Ulff Lehmann's Blog: Blogging Lot - Posts Tagged "promotion"
The easy or the hard way?
I guess I need to do some definition work here.
I've seen lots of people offering their prose for very low prices, if not totally free for a certain amount of time. To stir up excitement, y'know. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but as with everything free, I have my doubts that this will lead to a greater circulation, or a larger circle of readers. Sure, I don't have the numbers to prove this either way, it's just a gut feeling.
Free, or nearly free, to me at least is something you pick up, like a sample of one product or other, take it home, try it, and unless it's supremely exceptional you forget about it. Hells, I've forgotten about books I paid for and bought a second time. Then again, maybe I'm just scatterbrained like that. I guess if you fire enough bullets into the dark night, a couple might actually hit something worthwhile. Other than that, this high, this feeling of accomplishment when you see some 100 people picked up your free book, will dissipate rather quickly, especially if no reviews come along and the sale is moving more than sluggish.
Sure, you can brag about 100 people having picked up your book. 100, wow, 100 people maybe reading your book. Chances are, some are sampling it, most will forget they ever downloaded it.
Yes, I've read the recommendations about offering it for free for 2 weeks prior to official release, that it is a viable method of publicity. But I don't know... it sounds too easy... hence the easy way.
The hard way doesn't necessarily promise a better outcome. After all, hundreds of thousands of people publish their novels on kindle and create space, and each and everyone of them hopes they wrote the new Twilight or 50 Shades, and they'll attract millions of readers. Not that Twilight or 50 Shades is something anyone should aspire to, in my opinion. 50 Shades, I've read articles in which used books shop owners asked people to not bring in any more of those, they already could build a wall of the ones they had, and nobody was buying the fucking things. I suspect that most people bought the book for the same reason you poke an aching tooth with your tongue, you know the outcome but you can't stop yourself. Once the tooth is pulled, or the junk read, you don't want to do it again.
I went the hard way, I ask an appropriate price for my work, for it is my work. I've worked on the story on and off for 20 years or more, I am proud of it, and since I've had people tell me long before it went "live" how much they enjoyed it, I know what I had written had value. Fuck, I put years of my time into its creation, I know my worth, and my work's value. If I were to offer it for 99 Cents, what would that say about how much I value myself? Have I slaved for so long to sell my creation so cheaply? Matters of self worth aside, psychology is a factor not only for myself. If I sell the book for something more like industry standard, what does that say about me? (snarky voices would call me a greedy bastard, I know) There is this little voice inside everyone's head comparing all the time, counting, wondering:
"Why is X selling the book so cheaply? Does he think it isn't worth more? If he has such a low opinion of his work, it must suck. Sure, it's only 99 cents, but this other guy, he asks more, much like a normal book..."
Perception matters a lot... 6.99 for a novel or .99 for a novel... in your mind the cheaper novel is always "cheaper" and if you read the sample this impression is along for the ride, whispering about how this sample is from the cheaper book. In job interviews, one of the greatest most important motto is to not sell yourself under value, and in a way the sampling and the pricing of your novel is like a job interview! After all, if someone buys your novel, it's your job to entertain this person. My 6,99 promises I know what I'm doing, and that you will be entertained. Sure, the sample helps, but in a potential employer's/reader's eyes, the price, the self worth, matters. It says: "Here's a writer who knows what he is doing, and he is not afraid to ask a higher price for his work!"
Now let's be honest, one's knee jerk reaction to 99 cents goes along the lines of "This can't be any good." Two apples, next to each other, one for 50 cents, the other for 1 dollar. The very first question people will ask is "What's wrong with the cheaper apple?"
Granted, if you don't follow through with your confident proclamation of self worth, you're pretty much fucked, bad reviews and bad word of mouth. People won't forget the bastard who cheated them...
But! If your novel holds what it promises through the price and the sample, you will have a happy, dare I say very happy, customer, who will tell others of his latest employee, because in a way we writers are employees, of the entertainment variety but someone has bought our work, the hundreds of hours we put into the product. And in the end that is what matters most!
I do not aim to please every reader, but thankfully Shattered Dreams' first chapter makes a fucking loud statement about what people can expect, so those who don't like it will stop before they even buy the novel.
