected this myself in blurbs, come to think of it.) My jaw drops every time I see a very terse, short blurb or one that could entertain better, or flow better, than it does. Yeah, the browsing reader can sample your work. I almost never do, though, and that seems to be normal. If you don't understand what a blurb is for, and serve your readers' interest by creating a good blurb, I'm going to assume you may also not understand what a book is for, either, and that you might not serve your readers' interest more often than your own when you are writing. We've all read that kind of book. I probably won't even sample.