Too Much Trouble

I have nearly 400 Facebook friends. I spent an hour individually messaging them - well almost individually- before Facebook messaged me to suggest that I may be doing something inappropriate, to let them know that my third novel Ashmore Grief had been released. I didn't ask anyone to buy it, but I did include a link to the website wherein one can find the blurb, a preview of chapter one, and the purchase links. At last count, after 7 days, around 6 people have replied to my message.

I have been asking people to Like the Ashmore Grief Facebook page for roughly a month, and have managed to get 77. My goal is 100, and everyday I am sorely tempted to "buy" Likes. Sorry, I mean "promote" my page. The last status update was apparently viewed by 55 people. Have a guess how many comments the status received. If you said, "less than one" you are correct.

I have been blogging weekly for 4 years, and despite various attempts to increase traffic to my site, including numerous direct requests for friends to join the site, I am stuck on 20 something followers. Most of my posts receive no comments except for spammers who can get through only because I have made it easier for real people to comment if they want to. It seems that they don't want to.The most comments I have received was 6, which occurred during the 2013 A-Z Blogging Challenge.

Over the past week, I have contacted nearly twenty media organisations, newspapers, television and radio shows. One reply. I contacted nearly a dozen organizations who work with refugees and asylum seekers, seeking a partnership based on the fact that Ashmore Grief deals with that very topical issue. Four replies: two said no, one said maybe.

I must be insane to worry about all this, but if I am, then I welcome the madness. I embrace it because every now and then someone tells much how much they love my writing, and they get very animated when talking about how they feel about one or more of the characters I created. Once in a while, I get a quantum of encouragement and I press on, I write on.

Oh, and as for Twitter? I get one reply, or retweet for every twenty tweets, and I have over a thousand followers. Clearly, either I am boring, or people can't be bothered. I'll go with the latter.