self publishing and sales

 I'll be the first to admit that I don't really care to understand how social media algorithms work, but lately on Twitter, I've been seeing a lot of self-published authors talking about how they've made zero sales in August. 

As I'm one of these authors, I do try to pick up a Kindle copy when I can. I mean, I have so many goddam digital credits that I might as well, right? And I know how happy I get when I get one sale, because like I said--none in August. Not one. And while I do publish just because I love sharing shit and not because I want money from it, nobody can read it if nobody's buying it. Or reading it on KU. Or whatever. 

I have made more this year than I did all of last year. However, this year I did experiment with Amazon ADs, and I did not earn out what I spent on the ADs, so, really did I? Did I make more? If you look straight at sales I did. I am not a marketer. I write my books and I throw them on Amazon and sometimes I talk about them on social media and traditionally I've been fine with that because, like, I'm not here for acclaim and whatever. I just like to write. I just like to slap shit on the page and then slap that on Amazon. 

But it is demoralizing. Zero sales in a month is demoralizing. Am I going to stop writing? No. Of course not. I would never "stop writing"; that's not even a possibility. I've got so much to get done. 

But I am going to complain about it maybe.