The Cheaters

In the Romance Novel Business,
there’s a drama a week
about the writers (businesses)
‘cheating’ the system.

Some cheaters buy their way
onto bestseller lists.
Some cheaters fake page reads
in Amazon’s KU program.
Some cheaters manipulate
readers (customers).

There are writers
who spend precious time
unearthing these cheaters,
exposing them,
trying to punish them.

This task doesn’t ever benefit
the prosecutors.
Very few people are grateful
to them.

And it takes their eyes off
their own businesses.

Unless someone is cheating YOU,
consider allowing someone else
to prosecute the cheaters
in your industry.

Take A Risk

I have some regrets
in business building.
Very few of these regrets
have to do
with things I’ve tried.

Sure, some risks
I’ve taken
ended badly
but I tried
and I learned.

No, my biggest regrets
have to do
with risks
I DIDN’T take.

Tim Hoch
shares

“Live boldly.
Every single time
you are offered a choice
that involves greater risk,
take it.
You will lose on many of them
but when you add them up
at the end of your life
you’ll be glad you did.”

Calculate the risks,
try to minimize
the downside,
and then
take a chance.

Rejection Is Certain – Deal With It

I could write
the best damn romance novel
ever written
and I will receive
at least one harsh one-star review.

That is a certainty,
one of the rare things
in the every changing
Romance Novel Business
I can count on.

Seth Godin
shares

“If you seek
to make change
or
do something important,
your work will be rejected
along the way.
This is not in dispute.”

Rejection is simply
a side effect
of doing.

Accept it.
Expect it.
Deal with it.
Don’t allow it
to stop you.

You Can’t Stop Change

For the past week or so,
a large group of writers
have been debating
reader trends.
They’ve been discussing
how bad a certain change is
and
what they would prefer happen
instead.

It is a useless discussion.
That change is happening
whether the writers want it
or not.

There are changes happening
in your industry also,
changes you can debate
all you want
but will happen.
You don’t have a choice
about that.

You DO have a choice
about how you respond
to the change.

You can fight it
and eventually lose,
to the detriment
of the business you’re building.

Or you can embrace the change,
plan for it,
figure out a way
to benefit from it.

Change is coming.
That’s not a decision
for you to make.
Choosing how to deal with it
IS your decision.
Make it.

Don’t Market During A Tragedy

Should you promote
your products/services
during a tragedy?

No. No. No.

Certain political figures
might think
it is okay
to drop news stories
during a life-threatening hurricane
but I wouldn’t advise
you do this.

You need the sales.
I hear you.
If I don’t market my books,
I don’t sell many of them also.

However, I prefer not selling any now
to not selling any EVER
because I acted like an unfeeling a$$.

When people are in danger,
don’t try to sell them
your products/services.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Telling The Customer Everything

One of the reasons
Game Of Thrones
is so popular
is because
it keeps viewers guessing.
Viewers talk
about what might
or might not happen.
If they knew,
there wouldn’t be anything
to talk about.

In-N-Out Burger
has their infamous ‘secret menu.’
No one is ever certain
they know all of the items
on it
and that keeps people talking
about it.

In this
tell everyone everything age,
secrets and a little bit of mystery
are powerful.

Yes, tell customers
what they absolutely need to know
to enjoy your products/services.

But consider saving some ‘extras’
for the insiders,
the rare few.

Create a sense of mystery
around your products/services.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Show Your Passion

There was a solar eclipse
on Monday.

Some Romance writers
were blasé about it.
They’d seen eclipses.
It wasn’t a big deal.

I was super excited
about it.
I posted facts, jokes, insights
about eclipses.
I engaged readers (customers).

Readers felt my excitement
and it fed theirs.
Their eclipse moment
was more.
The connection between us
deepened.

Being jaded and cynical
and bored
doesn’t sell products/services.

Show your passion.

The Bare Minimum

In every industry,
there are bare minimums
we must give to
customers.

In the Romance Novel Business,
for example,
stories have to have
a romantic Happy Ever After
or Happy For Now.
Readers (customers) have to care
about the couple (or more).

That’s the bare minimum
(and the so-called ‘formula’
non-Romance folks continuously talk about).
Writers/publishers won’t wow
readers (customers) with these factors
because they’re expected,
but readers will be angry
if they’re missing.

Seth Godin
shares

“Every time
you add one of these factors
to consumer or employee expectation,
you’ve signed up for
a lifetime
of providing that benefit.
You’ve made it more difficult
for the competition
to keep up.
And you’ve raised the standards
for everyone.

They’re important,
but their presence doesn’t motivate people.
It’s only when they disappear
that we think about them.”

Know what the bare minimum is.
Ensure you meet it.
Think about surpassing it.

Make It Easy For People To Tell You You’re Wrong

One of my writing buddies
is about to do something
disastrous
with her very successful business.

Readers (her customers)
are rumbling about
how unhappy they are
with the change.

The problem is…
my buddy does NOT like it
when people disagree with her.
We all know this
so we’re staying silent.

She’ll hopefully survive
this disaster
but it will cost her.

In contrast,
my readers (customers)
tell me when I use one word wrong
in a one hundred thousand word story.
They feel comfortable
telling me I’m wrong.

Cheri Beranek,
CEO of Clearfield,
shares

“Sometimes the hardest thing
for an employee to do
is tell their manager
they are wrong.

I am not as good at this
as I’d like,
but having thick skin
and the ability to take
upward constructive criticism
will go much farther
than any fancy scorecard.”

If you want to avoid
costly mistakes,
make it easy and acceptable
for people
to tell you
you’re wrong.

My Experience Is…

I share my experiences
in the Romance Novel Business
openly and quite often
with fellow writers.
These experiences were valuable
for me
and they might add value to others.

But I will push aside
these personal experiences
if another writer presents
statistics,
results based
on a wider range of experiences.

Why?

Because more experiences
(which is what statistics
usually are)
almost always equal
better results.

If I release a book
with a blue cover
and it outsells a book
with a green cover,
that could simply mean
I released the blue cover book
on a better day.

If 1,000 writers release books
with blue covers
and they outsell their books
with green covers,
I should consider
investing in blue covers.

Seth Godin
shares

“78.45% of humans
tend to hate statistics
because we have no direct experience
with the larger picture.
It’s easier to make things up
based on direct experience instead.”

“The peril of roll-your-own science,
in which you pick and choose
which outcomes of the scientific method
to believe
is that you’re almost certainly
going to endanger yourself
and others.”

Statistics almost always
beat out personal experience.