Tuesday, 26 September 2023

Marketing My Writing: So far, a bust!

I'll start with the classic joke: Look at what I've done, and now do the exact opposite, the supposition being that what I'm doing is wrong. I published my first book on September 22, 2016, and so far, any efforts on my part to market my work has been a bust. Research had turned up an article claiming that indie authors earn on average about $500 a year, and I'd say that just about describes my situation. There are supposedly 2.2 million new books published each year in the world so over the past 7 years as of this writing, there have been 15.4 million of them and not one of my works has caught the interest of the public. ARC programs, paid reviews, book tours, advertising campaigns on social media either by myself or by companies with for-pay services, Amazon's own paid ads, none of these marketing methods has led to any substantial number of sales. Considering each one of my books has involved money out of my own pocket for beta reads, copy editing, and proofreading, I'm so far in the red that it's ridiculous. Never mind a profit, I'd be happy at this stage of the game just to break even.

Ecosystems
I first noticed this in paying for book tours. In looking at the interactions of the various participants, it became clear to me the purpose of the tour was not my book, it was the tour. People interacted with each other. Comments were about the superficial of the tour, the book cover, the book blurb, what other people said or did, the host or hostess of the tour, etc., but it became clear nobody was buying the book and actually reading it.

Recently, I tried out Instagram and discovered the same phenomenon. I paid for two ad services: each of them posting about my book. Each post got around 15,000 likes which seems like a good thing but I note that I may have gotten only one or two sales. In other words, Instagram is about Instagram, liking a post, not about buying my book. Sidebar: I join Instagram, post about my books, and then my Inbox is flooded with messages from publicity services! In fact, most of my followers seem to be people wanting me to pay them money! Ha!

There's an old saying (with many variations): If you throw enough Jell-O at the wall, eventually something is going to stick. So far, I haven't gotten much to stick.

During the summer of 2023, wondering just what horrible thing I had been doing, I paid $200 for a one-hour session with a marketing consultant. He told me a number of mistakes I had made and convinced me to slap down another $800 for his services. I did precisely what he asked then redid my ad campaigns on Amazon. Results? A bust. No better than what I had done by myself. If I search for expertise in marketing, I can find all sorts of advice. However, I've now come to the conclusion that this advice is like throwing Jell-O. While I'm sure experts in marketing are better than me, I'm not sure that anything I've done so far has been totally wrong. My biggest problem as I see it is that I'm unknown, and nobody wants to take a chance on an unknown.

I wouldn't buy my book.
I've looked at how I select a book to read. First off, I don't have much time, and I don't want to waste it. Consequently, my selection process is aiming to guarantee that my choice is a good one. I'll pick a well-known author, one whose opus matches my taste. The book blurb will confirm whether the story will pique my interest. I can't say the cover art is a factor in my choice which contradicts some marketing experts who say the cover is everything.

In other words, I would never choose one of my own books. Maybe, just maybe if I was at the cottage on a rainy day with nothing better to do, I might look at the bookshelf and somewhat randomly choose a book I would otherwise never read. This is the humor of my marketing situation. I wouldn't buy my book but I'm trying to figure out how to get people interested in it. Ha, ha!

Amazon Ad Campaigns
Out of all the marketing endeavors, I think this one deserves special mention as it is built into the sales mechanism many of us use when publishing on Amazon.

After playing with this system for years, my conclusion is this: Amazon has a really good system for themselves. Despite my best efforts, I've never been in the black. While I do manage to get the occasional sale, for the most part I am spending far more than I'm earning. My impression is that Amazon has built themselves a guaranteed money maker while I am wildly throwing Jell-O around in a hope springs eternal manner and having nothing stick. There have been periods when I left the system turned off as it was merely sucking up money and giving me pretty much nothing in return. But every once in a while, I'd try out a new idea, a new book blurb, a new tag line, new keyword targeting, etc. but to no avail. As I mentioned above, I hired a marketing consultant who re-wrote all my book blurbs and my taglines but that still didn't work. Damn if I know what the trick is. But I repeat: The biggest thing I've got going against me is that I'm just another name and there are just so many choices out there, why would anybody take risk on a complete unknown?

The Literary Lottery
I jokingly use this term to describe being discovered. It's not the marketing campaign per se, not the book blurb, not the cover, not the placement of an ad on social media, it's the point of self-combustion when the book takes on a life of its own, and interest snowballs. It's like wining the (literary) lottery! The public keeps talking about the work, passing around their enthusiasm for it and inciting others to take a look.

By all expert accounts, 50 Shades of Grey was a poorly written book. I've read numerous reviews criticizing E. L. James as a writer but after now having passed 150 million copies of her novels, she must be laughing all the way to the bank. Go figure. As odd as it sounds, quality may not always be the key to success. However, there's no doubt in my mind that Ms. James did indeed win the literary lottery. Even if her work had had critical praise, she still could have remained unknown. The old saying goes: You can work very hard and still lose.