I chose the hard way, but no good thing in life is ever easy, in my opinion.
I've seen lots of people offering their prose for very low prices, if not totally free for a certain amount of time. To stir up excitement, y'know. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but as with everything free, I have my doubts that this will lead to a greater circulation, or a larger circle of readers. Sure, I don't have the numbers to prove this either way, it's just a gut feeling.
Free, or nearly free, to me at least is something you pick up, like a sample of one product or other, take it home, try it, and unless it's supremely exceptional you forget about it. Hells, I've forgotten about books I paid for and bought a second time. Then again, maybe I'm just scatterbrained like that. I guess if you fire enough bullets into the dark night, a couple might actually hit something worthwhile. Other than that, this high, this feeling of accomplishment when you see some 100 people picked up your free book, will dissipate rather quickly, especially if no reviews come along and the sale is moving more than sluggish.
Sure, you can brag about 100 people having picked up your book. 100, wow, 100 people maybe reading your book. Chances are, some are sampling it, most will forget they ever downloaded it.
Yes, I've read the recommendations about offering it for free for 2 weeks prior to official release, that it is a viable method of publicity. But I don't know... it sounds too easy... hence the easy way.
The hard way doesn't necessarily promise a better outcome. After all, hundreds of thousands of people publish their novels on kindle and create space, and each and everyone of them hopes they wrote the new Twilight or 50 Shades, and they'll attract millions of readers. Not that Twilight or 50 Shades is something anyone should aspire to, in my opinion. 50 Shades, I've read articles in which used books shop owners asked people to not bring in any more of those, they already could build a wall of the ones they had, and nobody was buying the fucking things. I suspect that most people bought the book for the same reason you poke an aching tooth with your tongue, you know the outcome but you can't stop yourself. Once the tooth is pulled, or the junk read, you don't want to do it again.
I went the hard way, I ask an appropriate price for my work, for it is my work. I've worked on the story on and off for 20 years or more, I am proud of it, and since I've had people tell me long before it went "live" how much they enjoyed it, I know what I had written had value. Fuck, I put years of my time into its creation, I know my worth, and my work's value. If I were to offer it for 99 Cents, what would that say about how much I value myself? Have I slaved for so long to sell my creation so cheaply? Matters of self worth aside, psychology is a factor not only for myself. If I sell the book for something more like industry standard, what does that say about me? (snarky voices would call me a greedy bastard, I know) There is this little voice inside everyone's head comparing all the time, counting, wondering:
"Why is X selling the book so cheaply? Does he think it isn't worth more? If he has such a low opinion of his work, it must suck. Sure, it's only 99 cents, but this other guy, he asks more, much like a normal book..."
Perception matters a lot... 6.99 for a novel or .99 for a novel... in your mind the cheaper novel is always "cheaper" and if you read the sample this impression is along for the ride, whispering about how this sample is from the cheaper book. In job interviews, one of the greatest most important motto is to not sell yourself under value, and in a way the sampling and the pricing of your novel is like a job interview! After all, if someone buys your novel, it's your job to entertain this person. My 6,99 promises I know what I'm doing, and that you will be entertained. Sure, the sample helps, but in a potential employer's/reader's eyes, the price, the self worth, matters. It says: "Here's a writer who knows what he is doing, and he is not afraid to ask a higher price for his work!"
Now let's be honest, one's knee jerk reaction to 99 cents goes along the lines of "This can't be any good." Two apples, next to each other, one for 50 cents, the other for 1 dollar. The very first question people will ask is "What's wrong with the cheaper apple?"
Granted, if you don't follow through with your confident proclamation of self worth, you're pretty much fucked, bad reviews and bad word of mouth. People won't forget the bastard who cheated them...
But! If your novel holds what it promises through the price and the sample, you will have a happy, dare I say very happy, customer, who will tell others of his latest employee, because in a way we writers are employees, of the entertainment variety but someone has bought our work, the hundreds of hours we put into the product. And in the end that is what matters most!
I do not aim to please every reader, but thankfully Shattered Dreams' first chapter makes a fucking loud statement about what people can expect, so those who don't like it will stop before they even buy the novel.
I chose the hard way, but no good thing in life is ever easy, in my opinion.
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