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Running Through Wet Concrete

…many moons ago, pre-Internet, when we all lived in black and white, and in simpler times, young Barry and two of his friends where playing ‘Cowboys and Indians.’

Running through the playground, Niall Keenan had a hold of the back of my jumper, and a friend’s, and was racing us through the morning playground like a stage coach about to be robbed.

Being one of the horses, it wasn’t my job to think, I was simply pointed in a direction and ordered to run as fast as I could.

Well, that was my excuse later, as I stood facing my teacher and looking at the handwork we’d left behind us.

The freshly laid concrete bore the footprints of our little stagecoach.

Why we ran through it, even though the grumpiest man in the world was trying to flag us down, is something I still haven’t an answer to?

My excuse was that Niall was steering us.

And so it is with a lot of us on the Internet nowadays. We leave our brains behind and hitch ourselves to someone’s train and leave the thinking up to them.

But what if they’re not thinking?

Or even know what they’re talking about?

Lately I’ve been watching a lot of so called experts, jumping from one thing to the next, and being an expert on them all. – If that’s even possible. 

I’ve also seen another offering a $1000 course, as a buy one, get one free, with a $20 product.

I’ve also seen another offering a mailing list of almost 2,500 for a fraction of the price I would.

Which makes you wonder about the people that follow them? – How many of them are asleep behind the wheel?

Are you one of them?

I’ll be honest, I’ve made that mistake too. Like running through that wet concrete that morning, I’ve hitched myself to the wrong wagons, and followed the wrong people.

January 1st isn’t too far away, and you’ll see last year’s nonsense being rolled out to dupe you into thinking that next year is going to be the one that’s going to be the one you’ve always wanted.

If they’re promoting something new, are an instant expert, offering push button software, or are still featuring the same testimonials from the same people, it’s time to wake up.

If you’re standing on the wrong side of wet concrete, you’ve got to take some responsibility for where you are.

PS  – I don’t claim to be an expert on many things, but there’s a few courses  here I’m proud of putting together. 

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We Could All Use This To Sell Books, And Make Money

I was listening to the radio the other day and got to thinking…..Why don’t many authors collaborate with other authors like musicians do?

You’ve got Kanye West  with this artist, Taylor Swift with that one, and Coldplay with the other one.

Many times we haven’t heard of those artists before, but when they get a glimpse of the spotlight, it’s not unusual for them to take off with their own fan base.

So, why don’t more authors collaborate together?

Now I know that some do, in the form of working together on box sets, but when was the last time, an established author offered space in their book with a short story from another author?

Or offered free, or paid  advertisement space in their books for another author?

Or sat down and simply wrote a book together?

While I know that some of the above, take a lot of work and involve trust issues, none of the above are impossible to do nowadays.

There’s nothing stopping many writers bulking up their Kindle book with a free short story.

There’s nothing stopping an author offering advertisement space in their books, or in their emails, if they’ve got a big enough audience.

There’s nothing stopping two authors working together on a book, with one plotting it and the other writing it.

Will many do any of those? Probably not.

Why?

Because we authors are a crazy bunch who believe that they need to  horde every reader to us or we’re going to lose them forever.

God forbid anyone should buy a romance book that’s not ours.

Maybe we should all take a ‘page’ from the musicians book of doing things.

Not only can we help each other, but make some money to boot.

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It’s Time For A Rethink About Book Reviews

…it’s been a while since I talked about book reviews, or even thought about them myself.

It only occurred to me, after listening to an episode of the “3 Month Vacation by Sean D’souza,” that I really gave them much thought and what they can do for you and your books.

Let me ask you…

  • How many times have you ever used one as a social media post?
  • Put them a banner ad for your book?
  • Used them as a blurb on your book cover?
  • Or opened your book with a section filled with book reviews before your reader gets to the book’s content?

Not many times I suppose.

I’d put myself in that ‘why haven’t I done that’ category too.

All the above aren’t hard to do, most are simply a quick copy and paste and your’re good to go.

Why not give it a go and see what happens?

Oh, and if you’d like to have more of the opposite sex buy more of your books, put more of their reviews where you advertise your book.

If you find more ladies buy your work, but you want male buyers, start putting more book reviews from men everywhere.

Same thing going the opposite way. 

You want more lady buyers, put more of their reviews everywhere.

Might seem a little strange to do, but Sean does this little trick with the testimonials on his sales letters, and says that it does help sway the audience to how he needs it to go.

Speaking of little tricks that are useful.

Want to learn how to do these…👀👻🎃👅👯 …anywhere you want…even on Facebook?

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PS – Oh, and this too..
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