The Numbers Game
The other week I was discussing this idea with a friend, and she gave me some example numbers.

An ad is displayed 1,000 times. Maybe 10% of the readers or 100 people look at the ad. Out of that, maybe 10% or 10 people click to view the details. Out of that, maybe 10% or 1 person actually acts on the ad as in purchasing something.

Those numbers, however, express the concept but the actual numbers would be tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions. And the percentages wouldn't be 10% but possibly 1% or even a percentage of a percent. In other words, if the ad is displayed enough times, even a 0.01% success rate could lead to sales.

I'm reminded of an old joke: A man walking down the street comes across a beggar who has a cup of pencils with a sign saying $1 million. The man chuckles and says, "You're not going to sell a lot of pencils at that price." The beggar responds, "I only have to sell one."

Shawn Warner strikes gold
This first-time author was sitting in a store, signing books when a passer-by filmed him and posted it on TikTok. It went viral and Warner's book shot up to become the number one seller on Amazon. He's now been interviewed on NBC's Today Show. (link to article) This is the type of out of the box marketing I've long suspected is what makes winning the literary lottery possible. I've jokingly said I need to go down to the city central square with a box of my books, take off all of my clothes and pass them out with the hope, before the police arrest me for indecent exposure, that the media would get wind of my story and write about it. I may spend the night behind bars but I would get publicity! Ha, ha!

Final Word
Since I was putting my name on the book, I wanted to make sure I didn't embarrass myself. I hired professional editorial help to ensure my work was in the best shape possible. I haven't exactly followed the same approach when it's come to marketing, although I have spent time researching the topic. Should I have turned more to experts? The definition of an expert: Somebody who knows just a little bit more than you.

I'm sure marketing people look at me like a sucker. My two Instagram marketers got 15,000 likes each on their ads, so in a way, they did live up to their promises. But those ads gave me no sales and in the end, sales are the only thing that counts.

Am I flailing? The supposedly made-up story of Thomas Edison has a journalist asking him to comment on his failure to invent the light bulb. Edison replies, "I haven't failed. I've merely come up with 999 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

I have concluded that marketing is not an exact science. It's very much hit and miss. But I am also convinced that my biggest stumbling block is that I am but a mere grain of sand on the beach of life. There is quite literally so much going on in the world, why would anybody take the time to look at my stuff? I go through the Amazon ad campaign statistics, studying CTR (Click-through Rate) and CPC (Cost-per-click), tweaking taglines and book blurbs while realizing the customer has a tsunami of information flying by their eyes, and I only have a millisecond to pique their curiosity. Fat chance.

My conclusion is that I continue with two possible roads to success.
  1. Eventually by sheer number of ads, something catches the public's eye.
  2. Something unusual happens like a TikTok video (or me naked), and that catches the public's eye.

Only time will tell. But I'm reminded of an author who described her approach by saying that she wasn't going to fuss too much about marketing; it would eventually take care of itself, and she was going back to writing her next novel.

Amen.


References

my blog: I wrote a book. So what? - Oct 24/2021
I clicked on the Publish button on September 22, 2016. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup." I'm sitting here, five years later, realising, "So, what?"

Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King - Dec 27/2010
Who on this planet doesn't know the name Stephen King? Born in 1947, this American author has written and published 49 novels including 5 nonfiction which have sold over 350 million copies. Of course, his fame has spread even further as a number of these books have been turned into successful films: Carrie, The Shining, It and Misery to name but a few.

2023-09-26

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Saturday, 14 January 2023

Politics: pandering not leading

Two plus two equals five.

Pandering
The right answer is five. Mainstream media is lying to you! Don't be a sheeple! Do your own research! Don't let the establishment oppress you! You should be free to believe what you want to believe! Your freedom above all else!

Leading
The right answer is four. Yes, two plus two equals four. Let me explain the science. Let me show you the math. We're all better off with the right answer. It's beneficial to everyone.

Fox News and Sean Hannity among others have supported the claim of election fraud. On December 21, 2022, during the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Sean Hannity said under oath, "I did not believe it for one second." (source: Snopes)

Then why did Hannity repeatedly support that claim?

Fox News is a for profit company. By attracting as many people as possible, they can get more ad revenue. And what better way to attract an audience than by giving them what they want. Those people think the answer is five. Rather than lead them to the right answer, Fox News panders to them by supporting the falsehood. There's more money to be made by agreeing with the audience than by trying to educate them. While somebody may argue that it's a free country, and Fox News can do what they want, I could argue they are complicit in the January 6th insurrection. I'm sure Fox would argue otherwise in court but there's no doubt about it, they assisted in hammering home t****'s message that the election was stolen from him. Fox News played a role in convincing people to storm the capitol. Even if Sean Hannity didn't believe it, he repeated it as part of Fox's strategy to build and maintain an audience.

t****'s Strategy
If you repeat it often enough, it becomes true. It's come out that at the time of the election, he knew he lost. But at some point, he said to himself, "Why not give it a try? What have I got to lose?" And so, he lied. And he's still lying. In fact, in looking back at his career, he's always been lying so there's nothing new about any of this. What is new is that we all are confronted with somebody who doesn't play by the rules, and we have no idea of how to deal with it.

