Bookselling Advice

Josh Spilker , please, please forgive me for jumping in and giving you some advice. I seriously try to refrain from doing such things but I find myself incapable of refraining myself under the current positions of the moon and planets tonight.

What I suggest is to not focus on any sort of pricing strategy. Please don’t tell me what I can afford. That is judgmental and condescending. Don’t tell me that your book is cheaper than a hamburger or a pack of smokes or a gallon of gas. It has been over 20 years since I drank beer so telling me that the cost of your book is equivalent to 1/8 of a beer means absolutely nothing to me.

I don’t give a damn how cheap your book is. I want to know how good it is. I want to know how it will rock my world. I want to know how it will slap me across the face and get me up to the dance floor.

Luckily, your title, Taco Jehovah, and your key words, God, Chili’s, Panama City Beach, Kmart, Costco and mini-golf thoroughly excited me. You immediately had my attention. Then I read the synopsis of your book on Amazon and I was even further hooked. Your book is currently in my Amazon shopping cart even though I won’t be able to afford to actually buy it until later in the week after I get paid.

But you almost lost me with your pricing gimmickry. The threat of the price going up was particularly annoying. Yes, I know that every ‘How To Make a Billion Dollars Writing a Book’ internet pundit out there says to use every marketing tool available, but I disagree.

I’ve been an author, editor, publisher, marketer, and foolish pundit for almost a half a freaking century. I have never found the secret formula to billion-dollar success but I have learned all the things NOT to do.

Near the top of that list is the axiom that says, “Never, ever, ever, ever, ever talk about price!” Talk only about the book. Talk from the heart. Talk about the book, not the price. Pricing can be seen as an author’s self-judgment about their work. A ‘cheap price’ can be as much of a turn-off as an incentive. And worse, it can be seen as a marketing ploy or an act of desperation.

Never mention price again. Set a price and stick to it and don’t ever mention it again. Focus exclusively on the book and stop thinking in numbers. I know that goes against everything the pundits say but I have learned that to move your art you must relate to a potential reader’s gut more than their checkbook balancing analytical mind. And it is even more important to get out of your own analytical mind.

Good writing has little to do with the mind. It is about the heart and the solar plexus and what words make us FEEL Pricing is a diversion to that. It is an attempt to quantify quality which is a fool’s game. Don’t fall for it. I don’t want to know how much your book costs. I only want to know what it will make me feel. I want to know the potential ways in which it will affect my outlook on life. I want to know how much electricity will course through my body as I read it. I want to feel your sincerity and your passion. I want to feel your love. These are things you cannot put a price on and by focusing on price you denigrate the energy you put into your creation.

Seriously, don’t do it. Don’t ever mention price again.

Just my opinion….. (Thanks, no doubt, to Mercury being retrograde.)