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Want to know why Ernest Hemingway is still talked about as a writer when so many of his contemporaries are forgotten?He started out his adult life on the battlefield.
Life is a battle. Victory is not to the swift, to the valiant, or the brave. (Though that is often the way to bet.)
It is to the one who fights smart.
Siv Maria voiced what many of us feel:
"I think I was born too late or too early. In the world we live in today there just is nothing new anymore."
Ernest Hemingway felt the same way when he was struggling to find the title to his new novel. He returned to the giants of the past. Out of the verses of John Donne, he picked ...
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.
We can prevail if we do not give up. If we assail a knot until we loosen it, we will succeed.
The Turkish author, Selim Yeniceri, wrote me:
"A great work of art comes through talent which you bring from birth,
but to make it successful in worldly terms, you have to be a strategist, because business world is really like a battleground."
We have to implement GUERILLA MARKEKTING TACTICS!
1.) KNOW WHAT WEAPONS SCORE HITS.
Shooting a Sherman tank with a handgun is pointless.
Myths will get you killed on the battlefield:
SOCIAL MEDIA WILL GARNER SALES.
Like much of life that myth is both true and not. Take Amanda Hocking.
She is thought to have translated a Facebook and Twitter following into huge sales.
Right before her books took off, she had about 500 to 1,000 visitors to her social media properties.
The math makes it simple.
How can 1,000 people drive 2 million in sales? Not possible.
IT WAS THE UNIQUENESS OF THAT APPROACH WHICH GARNERED WORD OF MOUTH.
Now, everybody shouts BUY ME! from Twitter and Facebook, but no one is listening.
2.) MAKE EACH BLOW COUNT.
Engaging in forums, blogs, twitter, and Facebook will get you sales. But you have to invest enormous time to garner a trickle of sales.
Invest that time in what will get the most out of your efforts.
3.) SEO
No, not SOL (Merde Out of Luck) but it could be unless you choose the right 7 keywords for your book.
S(earch) E(ngine) O(ptimization)
Amazon searchers are humans not robots so think like a human.
A.) Use Google Search to find what pops up most when you type in a possible word you are considering for your seven Amazon words:
Say, put down Urban Fantasy ...
A list will pop down. Look at it. Think what will pop up in Amazon if you use your chosen word.
B.) Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This will give you not only possibilities but percentages of people using the word!
C.) Ebay's Hot Trends ... see what items are hot that are related to your book.
D.) AMAZON'S MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Look those books up. Check to see what keywords that you are considering that you can find in their product description. Check to see what keywords you could utilize from their descriptions in your own.
E.) AMAZON'S SEARCH BOX.
Write ... say horror or dark fantasy and see what list pops down from the search box. You will see possible great words you can use in your own seven key words.
F.) TODAY'S TOP SEARCHES ON GOOGLE.
You may find inspiration for one of your seven key words there. Don't waste any avenue of help here!
4.) I AM NOT GETTING A COMMISSION FROM THIS RECOMMENDATION.
Spend $4.99 and get MAKE A KILLING ON KINDLE.
http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Facebook-Guerilla-Marketers-ebook/dp/B007XVWEIU
Michael Alvear will make you laugh, argue with him, and give you many sell-making hints for your book.
The laughs alone were worth the five dollars to me. They came on very black days. I needed them.
Will you make a killing on Amazon? Hey, my sales are still in the basement! But he gave me smart weapons to use. What more can we ask?
(What is said about websites is also true about your book on Amazon's Search Engine as well in this following video)
I definitely agree with #1. There are so many people selling stuff on Facebook and Twitter that almost nothing stands out anymore. So it's pretty pointless.
ReplyDeletePT:
ReplyDeleteYes. I look occasionally on Twitter, and it seems everyone is shouting, "Look at me! Buy Me!" If I spot a tweet of hurt or of depession, I respond if I think I might help in some small way. Thanks for writing.
The social media blanket might have worked for Amanda Hocking, plus she had her vampire books out quickly at .99 when people were just tuning into Kindle. She was very lucky and benefited from being in the right place at the right time. If she started up now, with the same books, she would no doubt be just another blip on the screen.
ReplyDeleteKarenG:
ReplyDeleteTiming is just another kind of lightning that we have no control over. I believe you are correct about her success in today's market if she were to assay it as an unknown.
May the right kind of lightning strike the two of us! :-)
I especially agree with your opinion about mass media, Roland. Mass media age is over already; now it's time for "high-tech/high-touch" approach, which Web provides a perfect platform.
ReplyDeleteI'm also sick and tired of cliché and cheap fantasy stories full of vampires, zombies, wereanimals, etc. There are many untackled areas and subjects, which we can even base our stories on topics from real life, weaving them with fantastic components. I think it's really like having a man bite a dog, you know? If we can approach real life problems from a fantastic point of view, and use sophisticated philosophies through an easy and flowing language, we can not only provide some entertainment, but also give the readers important insights.
I'd like to give two examples here: One is Spiderman, the hero of my childhood, and the other is Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince trilogy, which I had the privilege to translate it to Turkish. Dragon Prince didn't only give me an idea of name for my son (Rohan), but also made me think over this question: "In a story where everything is surreal, what impresses us, and take us along the story?" Well, the thing that never changes in all the stories is human factor. When you can depict your characters as real human beings as possible, instead of paper-profiles, your story has a soul in itself, so you can impress every reader. And secondly, about Spiderman, which is actually the same principle here, even if he has super powers, Peter is a real person, and that's why you can always identify with yourself, because he has real life problems as every single of us.
At the other hand, when it comes to strategical marketing part of our work, I think we always face the same problem: We have to make it impressive in a few words to be able to promote it, because only these a few words will take the reader's attention. Use mass media, or social media, you have to stand out with those a few words, because people won't read the long back cover summaries, but a few words. And trust me, as an ex-general publishing director of a publishing company, I know it's the most difficult part of our profession.
Selim:
ReplyDeleteYes, when I was young I could equate to Peter Parker because he was human. He lost fights. He lost loves. He was insecure. He was human under the mask.
I believe it is very important in surreal fiction to anchor the action to characters whose humanity rings true.
I am at a loss as what will actually work in this age where the social media is a thing of the past. I truly get a lot from your comments. Thank you for visiting, Roland