Why is my over 50yr friends so much more supportive than my under 30yr old friends?

[Stephen Paul West]

Man, my elderly uncles and aunts are ALL over trying to help me succeed as an author. They don't get email, Kindle, social networking and modern technology, but they do understand love and committment.

 

However, my under 30 yr old friends (I have a ton of nieces and nephews too) just say, "Great! I hope you succeed!" Well, I appreciate the well wishing...buuuuut .... I need reviews. I need purchases. I need promotion and marketing and friend-to-friend recommendations. My elderly family doesn't even like 'vampire thrillers' but they read the books in earnest.

 

Is it really so hard for younger people to click 'share' on Facebook (and my book is in the top 100 on Amazon repeatedly)?

 

I truly think this is a generational thing. I think the older friends/family have the idea of hardwork and loving support because it was important for their survival. Modern age has made it too easy to survive and prosper all by our lonesome.

 

I will miss the WWII crowd when they are all gone. Something will disappear with them.

[Myna Alexanderson-Berlyn]

I agree that the world will be a far different place when the last of the Greatest Generation (WW II) is gone.  It may be that it was the generation who knew how to survive in the harshest of times because they took little for granted, like all generations before had to do.  We exist now in a world where just about everything is taken for granted and everyone wants to be the star.

If your book is in the top 100 on repeated occasions, I wouldn't worry about what friends may think.  There will always be reluctance among one's own peers.  I think some of it is fear (ie: afraid one would not like the book and not know what to say) and some of it is how one perceives certain professions (ie: it is ok for Stephen King, etc. to be a writer, but someone one actually knows? Strange, but true), which is why I have never told my family I write and limit the information to friends.  That's just me, though.  Writing is a solitary, often lonely profession.  It's just the way it is, sometimes.

Best Wishes for your success!

[Stephen Paul West]

The act of writing is lonely! You are right.

 

For a man like me who is involved in the indie fashion and film industry in Austin, it is no fun to be all isolated. Still, the actual work of writing takes a focus from all other distractions. So, maybe part of my personality is showing up - because if people ask me to upvote their albumn, or vote for a fashion, or pledge $20 for a trip to NY I'm all over it. It seems that is a nobel and kind thing. But I'm finding precious little of that social debt being repaid in my book launch.  It is strangers from London, Australia, NY and that are driving my sales and reviews!

I am reminded of the Little Red Hen story about making a loaf of bread. Nobody was interested in the work to create, but everybody thought they could eat the hot loaf out of the oven.

 

[Stephen Paul West]

I just checked and I'm up to #49 on the top 100 for spine-chilling horror. I'm am outselling most R.L. Stine novels & Dr. Seuss "What was I scared of" at the moment! http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Maiden-Blood-Venom-ebook/dp/B007FWDEL8