Like[s,] stars

 My time on websites like YouTube was limited once upon a time, but over the years, as technology advanced, I came to rely on it as the primary research tool for "Hey did you see-" type inquiries. From wildlife videos to news clips to movie trailers to comedy skits, it is a time sink. I learn things every day, and a lot of that education is dispensed through the platform. And I sunk deep enough recently to discover the existence of content creators, and that some of the content is video of people responding to other people's content. Reality folds back on itself. But something useful came out of it, too, which was a growing confidence in my getting back out there, into attempting to promote myself. A co-worker is starting a business. We work in education, and according to her, a sad reality of that is needing a second job if one wants to be an educator, long-term. We discussed all of what she's doing, and she showed me the beginnings of a website she was designing, which made me reflect on my failures in social media. When she mentioned a friend that helps people with that sort of thing, I felt like I might have insight on how to move forward. 

So I sent an email, which started another journey. I felt it was important to convey where I was in the process, how I was about understanding all of the social media and promotional tools, and what I had to offer. Good questions were passed about. I discovered that my website is down, and probably has been for some time, and that I have no clue about how to fix that. I got feedback on my blog, and it was good to confirm some of my suspicions. In looking around to show something else to help get my message across, I found myself on Amazon looking for my author page. I found it, along with the first unsolicited review of the re-release of my books:

"Monsters in an urban setting that aren't politicians... really monsters and some I like.Vampire, werewolf, old world secrets, curious human... a very cool adventure."

My first thought when I saw the little number and the colored-in stars was that finally, finally one of my friends, one of the people I gave a copy to, someone had gotten back around to jotting something down. When I clicked on the little number, I scrolled down and read the post first. I read the post and then I read the name. None of it, really, made any sense. Not that it was confusing, but I couldn't take in what the post even was, because I was so moved that someone I didn't know had posted at all. Those two sentences made my day. 

Looking at the date, I realized that I was doing a terrible job all around of keeping track of things like that. Checking on my website, my reviews, even my sales all fall beneath notice. I have been stuck on story logistics, edits on old novels, re-writes of current novels, and projecting into outlines of novels I may never even write. I tried to give all of this over to the web maven, to help them understand. I am mildly interested in being better. 

I have come to think of content creators in units. In almost every case, they seem to come together in groups made up of the people for whom the activity is a goal and those who are supportive of those other people. Some of them only have a few thousand subscribers, and they are in the midst of improving their equipment along with their skills. There are a variety of reoccurring participants and production quality is at a lower level. On into six digits, more of the creator's videos are visible below a given selection. The sound is better, the editing is cleaner. Fewer of those support figures are present. There are some content creators that have millions of subscribers. They are gravity wells of their own, with merchandise and sponsors. Other creators make content videos responding to their work. By this point, whoever appears along side them in videos is another creator or aspiring creator. I can only imagine how the activity has become a job, and how it fills the corners of their daily lives. But I think I can see the transition, how everything around them and about them changes as time moves forward and they increase their visibility.

The web maven asked me if I was reluctant to share of myself, based on our exchanges, and I had to think about how I actually felt about it. I had to admit that I felt that I really only had confidence in my stories, things I had pulled out of my mind and hammered into a shape I could feel pride over. I'm not sure if I have to get over that, or what I need to turn that one review into one hundred. One thousand. On the one hand, it might be changing my perspective about promotion, taking steps to educate myself and evolve with the times. On the other hand, it could be something as simple as exercising patience. Maybe that's something I'll learn tomorrow.