Changing perspective: casting my nets.

August 19^th. 2018

Another big week for the Chindi group as the Arundel Festival kicks off to ten days of fun, art, mayhem and lots of tourists. Our members have set up their stall outside the Cancer UK Research charity shop with over 200 titles available, all signed, the proceeds of which will go to the cancer charity. We have done this for the last three years and exceeded our targets each time. I won’t be there this year, but the ten days will be covered in shifts by our lovely, talented writers.

My week began with another nail-biting venture into Amazon ads. The four ads I’d put on a few weeks ago did little for me. I cancelled three and left one running. So far my ‘aCos’ has dropped to less that 100%, which (I think) means I’m spending marginally less than my sales are earning. The sales of Hell’s Gate are incrementing gradually, but not with too much speed. So, continuing with Brian Meeks’ advice, I started another seven ads; this time for Roselli’s Gold. Nothing has happened yet because the ads have only just been approved by Amazon, and the advice I’m given is that it’s possible that nothing will happen for several days. So it’s patience and nail-biting time. The biggest problem is writing ad copy. I had to write five different lines of copy for five of the ads (same book, same ad). The cost per click is the same for two ads, then another CpC for two more, and a single, higher rate for the fifth ad. It’s bewildering, but hopefully if I stick to the ‘Guru’s’ plan, I might see some gains.

We had a friend staying with us for a week. She brought her little Chihuahua called Daisy: a dog with attitude; it wanted to fight every dog it saw. I told her she should change its name to Genghis, might be more appropriate. What is it with little dogs? Fortunately our Tuppence had us to look out for her.

Another move I’ve made is to download two eBooks: one written by Adam Croft about getting into the mind of an indie writer and changing your perspective. The other is a book by Tammi Labrecque on email marketing. It isn’t about learning with Mailchimp, Aweber, Mailerlite and all that, but the approach that’s needed to cultivate readers. The point about Tammi’s approach is that you do not try and sell your books. Daft? Sounds like it. But the book was strongly recommended by David Gaughran. I have told him that if I don’t sell a million books by the end of next year, I’ll beat him over the head with the book. He accepted that so long as it’s the eBook I use.

Looking at all that from another point of view, I have to say that because nothing seems to work for long, you have to start considering what it is you’re doing wrong, what you want to achieve and accept that a change of direction could be the answer.  So, I am about to give up trying to persuade people with my smooth-tongued rhetoric and stick to cultivating them by way of a completely different approach. The sermon at church today was about Jesus telling Peter that he’ll never catch fish the way he’s casting his nets and will do far better by casting his nets on the other side of the boat. The nets almost broke with the catch. So, lesson learned here? Am I using the wrong approach? Time, then, for me to cast my nets the other side and maybe, just maybe, I’ll catch a ton of readers and convert them to my books. Wish me luck!