Standing In Line

I recently sailed on the Carnival Freedom.
It was a pleasant voyage
except for embarkation and disembarkation.
That was a hassle.
We stood in frustratingly long lines.

Carnival employees said there was nothing
they could do about the lines.
That was the port’s responsibility.
That might be true
but I KNOW there was something
they could do with how enjoyable
standing in those lines were.

Other cruise ships supplied lemonade and cookies,
had bands playing happy vacation music.
One cruise ship instructed their dancers
to teach line standing passengers
a couple of dance steps.
These lines were an event,
not an irritant.

During the holiday rush,
one of my favorite booksellers
hires jugglers to entertain their customers.
They give out hot chocolate and cookies.
They often hire carol singers.

Yes, try to eliminate lines for your customers
but when that’s not possible,
consider taking advantage of
having your customers’ undivided attention.
Make your lines events.

How To Deal With Your Competitor’s Mistakes

It is a competitive world
and we ALL make mistakes.

The knee jerk reaction
to seeing a competitor’s mistake
is to pounce on it,
to make a big deal out of it,
to make it appear as though
this mistake is an indication
of the quality of the competitor’s product.

This might be the right reaction
IF you never make the same mistake.
If you make the same mistake,
expect to be treated
as you treated the competition.

When I responded to a writer’s rant
with a parody,
I communicated to my readers
that I expect them to respond
to any of my future rants
with parodies, humor, teasing.

Yes, take advantage of any competitor f**k ups.
If they’re having delivery issues,
touch base with their customers
and offer an alternative.
You don’t have to mention the f**k up.
The customer is well aware of it.

But think
before dissing the competition
for a mistake.

Should You Address Tense Situations?

There is unlimited drama
in Romanceland.
Someone is always upset.
Something is always happening or changing.
If I addressed all of the drama,
I wouldn’t have time for writing
or selling my own books.

Why did I decide to get involved
with last week’s drama?

Because a reader aka a customer
approached me about it,
venting and asking my opinion.
She had a problem
(she was stressed about the situation)
and she came to me looking for a solution.
If she had this problem,
other readers will have this problem.

By publicly addressing the situation,
I controlled the conversation,
setting the tone.
I showed
that I was aware of the problem,
solving it BEFORE they asked.

If one of your customers is concerned
about a situation,
assume all of them are concerned.
Address the situation.

Defusing Tense Situations

Yesterday, a writer had a mental meltdown
and posted a rant,
telling her readers they were idiots.

Some writers gleefully pounced
on this rant,
spreading the post
throughout Romanceland,
making a bad situation
even worse.

Readers became very upset
(often associating
the writer spreading the gossip
with the rant).
Upset people don’t buy books.

I posted a parody of the rant
(not referencing the original).
Readers who hadn’t read the original rant
thought it was amusing.
Readers who HAD read the original rant
thought it was hilarious.
My readers returned to their happy states,
buying and reading books.

YOU have the ability
to escalate
or
to defuse
a tense situation.

Make this a conscious choice.
Think before you act.

The Most Awesome Film Of All Time

The Carnival Freedom shows nightly movies
on a deck-wide big screen
under the stars.
There was a lot of competition
for entertainment on the ship
and I didn’t always see these movies.

One night,
they promoted the movie night with
“Join us at 8:00pm to enjoy “Gravity”
followed by “X-Men Days Of Future Past” at 10:00pm;
two of the most awesome films of all time.”

I’d seen Gravity
and had no intention of seeing X-Men
before reading this copy.

After reading this copy,
I HAD to watch X-Men.

Yes, I realized it being labeled as
one of the “most awesome films of all time”
was one person’s opinion
but that she/he felt so passionately about
the movie
convinced me to try it.

If you truly believe a product is
‘the most awesome X of all time”,
share these thoughts.
Others might disagree
but, in order to do this,
they have to try this product.

