Letter to a writer who is losing confidence

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Maybe people stopped buying them because they already have them. Sounds more like a reason to write something else than to give in.

I still expected the less-than-200 people who bought the books to tell others and expand my customer base. That's the whole point of writing to sell.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I still expected the less-than-200 people who bought the books to tell others and expand my customer base. That's the whole point of writing to sell.

Why would they do that? If they liked you enough to want to get a friend to read one of your books they would also be looking at your blog. You've made it pretty clear on there how you feel about people reading your books without paying for them.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Why would they do that? If they liked you enough to want to get a friend to read one of your books they would also be looking at your blog.

Certainly not true in any broad sense. I read books, I don't read blogs, and I don't see the connection in any case.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Why would they do that? If they liked you enough to want to get a friend to read one of your books they would also be looking at your blog. You've made it pretty clear on there how you feel about people reading your books without paying for them.

Firstly, I don't assume anyone reads my blog. Less than 6 people regularly read my blog, and most of those are other writers who've never bought a single one of my books. My blog is my exercise in futility, the stuff I write knowing no one reads it.

Secondly, you seem to be equating "tell others" with "give all your friends a ripped copy of my books." Although I'm sure some (insert impressive string of expletives here)s do that, I'd still like to think that most of my customers would not, whether they read my blog or not. (Okay, so I'm also stupid.)

My point was this: What is the most powerful way of promoting/selling something on the web? Word of mouth; it trumps every other promotional method on the web, and in most other media (I believe TV commercials are still more effective overall, but probably not by much). Most things sell on the web by people who buy it telling their friends to "go get this great thing... go see this great thing... join me in this great thing." "Going viral" is done by people sharing links with others. This is how you sell on the web.

It was always my intention to create such a great product that those who bought it would tell their friends, "Hey, you gotta check out this writer: He's got great stuff, he sells it at a great price, he doesn't use DRM, and it's in a lot of formats... just like we like it!" (I had to bank on this, since I'm a lousy salesman, and wasn't likely to create a promotional campaign that would go viral and steer people to the books.) Soon the 200 people who'd seen my books would be 2000, then 5000, and the ball would be rolling.

Obviously, that hasn't been enough, to my chagrin; it's always a shame to think that someone who's good at what they do can't do it successfully, and may have to find something else to occupy his time.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Secondly, you seem to be equating "tell others" with "give all your friends a ripped copy of my books." Although I'm sure some (insert impressive string of expletives here)s do that, I'd still like to think that most of my customers would not, whether they read my blog or not. (Okay, so I'm also stupid.)

How many times have you rushed out to buy a new paperback when someone says you might like it, versus how many have you read when someone just gave you a paperback and said read this?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

How many times have you rushed out to buy a new paperback when someone says you might like it, versus how many have you read when someone just gave you a paperback and said read this?

No one's ever given me their paperback and told me to read it. NEVER. They've told me about great books by great authors, and if convinced I've gone out and bought them. EVERY TIME.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

No one's ever given me their paperback and told me to read it. NEVER. They've told me about great books by great authors, and if convinced I've gone out and bought them. EVERY TIME.

I'm sure I've been given one or two sometime in my life, but usually, back in the paperback days, a recommendation most frequently sent me to a library or a used book store.

I've certainly never been mailed a paperback from an Internet friend, which is where I get most of my recommendations these days.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

No one's ever given me their paperback and told me to read it. NEVER. They've told me about great books by great authors, and if convinced I've gone out and bought them. EVERY TIME.

Originally Posted by ApK

I'm sure I've been given one or two sometime in my life, but usually, back in the paperback days, a recommendation most frequently sent me to a library or a used book store.

I've certainly never been mailed a paperback from an Internet friend, which is where I get most of my recommendations these days.

Hmmm. Everyone in my extended family loves to read, and we have always passed books around, round-robin style. In fact, we usually make it a point NOT to buy more than one copy of a paper book. Waste of trees and all that. And also, we're poor. I agree ebooks are a different kettle of fish, though.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Hmmm. Everyone in my extended family loves to read, and we have always passed books around, round-robin style. In fact, we usually make it a point NOT to buy more than one copy of a paper book. Waste of trees and all that. And also, we're poor. I agree ebooks are a different kettle of fish, though.

My family wasn't so extended, and few of them read SF. My friends read SF, so they told me about what they were reading, what they'd discovered, etc, and I'd buy based on that. (I wasn't exactly swimming in dough either, but there used to be loads of used bookstores around, and I only bought paperbacks wherever I went.)

Another reason not to share books: I had a few friends who were likely to lose anything I loaned them. Let them buy their own.