I enjoy my Kindle. I enjoy not having to fill my bookshelves
with books, not having to spend hours at a library trying to find information
that may or may not be there. I enjoy all the features of the Kindle itself,
and the ease and convenience of downloading books from my home.
And as someone who has always loved to write, and – if I may
say so myself, is a talented writer – I especially enjoy the fact that
Amazon.com allows people to self-publish their works to Kindle. I used to have
a stack of rejection letters several inches thick. At a writer’s conference,
Terry Whalin once told me that “someone should publish this” as he flipped
through the manuscript for my book The Envelope, except at the time he was working for a small publishing firm
that was only going to publish two novels that year. They couldn’t risk taking
on a new, unknown author.
Folks, even the best
writers have a hard time getting published traditionally. So digital self-publishing
has a been a blessing – at least to an extent – for bonafide writers with
pertinent and compelling stories and messages whose words might otherwise never
go beyond their personal desktop.
But this ease of self-publishing has a dark side. It’s called
greed.
I don't rant a lot, but once in a while, I just must. Here goes...
Enter the Internet Marketers
The first writers who published on Kindle made some good
money. A few made a lot of money. Mostly, it was because there wasn’t a whole
lot of competition. And the folks who were publishing there were truly talented writers.
Then, some Internet Marketers got wise. “If I play my cards
just right, I might be able to make a killing on Kindle!” Most of these people
could not tell you why “mispelled” is misspelled to save their lives. They
didn’t do well in their English classes at school, and hated writing.
But, ah, look, people are making money with Kindle! If they
are doing it, why shouldn’t I?
Great question! Allow me to answer it.
Why you shouldn’t publish to Kindle
1. You shouldn’t do it because you don’t really do it. You
hire other people to write your stuff, and then you put your name on it and
make all the money. That’s baloney.
2. You shouldn’t do it because all you care about is the
money. You don’t love to write, and have no desire to improve your ability in
written communication.
3. You shouldn’t do it because you have been called to do
something else. Go out and do that, and forget about trying to make six figures
on Kindle by next year. Instead, read my book Hatching The Nest Egg: How To Achieve Super-Early Retirement WithoutGambling, Side-Gigs, Or An Above-Average Income.
4. You shouldn’t do it because you’re just writing products
based on popular keywords. What the *blank* are you doing writing a book about
growing tomatoes when you never even eat them, let alone grow them? And you who
wrote that forty-page “book” about oil pulling – have you ever actually pulled
oil yourself?
5. You shouldn’t do it because you can’t write. Have you
read the reviews for your book? Telling you about all your grammar and spelling
errors, and all the repetition? That the story is a piece of s---? That’s a
clue, honey. (And for you non-native English speakers, for goodness’ sake, hire
a native English speaker to edit and rewrite your stuff before you publish it.)
6. You shouldn’t do it because you can’t do it without
sinning. I refuse to apologize for using that word. Manipulation is a sin. It
is not godly, because it is not loving. It is using people for your own means.
I was shocked, angry and sad when I heard that John Locke
was the first Indie publisher to have one million books sold because he paid people to give him positive reviews.
By the way, even though Amazon.com condemns the behavior and supposedly watches
out for it, Indie authors can still go to fiverr.com and pay people to write
four- and five-star reviews for their books.
In the book How To
Make A Killing With Kindle the author
warns you against paying for reviews, but then turns around and tells you to
gift the book to all your friends and family and ask for positive reviews. How
is this any different? It’s like going to your best friend with your MLM Super
Supplement: she’s going to buy at least one bottle because she’ll feel guilty
or afraid of offending you if she doesn’t. Or she just wants you to give you a
warm fuzzy.
So a friend or family member of an author will naturally be
inclined to give the Indie a positive review – simply because they are a friend
or family member. Tell me, how objective do you think that review will be?
Another manipulative tactic is a hyped-up product
description. Unfortunately, much of the time you can’t tell whether the
description is hyped-up until you read the book and discover that it doesn’t
deliver what has been promised in that description.
But at least you can return it if you read it before the
thirty-day refund window closes.
By the way, to my non-Indie publishers, if you are a reading
a product description that suddenly contains a string of keywords (rather than
a coherent sentence), I advise against buying that book. It has been written by
an Indie author who is likely publishing
just to make money, not because s/he can write. Another red flag is if you
“Look inside this book!” and see in the Table of Contents a “bonus” chapter.
The word “bonus” has been used by salespeople and marketers
for decades because it makes people think they’re getting something for free.
It is yet another form of manipulation. A “bonus” chapter? Really? Why not just
make it “Chapter Ten” or the conclusion?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Because it’s supposed to increase your
sales.
Right.
*****
Lately, I’ve read several non-fiction books, all by Indie
publishers. Two of them knocked my socks off, another was almost that good, but
the rest were obviously written by non-writers just trying to make an easy
buck.
A little friendly advice to such so-called “authors”: don’t
quit your day-job. Just because some guru Internet Marketer has conned you into
paying for a several-hundred-dollar course in order to learn how to make money
with Kindle, doesn’t mean you’re going to do so. Or should even try.
Unclog the Kindle store, please, and get off my Kindle.
