The Failed Author's Mission Statement

I enjoy this blog a lot. I like finding relevant publishing news and sharing it. My reviews of companies I've worked with could save fellow authors some wasted time and money or they could be an avenue for sales.

My posts never get linked in those "writing and publishing" emails I receive from various outlets. There's a good reason for that—I'm not a cheerleader. I must have read hundreds of articles about self-publishing, and all the writers make things sound so simple. I doubt they believe it themselves, but I get it. A paid writing gig is better than no gig at all, so they have to play the game.

The trouble with that is, authors are strung along, naively latching onto the latest marketing move, and when nothing comes of it, they blame themselves. I know I did. "Why does this work for everybody else?" 

Or the advice is impractical and impossible to execute. I think my favorite is, "Identify your ideal reader and market to them." Well, I tried the first part. I delved into the profiles and review history of my Goodreads reviewers to get a feel for the type of reader who chose my book. According to the experts, a pattern should appear. On the contrary—my readers couldn't be more disparate; both sexes, on the upper age range, varying geographic locales and occupations. Perhaps I did learn something: What AI claims is my ideal reader is complete nonsense. As for the second part of the advice, how in the world would I market to this mishmash of readers? The content writers never tell you how, just to do it. (Spoiler alert: They don't know how.)

I've been clear that authors need to do paid marketing if they're going to have any chance at all of achieving sales. You can shine up your author site, you can prep your reader magnet, you can post on social media until your fingers are numb; that's just busywork. But if you're going to spend money (and you are), the goal is to maximize it, not waste it.

I'm pretty much done with spending money. After all, it's been a year and a half since my novel was published and that ship has sailed. But I'm going to continue experimenting so I can report back. 

My two upcoming goals:

1. Try Spotify's virtual voice audiobook creation (free!)

2. Do one Meta ad (with a limited spend), incorporating some of the latest tips. 

And I'm always open for questions. Feel free to leave a comment and I'll give you whatever lowdown I happen to possess—or I'll research it for you and find out the real scoop.

Stay tuned.