BookMarketingBuzzBlog

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Can Authors Fool People Into Buying A Book?

There are so many people out there making a living by hacking into accounts and manipulating data, conducting corporate espionage, selling data, blackmailing and extorting with ransomware, and stealing identities.

I got fooled by the hackeratti, too.

Thankfully, I never fell for:

*Nigerian lottery hoaxes
*Donating to a fake charity
*Giving away passwords to supposed hacked customer accounts
*Providing my social security number to a scammer

But I almost let a hacker take over my computer. I feel dumb for letting it go too far, but happy that I corrected course once I realized someone was looking to steal my identity and information.

The near-hack, however, left me shaken.

I was looking up something about amazon advertising and suddenly out of nowhere, alarms sounded and my computer froze. The screen was filled with rattling messages about a virus, not to shut down, and to call a Microsoft helpline number.

I am the first one to tell people not to fall for this crap. I even broke my rule of calling a number to resolve the problem that was provided by those causing the problem, instead of looking up the number for Microsoft and calling them directly.

I spent 20 or so minutes on the line, suspicious and afraid. I never gave any personal info but I did download software that would make it easier for them to see my computer files.

My wife convinced me during the call to hang up. She noticed the number I dialed comes up as SPAM. She dialed the number and hung up. They called her back twice. I hung up. My teen-age son quickly cleaned my computer of what I did. I believe — hope — I am in the clear.

Luckily, the process did not get completed and I removed the software from my computer.

The question is: Why, after all of these years, did I fall for this shit?

College educated. Brooklyn street savvy. A marketer. Short of being in law enforcement or IT, I was most qualified to recognize this fakery. But something broke down this time.

It just shows that any message can break through and be embraced. Everything is psychological. The world seems to be a physical place, but underpinning our actions is a psychology that leads us to even make decisions we regret or doubt at the time we make them.

I don’t mean to suggest that you should employ the tactics of hackers and hoaxers to market your book, but you should not underestimate how psychology over reason, and fear over facts, can sell people on anything. Tap into pushing the buttons of what motivates one to act and you will sell a ton of books!

Beware, my friends, of the criminals lurking in our mail, on a phone call, and on our computers. But, consider finding how to emotionally tap into selling people your book. Obviously, psychology sells.

Need Book PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has 30 years of experience in helping thousands of authors in all genres.

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2021. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent. This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.

Monday, August 2, 2021

Is There Any Pay-Off To Being A Writer?

Amazing wealth.
Fame and glory.
Awards and critical praise.
Change the world.
A legacy beyond their lifetime.

A rarefied few will experience all of those things. Many would be deeply satisfied to accomplish just one of them. Of course, most writers do not pen a book because they expect such lofty achievements, though they may crave some or all of them.

So, you may ask: What is the pay-off to being a writer if most don’t reach a lofty level?

Writers write because:

It is therapeutic and cathartic. They may very well hurt someone or themselves if the outlet of writing was unavailable. It psychologically soothes the writer to pen his feelings, thoughts, ideas, experiences, dreams, and questions.

It is a lottery ticket to wealth. In order to have a chance at hitting best-seller lists or turning your book into a movie franchise, you need to get a lottery ticket. Write that book and put it out there for all to judge.

Their ego demands that they do so. Let’s face it. Many of us crave attention and want to popular and liked. The book is our expression of ourselves, to be used as a way to compete with others. We look to measure how much our work is liked, and thus, ourselves feel liked and accepted, as if the book defines who we are.

It can be a calling card to seduce people into buying other books, services, or resources. From a business standpoint, a book can define our brand and be used to call attention to money-making things.

It is a hobby. Some just write for fun and to let their imagination run wild and find a place. Some like to paint, collect things, play golf, or travel. Others write with an unrivaled get-out-of-bed passion.

They want to receive validation and recognition. Critical praise. Awards. Best-seller lists. Any third-party measurement that presents itself as an endorsement makes the writer feel important and accomplished.

They hope to change the life of at least one other. Contributing to society by writing words that improve the lives of readers or that lead readers to help others may be the most rewarding aspect of writing.

They hope to be remembered long after they have lived. Writing can be a legacy tool, not only to be used to pen a memoir, but to be the one thing that exists way past their expiration date. To read the works of the dead honors the writer.

Writing can have many pay-offs. It depends on the writer to pursue that which can potentially yield something worthwhile.

Their writing quality and ability, and their means to market their writings, will shape and influence what they end up achieving.

It also depends on what the author wants or needs — and whether or not he or she believes they have attained such things. No two authors may be satisfied with a similar result. It is, to a degree, all arbitrary as to what an author wants or thinks she has achieved.

Just write and promote the heck out of your work. Whatever your objectives may be, pursue them with reckless abandon. Go all the way and write what you want to say in the way you enjoy most. Whatever results, may the reward fulfill you.

Need Book PR Help?

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About Brian Feinblum

Sunday, August 1, 2021

Does Every Author Have What It Takes?

