Trash products

The easiest way to make new fans is to send them something that exceeds their expectations.

The easiest way to lose fans is to send them something that’s disappointing.

The difference in cost between the two is usually not that much, but the difference in emotional resonance is HUGE.

Step one, before any of the marketing stuff I talk about, is to make something so good they can’t ignore you; so good that when somebody sees it they go “Holy crap. What is this?”

Then, you have an unfair advantage over everybody else.

Without that element, though, all the marketing in the world will only do so much to push your trash, or even mediocre, product.

The minute you start making things that are head and shoulders above the average, things that are easily best in class, then the rest of it becomes easy.

The rest of it is just showing people that your work is CLEARLY better than anything else out there.

I do think people wait too long to start marketing their stuff, usually way too long.

However, it’s depressing how often I receive a Kickstarter and am let down by the packaging, or the lettering, or the little things that are EASY to fix.

Packaging is SO EASY.

It’s pretty cheap in the grand scheme to go from a 50 lb paper to an 80 lb paper (when working with the right printer), to get a better cover, or hire a better artist, to go from the cheapest printer to the best one, and, if you’re ready to go offset, to go from softcover to hardcover even.

Yes, it is more expensive, sometimes quite a bit more expensive, but the ROI on those upgrades means everything in the court of public opinion.

You don’t have to hire Neal Adams to draw your book, but I see the trash art in most of the books I get, and I just sigh. I see the piss poor editorial decisions and just shrug. I see a cover that is so clearly gross it’s hard not to gag way too much. Every show is littered with bad packaging.

Or even mediocre art and story. Stuff that’s not good, but it’s not bad either. It’s just…forgettable. Honestly, most stuff these days isn’t bad. It’s just forgettable, and that used to be enough. If you could just be serviceable, then you could make a career, but now, you have to be the absolute best if you want to get noticed.

I see it all the time on Amazon and Kickstarter. Books that are…fine…there is nothing wrong with them. They are technically quality art, but there is nothing about them that makes them stand out.

If you want that next level money, you HAVE to stand out. You HAVE to be the one people talk about. You HAVE to make your books so good that people have to share them.

Most things are forgettable, and if you are forgotten, you will fade away, and NOBODY with talk about it.

Those books go in my “well, I’m not buying one of those again,” pile, or into my “support because they’re friends but never read pile”.

An exceptionally few books go into the “I have to buy everything they ever do” pile, and if you can’t get into that pile, you just AREN’T going to get traction for the long haul.

That should be your only goal.

Yes, book two and book three in a series will ALWAYS sell worse than book one, but you should also always be dragging people into book one, and as time goes on, more and more people should be finishing your series overall because it’s easier to drag people into book one.

The more word of mouth gets around, the more it will sell. I just read my favorite book ever, and I have been talking about it non-stop for a MONTH to everybody.

That’s what you’re trying to get, free, word of mouth advertising. Trash books don’t get that, except in a bad way.

Not a week goes by that I don’t hear. “Did you back x campaign? I just got the package and it looks like garbage.”

And then I know never to back that person again because first impressions matter. Even worse are books that elicit NO REACTION AT ALL. They are nothing burgers. Not good. Not bad. Just forgettable.

I think about this with everything I do. When I speak, my job is to be unforgettable, so that people remember my name. I can’t just be adequate, or passable. I have to be so good they can’t ignore me. When people ask their favorite speaker at a show, it needs to be ME, because that’s how I get invited back.

Otherwise, I’m just lost in the noise.

If you can make somebody go “Wow,” before they’ve even opened the book, your work is like 50% done for making a fan.

But, it’s clear that most people, when given the chance to impress, just don’t care.

And it’s the dumbest thing ever. I just got a package of books from my friend filled with the books I got at NYCC last year, and I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with the packaging of all but a select handful.

I have no interest in reading most of them, which means when I DO read them, I will have a bad mindset going in, and they will get less of a chance from me.

This business is SO hard. You have to give yourself EVERY opportunity to succeed.

Usually, less than $500 here or there can turn a book from average to great, which sounds like a lot on the front end, but for something you will have FOREVER, and be able to sell FOREVER, it’s not that much. It’s a nip there, and a tuck here.

Instead, y’all want to produce extra pin-ups which don’t matter, or prints that don’t matter, or epilogue stories that don’t matter, or other crap nobody cares about, instead of doing the one thing that DOES matter.

Make a book SO GOOD that people can’t stop saying “Wow! What is this and how do I get more of this tomorrow please!”

When people want more, they will buy the next book, and if that one is good they will buy the next one, and so on.

It’s insulting to get something ratchet, and the last thing you want to do is insult people, especially when it’s so easy, and impressing them is so hard.

Therefore, when you DO impress them, you’ll reach an elite class that only a few people go into, and the rest becomes SO MUCH EASIER.

This is the craftsman, artisanal part of the business. It’s why historically, artists and writers are considered craftsmen, like blacksmiths or cobblers. Artisan is right there in the name ARTIST.

An artist is one who is an artisanal craftsman.

That’s why we call it the craft of writing, and why the whole process matters from end to end, not just the construction of the book, but the packaging as well.

The finished book is the object we sell. The WHOLE BOOK.

Books are an object, a totem, that give you a chance to delight people, and y’all be messing up big time when you send trash books to people.

Or worse, you send forgettable books to people that don’t even elicit a reaction.

Nine times out of ten, when somebody asks me why books don’t sell, I have to bite my tongue to avoid asking “well, is your book trash?”

Cuz if it looks like trash then there’s nothing I can do. If it’s fyre, then there’s everything I can do.