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Thursday, November 7, 2013

THEY LIE


There once was a movie where the hapless hero discovered
that aliens had taken over and disguised themselves as humans.

The aliens possessed the best jobs
and they rigged the economy so that humans could not succeed.

If you search on the net for ways to attract readers to your book, THEY will tell you:

1.) CHOOSE A HOOK OF A TITLE
 
2.) CREATE A STUNNING, EYE-CATCHING COVER
 
3.) PUT A LINK TO ANOTHER OF YOUR BOOKS AT THE END OF EACH NOVEL
 
4.) INSERT POPULAR KEYWORDS IN YOUR PRODUCT DESCRIPTION & METADATA.
 
5.) NETWORK AND PROMOTE YOUR BOOK WITH COVER REVEALS & TOURS

{There was one post that actually put:  "Sell Lots of Books on Amazon --
The more popular your book is on Amazon, the more it will get noticed."}

Ah, DUH!

THEY LIE!

There are thousands of self-published books out there.  Yours and mine are tiny rafts in a huge cyber-ocean of books.

There are dozens of cover reveals and tours weekly.  You are singing to the choir with these even if you hit a receptive chord. 

Authors selling to authors will only squeeze out a few sales.  The initial numbers are promising, and then they dwindle.

Amazon and Google constantly change their Algorithms and Keyword sensitivities.  Amazon puts its bolder font and color where it will. 

A book: HOW TO SELL FICTION ON KINDLE,
http://www.amazon.com/Fiction-Kindle-Marketing-Amazons-Ecosystem-ebook/dp/B00BR6G3ZW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383879349&sr=8-2&keywords=make+a+killing+on+kindle

let you use HTML to do it yourself.  Uh, oh.  Like a Medici Pope, Amazon put its foot down this past November 1st.  Remove them or else!  Ouch.

Essentially, we are in a Ponzi Scheme:

The first to think of a novel way to attract readers wins, the followers just lose.

Amanda Hocking used TWITTER. Now, everyone uses TWITTER and FB and no one listens.

John Locke sold his books at 99 cents.  Now, Amazon's algorithms count TWO 99 CENT sale as one book sale in their ranking. Ouch.

If you can visit 100 blogs daily for a year, you will sell books.  But most of us cannot.

The only winners in this Ponzi set-up are those who write HOW TO SUCCEED books and sell their seminars on SUCCESS WITH YOUR EBOOKS. 

To break out of the author-to-author ghetto, you have to be tapped from the OUTSIDE by a widely read source. 

You cannot buy that kind of tap.  It comes unexpected in various ways:

one of your posts strikes a chord in the consciousness of American internet users;

you are featured in a major newspaper or national TV network,

you are asked out by Miley Cyrus, President Obama, or Madonna.

It is out of your hands. 

All you can do is position yourself with a string of the best books you can write with fantastic covers and hook titles ...

so that should the lightning strike, you can take advantage of it.

13 comments:

  1. Now I am totally depressed... but, in the good tradition of an Aries, I will not think about it, I will ignore it, and I will go back to my stories... :-)
    Roland, I'm sure your day will come.

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  2. Vesper:
    Didn't mean to depress you. Your way is really the way I advocate: try our best each day with our prose -- but know that the odds are enormous and success is simply just never giving up. :-)

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  3. One can get bogged down trying to foretell the future. If lightning strikes, be ready; if it doesn't look for a key like Ben Franklin and try to attract that energy.

    Like the field of dreams, one day they will come. (I liked that movie)

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  4. D.G.:
    I liked FIELD OF DREAMS, too. Alas there are just too many thousands of dream fields out there to expect folks to see yours.

    But you're right: try our best to attract that energy -- which I guess is to be positive, right? :-)

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  5. Rather than finding it depressing, it kind of takes the pressure off, the pressure of feeling like there is so much more I should be doing to get my books noticed. I get marketing fatigue before I even get started. Maybe being relatively new to self-publishing (and not reading nearly as many writing how-to blogs as I used to), I don't really know what to expect as far as sales, so every time I sell even one book I'm excited.

    Now, if I could just get back to writing...

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  6. It just seems so hard to promote and get your name out there.

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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  7. I am sadly crying... weeping! I am to stop writing... right now.

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  8. I have been beating myself up the last month to better my stuff that I do, how to stand out amongst the millions of others. Looking for that untapped resource/market, I will let you know when I find it. Your advantage is you are a true talent, you share truths and situations not in just your writings...

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  9. J.B.:
    Yes, in a strange way, this Ponzi set-up does take the pressure off. It's not a case of us visiting 20 more blogs per day or missing some vital part of the writing equation.

    It is basically luck. So we can concentrate on crafting the best, most riveting, most fun books we can so that if lightning strikes we are in the position to take advantage of it.

    One sale makes my day, too. But haven't had one in so long I forget how it feels! :-)

    Gina:
    Yes, it is so hard to promote and get our names recognized and liked and bought.

    We have to keep on writing, keep on with our blogs, and be a light for our fellow strugglers.

    Jeremy:
    Never stop writing. You never know when the lightning will hit. It might be next week or next month.

    I, too, beat myself up for not being better -- it is what those who grow in their craft do. We push ourselves to be better.

    That untapped resource is out there. It is probably staring us right in the face, and we cannot see it.

    We have to look outside our usual way of thinking about talking about our books. I, too, will let you know if I find it. :-)

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  10. The fight scene in They Live is so epic.

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  11. It does take those outside forces to really launch a book. I know my publisher works with a lot of science fiction conventions to promote my titles.

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  12. Matthew;
    That certainly was no wussy fight scene, and that is for sure! I loved the concept of the movie.

    Alex:
    Having a supportive publisher can mean all the difference in the world. You deserve the success. :-)

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  13. That was an Epic movie!
    They...better not try to remake it!

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