I am worried about sending out this newsletter, I might have pushed too hard!

I run a company that helps writers.

We've been sending newsletters for years, these tend to be advice for writing and, occasionally, book marketing.

In recent months, I've seen a growing trend with our writers. They seem to be ready to blame their marketing for poor sales. Many think that more money on adverts or sending out more tweets is the answer.

I think the problem is deeper.

I hope people are ready to listen!

What do you think? Too far?

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I'll be honest; I've been sitting on this newsletter for a few months.

I wrote it after a discussion with a writer who'd just spent $2000 on Facebook advertising and was frustrated that they'd seen no long-term bump in sales.

When I spoke to the writer, they'd seemed confused about why their book had not been more successful. They said, and I quote, 'I don't understand, thrillers sell, right?'

This is my answer to that question.

No One Cares About Your Book

I honestly believe that the only way to make your book a success is to begin with the premise that no one cares about your book.

I understand that your friends and family think your book is the greatest thing ever written.

I also get that you believe that what you have written is a masterpiece. In fact, if you don't think your book is pretty impressive, then you do need to worry.

The problem is that no one else thinks this.

Well… not yet anyway.

The World is Full of Books

The world is packed full of books, and thousands more books are published each day. It's estimated that 2.2 million new titles are published each year (https://www.theifod.com/how-many-new-books-are-published-each-year-and-other-related-books-facts/).

Readers are spoiled for choice. There is no end of books.

If you have any chance of your book being a success, your book needs to be amazing. This is a minimum, the starting point.

Average, or even good, is not enough.

Think about it. Why would anyone waste their time reading a book that is just OK?

When was the last time you read a mediocre book and then recommended it to all your friends?

For a book to become a success, it MUST gain some level of word-of-mouth marketing. I am not saying that your book needs to become a mass media sensation (in fact, I am saying trying to make your book appeal to the masses is a recipe for failure), but it must spread within the community of readers that love the genre you write.

This is the only way to gain long term success. Yeah, adverts might buy you short term sales, but long-term organic success is based on word-of-mouth.

Here's an example.

Go and look at this post on Reddit, I'll wait… (https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/jk3mcq/suggest_two_fantasy_books_one_you_thought_was/). The title is 'Suggest two fantasy books: One you thought was excellent, and one you thought was terrible, but don't say which is which'

Here's the thing, no one is talking about 'meh' books. No one is talking about the books that were just OK. They are talking about books that created an emotional response.

In the first few comments, there's some talk of Kings of the Wyld. One commentator says, 'Kings of the Wyld is a definite favorite.' The next replies with, 'I loathed Kings of the Wyld.'

If you look on the book's Amazon page, it has close to 2000 reviews, averaging at 4.5 stars. So, somebody liked it!

The point here is that no one is saying, 'It was OK'.

People seem to love or hate it, but that's OK. As novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen said, 'While it is better to be loved than hated, it is also far better to be hated than ignored.'

Why should anyone even care about an average book?

This is the problem that you face.

And let's be honest, this is the problem that most writers tackle every day. Most books that are published are at best average (and this is perhaps me being over-generous).

The world has no room left for average books.

We will all only be able to read a finite number of books in our lifetime, some suggest this figure is around 4500 books. (https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/12/25/195205/how-many-books-will-you-read-in-a-lifetime-around-4600-if-you-read-fast)

Are you preprepared to waste one of your 4500 books on a novel that's just OK?

No, me neither.

Twenty years ago, an average book with a large marketing budget, written by a writer with a decent following, could shoot up the charts. This is no longer the case.

No one cares anymore; there's too much choice.

It's still possible to make a book a hit with a big enough marketing budget, or a celebrity name attached, or a pot full of luck, but I am betting you have none of these.

How to Make Your Book Amazing

Here's the good news.

If you start from the premise that no one cares about your book, you have a fighting chance of success.

It changes the way that you approach your writing (and your marketing).

It means that you push yourself to move your story into a place that it might not otherwise exist.

It means that you go the extra mile to create something that is special, something that readers will love, something that will excite them.

There's one other secret. If you are going to write books that readers love, then you need to fully understand your readership and write books, they will be desperate to read.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you should write books for readers. I am saying you should understand your readers and write books they love; there's a difference.

You are not writing books and then trying to convince people to love your book. You are writing books and finding the people who will already love your book; they just don't know about it.

If you are creating truly amazing stories, then they will find a readership.

If you write amazing books, no matter what the subject, there are enough people in this world to make that book a success. You just need to find them.

However, once you have your tribe, then you have a foundation for success.

If your book is to be a success, then you need readers to be excited by the idea of reading your next book.

If your readers are not excited, then you've lost.

So, in answer to that writer, the one with the thriller that didn't sell, the message is clear.

They tried to write a book for an audience and, since they were not knee-deep in the genre, they produce something derivative.

The thing is, the writer seemed to do everything right. The book was well-written and well-plotted. The characters were well developed, and the setting was believable.

It's was just that the book was the same as hundreds of other titles in the genre.

It was, well, OK.

Readers didn't care enough to read and talk about the book, and, as a result, it died a slow death. He kickstarted some sales with ads, but since readers didn't care enough about the book, they never talked about it, and the book never gained traction.

My advice was clear. I told the writer to write the book that they wished existed and make it better than anything he'd ever read in the same genre.

A big ask, I know, but that's what you need to do to be successful.

I didn't come up with this approach to book marketing; this isn't my original thinking. This is what I've stolen from others over the years and seen work for writers. If anything, all I've done is tweak other people's ideas.

Therefore, if the ideas here have touched a nerve, then I suggest you go and read this classic article, 1000 True Fans, for a deeper insight. (https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/)