I haven’t written a post in a while. Frankly, I’d felt I’d covered everything I had to say about writing (besides writing actual books, of course.)
But I’m back, because there’s a trend that’s bugging me. It’s not about writing scammers–many have covered how they are everything from annoying to scary. Yes, I have horror stories too.
I’m talking about those who are preying on writers, legally.
See, it seems to me that more people are making money off writers nowadays than there are writers are making money.
I’m not talking about editors, cover designers, and others who are offering services writers need. We can’t be good at everything, and we all need help.
But lately, I’ve been bombarded by marketing type emails, phone chats, and even voicemails from agressive marketers (how did they get my phone number?)
They’re offering expertise/services in: keywords, blurbs, bookclubs, SEO, ads, reviews, contests, bloggers, etc. Here’s how one titles themselves:
Book Discovery & Positioning Strategist
Category optimization | Review velocity strategy | Long-term discoverability
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying they’re not offering a service you may need. They may even be good at what they do (though how you could know without shelling out $?) What bugs me is how aggressive they are. They send you an email/message/voicemail raving about your book that they ‘stumbled upon’ on Amazon. All the compliments are taken directly from the blurb – they didn’t actually buy or read your book (because money flows to them, not from them.) It’s easy to get sucked in. We authors are longing to be discovered, and to have our work appreciated.
Then they tell you what’s wrong with your blurb, or SEO or keywords and how they can solve all your problems. They don’t promise bestseller status – in fact, if you read closely, they don’t promise any results. And they don’t say how much all this wonderful stuff is going to cost.
They finish up by saying all you need to do is hit reply, and say, ‘tell me more’ to get more info.
Again, the above isn’t a scam (at least on the surface.) It may be aggresive and a bit slimy, but they are offering a service and they make a compelling case.
That’s why it’s so tempting.
But when you get 5-7 of these a week, you realize what a money pit this is. And how much they’re making off authors.
Hey, I need marketing help too. I’m not saying not to use them.
I was a CFO in my career (read: corporate bean-counter.) I’m ALWAYS aware of the bottom line:
What are the odds that if I pay this expert, I’m going to make it back in book sales? Because if I don’t, it’s not worth it.
I listened to a podcast the other day, someone I respect is putting on a marketing conference. It’s only about 3 hours from me (not far by Texas standards.) It’s less cost than most conferences. I was really tempted.
Then I added up the other costs: hotel room, parking, meals, and it got expensive – over $1000. I’m sure I’d learn new things, and would be able to use them to market my backlist as well as any book I write in the future.
Then accountant who lurks in my brain kicked in (yeah, it’s always a party in my head.) How many books would I have to sell to recoup that cost? Not sales in total, I mean incremental sales — sales I wouldn’t have had but for the information I got from that conference. The answer: I’d need to sell a TON. What are the odds that the conference could deliver that? Probably slim to nil. I decided to pass.
And that’s my real point. Before you get starry-eyed about thier wonderful pitch and unmitigated praise of your work, do the hard math. No, it’s not fun. Mainly because it might pop the lovely bubble they’ve created.
But remember – bubbles are usually full of hot air.
Just saying.
