Lesson 26

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
 What Do You Think? Lesson 26
 Did this week go by fast, or is it just me? I am glad to have you back. I recently joined LinkedIn to hopefully expand my audience. I did sign up four years ago as a Porter trying to find a different job, but all that gave me were 20,000 places of employment that I didn’t qualify for. When I began it was just a jobsite, whereas still true today. However, now that I have changed my profile to author, I received many friend connections from other authors and people in the fields of publishing, artists, editors, ghostwriters, film and video people, along with so many others.

As of this week, I still get people wanting to friend me, and I have over seventy views per week, people checking out my profile and my posts. People that view my profile, and from that seventy views I get six or seven that want to become my friends. I have also connected with artists, editors, and all sorts of talent from around the globe. Now, how to expand my sales.
Being a jobsite, many of these people are trying to sell me their services, but I have also found that authors just want to be connected, probably in hopes of me buying their book. I feel guilty to post my own gratification even though I see many from others, and like Facebook, stupid animal pics with captions, or a video of a heartwarming child. Let’s be professional, people, with or without the comma. I will soon figure out what I want to post, and I hope for an explosion to my website and my sales, but until then, I’ll just bug you guys and do my best to help you with what I know. My LinkedIn friends and connections has surpassed 1,000 people and growing.
Besides LinkedIn connections I have a lot of pass-on information on my Pinterest accounts. This is a great place to find a lot of information on almost anything in the whole wide world. You can open up and read what other people have posted. They too mostly want you to sign up for newsletter, or they try to sell you something. But they provide a lot of information for free, especially when it comes to book writing. You can set up your own Pinterest board for free and save other people’s board to yours. They provide you information on what worked for them. I read, I think, and I decide what will work for me, and what will help me to improve. You can’t do it all, but you do get good hands-on tidbits, I promise. If you have some time, check out my boards, rickkurtisbooks, or rick kurtis author. I think. Let me know.
As for your book sales. It will at least give you exposure by putting your book or books on your Pinterest board. You can also make your own posts that maybe people will then share or view you. I really don’t know if people see my books, but a lot of people Like 17,000 per month have viewed my boards and shared the posts that I have saved from other people’s posts. This surprised me on how many people save a post from my site that I have saved from someone else’s. It at least shows traffic, and makes me feel great that I have at least helped some other author or artist. Go ahead and check out my Pinterest boards. Let me know if you saw my books posted on them or what you found to help- you. One board is mostly writing tips and how to write, and the other is artistry and how to draw. We all need help, and me especially. I was always a C student and my talent seems to be the same way. Hopefully you will give me an A for this class.
Facebook is a great social media, and has a lot of shares and filled with ads and ridiculous hilarity, or political rhetoric, but still is a great site to connect with clubs, such as book clubs, director and editor clubs, and so-on. There are sites and clubs for every connection, like screenplays, and movie people. This is where we can explain and show our books for that one chance in a million. Again, what do we post?
I think I burned out all of my friends on FB by bombarding them with my book posts. Oh well, their loss. (I say that a lot, don’t I?) I still have a few loyal fans, but are they really? Do they push the button to share and ask their friends to share? One in a blue moon. Or do my 800 friends really never get to see my posts, because I have heard that Facebook only releases my post to a select few, 7 to 15 percent, maybe twenty or thirty people. Out of the views that I do get, I might receive three likes, and one share. Why have so many friends on FB if Facebook isn’t going to share? Oh, because they want you to ‘Boost,’ ‘By Ad Space.’
So I did. I have paid sixty dollars per month for 5 to 6000 posts shared every month. I received no feedback from my ads except for a thumbs-up here and there, and Facebook telling me I had over so many views and that I should boost again with $100 for 6000 more posts. Really? That’s good money after bad. I wouldn’t mind it if I saw sales, a return of some kind, but I don’t even know if they sent out those 6000 posts with a return of twenty people like this, and one person shared, and three people commented. I get that much on my normal posts that are for free.
I have heard that when using Facebook you should post the same post three times a day and your post will hit different people. I really don’t know if that is true and I personally 1, Don’t have that type of time, and 2, I don’t want people to defriend me because they see my post repeated over and over again. Like I said before, I think my true friends stopped their likes because they saw too many, or Facebook is not sending my post to them. I am just not sure. On my author site FB said, “You were viewed by 6 people and have three likes.” WWOOWEE! Then they ask me to Boost.
I share on my FB page, my author page, another author page, and 26 book clubs. Some clubs may reject your post or even kick you out from the club. Try to follow their guidelines and not post or solicit on wrong days. When signing up write down which days that you can post your book or website. That I did not do and I have lost a few. MY BAD.
Bookbub is another book site where you can place ads. You can put your book on sale changing the price which I did not try, but I did run a three month ad for my three books. Twenty dollars a month for each, so that was sixty dollars a month for three months, and each book would be posted to 60,000 emails per month. That’s 60k x 3 books (180k) x 3 months = 540,000 e-mails sent to phones or computers, and said they are book-reading people. They did send them to my e-mail, so I at least saw my ad.
I did at least see exposure with over 9000 clicks, 3000 profile looks, and 1300 open to the first chapter reads on Amazon. One book ‘Day of the Cross’ because of the cover pic had over 11,600 views in the first day.
That was a total of 180,000 post per month, 540,000 posts sent out to cell phones, iPads, social sites that boil down to a grand total of ZERO sales. Many have told me that my prices are set too high at $7.99 and $5.99 for an e-book, and my paperback is too high at $12.99. I guess all the Bookbub readers, over 5 million of them, are looking for ninety-nine cent books or free books.
How much money do you make for a free book? Or how many books do you have to sell at ninety-nine cents, getting seventy cents per sale, if you’re lucky, in order to cover your cost for your advertising? Don’t get me wrong, or have me scare you away. I love writing my books and sharing, and I will continue, but it would be nice to be paid for my efforts. And I think that’s why we all want to be an author.
You will find plenty of more sites as you surf like Goodreads, bookbuz, kobo, and so many others, along with Instagram, twitter, you tube, tic toc, and plenty more, but then you are spreading yourself thin and on your computer all day but NOT writing. Pick one or two and move on, but be diligent with your choices. They say to post at least once per week.
Until next time, have a wonderful week, and enjoy everything that you do. Sorry that this one ran a little long, and was a bummer. Happy news for us is America’s Fourth of July. This is our Independence Day from England. I’m so glad that England remains as welcomed friends, and has stood alongside of America for justice for all the people. There is a nice saying that goes a long way with this: Once you realize how hard it is to change yourself, you will realize what little chance you have of changing others. Until next week,
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com