After recently reading a book, Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt, I felt inspired by author William Kenower’s words. It sparks a question: Does every writer really have what it takes to write, publish, and promote a book?

He talks about how writing is rewarding, that the very act of creating and sharing is fulfilling. It’s an art and every writer enjoys creating. They also enjoy an audience and compensation. So, how does an author overcome fear, insecurity, and self-doubt?

Kenower claims: “Ability alone has little to do with what we call success.” But he says the key to your success: “Is your curiosity – the unique, inherent, ceaseless mechanism of your interest.”

He says: “The time to write is now.” He’s correct. Don’t let today’s opportunities pass you by. Seize the moment to create, publish, and market your work.

Sure, the craft of writing is filled with obstacles and challenges, so you burdening yourself with crazy expectations, unnecessary comparisons, unrealistic standards, or unusual pressures will not force you to be successful. Remove the albatross and let your writing flow freely to wherever it is destined to take you.

Writers have many sit in judgment of them, starting with themselves, friends, and loved ones. Then you have the judgment of:

· Readers

· Bookstore owners

· Publishers

· Libraries

· Literary agents

· Editors

· Reviewers

Forget about all of that. Just write what feels natural and important and enjoyable to you. Those who judge will judge, but do your part by taking practical steps to make your book the best it can be.

Below are several excerpts from Kenower’s insightful look at the world of writing and writers:

Excerpt 1

“How do you write a book? First, you find an idea you’re interested in. Without that, you have nothing. Without that character that speaks to you, without that “What if”, without the idea that wakes you up at night, you have no seed to plant from which the story grows. For me that idea was the relationship between creativity and happiness, that these two things were inexorably linked for everyone, whether they were writers or plumbers.”

Excerpt 2

“What if everyone has what it takes? So much of writing and creativity is about asking yourself compelling questions. What if I could fly? Why does my hero love that girl? Why did I feel estranged from my father? These are the kinds of questions from which stories are born, the kinds of questions we ask and answer and ask and answer as we wind our way sentence by sentence or stanza by stanza through our day’s work. The better and more interesting the question and the more clearly the question is framed the better the answer, the better the work.”

Excerpt 3

“And if you’re writer, you live for acceptance in some way. Practically speaking, you must. You can’t have a writing career without it. Someone out there has to like your stuff, from agents, to editors, to reviewers, to readers. That acceptance from others is an experience that begins at home. The only way to write a story that will find a publisher or a readership is for the writer to first value the experience of writing that story, to value the experience of discovering the idea, and of giving that idea shape, of finding the right words and removing the wrong ones. If the writer does not accept that this experience matters, that it is worthy of his full attention, then he will not find the full story. Instead, he’ll offer up some half-written, pre-rejected version of it. In other words, you must first decide an experience you enjoy, you find interesting, you find meaningful, is valuable simply because you find it interesting and meaningful.”

Excerpt 4

“Every writer wants, in theory, to share his or her work, to publish and get paid and experience the unique magic of seeing something we created in the sovereignty of our imagination inspire or entertain or inform a perfect stranger. But a great many writers worry that what seems so lovely and interesting and valuable in their imagination will be seen as dull and flat and valueless when exposed to the unforgiving attention of those same perfect strangers. Our stories, like children, are safe in our minds; the world of public opinion can seem far less safe. Anything can happen to a story when someone else reads it. It can be loved or ridiculed, embraced or rejected.”

Excerpt 5

“Every job, every relationship, every story we will tell begins within us, in a realm only we can possibly perceive. The only difference between retreating from life and full engagement with life is understanding that our imaginations are not a refuge from an unfriendly world, but the source for creating the world in which we would most like to live.”

Excerpt 6

“What we call failure is really just resistance. We are resisting what comes next. We are resisting our natural selves, our natural ability to receive new ideas and take new directions. Resistance is uncomfortable and depressing and hopeless. But it also takes effort. Most of the time, we drop our resistance eventually. Sometimes, however, we don’t. There are people who hold on to their resistance right up until their death. This does not mean they were incapable of dropping that resistance, just that they didn’t. I reject the notion anyone is incapable of dropping their resistance. If I am the one holding it, I can drop it. New ideas, new stories, new life will come.”

Excerpt 7

“The only way to understand someone is to see yourself in them, to see where you overlap, which is always in love and fear and grief and happiness. It’s not so hard; it’s always there. Which is why writers and actors can seem to become other people because they weren’t ever really themselves in the first place.”

Excerpt 8

“So write the story you love. If you love it, you have what it takes to write it. Period. You may think you need more than that, but you don’t. Love will teach you how to write it, will teach you the craft, will teach you how it begins and ends. Let that story be filled with drama and problems and conflicts. You’re the author and you love those conflicts and problems. You love them because they teach your hero what he or she needs to learn and because you know they’re not real. The reality is the ending, when the problem is solved, when the conflict is over, and now the hero is ready to live life as it was meant to be lived.”

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