A reader emailed me yesterday
and asked why,
if self publishing is so inexpensive,
writers don’t simply publish everything
and let the readers decide
whether or not the story works.
First, self publishing isn’t free.
There’s the cost of the cover,
and the cost of editing.
Second, readers will normally
only try an author once.
If they don’t like that one story,
they won’t buy any more stories… ever.
So by putting out stories that don’t work,
authors are reducing the number of readers
who will buy future stories.
Do that enough times,
and you won’t have much of a readership base
to sell to.
Businesses have the same issue.
I worked for a beverage company.
We launched a stinker of a product.
The next time,
we went to the grocery stores
with a new product,
it was a much tougher sell.
One chain gave us an outright ‘no’
BECAUSE of the previous failed product
(and I was working for a major company
with years of successes).
So yeah, try new things
but take every opportunity to decrease
the chances of
disappointing your customers.