I Want to Sell Books not Make Money (10/3/14)

I was telling a friend after my little ordeal with the bookstores that I was planning on doing my book tour without doing any book signings, and he asked, “Isn’t the purpose of the game to sell books?”

The answer to that question is yes and no. Every author is going to be different. The way I see things is I want to sell books, but I don’t care if I make any money off of Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence. That’s why I have embarked on a $100,000.00 book tour. I want to meet people from everywhere. The truth is you don’t sell books by going to bookstores. You sell books by making connections, and the further apart those connections are the better. You want to meet people that are spread out so that their spheres of influence will only connect by going the full six degrees of separation. Why? Because by doing so you will connect to more people.

Think of the image of throwing a rock into a pool of water. You get some large ripples and those ripples eventually spread out. across the pool. Then throw a handful of small pebbles into the same pool. the ripples are smaller, but they cover the surface area in a much shorter period of time. The bookstores want authors to throw in a giant rock and wait. This is the idea of farming out around where you live and eventually moving to new markets. I’m taking the opposite approach. I’m talking to a ton of people all over the place, and I’m betting on the fact that eventually they will start talking about what I’m doing.

After about my 50th email to a bookstore I asked myself what is more depressing listening to your doctor tell you to prepare for the worst or bookstores that don’t want to work with authors. That’s when my friend made me feel so much better. He said, “I have never seen an industry that was more hellbent on on committing suicide.” What made me feel better was that I’m not the only one that has been left scratching my head about turning authors away.

I want to sell books, and bookstores want to make money. In fixating on the bottom-line the bookstores are forgetting to provide value to their customers. One of two things will happen some day. Either Amazon will capitalize on bookstores dropping the ball, or you will find an author standing in the bookstore parking lot with a sign that reads “This store doesn’t want me to come in to sign books for you. I want to pass along their share of the profits to you by way of savings. I’ll be here all day.” Who knows, maybe someday the people in charge of community relations will realize that they actually need authors to be successful if they want to have a job, and start working with them.