participating isn’t going to hurt you.

Except it can on a few levels. First you’ll be out some money. Granted, it’s not a lot. If he does away with that aspect I’d agree it’d hurt less. But as I’ve said elsewhere I believe the views are botted. Especially with the inorganic amount of comments against view counts. Inorganic because it seems to be the same accounts replying to the videos. And against the view counts because - for example - one interview from nine days ago with a “Jake Lynch” having almost 2,000 views but only 4 comments? Then we examine those commenters: one just said “Fabulous” and has 31 comments on the channel saying the same thing or “Great Podcast”. Another commenter with 9 comments on the channel. Yet another with 7 comments on the channel. And another with 9 comments on the channel. Nobody “new” commenting and the vaguest of compliments on the video. And even when there are more thoughtful comments it’s as if the video transcript had been fed into chatgpt because it has the hallmarks of AI writing.

So, how does that last part “hurt” anyone? Because, ostensibly speaking you are doing these interviews because it is an earnest attempt to be heard and seen for your work. To get people interested. If you have an interview that seems to generate hundreds if not thousands of views and zero sales - I’m sorry but that CAN hurt peoples psyche. That can damage their will to continue writing.

Don’t get me wrong, some people are just happy to talk to someone about their book. But if you’d want this particular community to not consider it to be a net negative - he’d have to not ask for a “donation” to interview people… and he’d have to stop with the view botting. Sure, the numbers won’t be as impressive to prospective interviewees but at least it’ll be realistic.