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akjeOkay, I think I understand now! (*＾-‘) 乃
After watching five billion videos about The Age of Scorpius this week, I think I've finally got the picture. Her marketing was actually quite awful when you think about it, but when she put her book up for sale in the TikTok shop the algorithm immediately shoved her book into everyone's feed whether they wanted it or not, and that's how she sold so many pre-orders! Yes, that makes sense. TikTok makes a profit from everything sold in their shop, so they're motivated to flog it to as many users as possible, and there must be millions of users on TikTok. Imagine one book showing up in the feeds of millions who don't even follow you. Of course there were thousands of people who became interested. It would work the same way for anyone else's book too.
Kind of a sad commentary on our society, though. Imagine if there was a destitute but amazing writer promoting an absolutely brilliant book on TikTok at the same time as Audra. But that other writer is dirt poor and can't afford to produce a fancy special edition hardcover with sprayed edges, professional artwork and all the other bells and whistles...just a genius story in a humble package. TikTok's algorithm is a zero sum game. They can't promote every video. There's only so much screen real estate out there. If User A's vids are showing up in everyone's feed right now, it's because User B's are being suppressed. So somewhere out there is this other user crying that the algorithm that once helped them is now taking their dreams away. And that user is a brilliant writer. So much for cream rising to the surface when algorithms hold it down.
Sure sucks to live in this time period, but what can we do? ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I definitely agree with the general consensus that all those readers who pre-ordered The Age of Scorpius should not get a refund. They got exactly what they paid for. They wanted all the aesthetics, and they got them. No one even bothered to ask the author to post a snippet of her writing until the books had already been shipped. They obviously didn't care one whit about the writing, just the artwork, and they got that. The artwork's beautiful! (੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭‧˚₊*̥✧
After watching five billion videos about The Age of Scorpius this week, I think I've finally got the picture. Her marketing was actually quite awful when you think about it, but when she put her book up for sale in the TikTok shop the algorithm immediately shoved her book into everyone's feed whether they wanted it or not, and that's how she sold so many pre-orders! Yes, that makes sense. TikTok makes a profit from everything sold in their shop, so they're motivated to flog it to as many users as possible, and there must be millions of users on TikTok. Imagine one book showing up in the feeds of millions who don't even follow you. Of course there were thousands of people who became interested. It would work the same way for anyone else's book too.
Kind of a sad commentary on our society, though. Imagine if there was a destitute but amazing writer promoting an absolutely brilliant book on TikTok at the same time as Audra. But that other writer is dirt poor and can't afford to produce a fancy special edition hardcover with sprayed edges, professional artwork and all the other bells and whistles...just a genius story in a humble package. TikTok's algorithm is a zero sum game. They can't promote every video. There's only so much screen real estate out there. If User A's vids are showing up in everyone's feed right now, it's because User B's are being suppressed. So somewhere out there is this other user crying that the algorithm that once helped them is now taking their dreams away. And that user is a brilliant writer. So much for cream rising to the surface when algorithms hold it down.
Sure sucks to live in this time period, but what can we do? ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I definitely agree with the general consensus that all those readers who pre-ordered The Age of Scorpius should not get a refund. They got exactly what they paid for. They wanted all the aesthetics, and they got them. No one even bothered to ask the author to post a snippet of her writing until the books had already been shipped. They obviously didn't care one whit about the writing, just the artwork, and they got that. The artwork's beautiful! (੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭‧˚₊*̥✧