So, I spent some time yesterday and today sending a few complimentary copies of the book to reviewers and adjusting the Amazon Ads to concentrate on the “targets” that have produced sales. So far it looks like the ads that work best are where Amazon selects viewers that have done a search for another product that is either “similar” to my book or “complementary” to it and place my ad somewhere on that search result page. How Amazon gauges similarity and complementarity is of course the black box.
These targets that they decide on work better than matching my book to searches that contain keywords that my book has been matched with like “techno-thriller” or “vigilante justice” or “suspense thriller.” These also work but at a lower rate. So, what seems to be the case is that Amazon seems to know what they’re doing better than anybody else. And I guess that makes sense. The algorithm is the wizard behind the curtain but apparently, he’s not some medicine show tramp whose balloon was blown off course. He’s the real deal.
So now that I’m running the marketing show I’m excited again and waiting for that magic moment when the algorithm decides that I’m ready for prime time and blankets the Amazon universe with free advertisements for my magnum opus. And every time you open up an email from Amazon, my book will stare back at you in all its black and white splendor. And once the ten millionth copy is sold, President Trump will invite me to the Oval Office and present me with the Trump/Kennedy Center Medal for the Most Beautiful Literature. And I’ll autograph a copy of the book for him. It’ll read, “To DJT, from one native New Yorker, to another. You, kooky nut, you. Don’t ever change. Jake Barter”
But I digress (or hallucinate). Of late I’ve read just how much AI novel writing has become sort of a catastrophe. Apparently, there is a sizable segment of the book reading audience that is perfectly satisfied with AI slop. And I don’t think this is shocking. Think of what now passes for entertainment on broadcast television. It’s already down to the level of mindless machine output. I guess the question will be whether there will be a reaction to this, with a flight to quality occurring. Even leaving my own personal writing out of this, I’d hate to think that literature will completely disappear from the face of the Earth in favor of subhuman cargo-cult knock-offs.
Well, I guess there can be all kinds of entertainment products out there. After all, a big part of marketing is identifying a niche that isn’t being serviced optimally. But it does make me wonder what that niche is for me. Disgruntled right-wing old guys? Well, why not. Talk about a despised minority. We’re positively reviled by everyone out there. But I am hoping for a larger audience. I have a small test audience of women who won the Goodreads giveaway. I’m hoping for some feedback from them pretty soon. I’ll compare them to the few women that have already read the book in my circle of friends. It might be interesting