I've joking portrayed this as we hold a cocktail party. t**** walks into our home, into the middle of the living room, drops his draws, squats down, and takes a dump. We are stunned into inaction. This is so out of the ordinary, so bizarre, we have no idea of what to do. We've never had to face such behavior before; we have no experience in how to deal with the situation. And some of us, immediately begin to rationalize this. We didn't really see that. Donald is just being Donald. What a jokester!

GOP Strategy
Countless conservative politicians are piggybacking on The Base. Denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election, downplaying the pandemic, rallying against all that is progressive liberal, etc., politicians are playing Chicken Little in stirring up fear and hate as if this is the end of the United States of America. Like Fox News, they are pandering not leading.

Example: Governor Ron DeSantis has done an about face on vaccines, now calling for investigations into their use.

Stochastic Terrorism
This is the public demonization of a person or a group for the unstated purpose of inciting violence against the target by a random stranger. The author of the demonization takes no responsibility for the violence but secretly hopes someone else will carry out their wishes.

t**** and his ilk have used over and over again violent imagery when speaking about their so-called enemies. (see MeidasTouch video below) There is no doubt t**** in the months leading up to the insurrection, and in his speech the morning of January 6th, was knowingly stoking the flames. The people who stormed the capitol were convinced they were part of a unique part of history, overturning a corrupt and evil system in favor of their self-appointed savior. The con man conned the people. The grifter pulls off his greatest grift.

Fox News and other conservative outlet by giving t**** and others a platform are complicit in the dissemination of hate speech. It might be indirect, subliminal, but it's hate nonetheless. Is it any wonder somebody broke into Nancy Pelosi's home? She has been cast by others as evil incarnate. Some may argue that it's political hyperbole but others take it literally.

Americans at war with Americans
Think about this for a second. There's a lot of bad in the world: North Korea, Iran, The Taliban, Russia certainly with its war with Ukraine, China not always playing by the rules and eyeing Taiwan, etc. But who are Americans fighting with? Themselves. Yes, Americans are fighting with their fellow citizens. Heck, some Americans, the far far right, have even called for the death of other Americans. (Hello, Marjorie!) I'm sorry, but what?

Everybody seems to be so incensed with the ideological divide in politics that nobody seems to have noticed the lights are still on. Yes, under Obama, the lights were on. Under t****, the lights did remain on. And now, under Biden, the lights are still on. But listen to the ranters and gnashers of teeth, Chicken Little is telling us the world is coming to an end. There's nothing to be done. It's the apocalypse! [eye roll] Oh, please!

Critical Thinking
During the 2016 Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory was that the Democrats were running a child sex ring out of a pizzeria in a suburb of Washington DC. A man from North Carolina drove to the Comet Pizzeria and shot the lock off a door searching for imprisoned children in the basement. There was no basement in the building. Over and over again, I keep hearing people spout off the most inane ideas and remain perplexed at how these people can be so stupid. Outrageous, ridiculous, physically impossible, there seems to be no end to wild theories about the global cabal hell-bent on taking over the world. This so-called illuminati has to be pretty incompetent because people have been talking about them for centuries, and they still have not managed to get into power.

Final Word
The panderers want power. They don't want "the truth" in quotation marks. They don't care about doing good and making the world a better place for all of us; they only care about power. They misrepresent, misinform, and outright lie in the hopes of getting our support. What scares me is that in the long run, they are going to unintentionally hurt themselves. We are all in the same boat, and whether we realize it or not, we're all going to go down together.


Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich (Used without permission. Sorry.)

Postscript
I'm sure somebody's going to immediately conclude I'm a libtard, I'm a Bradon supporter, I'm another one of those blind liberal sheeple. Let me clarify that I want "the truth". I don't want the Democatic truth or the liberal truth; I want the truth. The Left is not perfect. The Left has issues which need to be addressed. I do no blindly follow an ideology as in a Democratic ideology. I admit to being a progressive liberal, but I find the Democratic Party to be imperfect, in need of an overhaul. If Hunter Biden is guilty of something, charge him. If Joe Biden "deliberately" stole classified documents, charge him. However, I find the Democratic Party a better choice than the Republican Party. They're not perfect but I think we all stand a better chance of improving society with them than with the GOP.



References

Wikipedia: Stochastic Terrorism
Since 2018, the term "stochastic terrorism" has become a popular term used when discussing lone wolf attacks. While the exact definition has morphed over time, it has commonly come to refer to a concept whereby consistently demonizing or dehumanizing a targeted group or individual results in violence that is statistically likely, but cannot be easily accurately predicted.

Wikipedia: Pizzagate conspiracy theory
"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle.[1][2][3] It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.

Published Nov 2/2022 by MeidasTouch
YouTube: Violent GOP (1:56)




2023-01-14

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