Over 2,000 books are published, world-wide, every day.
Hardly any of them sell more than a few copies.
Why Do Authors Do What They Do?
That post I just linked to explores the lonely aspirations of authors and this post will point to more resources to make sure any would-be famous authors out there still need a wake-up call…
My recent book, Notes from An Alien, is for sale yet I still give it away (check the link in the left side-panel).
I give it away for two reasons—with the absolutely most important listed first:
* I want folks to read it.
* Free = Sales ~ Give It Away & Sell More…
Even if a person has the cash to cause massive media attention, it still takes one person telling another about a book for its sales to gain traction and take off.
Jane Friedman has a post called, Using Word of Mouth (Not Media Attention) to Sell Books, which has some gems of authorial wisdom. The quotes are from the author Jane is interviewing, John Warner:
“It’s impossible to know what mention or connection will lead to some kind of tipping point, so every single last one of them counts.”
“Right now, if the low price induces someone to take a chance on the book, that feels both good for me, and good ultimately for reading and books in general, but maybe I’m just trying to have it both ways.”
“I think the tour has the potential to build word of mouth and draw media attention and therefore drive sales, but none of those is my reason for doing readings and appearances. I’m primarily doing it because it’s going to be fun.”
“For most books like mine, to sell ‘well’, interest has to come from the ground up, rather than the top down, it’s driven by readers rather than by media attention….If any media attention does come from the book, it’s going to be because some reader with those connections made it happen.”
“Before I was a writer, I was a reader, and the sensation that comes with really connecting with a book simply can’t be duplicated by any other medium. It is true virtual reality, where your consciousness joins another in a deep and inexplicable way, and it is awesome.”
That last quote is especially meaningful to me because of my decision to chuck the normal social networking channels and spend more time making friends in the virtual world, Second Life.
My post, The Courage To Move Forward . . ., gives some of the reasons…
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Notes from An Alien 
Okay, you asked for my controversial reply. Hear it is:
The vast majority of writing sites on the Net–by vast, I mean all–are spots where writers are reading other writers in an effort to write and publish themselves. The reading market remains untapped by the independent author. I do not know how to tap this market, but there’s one thing that I do know: Until some form of quality control is installed–weeding out, at the very least, the worse of the slush–the reading market is unlikely to ‘buy’ or even take us seriously.
Perhaps I’m wrong, evil, and unsympathetic, but in my deepest ponderings I have often thought that the independent author is their own worse enemy. Anything goes, everything passes and nothing is challenged on these writing and publishing sites. We can not expect the site managers to do this police work. The job is too big. By accepting, encouraging and coddling the untalented, the uneducated and the lazy, we pollute our own table, making it unpalatable to the reader, the buyer and the market in general.
If you throw a diamond into the junk pile, it may never be found.
Now, see there. You shouldn’t encourage me.
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Oh, my, yes, I should have encouraged you, C. M. because I completely agree with you.
You refer to “writing sites” and, while I may not say the “vast” majority (not having visited that many) I think I can safely say the majority (from the research I’ve done) of those sites are just what you say…
I do believe there needs to be a series of sites that give the reader more power to select and filter books they’ve read, to create a “readers’ opinion survey”.
I think some of these may already be in existence or coming on line in the near future and I expect many more of them…
We shall see………
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Keep me updated on that future, bro. I have a tendency to bury my head in the sand.
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I’ll be posting updates right here, C. M. :-)
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