07-08-2012, 08:00 PM | #91 |
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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.
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07-10-2012, 05:42 AM | #92 |
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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.
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07-10-2012, 08:18 AM | #93 |
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07-10-2012, 08:41 AM | #94 | |
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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. |
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07-10-2012, 11:56 AM | #95 | |
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07-10-2012, 12:51 PM | #96 |
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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.
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07-10-2012, 01:05 PM | #97 | |
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I've certainly never been mailed a paperback from an Internet friend, which is where I get most of my recommendations these days. |
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07-10-2012, 01:43 PM | #98 | ||
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07-10-2012, 03:05 PM | #99 | |
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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. |
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