# How I Sold1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! by John Locke (MERGED WITH PREV THREADS)



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Amazon just announced that John Locke is the first indie to sell 1 million Kindle books.

While Amanda Hocking may have sold a million e-books first, this relates strictly to Kindle books, and is a milestone she is yet to pass (but must be close).

Press release here: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1576066&highlight=


----------



## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

Wouhou !!!!! 


...


...

Doesn't mean anything : He's an outlier.


----------



## LeonardDHilleyII (May 23, 2011)

Wow! That's impressive and very inspiring!  Hats off to John Locke!


----------



## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

John Locke is a wonderful author and is appreciative of his readers.  He also sells his Kindle books reasonable so that helps.  So it is not surprising that he has sold so many.


----------



## Millard (Jun 13, 2011)

He did have plenty of time to write while he was stuck on that island.


----------



## John Hartness (Aug 3, 2009)

Congrats to John! Hopefully there will be more indies in that club soon.


----------



## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

One million means nothing... he sells them at .99cents. No real writer under the 10$ point
Errr, that means he made 350 000 $ right ?
Where do I sign for becoming a "no real writer ?"



(Great news !!!)


----------



## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

This is fabulous! Congrats to John Locke!


----------



## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

TheSFReader said:


> One million means nothing... he sells them at .99cents. No real writer under the 10$ point
> Errr, that means he made 350 000 $ right ?
> Where do I sign for becoming a "no real writer ?"
> 
> (Great news !!!)


Heh. Wonder how many he's sold at B&N and other outlets?

I also wonder why he doesn't bundle them together and sell bundles at $2.99?


----------



## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Huzzah for John.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Wow! That's fantastic. Congrats to John Locke.


----------



## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

WOW!!!!


----------



## J. Carson Black (Feb 27, 2011)

Amazing!  More power to him - he's gone at it with a will.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

One really great thing about John is that he is perfectly happy to sell his books for 99 cents and spurns all advice to raise his prices.  He turns down agents and publishers who think they can make a buck off his novels because he would rather reach many readers than make more $.

He has a simple premise that yes, some traditionally published novels are better than his--but are they 10 or 15 times better, as reflected in the pricing?

A consumer might say that a similiar trad title is twice as good, maybe 3 times as good and that might be true for his genre and with that reader.  But other similiar novels may only be 10% or 30% "better" or worse, yet still maintain much higher prices (12.99).  He has his own voice and style and more power to him, he is doing something right.


----------



## Guest (Jun 20, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> Amazon just announced that John Locke is the first indie to sell 1 million Kindle books.
> 
> While Amanda Hocking may have sold a million e-books first, this relates strictly to Kindle books, and is a milestone she is yet to pass (but must be close).
> 
> Press release here: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1576066&highlight=


Actually, I'm a bit confused by this. When Amanda signed with her new publisher, all the bloggers were saying how she sold a million copies of her book. But Amazon's press release here directly refutes that by saying John is the first indie to pass a million sales. It is also calculating total sales across all books, so that means on average he has sold 111,111 books per title. STILL IMPRESSIVE. I'm not agruing that. But the press release just strikes me as worded a bit shady.


----------



## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Actually, I'm a bit confused by this. When Amanda signed with her new publisher, all the bloggers were saying how she sold a million copies of her book. But Amazon's press release here directly refutes that by saying John is the first indie to pass a million sales. It is also calculating total sales across all books, so that means on average he has sold 111,111 books per title. STILL IMPRESSIVE. I'm not agruing that. But the press release just strikes me as worded a bit shady.


She probably does have a million, but it could just be that she hasn't quite reached a million through Amazon.


----------



## Guest (Jun 20, 2011)

jackz4000 said:


> One really great thing about John is that he is perfectly happy to sell his books for 99 cents and spurns all advice to raise his prices. He turns down agents and publishers who think they can make a buck off his novels because he would rather reach many readers than make more $.


And yet his "How to" Book directed at his fellow indies is $4.99


Apparently with his fiction, he "just wants to be read." But with his how-to book, he "wants to be paid."


----------



## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

DGaughran's explanation is that this relates to stricly "Kindle sales" ie no B&N, Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks ...


----------



## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Actually, I'm a bit confused by this. When Amanda signed with her new publisher, all the bloggers were saying how she sold a million copies of her book. But Amazon's press release here directly refutes that by saying John is the first indie to pass a million sales. It is also calculating total sales across all books, so that means on average he has sold 111,111 books per title. STILL IMPRESSIVE. I'm not agruing that. But the press release just strikes me as worded a bit shady.


