Hi, gang:
Okay, I know, this is for technical stuff, and this isn't, but honestly, I can't think of any other place to get ideas/feedback. I can post this in the V&R, but that's not likely to result in solid ideas to address it. Sympathy, yes, but ideas...not so much. I need the feedback of my fellow bookmakers, who deal with similar issues.
Some of you see me kvetching about this or that vis-a-vis my clients. So, sorry for this, but...here's my issue.
To address a series of questions that I get, all the time, I invested some hours in creating a set of PDFs, comprised of screenshots that walk clients through various things, like, for example, how to upload their MOBI file at the KDP. These are very detailed--I call them our "ClickByClick" guides, because they are just that--I take a screenshot of each and every click required, put an arrow by it, or a box around it, and then below the screenshot, I put any additional instructions, like "In this field, type your author name" or whatever. One screenshot per 8.5" x 11" page, with a line or two of additional instructions, below the picture. (Truthfully, I
resented having to do it, as there are millions of blogs and the like out there, on "how to," but, I bit the bullet, did it, and thought, "alrighty, this is IT! Clients will see this, use it, and not need to ask us for help with this or that." I put in a lot of time and effort on these and my other instruction sets like it.)
So, you'd think, "problem solved,' right? Hand the PDF to the clients, wish they well, and bob's-yer-uncle.
But,
, Not so much. Here's the thing--I have clients that
literally don't understand what they are looking at. They get the PDF, and try to log in, all right--to the PDF. They sit there and click and click--the PDF, not the login page. I end up on the phone with them, and even that doesn't help. I did a GoToMeeting with one guy, and then it was WORSE--he couldn't understand that he was seeing MY screen, not his, and that he couldn't type on MY screen!
I don't quite know what the hell to do. I don't understand that they don't "get" what they are looking at. It's as though they're like cats who see a mirror and think that they're looking at another cat. Nothing I say seems to trigger a lightbulb moment.
Obviously, I'm too close to it to be able to be dispassionate, and to figure out HOW I can explain this. I've tried everything that I've thought of: "It's pictures of what you'll see on your screen," or the like. I guess I never considered that people don't know what "screenshots" are. They simply "don't get it," to use an overused phrase. I mean...WTH?
The first time this happened, I thought she was a one-off, y'know...but now it's happening more and
more, as the used-to-be-with-Createspace-Crowd seeks help elsewhere. Elsewhere = us. And it's getting worse by the day.
I'm seeking
any sort of input. Help to explain what they
ARE. Help coming up with analogies, to help me explain it. I keep feeling like whosiewhatsits in TPB..."Inconceivable!"
And before you think it--these aren't 90-y.o. clients. It's NOT that. It's something else, but...IDK, I just seriously don't know what the hell to do, how to explain it...I got nothin'. Anybody?
Hitch