The inconvenient truth about Twitter...
Like all authors, I want people to read my books.
That's why I write them, why I publish them as eBooks and why I keep the cost of buying them pretty low.
But with literally hundreds of thousands of books on Amazon.com alone - and thousands upon thousands more on B&N, Smashwords and other Internet sites - how do I reach them?
How do I, sitting alone in my apartment in Spain, convince readers in Cleveland, Dublin, London and Miami to at least take a look at the first four or five pages of my novels - something they can do for free on Amazon.com.
Five years ago the answer to that question would have been to spend all day on the Internet telling people about my books.
That's no longer true.
Today, the answer, at least the one that I've found most helpful, starts with the premise that we have to stop spending hours at a time on Twitter and other social media platforms. The reason: The inconvenient truth about them is that they just aren't very effective sales tools for writers who want to sell books.
"What?"
"That's heresy!"
"Millions of people use the Internet daily and if you don't spend hours marketing your books on sites like Twitter you'll never sell any... blah, blah, blah..."
It's certainly true that there are millions of people on the Internet every day.
But what's also true is that most of those people aren't out there cruising the Web because they want to buy books.
Let's examine some reasons why I'm making what will be to some of you an outrageous claim.
First of all, a huge percentage of the people who spend hours a day on the Internet are teenagers. They are on the Web to watch videos - many created by kids pretty much just like themselves; to learn about new games; to get the latest gossip about their favorite entertainers and to stay connected to other teenagers.
They are not on the Internet because they want to find a good book to read.
In fact, most of them do not read any book that some teacher hasn't ordered them to... and we all know that, even then, most of them won't read what they've been assigned.
Another large percentage of those people who are on the Internet for hours every day are there solely to push some kind of agenda.
Right-wingers, left-wingers, religious fanatics, conservationists, ecologists, industrialists, those who favor government and those who abhor it, oil companies and just about anyone who has a bone to pick with someone (or something) else is online blasting messages across the planet several times a day.
They aren't on the Web to buy books.
Who else is on the Web daily?
Well, the porn industry draws a big percentage of Internet users and many of them, despite the proliferation of "free" sites - spend a lot of money catering to their desires.
They aren't out on the Web looking for an historical novel or a good murder mystery.
Lonely people are out there on the Web as well. They're looking for friends or lovers or both and, as a result, Internet dating sites are literally loaded with members.
They aren't looking for a good book to snuggle up with.
They are looking for a person to snuggle up with.
I could go on but you get my point. The Internet is a good place to sell electronics, jewelry, even cars and houses. It's a good place to buy an airline ticket, book a vacation or find a nice cozy restaurant.
It's a convenient way to BUY a book - especially an eBook - but it is not, however, a great place for an independent author to SELL a book.
So, again, how do I - as a member of that ever-growing army of independent authors - reach potential readers?
The answer is something we independent writers need to know because the readers are out there.
And they are out there in large numbers if both fiction and non-fiction sales numbers and the slow but steady rise in the number of independent book stores is any indication.
To reach them in today's marketplace I think we have to look backward, not forward.
What I'm saying is that I think the answer lies not in the Digital Age but in the days when the printed page and radio waves were our major means of advertising.
Simply put: Newspapers and radio seem to me to be a much more effective means for writers to reach readers than the Internet is.
Newspapers because anyone with a subscription to a daily or weekly these days is - by definition - a reader.
Used to be you could buy a newspaper for a nickel, not a huge investment even in pre-inflationary times.
These days a yearly subscription can easily run to $300 or more. Anyone willing to spend that amount of money on a daily paper is not just a reader but a COMMITTED reader.
Radio advertising is also an effective tool, but for a different reason.
Personalities.
Those men and women who have successful radio shows have been able to cultivate a large number of extremely loyal listeners.
The result: Spending a few bucks buying air time on a local radio station for an ad that is broadcast during a popular program will pay much bigger dividends than spending eight hours a day being ignored while you are trying to convince people to buy your books on social media platforms.
Now I'm not saying you shouldn't spend any time on social media platforms. You'd be silly not to. I certainly spend time Tweeting and using other social media platforms and will continue to do so.
What I am saying is that you need to do a cost-benefit analysis in which, in this case, "cost" equals your time
If you do, I think you'll agree that for most of us spending more than 60 minutes a day posting on social media sites is a waste of time.
Time that you could have better spent writing.
