{"id":1246,"date":"2014-09-20T11:57:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-20T15:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eddiejones.org\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2020-03-06T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T20:22:13","slug":"there-is-no-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eddiejones.org\/there-is-no-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Summers'<\/a>When it comes to book promotion there is no magic.\u00a0 Authors may think a version of pixie dust\"pixie-dust\" can be purchased and sprinkled on their book, but they are mistaken. The book buying business is mysterious but the formula for success is not.<\/p>\n

Write a great book and get it into the hands of influencers of that genre. Repeat as necessary.<\/p>\n

In four weeks I\u2019ll serve on faculty at the Blue Ridge Christian Novelist Retreat<\/a> where I\u2019m sure the topic of book sales, the publishing industry, Amazon<\/a>, Nooks<\/a>, Kindles<\/a>, eReaders, print books<\/a>, bookstores, etc\u2026 will be discussed at length. (Did you notice the way I included all those key words early in this blog post? This is a subtle way of marketing you and your books.) I know these topics will come up because this discussion dominates almost every writers\u2019 conference<\/a> I attend.<\/p>\n

For example, this week I returned home from the Maranatha Christian Writers\u2019 Conference<\/a>. The Somersault Group<\/a>, a marketing and service firm for authors, ran MCWC this year and several of the workshops – perhaps as many as half – focused on marketing, social media, and platform building. But in one sense these workshops only confounded the conferees.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlatform seems to be all anyone cares about,\u201d one author complained. \u201cBut I\u2019m not (famous author name here<\/a>) with two hundred thousand blog followers and I doubt I ever will be. Does that mean I don\u2019t stand a chance getting published?\u201d\"Snoopy,<\/p>\n

No. This author can self publish<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t solve the missing magic problem. You still have to find readers. Which brings us back to your first goal: write a great book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But you may ask, \u201cIf I write a great book and no one finds it, no one reads it… what\u2019s the point?” The point is, a poorly written book marketed well will sell \u2026 once. A great book marketed poorly may not sell, or may sell years later, but it will always be a great book.<\/p>\n

Let me say it again; there is no magic. There is, however, work.\u00a0Book selling is seed sowing: and authors must sow lots of seeds.<\/p>\n