Sunday, September 23, 2012
Pool Table
Seems I get my thoughts organized like the balls on a pool table, and then wham! Another thought comes along and knocks all the other thoughts various ways, and I start the process of putting them in order again.
Here's a few thoughts:
I can't make anyone buy anything. All I can do is offer them a product, talk about the value of a product,and hope the customers see it's worth their money. This is true for books, cards, cars, etc. Advertising agencies talk about "creating" a need in a customer, and I do believe you can influence a customer to think that they need a particular item, but it takes time and many ad impressions.
For self-published books, authors are the best salesmen. If the author doesn't sell, sell, sell, the book will die, die, die. Don't expect e-books to change that.
I don't like e-books. Oh, I can see their attractions and uses, but the best e-books seem to be the ones that were ported over from print books by the major publishing houses. The majority of self-produced ones are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and simply bad writing. I have read several good self-produced e-books and a hundred or so bad ones. It's all well and good to say the gates are down and information flows free, but there's a lot of merit in having discriminating gatekeepers. I guess the consumers are the gatekeepers now. And maybe the technology.
And now some pertinent info.
Last week I mostly worked on Tales from Bethlehem. It's now in the hands in my first proofreader. He's found several errors so far, which I always appreciate. After he's finished (by the end of this week, I hope) then it will go to Jean to catch everything he missed. (No pressure, Jean!)
Saturday, I attended writers group and gave a very short program on the various rights authors can sell.
This week, I will
- Work on Tales from Bethlehem. Entering corrections and lengthening one of the final Tales and finishing another new Tale.
- Continue to help my two authors promote their books.
- Chores.
- Walk at least three times.
That's a bit vague, I know, but those are what I have lined up ... until another thought comes along.
4 comments:
Glad you're making progress on the book and I completely agree on the curse of self published works. It seems like a lot of people think all you have to do is type and upload, and that just isn't so.
{{huggs}}
I worked in advertising for about a decade as a graphic designer for print ads and logos, mostly. Marketing people, imho, only care about selling their dojamahickey, regardless if it's good, useful, a value, or even necessary. Yes, they do 'create the need' for the item, but I don't know if encouraging rampant consumerism that way is the right, moral thing to do. Corporate advertising encourages people to spend money they don't have to get the thing that'll make them part of the in crowd, whatever that might mean. Having worked behind the curtain, I can state with absolute certainty that I do not trust advertising. I've done too many glossy ads for shit products and seen too many (greedy) marketing snakes giddy at fleecing their stupid customers.
That said, we writers do need to spread the word about our work, because if no one knows about it, who will read it? The secret for that lies in word of mouth, which is far better - and worlds more trustworthy - than standard advertising. It's a lot more difficult to get, that wondrous word of mouth, but a great start is having a top-notch product that resonates. How to do that, I don't know, but I do know that in the endless sea of advertising bombardment, it's just about impossible to be noticed, it's all become white noise (or at least it has for me).
Sometimes all we can do is talk about our work, connect with readers as people and individuals. I give away a lot of free books and I always tell folks that all I ask in return is that they talk about it, tell people about it. Good or bad, love it or hate it, start a conversation about this book. Conversation. Word of mouth. Read and share. Ask questions. TALK.
{{huggs}}
Let's up the ante on the game. Call the pocket. ;)
What Tammy said for the rest.
Front left!
My degree is in News Editorial with a major in Editorial and minors in Advertising and in Creative Writing. I was always disturbed in class when the professor would talk about ad campaigns that basically misled the consumers ... and we were supposed to applaud the campaign's cleverness. I just finished reading "The Power of Habit," an excellent book that covers how Pepsodent and Febreze were sold to the public. Fascinating reading. And quite scary. Also covered is how Target hides their vast database of consumer knowledge when they send directed ads to a consumer. (Basically they send directed ads along with random ads to make the consumer think the entire selection is random. For instance, a pregnant woman receives a flyer with baby clothes and hand tools. The majority of the ad is directed to her needs, but the drills and hammers give it a random feel. The reason for this is because they discovered consumers felt their privacy was invaded when they received directed ads -- even when the consumer had signed up for them.)
I was at the grocery store the other day to pick up a few things and used my debit card - like I often do. As we finished up the transaction, she said, "Have a nice day, Tammy!"
I stopped, blinking, and asked her how she knew my name. She said it's a new feature on their computers and they're supposed to personalize our shopping experience.
I told her I I found it creepy.
As for Target, they always give me coupons for sinus medicine, diapers, or dog food, the three things I tend to buy there with regularity. They've been tracking me for years. Since most of our lives are digital now, (even checks go through a computer) every purchase we make is being catalogued somewhere and analyzed. The only way to avoid it is to use cash exclusively and stay off the internet. Sadly, that's not practical for most people. Grr!
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