I was going to review another science fiction movie tonight (Her (2013) but about fifteen minutes into the movie I couldn\u2019t get over my dislike for the protagonist (Theodore played by Joaquin Phoenix) so I turned it off.\u00a0 Once again that \u201cbest of\u201d list doesn\u2019t really match up perfectly with my taste.\u00a0 So far, I\u2019ve had three bombs; Repo Man, Dark Star and now Her.\u00a0 On the positive side I liked Dark City, Wrath of Khan and Dredd.\u00a0 And soon I\u2019ll watch Dune which I\u2019ve already seen and liked.\u00a0 So, this guy is batting slightly better than .500.\u00a0 To be fair there were other movies on the list that I also like but have already seen.\u00a0 But the point is I\u2019ll have to make my own version of \u201cThe List.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, there\u2019s 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\u2019t do.\u00a0 You\u2019re basically buying visibility on Amazon.\u00a0 The ratio is about one person in a thousand who sees your ad will click on it.\u00a0 And about one person in ten (approximately) will buy the book.\u00a0 But you pay money for every click (something like a dollar a click) and so you actually lose money on the sales you make.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite bizarre.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 And then there will be ads on Bookbub and hopefully this will provide the recognition in the algorithm to boost the books visibility.\u00a0 And of course there will be some reviews that hopefully entice buyers.\u00a0 Well, the fate of a self-published author is a lonely one.\u00a0 But I wanted to write a book and now I know how that looks.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Several people have demanded that I produce a sequel immediately.\u00a0 Which is kind of a problem.\u00a0 But I have several different stories that I\u2019ve been toying with and one of them will take the lead and become book two.\u00a0 It is interesting to me how differently men and women approach the story.\u00a0 Some of the women wanted to know how Bogey does with the waitress from the end of the book.\u00a0 Well, everyone has their own way of reading a story I suppose.<\/p>\n
Anyone who\u2019s purchased the book and would like to put a review up on Amazon I\u2019d encourage you to do it right away to help me with the push for sales during the upcoming sale.\u00a0 I\u2019m told that verified purchaser reviews are actually one of the most important marketing factors.<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s my update.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been disavowed of my dream of best seller status (sniff).\u00a0 But I hope that with the rest of the program to come it will spark enough interest to produce a burst of sales.\u00a0 Excelsior!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was going to review another science fiction movie tonight (Her (2013) but about fifteen minutes into the movie I couldn\u2019t get over my dislike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,5,1289,818,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[5147,43,38,1355,5067,4484],"class_list":["post-36122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current-events","category-fiction-by-me","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-marketing","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-self-publishing","tag-the-american-archipelago-book-1-the-sniper"],"yoast_head":"\n