The above image represents the latest attempt to use AI to create my next book cover. It was generated using DALL-E 2 with the prompt 'A network of lights connected to the heads of a crowd of people cinematic lighting.' Although this is the best one so far, it could be better, so I'll keep trying.
Today I looked into the cost of advertising my books on social media. What I learned was disappointing and a little surprising. Apparently, the cost-per-click on Facebook is nearly a dollar, while the cost can be much higher on other sites. So if my goal is to sell books, and if I'm making just $2-$4 each (depending on the format), advertising at all makes little sense. Not every person who clicks on an ad will buy a book. One in ten might in a best case scenario, and ten clicks would cost to me ten bucks, which is a far greater sum than my profit on a book.
I also got a better handle on reader demographics by reading several blog posts on the subject. Apparently, about 20% of adults read scifi and 20% of adults read nothing. 57% of scifi readers are male, yet females are much more likely to click on a link and make an online purchase. Those with low incomes and levels of education are less likely to read anything at all, as are those aged 45-65. All of this implies that I should target my book marketing to those with college degrees who are under age 45.
Meanwhile, I'm still thinking about how my new author website should look. The first big question that I can't yet answer is what should site visitors see right away. Big words? A picture of me? A stock photo from Pixabay? Right now I'm leaning towards big words. Maybe a short book passage or snippet of a positive Amazon review. Another thought is to create a graphic showing how my first six novels are related, which might be cool, but I'm not convinced that anybody cares.
All of this is less fun than the work I usually do. The hardest part is feeling like I'm just spinning my wheels and wasting time. But the more pragmatic part of me recognizes the value in figuring this stuff out in an orderly way. And I also still feel good about having used No Shirt Press as my publisher, even though this imprint is owned by me and offers zero help when it comes to selling books.
Many aspiring authors attempt to get big publishing deals and receive only stacks of rejection letters for their effort. Some never even complete their first book as a result. Even those who do get published by one of the New York companies rarely make more than a trivial sum for their work due to the standardized unfairness of these deals. The related world of literary agents is worse. The entire thing is an insider's game that makes it virtually impossible for a writer like me to get anywhere.
Zero books get adapted to screen without representation. Looking into this, I found an agent who was interested in The Paradise Anomaly, but they wanted rights to the whole work and all derivations and were unwilling to make even basic guarantees that they'd actually send the work to anyone. So I put The Paradise Anomaly out under my own imprint like all of the rest and I'm pretty sure more people have read it as a result. Maybe someday I'll convince a group of film students to take it on as a learning project.
One nice thing about my situation is that I've already written a bunch of books. Many other aspiring authors have only a sample chapter and the expectation that they'll be paid to complete their work. This expectation is unwarranted because the world of traditional publishing is inaccessible to the vast majority of people. By simply ignoring this world, I've been able to make my work available directly to readers. I haven't sold too many books yet, but at least I have books to sell. And everyone who reads them seems to like them.
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
