diary

Weekly Ramble #172

Lee Hall Leave a comment

With social media comes discord amongst those who use it and that’s nothing new. No matter your beliefs or what you follow, support and embrace, someone will have a polar opposite stance. Patience really is a virtue when it comes to being exposed to those who may not have the same beliefs as you and so many times do I see needless arguments boil over into personal and unnecessary attacks.

Having spent much time online, I’ve learned what to say and what not to say in order to mostly avoid this crap. I understand things are changing along with the times but as a creative my focus is on that creativity while also doing my best to use my time productively. Every day some drama will unfold that I chose not to be a part of. Why? Because I simply don’t have the energy. Social media is tiring enough to try and make work.

Image is everything online and those who get themselves in random arguments with random people probably won’t succeed in their endeavours. You are best spending time elsewhere. There are so many wonderful opportunities just waiting online and most them begin with supporting or embracing others.

Weekly Ramble #167

Lee Hall 2 Comments

Sometimes an extended rest is all the mind needs. Although I love being busy, it can be nice to take ten days away and spend it with my significant other. Escape equals recharge sometimes and now I am back with batteries that are full.

My intentions this year are fewfold – from querying my forever dream book to outside writing day job aspirations to even directing another show. I’ve got my work cut out and I’m so ready. 2022 was a long and labouring year which took a lot from me. A huge priority has been to get my mental health back up to scratch and now after some time away and reflection my anxiety has seemingly drained and now I must strive to keep myself in better shape both physically and mentally. These ramble posts serve as a diary and a also to-do list. Hopefully by 2023’s final one, I will be reflecting on some successes.

As I pick up where I left of just some weeks ago, I cannot help but look back on my short break away with fond memories. A huge shout-out the wonderful Island of Saint Lucia. What a fantastic place!

Final Ramble of 2022

Lee Hall 1 Comment

And as 2022 faces the final curtain I shall use these words to reflect on what has been a difficult but rewarding time that I’ll remember for many things.

From starting January with 20,000 Twitter followers and my mental health in the drain, to getting married and seeing lots of my friends and family that I hadn’t since before the pandemic. A truly wonderful personal moment for me and for the one I love the most. Love matters to me, it always will.

Anxiety was a theme throughout my 2022 and it was very much comparable to a rollercoaster for some time until recently it subsided. Perhaps reflection has put things into perspective or I’ve just learned to cope with it. Maybe it was reaching the 40,000 Twitter follower milestone. The human mind can be a complex and wonderful thing. I’m incredibly protective of mine, most writers are.

My books selling regularly and consistently brought me constant hope and reminders to keep going. The wonderful people I have connected with through so many ways, like the amazing authors who graced my life with their books to those reviewing mine. To those who took a chance on my relaunched Patreon, watch this space, more is coming in 2023. To the doubters who I might have convinced and of course to everyone who has helped push this humble blogging operation to over a thousand followers.

There were even those who voted in huge numbers for me to win actual awards – a first for me in life.

Thank you everyone.

Farewell 2022, you were many things but above all, I survived you. Until next year, dear followers.

Weekly Ramble #148

Lee Hall

It can be tiring sometimes. With the constant social media presence and content creating, that is whilst also trying to survive a world that is seemingly getting darker and worse every day. That’s how it seems anyway. Not so long ago I revelled in the fact everything went quiet for those pandemic quarantine days, now things have come back to full capacity, they seem to have returned even busier and harder.

The anxiety seems to come frequently these days and is triggered by the sometimes inane things. From an unwanted letter in the mail to a bad interaction whilst driving. This world isn’t exactly forgiving right now. Then you’ve got the politicians making decisions that really don’t seem to make sense. It really is a weird time if you think about it deep. Times keep shifting for the worse it appears, just when things start to quieten down, it gets noisy again. The disruptions are probably the cause of that anxiety and maybe I do just need to stop for a while. Take my foot of the gas and just breathe.

This week I’m in need of a recharge and unwind. Perhaps I’ll dust off the games console and escape that way. It has been all work and no play recently and well you probably know what comes from that. Stay strong loyal followers.

Weekly Ramble #136

Lee Hall Leave a comment

February has started rather brightly, almost positively if there is such a thing. This is going to be my year and right now its looking good. Books are selling and followers are finding me not just on social media but on here. We are nearly up to 1000 word press followers which to me is a phenomenal achievement that has taken many years to carve.

This month I have taken strides to try and lead the charge in promoting the works of fellow indie authors by launching a hashtag over on Twitter. You might have seen it via my most recent indie book recommendations post published just the other day. While my following and influence is quite something to behold on Twitter at least I think there is still more work to do before I can get something like a hashtag trending, we’ll see and either way its an exciting prospect considering only a few years ago I was reverting to zero most days.

You can expect a lot more indie book love from me this month and we’ll lets face it, that’s every month because not only am I an indie author but I firmly believe that supporting my industry makes it a better place to be. Just got to keep going.

Weekly Ramble #135

Lee Hall Leave a comment

January is a long month. This is handy because it is also a busy month and in between outside of non writing things and writing things, I’ve got a lot of things done, but there’s still a way to go.

The truth is, I am always doing something, I’m like that bunny with the batteries, I just keep going and that’s because there is always something to achieve on this journey. It might be a carousel in some aspects but the ride becomes all the more rewarding as it spins while also going up and down. Twitter appears to be growing stronger and stronger by the day. Tonight I will be a guest on an indie book podcast talking about my efforts which in very recent times have become the best ever on the platform. You’ll be hearing more about that soon.

Time has been my friend on this path and whether it is the nine year anniversary of being on Twitter which I just crossed to the many years I have held onto this writing dream. Things do get better for those who do keep moving forward eventually. New content and even old content serves as a pillar that can hold your presence up online. Like I always say, just got to keep going.

