In the romance novel business,
there are two major groups
of professional writers.
There are those
who are most concerned
with ‘quality.’
They have beautiful websites,
tasteful covers,
‘artistic’ back cover copy.
Then there are those
who are most concerned
with immediate sales.
They have buy links all over
their websites.
Their covers catch the eye
and usually sport man titty.
(i.e. bare male chests)
Their back cover copy
is crammed with key words.
You can have one or the other,
not both.
As Seth Godin shares
“There’s always been
a conflict
between the long-term benefits
of beauty in commerce
(in architecture,
in advertising,
in transactions)
and the short-term brutality
of measurement
and direct response.
It’s worth noting
that conflict in advance,
as opposed to vainly wishing
you could have both optimized.
You can’t.
The smart marketer will measure
how much direct response
it’s costing to be beautiful,
or how much storytelling
is being sacrificed
to be clicked on.
Not both.”
Make a choice.
Live with it.