Lupe Farkas

Dear Rebels,

Remember what happened in September when I was finishing a project as a ghostwriter? Yes, Rebels, I’m also a ghostwriter! Well, I didn’t post for four days, and the numbers went down. Guess what?

IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

HAHAHAHA!

Apparently, it happens every time this little indie author posts less, works a little less and decides to start acting like a normal human being. What I’m discovering in this wonderful world of the internet, SEO, keywords and algorithms is that CONTENT IS KING AND CONSISTENCY IS QUEEN! Rebels, that queen is exhausting! To be read, you need to be out there posting, posting and posting. For that, you need to work a LOT.

Well, I got tired. YES, REBELS! I GOT TIRED! So I concentrated on my books, continued writing The Chosen, my free gothic horror story about witches, ancient secrets and Brazilian mythology, and didn’t post much else. What happened?

Well, you guys didn’t have much new material to read apart from The Chosen, so you didn’t come visiting as often. Apparently, my witches were keeping the website alive!

HAHAHAHA!

Let’s See the Numbers!

LOOK AT THAT!

36.9% FEWER VIEWS!

HAHAHAHA!

Google God, darling, I was tired! Now let’s look at the other platforms.

The website figures compare 14 and 15 October. LinkedIn and Instagram cover seven days, Facebook covers 28 days, and the podcast changes cover 30 days. So yes, some numbers went down quite a lot! But others went up. Now, Rebels, let’s talk about those Instagram followers.

The Follow-for-Follow Experiment

You saw in my last post that I joined some Instagram indie author groups. Follow for follow, you know. I wanted to test it and see what would happen.

DID IT WORK?

YES, OF COURSE!

Rebels, I gained a lot of followers! 185 net new followers in seven days!

HAHAHAHA!

Look at me! I’m becoming famous! Well… no. These followers came largely from the indie author groups I joined. They followed me because I followed them. But were they interacting with my posts?

Were they buying my books?

NO!

Of course, with some of these authors I developed beautiful friendships. We like and comment on each other’s posts, exchange suggestions and help one another. I absolutely love that! But the majority? They’re just there. They followed me because I followed them. They aren’t particularly interested in my content or my work.

So I left the groups. I don’t like anything that isn’t real. What makes me happy are the real connections. The authors whose books I’ve reviewed and with whom I’ve created beautiful friendships. There are quite a lot of them now!

The readers who enjoy this homemade website, the people who love following my craziness on social media, and those of you reading The Chosen and discovering Before October Ends. Those are the people I want around me! Now, Rebels, let’s talk about the other side of the indie author battle to get noticed.

Tanto Fumo, Poco Fuoco!

In Italy, we say:

TANTO FUMO, POCO FUOCO!

A lot of smoke, very little fire! Rebels, I’ve been seeing quite a lot of smoke lately. We have real book creators who love reading, create wonderful content and genuinely help authors find readers. I love those creators!

But I’m talking about the scammers. The people selling indie authors a dream using impressive follower counts, suspicious engagement and promises of exposure. Here’s what happens. An indie author finds a book creator with 30,000 followers.

WOW!

THIRTY THOUSAND FOLLOWERS!

Of course, the author thinks this person must be incredibly popular. Then the creator offers to make a little video about the book. How much? $200!

What does the video contain? Sometimes it’s just somebody repeating the blurb and telling everyone how wonderful the book is. That’s it! Now imagine being an indie author who has spent months or years writing a book.

You look at those 30,000 followers, and your dream starts screaming inside your head. WOW! If I pay this person $200, at least half of those followers might see my book! Imagine how many copies I could sell! That’s where the problem begins.

Because Rebels, I’ve been studying these profiles. Some have more than 20,000 followers and hundreds of posts. You look at their most popular posts, and there are lots of likes and comments.

AMAZING!

LOVE THIS!

SO GOOD!

Then you start scrolling through the older posts. No comments. No likes.