For another take on this, take a look at Kristen Lamb's recent blog at https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/...
That's why I write them, why I publish them as eBooks and why I keep the cost of buying them pretty low.
But with literally hundreds of thousands of books on Amazon.com alone - and thousands upon thousands more on B&N, Smashwords and other Internet sites - how do I reach them?
How do I, sitting alone in my apartment in Spain, convince readers in Cleveland, Dublin, London and Miami to at least take a look at the first four or five pages of my novels - something they can do for free on Amazon.com.
Five years ago the answer to that question would have been to spend all day on the Internet telling people about my books.
That's no longer true.
Today, the answer, at least the one that I've found most helpful, starts with the premise that we have to stop spending hours at a time on Twitter and other social media platforms. The reason: The inconvenient truth about them is that they just aren't very effective sales tools for writers who want to sell books.
"What?"
"That's heresy!"
"Millions of people use the Internet daily and if you don't spend hours marketing your books on sites like Twitter you'll never sell any... blah, blah, blah..."
It's certainly true that there are millions of people on the Internet every day.
But what's also true is that most of those people aren't out there cruising the Web because they want to buy books.
Let's examine some reasons why I'm making what will be to some of you an outrageous claim.
First of all, a huge percentage of the people who spend hours a day on the Internet are teenagers. They are on the Web to watch videos - many created by kids pretty much just like themselves; to learn about new games; to get the latest gossip about their favorite entertainers and to stay connected to other teenagers.
They are not on the Internet because they want to find a good book to read.
In fact, most of them do not read any book that some teacher hasn't ordered them to... and we all know that, even then, most of them won't read what they've been assigned.
Another large percentage of those people who are on the Internet for hours every day are there solely to push some kind of agenda.
Right-wingers, left-wingers, religious fanatics, conservationists, ecologists, industrialists, those who favor government and those who abhor it, oil companies and just about anyone who has a bone to pick with someone (or something) else is online blasting messages across the planet several times a day.
They aren't on the Web to buy books.
Who else is on the Web daily?
Well, the porn industry draws a big percentage of Internet users and many of them, despite the proliferation of "free" sites - spend a lot of money catering to their desires.
They aren't out on the Web looking for an historical novel or a good murder mystery.
Lonely people are out there on the Web as well. They're looking for friends or lovers or both and, as a result, Internet dating sites are literally loaded with members.
They aren't looking for a good book to snuggle up with.
They are looking for a person to snuggle up with.
I could go on but you get my point. The Internet is a good place to sell electronics, jewelry, even cars and houses. It's a good place to buy an airline ticket, book a vacation or find a nice cozy restaurant.
It's a convenient way to BUY a book - especially an eBook - but it is not, however, a great place for an independent author to SELL a book.
So, again, how do I - as a member of that ever-growing army of independent authors - reach potential readers?
The answer is something we independent writers need to know because the readers are out there.
And they are out there in large numbers if both fiction and non-fiction sales numbers and the slow but steady rise in the number of independent book stores is any indication.
To reach them in today's marketplace I think we have to look backward, not forward.
What I'm saying is that I think the answer lies not in the Digital Age but in the days when the printed page and radio waves were our major means of advertising.
Simply put: Newspapers and radio seem to me to be a much more effective means for writers to reach readers than the Internet is.
Newspapers because anyone with a subscription to a daily or weekly these days is - by definition - a reader.
Used to be you could buy a newspaper for a nickel, not a huge investment even in pre-inflationary times.
These days a yearly subscription can easily run to $300 or more. Anyone willing to spend that amount of money on a daily paper is not just a reader but a COMMITTED reader.
Radio advertising is also an effective tool, but for a different reason.
Personalities.
Those men and women who have successful radio shows have been able to cultivate a large number of extremely loyal listeners.
The result: Spending a few bucks buying air time on a local radio station for an ad that is broadcast during a popular program will pay much bigger dividends than spending eight hours a day being ignored while you are trying to convince people to buy your books on social media platforms.
Now I'm not saying you shouldn't spend any time on social media platforms. You'd be silly not to. I certainly spend time Tweeting and using other social media platforms and will continue to do so.
What I am saying is that you need to do a cost-benefit analysis in which, in this case, "cost" equals your time
If you do, I think you'll agree that for most of us spending more than 60 minutes a day posting on social media sites is a waste of time.
Time that you could have better spent writing.
For another take on this, take a look at Kristen Lamb's recent blog at https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/...
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