Once more into the pit, dear friends, once more

I Don’t Care if You Read My Book — I Want You to Buy It

Again, Ogley has it all wrong

A fellow book author penned a cringy piece about the unlikeliness that he (or any other living soul on the planet) will read your book. He based his reflections on his personal book-selling experience, which wasn’t the success he hoped for.

(I’m being polite here.)

The way he presents his results is telling.

“I’ve sold 241 paid copies (plus 541 free copies).”

We’re in 2024, and I still have to tell people that free copies aren’t “sold.” They’re “given.”

Given away to the trash, that is.

Seriously, there’s a difference between paid and free. The former means something, and the latter means you knew people (or their email addresses).

Giving someone a free copy of your book is like inviting neighbors to watch a 2-hour slide show of your latest renovation project. People do NOT care.

(Unless you pay them in beers.)

To use a metaphor online writers will understand, saying you sold free copies is akin to calling word salads published online poems. You can find poems in books published by Emily Dickinson, not online.

• Rule #1 of being a book author: You don’t give away the book. Ever.
• Rule #2 of being a book author: Exceptions to rule #1 do not include your mom or grandma. They will buy it.
• Rule #3 of being a book author: Exceptions to rule #1 do not include your father. He will pretend not to care and steal it from your mother.
• Rule #4 of being a book author: Exceptions to rule #1 include literary critics willing to publish a review.
• Rule #5 of being a book author: There are no other exceptions.

It doesn’t matter if people don’t read your book

I will prove it by using the Bible example. Hundreds of thousands of Bibles are resting in drawers of hotel rooms as we speak.

Please answer the following question truthfully.

As a book author, would you like your book to be in hotel drawers next to (or instead of) the bible?

If your answer is no, please share your reasons in the comments. I’m more curious than a wombat. (Joking, I’m baiting for comments.)

The answer is — of course — yes because you know how your friend Jessica from your writing group will be jealous.

You know how proud your mom will be to tell her friends about your success. You know how every other author will talk about you, like your tweets, and publish articles quoting your “writing pearls of wisdom.”

That’s priceless.

Who cares if nobody reads it? You will have sold more than 100,000 copies. That’s not priceless. That’s a lot of money.

What matters is that people buy your book

Would you like people to gift your book to their sisters and uncles at Christmas?

I know I would.

Have you ever read the books you received at Christmas?

I know I didn’t.

Philip is right when he says the odds aren’t in our favor.

“Just be aware that with 129 million books in existence, getting BOOK #129,000,001 read isn’t going to be easy.”

So why would you set yourself to fail? Even if you care about people reading your book, the first step is that they buy it.

Focus on that.

And, no, giving it for free won’t help because people treat free stuff like we treat garbage on the floor. We don’t pick it up ourselves. We pay taxes to pay people to do it. So, unless you give people your book AND pay them to read it, it’s not going to happen.

And let’s be honest. Book authors are like politicians. Their goal isn’t to help people live better lives; it’s to write another book (or get reelected).

And in both cases, you will need money.

Final One-Two Combo

What people do with your book is their problem. What matters as a book author is that they buy it.

Takeaway

Read Philip’s article for another (delusional) perspective on the topic.

And buy his book. It’s not an affiliate link because I’m not delusional enough to think anyone will buy it!

Although, I leave a link to my Substack at the end of my stories, hoping that people will become paid subscribers. If that’s not delusional, I don’t know what is.