I was going to review another science fiction movie tonight (Her (2013) but about fifteen minutes into the movie I couldn’t get over my dislike for the protagonist (Theodore played by Joaquin Phoenix) so I turned it off. Once again that “best of” list doesn’t really match up perfectly with my taste. So far, I’ve had three bombs; Repo Man, Dark Star and now Her. On the positive side I liked Dark City, Wrath of Khan and Dredd. And soon I’ll watch Dune which I’ve already seen and liked. So, this guy is batting slightly better than .500. To be fair there were other movies on the list that I also like but have already seen. But the point is I’ll have to make my own version of “The List.”
So, there’s about another ten days or so left in my marketing contract for my book and I have learned a lot about how Amazon Ads work and also what they can and can’t do. You’re basically buying visibility on Amazon. The ratio is about one person in a thousand who sees your ad will click on it. And about one person in ten (approximately) will buy the book. But you pay money for every click (something like a dollar a click) and so you actually lose money on the sales you make. It’s quite bizarre.
The next stage in the campaign includes giving away five books on Goodreads to people who signed up and dropping the price on the e-books for two days to $2.99. And then there will be ads on Bookbub and hopefully this will provide the recognition in the algorithm to boost the books visibility. And of course there will be some reviews that hopefully entice buyers. Well, the fate of a self-published author is a lonely one. But I wanted to write a book and now I know how that looks.
On the positive side I have gotten pretty favorable feedback from some of the readers whose opinions I highly value and that is actually the biggest pleasure of the whole process. Several people have demanded that I produce a sequel immediately. Which is kind of a problem. But I have several different stories that I’ve been toying with and one of them will take the lead and become book two. It is interesting to me how differently men and women approach the story. Some of the women wanted to know how Bogey does with the waitress from the end of the book. Well, everyone has their own way of reading a story I suppose.
Anyone who’s purchased the book and would like to put a review up on Amazon I’d encourage you to do it right away to help me with the push for sales during the upcoming sale. I’m told that verified purchaser reviews are actually one of the most important marketing factors.
Well, there’s my update. I’ve been disavowed of my dream of best seller status (sniff). But I hope that with the rest of the program to come it will spark enough interest to produce a burst of sales. Excelsior!
Good luck with the book. Thanks for the update.
As for Dark Star – its one of those movies best seen with a group of friends.
The plot (Such as it is) is silly and the special effects are so bad they are funny.
The only way to enjoy the movie is to MST3K it with a bunch of friends.
Maybe I wasn’t paying attention when I pulled some of these movies off the list. Repo Man and Dark Star might have been called out as spoofs. But I was looking for good science fiction that I hadn’t seen. MST3K provides great comic moments from some really terrible movies. Are they still producing new content?
photog, I didn’t realize you’d released the book! Could you provide a link?
You should participate in the Based Book Sale sometime: https://basedbooksale.substack.com/
I’ve done decently well hawking Inspector Gerard there.
Hey Tyler, sure, here’s the link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G8H44JCR
After the launch finishes in a week or two I’ll have to see what other promotions I’ll try.