We've all seen these familiar posts on X, Insta, and FB. I've even posted a few with the hopes it would raise some kind of awareness tomy work. If you're not familiar, this is a screenshot of a KDP (Kindle DirectPublishing) sales dashboard, and it currently reads zero sales. A social mediapost with this image is usually accompanied by: "How's your monthgoing?" or "After all my hard work, this is what I have to show forit." Or my personal favorite: "Who will save me from this ugly set ofovals?"

What is your first instinct when you see a post like this?Do you feel sorry for the author? Does it make you feel inclined to buy a copyof the author's book, as if your one purchase will make the author feel validated?Or do you make a snap judgment about the book, or the author's ability to writebased on the number of sales? Maybe you just ignore the post. Maybe acompletely different thought?

To be clear, Yes, I will take all the pity sales anyonewants to give me. But in my heart, I'd really rather someone bought my bookbecause it was something they're interested in. I sometimes wonder how many"pity patrons" actually read the book they purchased, or if the bookjust sits in the back of their kindle queue to be forgotten about. I'm certainI am making a lot of unfair judgements here, but if you read between the lines,you'll realize I'm writing this post out of my own experience. Yes, I have purchasedbooks out of pity for an author, hoping to raise their spirits. Also, yes, Ihave let the book sit in the back of my kindle queue with nearly zerointentions to read it. And if you really want me to be honest, the pity purchasesI've attempted to read unfortunately don't hold my interest and they end up onanother dreadful list: My "Did Not Finish" list.

These are just my first thoughts on "pitypatrons", we haven't even touched on what these types of sales do to theamazon algorithm. If a "pity patron" buys a copy of one of my mysterynovels books but the patron is traditionally a romance reader, suddenly theAmazon algorithm gets the idea that my mystery novel fits in with the romancegenre. Okay, this may not happen after one purchase, but if something like thishappens enough, my book could be shown in the suggestion window to romancereaders, which are not my target audience. Finding an audience for your writingcan be extremely challenging. I don't need something like a confused algorithmslowing me down on top of everything else.

I'm probably dousing the flames of the supportive writingcommunity right now (or maybe I'm throwing gas on it). I realize I'm making someassumptions that other people's buying habits are similar to mine. Or perhapsI'm way off, and some of these sales are from people who had been meaning tobuy a book for some time but just forgot about it. Maybe the patron's interestsdo align with the author's writing, and they want to take a chance on the book.Either way, I stand by my point: what good are we doing if we buy books fromauthors who simply beg for the sale. It kind of feels like we're just droppinga few bucks into a hat. At the very least, maybe we’re increasing their Amazonsales rank for a few days. As an author, I would rather have true organicreaders/patrons. I want patrons who buy my book because something about the tagline caught their attention—or maybe there was something about the cover.Better yet, I'd love a patron who buys my book because they had previously enjoyedsomething else I wrote. These are the best kind of patrons because they're nolonger just patrons, they're fans! My main goal as an author is not to sell themost copies of my book, it’s to find my audience. Once I do that, sales are likelyto follow.

There are so many other and better ways to support writers,and it costs you nothing! A simple like and share of an author’s post goes along way. If you want to go the extra mile, leave a positive comment about thebook to give it relevance to other people. Sure, you may be a fantasy reader,but maybe you have some followers/friends who read hard crime. Recommend thebook to a book club who reads the genre of the book being promoted. And ofcourse, if you have generally read an author's book and enjoyed it, share areview.

As I'm writing this, I realize this might be something Iwill want to delete later. I have this nagging feeling that someone is going toread this and think I'm calling them or out, or that I'm stepping on theirsupportive toes. I hope not, because that’s not my intention, and I apologizeif I’ve upset you. If you are a "pity patron," I want you to know youare still very much appreciated. I'm sure your intentions are good, and I don'tknow for certain that your efforts are not worth the action. These are just myown thoughts I'm firing away with. I welcome any of your thoughts on this aswell so we can have a respectable discussion on this. I don't think I have allthe answers, and I'm certainly not perfect, because as I said at the beginningof this post, I will take all the pity sales anyone wants to give me!

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