"Services"

 

Quick ~ what's more lucrative than self-publishing? Well, pretty much everything, but also apparently "book marketing services". 

I wonder how many self-published authors have been turned off of social media because of the relentless bombardment from marketers. I have. While I stopped participating in most social media sites a while ago (Facebook, X, Instagram), LinkedIn consistently hounds me with connection requests, regardless of the fact that I'm not active on the site. It didn't take me long after I joined to stop responding to my connections' messages. The deceptive connections are those who list themselves as authors, but really aren't. There are a few, but they are pretty easy to spot. They just want to say hello, and they leave it at that. My first interaction with an "author" started out friendly enough, but she soon started pushing publicist services on me. Just as I would never open my door to an itinerant salesman, I refuse to engage with people nagging me to try their "wonder product", meaning book marketing, proofreading, formatting (seriously?), and anything else even tangentially related to publishing. 

There are so many of these people out there, it's hard to believe any of them are making actual money. And hypothetically, if I was interested in pursuing any of these services, I would research and find the right person for the job. Sorry, not picking Random Guy on LinkedIn because he said, "Hi".  

Sadly, I believe that most of these people are scammers. Not sophisticated ones who really put a lot of effort into their scam (like the one I almost fell for), but they'll still gladly take your money and run. Why would I need someone in Africa or Pakistan to do my book marketing for me? Who would they be marketing to? A lot of them don't even speak fluent English.

Today I received my first ever comment via my author website. From guess who? Why, a marketer, of course. Now they won't even leave me alone on my own personal site.

I've considered adding a note to my LinkedIn profile, stating that I'm not interested in any services, but I doubt any of these people read a person's profile anyway. I'm getting close to the day when I'll deactivate my account. I only joined because some doofus online said that it was a good marketing tool. (It's not.) But it seems that no matter where I go, or even if I don't go anywhere, they track me down. 

I neither want nor need any help with my enterprise, failed though it may be, but best of luck in your future endeavors, I guess.