A copy of my short story sold a few days ago, which was surprising because I hadn’t done anything to make that happen. (Naturally, and like most other hobbyist writers, getting a sale usually involves some sign-spinning on my part.) When I sold a second copy an hour later, I got so suspicious that I began Googling my name and the title of my short story to see if I was mentioned anywhere—how did these two people find out about my story? But I couldn’t find anything.
Now, three days later, 14 copies of the short story have sold, and in the meantime I dug deep enough in Google’s search results to discover the source of the attention—it turns out some nice person read it and mentioned me on Reddit. He was so complimentary that over a dozen people saw it and decided to take a chance on an author they’d never heard of. It was a tremendous Christmas present.
This is really encouraging to me, not only as a writer, but as a consumer as well. Sharing matters. When you patronize that small business, or play that indie board game, promote that homegrown Kickstarter campaign, or, yes, read that self-published book, don’t underestimate how meaningful it can be to share your experiences.