Want to Sell More Books? Give Consumers What They WANT
Consumers and business models have all changed drastically in the past ten years. This demands that we as authors change as well. There were many elements we never had to think about twenty years ago. It was an agent/editor’s job to think about the consumer climate and whether or not our book would be something readers would want to buy.
There have always been writers too clever for their own good, but in the old model, likely they met with enough rejection to 1) give up 2) rewrite or 3) try again. These days? The onus is on us to give readers what they want.
We have to remember whether it is the book or the blog or even social media, that WE are not important. It is all about the reader and what he/she wants to consume.
A Tale of Two Parsnips
I remember being in NYC for Thrillerfest. It was our final day in the city and we were celebrating a member of our group’s birthday. Since I have a bazillion food allergies, we made plans to eat at a ritzy Asian-Australian “fusion” restaurant and the woman on the phone assured me they could accommodate.
This was a super fancy restaurant and the chef had even once won Iron Chef, so I didn’t eat that day, preparing for my first experience with fine NYC dining.
We get to the ordering and…*screeching brakes*
The chef refused to modify any of the dishes.
He claimed that removing the mashed potatoes (which contained dairy) “ruined the aesthetics of the dish.”
I wish I were joking.
The waitress kept continually offering me the parsnip soup. I was ravenous and, finally, after fifteen times being offered soup I didn’t want? I lost my temper, scared the waitress and someone somehow convinced the kitchen to create an aesthetically unbalanced plate before I came back there and made an aesthetically unbalanced chef.
Texans. Can dress them up. Can’t take them anywhere.
But this story illustrates my point. We shouldn’t keep trying to serve others something they don’t want to consume.
***Side note: The next year when I returned to NYC? That restaurant was out of business.
Give Customers What They Want to Consume
But I carefully craft all my automated, preprogrammed tweets.
Great, you dressed it up, but it is STILL SPAM.
Image via Flickr Creative Commons courtesy of Neil Motteram
If I don’t want to talk to a robot? Why would other people? If I hate spam? Why serve it? If I loathe being force-added to groups and newsletters and it ticks me off? Might not be a good plan to do to others.
When I wrote my social media book, it was because all the books out there were highly technical, boring and made me want to throw myself in traffic. I knew I couldn’t be alone. Why not write a book that was useful and fun? Repackage a boring topic into something people enjoyed?
***That’s thinking like an entrepreneur, btw
