If you’re a longtime follower of this website’s blog, you’ll notice that I talk very openly about my experience writing and being a published author. I’ve talked about my struggles with promotion and marketing, the costs of funding such things, dealing with writer’s block, and trying to balance work and life, etc.

All and all, I would say I’m a transparent author.

But I hold back certain things from you. I don’t talk about my actual sales numbers, even though I really, really want to. I’ve danced around outright mentioning my sales performance, although it’s enough for you to tell that I want my books to perform better (something everyone wants, by the way).

I did once write a post about Son of the Siren and how I wasn’t sure what to do with it now that I was working on The Darkening Gate trilogy, and while I discussed the successes of the book, I bluntly mentioned all of its failures, too. It was too personal. My publisher reached out to me after seeing it on LinkedIn and told me that these types of posts don’t really help the situation, and while I explained that I wanted to be a “transparent” author and help others, I ultimately deleted that post after her advice. I think it lasted on the internet for maybe a couple hours. I hope IA didn’t add it to their wayback machine!

Anyway, part of the reason why I’m a transparent author is not only because I want to help you, but…I’m one to overshare, and I don’t want to feel alone. Writing can be a lonely business. You sit alone at your desk or wherever the magic happens, and you produce words on a page or on a screen. For hours. For days. For months. For years. And no one is with you as you do it.

I do have friends who write. But I don’t talk to them that often because I haven’t really spoken to them since graduate school. I’d feel super awkward to talk to them out of nowhere (it’s been thirteen years since I graduated). I do have one writer friend I keep in fairly regular contact with, and she’s a big help, and I should feel sated from this, but I don’t. I do talk to family about things, but they don’t *quite* understand what I’m going through, especially when I start rattling off about the business side of things. So…I feel lonely.

I made a Thread about this the other day:

I want so much to share how my books have been doing for transparency and to help other writers, but I’m worried it will seem like I’m asking for pity, so silent I stay. But I feel kind of alone, too.

It garnered a two lengthy responses from a gentleman I’ll keep anonymous. I’m combining his answers into one big reply and correcting his typos:

I hate these author transparency posts I truly do. They serve no purpose other than to start drama. If the post shows good sales you’re bragging; if it shows poor sales you’re trying to get pity sales.

My advice: don’t do transparency posts ever. Just focus on your book, whether it’s looking at the analytics, finding where improvements can be made, or finding out where you can improve in marketing and promoting.

[…]

Yes, I see so many authors doing transparency posts and it does nothing but garner pointless comments on both ends of the spectrum. And that’s not where you want your head space to be. It’s bad enough for authors, including myself (I’m not exempt from doom scrolling social media and scrolling through the comment section). Trust me, you don’t want 500-1000 people saying “oh hun don’t give up, you’ll get there.” While that might feel encouraging, in reality it does absolutely nothing to help you improve as an author.

I can kind of see where he is coming from. When I observe other transparency posts with news that’s not as sparkling as other authors, people come out and say, “hang in there! Good things will come!” and not much else. It does feel good to have the support of other writers. But I think it only goes so far. As the poster above points out, “in reality it does absolutely nothing to help you improve as an author.” But sometimes I like being cheered on, too!

I am still going to be an honest author and share with you what I think is appropriate, but I’m going to do my best not to step over a line into territory that “doesn’t help” but may in fact damage my prospects. Yes, I’m fishing for “You can do it!” comments sometimes. But I also post because I know there’s a writer out there who is going through/has been through what I post about, and maybe it’ll help them feel less alone if it’s something we both share.

That’s the ultimate goal, anyway.