Weekly Ramble #122

Lee Hall 3 Comments

As a social media creative who regularly gets views and sales from various endeavours, I have concluded in order to get them consistently over time you need to stand out. Most marketing advice online is either out of date or easier said than done and standing out to me is to simply go against the grain of what everyone else is doing and hope it gets noticed. While that may seem easier said than done, and it is, only you can figure out what works for your brand or persona online but passion above all, resonates with near enough everyone.

Social media seems to contain this giant echo of everyone copying one another to the point where most folks just blend into the bandwidth. The passion in all of this is distinctly lacking. Understandably, it can be easy to get caught up or even daunted by this vacuum of repetition but where is the creativity? Buy this or subscribe to that. Everyone seems to be mining for numbers and sales with no real end game when really all you need to seek on social media is enrichment through conversation. That alone will drive visibility, engagement and eventually trust. Trust that you are more than a miner trying to score more points in an endless game that you can’t take anywhere useful. Gain the trust of someone and they’ll invest in you. And this is something that cannot be fabricated. Top that off with a little human passion and things will start to move.

This revelation came to me after I spent way more time than I probably should have on social media, scrolling, watching and talking – maybe it wasn’t in vain after all because for that time I gained the rewards from a high following to regular sales and now a belief this may some day be a career. That is without mentioning the true value of friendships through those things because I found others who share my vision. All I did was spend time conversing and less time trying to sell things and now people have become my power.

It would appear many creatives loathe the thought of marketing, but me, I actually quite enjoy the challenge and results which are always an opportunity to learn and pass information on. All driven by the desire to go against the grain and try something new fuelled by people who believe in me. Those days of reverting to zero are few and far between for me now, long may it continue.

Weekly Ramble #102

Lee Hall Leave a comment

I’m starting to enjoy the whole author social media thing. Twitter engagement has really come into its own over the past few months and my audience seems to be growing by the day. Books are selling and reviews are coming in, not just for The Teleporter but other titles as well. I’m tempting fate by acknowledging my success especially because I said at the very start of this year it was going to be brutal.

I guess if you stick at something and get some experience it eventually pays off. Got to keep going, keep chasing and keep creating – that’s my mantra in recent times and its paying dividends. People are drawn to success and much of this is in the eye of the beholder. I guess perception is part reality although I cannot ignore the statistics which are glaringly phenomenal right now. 2020 was the first full year I had 5 books to promote and they say things turn a corner after 5. While taking the pandemic demand for content in my stride I’ll say that things turned a corner and now the bar is continually rising. A year after that stride, things are going from strength to strength. I’m in a place I wanted to be.

People seem to listen to what I have to say now. That tweeting into the void of invisibility has fallen away. Now my tweets get like by several people, sometimes over a hundred. From where I once stood that’s an incredible feat on its own. I’ve carved this ‘success’ out of helping others and continually producing content while never giving up.

This was always a long game and after a while if you turn around there’s a whole bunch of road that has been travelled. I guess time flies when your kicking ass, especially when you don’t realise you are doing it.

Weekly Ramble #89

Lee Hall Leave a comment

November is a strange and long month. I’ve always called it the month of lethargy and it is in some senses. It just keeps going. The sky is normally grey and the weather turns along with the nights that seem endless, much like this year. And what a strange year this has been.

I’m still quite hopeful that quite possibly my best news is yet to appear. One is allowed to be optimistic and of course vague as the ace up my sleeve is paper thin, but it’s still an ace. Perhaps all my efforts have been building to something bigger, that’s the hope and hope is something that has kept me going time and time again throughout the slog that 2020 has been. Keep reviewing books and good things will happen, keep blogging even when everyone was taken over or distracted by fear and good things have happened. It’s turned out to be the biggest period of growth and success I’ve known to the point where others are noticing. Supporters are returning week in week out – this ramble series, the most viewed normally each week. Folks that care and perhaps even want me to succeed, ah the dream. Not once has this writing, blogging and social media-ing deal ever felt like work, although I treat it that way, if something get’s a good reception I just go with it and hope things stick.

All I have tried to do is carry on and support others like I wish to be supported. The give as good as you get philosophy but perhaps flipped around although my expectations are always grounded. We’ll see what happens next because that ace beckons…

Weekly Ramble #87

Lee Hall 2 Comments

If there wasn’t any social media I would still be writing, period. Recently I’ve been seeing more and more authors venting their frustrations because it feels like they are not selling anything or being listened to online. Is that what really matters in all of this?

I’ve vented many of my laments on here before, the whole reverting to zero thing is something all of us as creators must get used to. Just because you expected one thing and got another doesn’t mean the result was a failure. Selling hundreds of books and getting thousands of follows is great, sure, that’s an ideal world type of situation but does it really foster any type of fulfilment. If I were to rephrase that I would say selling the right book to the right person and getting the right engagement is way more fulfilling and important than getting larger numbers.

Because you had a bad book promo run or a stint of nobody liking your tweets is a paper thin reason to walk away from something as great as writing. That desire and dream you had perhaps long ago is stronger than that and so are you. For me this journey started at aged 12 in front of a Windows 98 computer on a rainy day. I’m a long way from that now because all good things and results in authoring/blogging take time and work.

Because you wrote a book and advertised it everywhere for nobody to buy it is an opportunity, not a failure. Do this for the writing and the journey your words take; everything else, no matter how much you try to get them; Retweets, follows and sales, they are not the measure of success because they are mostly out of your control so let it go. The rat race of social media will never ever go away, that feeling of chasing is constant – don’t let it bother you because there are stories out there someone wants. Stories that come from your energy and passion which deserves way more attention. Don’t give up. The greatest opportunity we have is in those words.