Hm. Yeah. I wonder if Amazon is miffed that she took the St. Martin's deal and not their offer. Although that would be pretty small of them. Maybe some of her books were e-published by Amazon, and so weren't technically "indie"?


----------



## John Y. Jones (Feb 19, 2011)

Well done, Mr. Locke.  May you be the first many.


----------



## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

That is phenomenal. And yes I noticed the price on that How To book too. I might be tempted to buy it IF there were some more reviews for me to get a feel for its content, and if it was available on BN (I don't have a kindle).


----------



## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> And yet his "How to" Book directed at his fellow indies is $4.99
> 
> 
> Apparently with his fiction, he "just wants to be read." But with his how-to book, he "wants to be paid."


Why not ? 
I don't see what's wrong for writing some books for them beeing read and other to make money ... especially if they have a distinct audience ...
And in some cases, (non fiction) having a higher price gives a better "credibility" hence a greater sales number ...


----------



## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

Such great, inspiring news! What a way to start a Monday.


----------



## Todd Russell (Mar 27, 2011)

Cool news! Good to hear. Tip of cap to John


----------



## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Bravo to him!


----------



## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

Great news to hear on my birthday.


----------



## ThatGurlthatlife (May 10, 2011)

AMAZING! I only wish that one day I might have the same success


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> And yet his "How to" Book directed at his fellow indies is $4.99
> 
> 
> Apparently with his fiction, he "just wants to be read." But with his how-to book, he "wants to be paid."


Whoops! Another icon crashes. I guess I drank the...BS. Or he'd rather make money off other writers. Thanks Julie.


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

Congrats to John Locke!



Ryne Billings said:


> She probably does have a million, but it could just be that she hasn't quite reached a million through Amazon.


It's my understanding that her more than million books sold are across all formats, including print, as well as e-book sales at B&N and other outlets. So in other words, she hasn't sold 1 million Kindle books through Amazon yet, and therefore not invited into the Kindle Million Club.

But I wouldn't be surprised if she hits it sometime this summer or fall. She has to be close.


----------



## Ilyria Moon (May 14, 2011)

Millard said:


> He did have plenty of time to write while he was stuck on that island.


----------



## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Good for John. He's one smart guy.

Vicki


----------



## Jason Kristopher (Jun 1, 2011)

Millard said:


> He did have plenty of time to write while he was stuck on that island.


    

I was waiting for that.

Oh, and I bought his "How I Sold..." ebook. For $5, if I get one or two usable ideas (that I'm not already doing) out of it, it was worth it to me.


----------



## JJAC116 (Feb 19, 2011)

Congrats to John.  I guess people couldn't resist a good story for $.99.  A very smart marketing/audience-building move IMO.


----------



## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

This is great to hear!

In regards to him charging more for the writing/promotional book, well, quite frankly, that book holds more value than does a novel written for simple entertainment. If that's what he wants to charge, then good for him.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Not to take the steam off John's sales, but I believe Amazon has to be fudging things here.

Amanda hit 1 million in February or so and hasn't lost much steam since.

The vast bulk of her sales at that point was indeed Kindle sales... the last time she was specific about her sales, I believe Amanda's Amazon sales were outpacing all other platforms at, like, a 9-to-1 margin.

So I don't believe Amazon when they claim Locke is the first indie across this benchmark/finish line. I believe they're fudging it.

And they have cause to, for a couple reasons.

1) Amanda turned down a contract from Amazon and went with St. Martin's Press last spring.

2) Amanda hitting 1 million units went public when she hit that benchmark without relying exclusively on Amazon to get there, making her hitting 1 million Kindle sales less glitzy or important.

3) With Amanda signing with SMP, Amazon could be creatively redefining Amanda as "not indie" anymore. Even though all her sales to date have been indie books.

I wouldn't put it past Amazon to fudge Amanda's numbers with them (not with what they've paid her, but what they'll publicly acknowledge) in order to have a more dramatic announcement to make re: Locke.

(I checked, and Amazon does not even mention Hocking in the press release.)

P.S., I've emailed Amanda to see if she'll clear things up. She'll know what the truth is about her own Amazon sales. She could be too busy to respond, or she may just handle things on her own blog, or she may decide not to comment at all publicly out of respect for Locke. We'll see.


----------



## Tiphanie Thomas (Mar 10, 2011)

Big congrats to John Locke! That's amazing accomplishment and very encouraging!

Craig, you made good points about Amanda.

Tiph


----------



## carolco (Apr 15, 2011)

John Locke is a marketing genuis!