Passion sells.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Money And Goals

Two advertisements played over and over
on the radio yesterday.
One ad for a college
pitched that college grads make more money
and isn’t that what everyone wants?
The other ad for a job search website
asked listeners to find a new better paying job
because more money is, again,
what everyone wants.

No, it ISN’T what everyone wants.
What everyone wants is happiness,
whatever their view of happiness is.
This could be security, family,
companionship, health,
respect, freedom,
or a hundred other interpretations.

Amassing money isn’t an end goal.
Money is a bartering tool,
making the exchange of one good/service
for another
easier.
It is a intermediary step
or a short term goal.

It also might not be
a necessary intermediary step
to get you
to your final goal.

If amassing money or increasing sales
is your end goal,
reevaluate what you TRULY want.

What The Middleman Wants

I get asked at least once a day
what I believe publishers want,
what types of stories,
characters,
story lengths
they’re interested in.

I can’t remember the last time
a writer asked me
what I believe READERS want.

This is antiquated thinking.

Publishers, in the past,
pushed the books they liked
to readers.
They had to do this.
Development times were long
(three to five years).
Publishers didn’t have the ability
to pander to readers’ tastes.

And this worked,
in the past,
because supply was limited.
If a reader wanted to read,
she had to buy a book
the big 6 or 5 or 4 publishers produced.

This doesn’t work today.
With self-publishing,
there are unlimited publishers.
With eBooks,
development time has been reduced
to days, sometimes minutes.
Shelf life is now forever.
The reader can find exactly what she wants.
The publisher/middleman is either
aligned with the customer
or they aren’t selling books.

This is happening or will happen
in every industry.
Middlemen are either
asking for what the end consumer wants
or they aren’t selling products.

What does this mean?
If there’s a disconnect
between what the end consumer wants
and what the middleman wants,
find yourself a new middleman
or eliminate the middleman completely.

Published
Categorized as Sales

On Sale For $9.95

None of my stories
are priced in a figure
ending with zero.
Many of the stories
are priced at
$X.99.

Why does this work?

Bruna Martinuzzi
shares

“A Scientific American article
from a few years back,
Why Things Cost $19.95,
showed that using precise numbers
when pricing items for sale
was more persuasive
than using round numbers.

The author cited a study
that spanned five years of
real estate sales in Florida
and compared list prices
with the actual sales prices of homes.
The study revealed that
homeowners who listed their homes more precisely
—say $494,500
as opposed to $500,000—
consistently got closer to their asking price.

In other words,
when faced with a precise asking price,
buyers were less likely
to negotiate the price down.”

Consider pricing your products
precisely.

Published
Categorized as Sales

If There’s No Chance Of A Sale…

A buddy invited me to a large party
with readers outside my genre.
She told me
it would be ‘good exposure.’
I’d ‘get my name out there.’

I knew, however,
there was little to no chance
of selling or even promoting
my books.
I said no.

Why?
Because there are
zillions of marketing opportunities
for all of us in this social media world.
We can’t do everything.
It makes sense to me
that I promote
in places I’ll obtain sales.

If there’s no chance of a sale,
ask yourself
why you’re there.
Could you achieve this same goal
at an event
WITH the possibility of sales.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Caring First

In the romance novel business,
caring for readers (customers) is key.
There’s a relationship
between
the author (the manufacturer)
and
the reader (the customer).
Authors are selling love.
Customers are buying love.
They not only want to feel it
between the pages
but also with their favorite authors.

Rohit Bhargava
shares

“When you care first,
results come later.

Caring first can mean
having customer service people
who answer the phone
without putting customers on hold.
It can mean making
the packaging on your product
easy to open instead of
the plastic death traps we often get.
It can even mean making it easy
for your customers to return a product
even though it may cost you money.

Caring first is the human thing to do,
but it can be an easy thing
to forget in a world
where cut-and-pasted
terms and conditions are easier
and easier to coat
on top of nearly
every customer interaction.”

Caring is a strategic advantage
that smaller companies
can have
over larger companies.
Work that advantage.