PS Power Books • Forum

Hard talk time, friends...
Sales and revenue are down by enough that I'm just at break even right now as far as book sales go. As it stands, I'm already looking for another project to work on to bring in enough to live on. That's going to take away from book writing time.

I have a few things to try right now:

1. If everyone that reads this and has other online connections (social media) shares their favorite books or things they liked form the latest books with their friends, family, the public... That might help some.

2. I think that Amazon.com is throttling my sales directly. If so, it probably ISN'T about politics or anything like that. Chances are it's that I do too much work and the only other people putting out as much as I do, are scammers of one kind or another. I'm not scamming anyone, but the algorithm might still be catching me that way?

So, I might need to start a new account, under a different name, with new material that doesn't come out as quickly. (One book every three months or so?) I don't know if I can even do that, to be honest. If that's the case... Then I could try doing things over at Smashwords? The revenue hasn't been the same there, but frankly the way my work drops as fast as it does anymore, even while running advertising campaigns... It's not that much worse, so might be worth the risk.

*I could try both.

My goal isn't to make people go to a different site, but it might come to that, if Amazon is a dead end for me.

3. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas that I've missed on things, let me know?

4. I can also switch genres. Romance and High fantasy? That isn't worth it if I'm being suppressed, though.

How certain am I of some kind of suppression going on? About 75%? I'll be doing fine, then on day three, sales will nearly stop for about six to ten hours. After that, the whole thing comes back, but falls off a cliff, no matter what I do to save it.

*This didn't really happen with Fletcher. Everything else since then, however.

Michael Anderle is releasing something like 10 books a month under his name and seems to be generally doing ok.

I don't have any personal contact with him, but from all I can see he seems to be a pretty ok guy and is sitting at the center of a whole group of authors that are cooperating in multiple different universes and all seem to be doing pretty ok.

You might want to chat with him and see if he'll tell you what his secret sauce is.

I don't know what your own political philosophy is, or if you have one. Regardless, so far as I can tell, virtually _all_ of your protagonists are libertarian/individualist/non-coercive. None of your main characters live in a society that advocates or directly rewards such people, yet they manage to overcome the difficulties or obstacles created by others in their society, they learn (or learn to do better), and they triumph!

And how do they triumph? Uniformly they do that not by subjugating others but by helping others achieve their goals.

I have thought for some time that I should let other 'libertarians' know of your work. (Sadly perhaps, I'd rather read your books than write about them.) Too, many authors of the libertarian persuasion prefer to write books that show how it might be possible for an explicitly libertarian society to exist: how to create a new country or transform an existing society. Few are much interested in showing how to live a 'libertarian life' while in a non-libertarian society. Which, you do. Very well.

One possible explanation for your readership problem is that not many people who 'preview' your work think the 'hero' acts sensibly -- by their standards. Another explanation, perhaps more hopeful, is that few of those who might think your 'hero' acts sensibly know of your work.

Too, your work hovers back and forth between science fiction, fantasy, and the occasional romance. When all work was filtered through traditional publishers, that would have been more of a problem than it likely now is.

G.

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