Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesread
I think I found the reason he's collecting email addresses from our members. The answer comes in one of his Amazon.com Reviewer's reviews:
"4.0 out of 5 stars This is a great read, July 3, 2010
By Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey (Hilton Head Island SC) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Red Chaser (Kindle Edition)
I consider Jon Spoelstra one of the top five marketing gurus of our time. His book, "Marketing Outrageously" is a must own, and I tell him so several times a year! So, when he alerted me to his spy thriller, I actually had mixed emotions. Furthermore, it is available only on Kindle. In fact, it was my first purchase on the Kindle format. Amazon offers a great Kindle reader for my iPod touch. So it worked out well. At just $3.99 consider it a must own; all work makes one very dull. Set in the 1950s and touching on baseball and communist spies actually makes me long for the movie version!"
So he's "one of the top five marketing gurus of our time" and I bet all those email addresses are part of his "marketing outrageously!" for some undisclosed future use. Or to sell. Or just spam. Whatever.
Just a thought for consideration...
|
Jamesread--
There's no reason to guess why I am marketing Red Chaser the way I am. Let me explain:
I would prefer to use the email route because I'm working on a sequel to Red Chaser. When it's finished, I don't think it's unreasonable that I send an email to the people that received Red Chaser to let them know the sequel is ready. There's no way would I use the email for anything else. Selling it? Don't worry; I don't think there is any market whatsoever for email addresses that got Red Chaser for free.
With my last book, a business book published by a mainstream publisher, I received over 5,000 emails from readers. I answered every one of them. Now I've got a sequel to that book coming out in February, 2011, and I think my readers would appreciate knowing that the sequel is out. Yes, I will email them.
I think that it's a terrific breakthrough where the author can communicate directly with his/her readers without being totally dependent on bookstore chains.
I've had two publishers who want to print Red Chaser, but have turned them down. Red Chaser is my first novel, and I'm really intrigued with digital books. Instead of working with a publisher, I wanted to market Red Chaser on my own, trying to better figure out how to market digital books. A publisher wouldn't let me do what I'm doing with Red Chaser. Right now there are about 3 million e-readers out there, but in four years I've read estimates of 30 million. I think that estimate is low. In a year or so, Kindle (et al) will have the price below $100, which should be the tipping point. Hopefully by then I'll be a lot smarter than I am now.
Sorry for the long answer, but there is nothing complicated about the email address thing. I hope to send you an email about the sequel to Red Chaser. That's all. Nothing else.
Jon
findjon@msn.com