NOTHING!

You go back to those popular posts and read the comments again.

AMAZING!

LOVE THIS!

SO GOOD!

Rebels, did everybody receive the same script?

HAHAHAHA!

These patterns are exactly why I investigate accounts instead of trusting impressive numbers. I’m talking about the scammers who manufacture popularity, sell it as influence and take advantage of indie authors desperate to find readers. Because indie authors are dreamers. Including me!

We write our books, put our hearts into them, publish them and hope somebody will discover them. When we see a creator with 30,000 followers, we don’t necessarily think about engagement rates or whether those people are genuine readers. We think:

PEOPLE WILL FINALLY FIND MY BOOK!

So authors pay $200, hoping the video will bring readers and sales. Instead, they get a little video repeating their blurb, almost nobody interacts with it, and sometimes the person who took their money disappears. Two hundred dollars gone. Book sales?

ZERO!

The author is left wondering what happened.

Did I Pay?

NO!

HAHAHAHA!

Why? Two reasons, Rebels. First, you know I investigate EVERYTHING! I’ve been studying these profiles, checking followers, examining comments, looking at older posts and running accounts through social media analysis tools.

I’m learning a lot! Second, and most importantly, THIS IS MY INDIE AUTHOR EXPERIMENT! Remember? One year of discovering what happens when an independent author tries to find readers without paying for advertising or promotion.

So even if I found somebody offering the most incredible promotional opportunity in the world, paying them would defeat the purpose of this experiment. I want to see what happens when I do the work myself. I want to understand how all this works. Rebels, the more I investigate, the more fascinating this world becomes!

Because what I’m discovering is that a big follower count means absolutely nothing if the followers aren’t interested in the content. Thirty thousand followers! Very impressive, darling. But where are the readers?

WHERE ARE THE BOOK SALES?

Publishers, I Have a Question!

Now let’s talk about something else. We live in a world where publishers look at how many followers a writer has. A world where readers discover books because they’re going viral on TikTok or Instagram. A world where a big creator falling in love with your book can change everything.

Rebels, I understand that! I would LOVE for a big book creator with a real audience to discover Before October Ends, fall in love with Elisabetta Rossi and tell everybody about her. Or discover The Chosen, fall in love with my witches and recommend the story to thousands of readers! That would be wonderful!

But that creator must be REAL. Somebody who genuinely loves books and whose followers actually trust their recommendations. Not one of these fake creators trying to steal money from authors online. Now, publishers…

WHEN DID YOU GET SO LAZY?

Seriously! When did you stop doing real marketing and start relying on a young adult screaming on TikTok that a book is amazing? When did the number of followers become so important? What happened to discovering a wonderful manuscript and helping the author find readers?

What happens to the writer who has written an incredible book but doesn’t have thousands of followers? Does that mean the book isn’t good? Because Rebels, sometimes it feels like it doesn’t matter how good a writer you are anymore. What matters is how many followers you have.

I don’t have those enormous numbers. Could I get them? Of course! There are plenty of people willing to sell me followers.

I could buy enough to make my profile look very impressive.

HAHAHAHA!

Imagine that! LUPE FARKAS! THIRTY THOUSAND FOLLOWERS! Then what? Thirty thousand accounts that don’t read my posts, don’t visit my website and couldn’t tell you the title of one of my books.

What exactly would I have achieved?

What I Want Is Real People!

Rebels, I want readers. Real readers! I want people who enjoy The Chosen, who look forward to the next chapter and who love discovering what my witches are doing. I want people who read Before October Ends and get to know Elisabetta Rossi.

I want authors who love discussing books, readers who enjoy my reviews and people who come to this homemade website because they genuinely like what I’m creating. Those are the followers I want. Not bots. Not people following me because I followed them.

Not fake engagement purchased to make an account look successful.

REAL PEOPLE!

That’s what matters to me. That’s also why I’ve created Rebel Notes!

LOT to say!