Where is empathy nowadays?

One simple thing can make you smile and your day will be better. As much as your mood is bad or sad, something will capture your attention and you will forget your troubles, even for a moment.

I went to the shopping mall to buy some food for dinner. I met a man with a bloody face; he asked for more beer. I suppose he fell, or he got hard kicks from someone, but the impression was like in horror movies. Freddie Kruger is in the shopping, walking around without purpose. People were in fear. What will that creature do to break something or find some victim? Is it necessary to call the police?

The guy took empty bottles for money and went out, like nothing happened, with his bloody face. It seems he had no mirror on his way home.

This event showed something else.

Nobody cares, only in case of scandal people will ask what happened.

I mean, wf, that is an only drunk dude, who asked one more bottle of beer. His face was bloody, so what? Probably he fell on the ground because he is drunk and clumsy.

When I saw him, I thought "here comes the man who cares more for beer than for his face." What makes him so ignorant for the entire world, how he stashed his problems in a beer bottle? Maybe he has an unhappy marriage with the mad wife or nasty kids who spent all his salary, or his fiance broke relations and get married to another man?

So, thinking about him, about an alcoholic man who shows up in the market, I thought also about myself. Still, my problems have solutions because I noticed him even I was so angry that day. That is a kind of paradox, I saw someone with bigger problems, who don't care for anything other than a beer bottle. Sometimes, you must see the bottom, to care for the things on the top. If you wish to stand firmly on the ground, clean your mind. Don't let others notice that you are miserable or destructive. People will not feel sorry for you, their empathy is not limitless. Probably they will laugh or ask what is going on, to please their curiosity. If you wish to pull attention with scarves on your face or tears or yelling, remember that nobody cares.

Empathy is here, somewhere in the corner. Empathy is selective, and for sure it will not choose desperate people. Help yourself and others will help you too.

Should we respond to negative reviews?

Recently I had a discussion in my social media about negative ratings. There was a situation in Goodreads, where I got two negative reviews on my two books. The point was in the way how the ratings were set up. First rating for my book "Body in the waves" was placed under 5-star review from another reviewer. While the reviewer praising my book, the troll came under to say "This is really bad book." Second rating was described as " Poor author needs writing lessons." Both reviews broke standards of reviewing, because there is no visible evidence that book was downloaded in Kindle unlimited or purchased. It was a clear troll act from a new page, without a profile photo and with a nickname. I reported this to Goodreads and they responded me they are processing this. Meanwhile, I heard from other authors that Goodreads failed to do anything about trolling. In these terms, Goodreads should delete such profiles and forbid the access because of breaking rules. T...

Why the refund is damaging indie authors?

I understand someone can be disappointed with a book. It is like I was disapointed with my trousers online and returned it. What makes a difference, my trousers were 40 euros. The book was 2.49 cents. This makes return funny, because what can you do with this money? Some readers don't understand story behind the refund. The author will get minus royalties. - 0.13 c in my Kindle report, that will vanish when someone else buy the book. The situation happens. Someone accidentaly clicked and bought a book. A random customer wants a refund. Maybe it was not a random move. Maybe the customer clicked, bought and did not like the book. When you don't like the book choose another options, instead of damaging authors. Write a negative review. Write negative one star rating. Don't purchase another books from this author. Or, maybe to reconsider and read it, again? If you write negative reviews or rate it with 1 or 2 stars, you are making a favor to authors. You are moving algorithms i...

Five myths about promo sites

Recently I asked for a featured Bookbub deal for one of my books. I got response that my book should be free priced and my expense would be 230 dollars. This is really funny, because I could expect people grab my book for free and give me one star (as it happens when books are available for everyone). To pay such amount of money would be waste and without a purpose. I am mix of traditional and indie author. Having a publisher, but not bestseller books, I am looking for ways to increase my book sales. Promo sites like Bookbub are very expensive and they offer their deals for 25% books from authors who applied for this. I had an insight to author's books who grabbed Bookbub deals. It works will authors who are already selling a good amount of their books. In general, promo sites are not working for favor of indie authors. These are five myths about promo sites: Promo sites give many readers. It is not true, because you will get visibility and many trolls, but not readers. Promo sites...

Rebelious rules by Kristina Gallo

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