Amazon is a business. It has one goal: Make money. It doesn't even know you exist. It focuses on authors who generate revenue and the rest of us jump up and down, and try to organize ways to get into the Amazon promo machine, but for most of us Amazon will never know we exist. Harsh truth, blunt truth, but truth. In every author group there is always one author who believes their problem not selling is an Amazon conspiracy. It never ends. They never shut up. They take your focus away from your business plan and they suck the creativity out of the air. Run, do not walk, from these authors. They will drain the creative out of you will their nonsense and implant in your mind the notion of succeeding is impossible because life and Amazon is not fair! Bullshit. No one ever told me life would be fair. What does fair have to do with anything?
I'm old enough that I can remember a time when bringing my work to readers was structurally and financially an impossibility. Do I like everything Amazon does? Nope. Do I like everything any business does? Nope. But I sure as hell admire what Amazon offers authors~a zero cost way to have a book store and deliver my work to readers. Shit, you can open up shop paying Amazon nothing until you sell something~and I'm more inclined to analyze their business programs, select what works for me even if I'm not always thrilled with the offering, and at the end of the day to send Bezos a Thank you note because when I started writing this possibility was an impossibility. Definitely a better use of my time than listening to the wankers who think all their problems are Amazon's fault.
There is a lot Amazon keeps secret. That is not conspiracy. That's smart business. By analyzing your own data, you can learn quite a bit. You can tell what sales volume you have to have for your book rank, how time plays into how much you have to sell, if number of reviews really calculates into the Amazon promo machine to get into their promotional machine, and what it means to be in an Amazon promo machine. I release every month because I was told that would get me into the Amazon promo machine faster. I don't know if that's true, but my 5th release went out in an Amazon promo mailer and it was fantastic. It happened to another author after her second release. She woke up, and her sales were through the roof and she wonder WTF happened, and I told her I got an Amazon mailer on your book this morning. A real promotional mailer. It was an unbelievable ride for her. They haven't done a promo for me since, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop working at trying to get into the promotional machine. Having been there briefly showed me enough to know that's where I want to be. Don't know how. Don't know when. But it doesn't mean I won't work toward it.
Work what Amazon offers you. Figure out how to leverage it for your own success. I'm not saying love it,( I sure as hell didn't love when they cut my KU royalty by 30% any more than non-exclusive Amazon authors loved when KU was introduced) but they want to make money and so should you, so run from the chatter. For a brief time in my Indie existence there was an author I let into my universe who was so consumed with Amazon conspiracy theories. It was funny in the beginning, but it soon made it impossible to write each day, because the delusional direct messages just kept coming over and over again. So I ran, I did not walk, from this person and I've been writing 10K words a day again. Negativity has no place in success. Life has taught me that the second you let someone into your head enough that they make you believe you cannot succeed, you will never succeed.
You have to have clear focus and clear mind to write or succeed in business. Don't let the conspiracy theorists knock you off course. Is there a conspiracy at Amazon against Indie authors. Don't know. Don't care. Is everything fair? I never expected it to be. Is there opportunity: hell yes! It's up to me to make the most of it. There are Indies out there doing amazing things. I marvel at them. I would rather be like them than those who believe you cannot succeed because everything is a conspiracy. Maybe I'll never succeed. But life is about the journey not the destination, and I do love believing in the possibility of succeeding.
As ever, I wish you Peace.
Tomorrow: There is no such thing as a bad review.
I'm old enough that I can remember a time when bringing my work to readers was structurally and financially an impossibility. Do I like everything Amazon does? Nope. Do I like everything any business does? Nope. But I sure as hell admire what Amazon offers authors~a zero cost way to have a book store and deliver my work to readers. Shit, you can open up shop paying Amazon nothing until you sell something~and I'm more inclined to analyze their business programs, select what works for me even if I'm not always thrilled with the offering, and at the end of the day to send Bezos a Thank you note because when I started writing this possibility was an impossibility. Definitely a better use of my time than listening to the wankers who think all their problems are Amazon's fault.
There is a lot Amazon keeps secret. That is not conspiracy. That's smart business. By analyzing your own data, you can learn quite a bit. You can tell what sales volume you have to have for your book rank, how time plays into how much you have to sell, if number of reviews really calculates into the Amazon promo machine to get into their promotional machine, and what it means to be in an Amazon promo machine. I release every month because I was told that would get me into the Amazon promo machine faster. I don't know if that's true, but my 5th release went out in an Amazon promo mailer and it was fantastic. It happened to another author after her second release. She woke up, and her sales were through the roof and she wonder WTF happened, and I told her I got an Amazon mailer on your book this morning. A real promotional mailer. It was an unbelievable ride for her. They haven't done a promo for me since, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop working at trying to get into the promotional machine. Having been there briefly showed me enough to know that's where I want to be. Don't know how. Don't know when. But it doesn't mean I won't work toward it.
Work what Amazon offers you. Figure out how to leverage it for your own success. I'm not saying love it,( I sure as hell didn't love when they cut my KU royalty by 30% any more than non-exclusive Amazon authors loved when KU was introduced) but they want to make money and so should you, so run from the chatter. For a brief time in my Indie existence there was an author I let into my universe who was so consumed with Amazon conspiracy theories. It was funny in the beginning, but it soon made it impossible to write each day, because the delusional direct messages just kept coming over and over again. So I ran, I did not walk, from this person and I've been writing 10K words a day again. Negativity has no place in success. Life has taught me that the second you let someone into your head enough that they make you believe you cannot succeed, you will never succeed.
You have to have clear focus and clear mind to write or succeed in business. Don't let the conspiracy theorists knock you off course. Is there a conspiracy at Amazon against Indie authors. Don't know. Don't care. Is everything fair? I never expected it to be. Is there opportunity: hell yes! It's up to me to make the most of it. There are Indies out there doing amazing things. I marvel at them. I would rather be like them than those who believe you cannot succeed because everything is a conspiracy. Maybe I'll never succeed. But life is about the journey not the destination, and I do love believing in the possibility of succeeding.
As ever, I wish you Peace.
Tomorrow: There is no such thing as a bad review.
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