----------



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Cool. Congrats to John Locke.


----------



## WFMeyer (Apr 14, 2011)

Watching John's stellar rise over the past few months, I'm not surprised, but congratulations are in order nonetheless.

What about you David, when do you predict it will happen for you? With the quality of your writing and the informative nature of your excellent blog there's no doubt you'll reach that same level with a growing list of your work.


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

John Locke just released his 'How I sold 1million ebooks in 5 months'

Interesting read.

Already pushing up the Amazon rankings like crazy.

How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! [Kindle Edition] -


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

Okay, so I'm about half way through this book of Locke's and already I get the impression that most authors won't follow his advice.

Why is that?

Are most of us just plain lazy, do we lack confidence or are we too overwhelmed by 'marketing' to persist with marketing our own work?

Last night I had a conversation with my sister about marketing her jewelry and fashion. She was down in the dumps about how hard it is - too much competition. Thus the barrier to success seems so high to her because she can't get noticed. And yet, conversely to her, I've always viewed this barrier as a positive. If it's hard the odds are that most competitors will quit. 

I hope Locke's journey inspires authors out there to never give up. Maybe they too will sell a million.


----------



## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

x2far said:


> Okay, so I'm about half way through this book of Locke's and already I get the impression that most authors won't follow his advice.
> 
> Why is that?
> 
> ...


I've noticed this as well. One thing I think all the writers here on KB have in common is a stubborn streak. But I know _so_ many people that will come up with a genuinely good business idea and just lack the willpower to tough it out. Not even big businesses. Just small things like selling artwork online. IF they get so far as to set things up, they immediately become disappointed in not instantly being a success.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

His novels are $0.99 but he wants $4.99 for this, LOL...

I learn plenty from Amanda, on her blog, for free. Ditto Joe Konrath.


----------



## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> His novels are $0.99 but he wants $4.99 for this, LOL...
> 
> I learn plenty from Amanda, on her blog, for free. Ditto Joe Konrath.


The extra $4 is for the life-affirming glow you will have afterward.


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> His novels are $0.99 but he wants $4.99 for this, LOL...
> 
> I learn plenty from Amanda, on her blog, for free. Ditto Joe Konrath.


^^^
This is how I feel.


----------



## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

It does have good reviews...


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I have a feeling there is not anything new in his new ebook than what is already here at the Cafe. No revelations.  But I'm sure some out there will gobble it up.


----------



## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> His novels are $0.99 but he wants $4.99 for this, LOL...
> 
> I learn plenty from Amanda, on her blog, for free. Ditto Joe Konrath.


Supply and demand. Few authors have sold as well as he does. People desperate for his "magic bullet" will pay it.

I'm sure he's earned his sales. Will I buy it? Nah. Part of his marketing tactic is obviously the $0.99 novel, but I'm not playing that game. Congrats to him for making it work, though!


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

I'll give you guys a head's up.

He's done some hardcore Twitter stuff to build his audience.

I'm not talking about the odd tweet here and there, more 'list building'. This element alone must have taken him a long time to do successfully. He also builds a strong email list from this twitter stream and works hard to reply to every single email to ensure he can create a Guaranteed Buyers List.

The GBL (his term) is then used as a sales funnel since they inform their twitter/email list.

He's a true marketer.

None of this is the fun side of writing!


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

Carradee said:


> Supply and demand. Few authors have sold as well as he does. People desperate for his "magic bullet" will pay it.
> 
> I'm sure he's earned his sales. Will I buy it? Nah. Part of his marketing tactic is obviously the $0.99 novel, but I'm not playing that game. Congrats to him for making it work, though!


Carradee, he specifically states that the 99 cent price point is only for his novels. Thus the $4.99 on this title. His reasoning being that the audience on this title is even more niche than his Donovan Creed novels.

Interesting background too... he states that prior to writing he was an insurance salesman and company owner. Says he has nett wealth of $25 million from his business life.

How true is this? Who knows?!


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

x2far said:


> I'll give you guys a head's up.
> 
> He's done some hardcore Twitter stuff to build his audience.
> 
> ...


A true marketer: that's the impression I got when I read a recent interview he did. He's a successful businessman, and he saw an opportunity.
He's also putting out a book about how to write a novel in four weeks--or was it two weeks? In any case, it's working for him, so congratulations, but I write for other reasons. Just not my style. I'm sure he'll do well with his latest marketing endeavors, but these kinds of spiels turn me off. And I have a background in marketing. Guess I'm weird.


----------



## Millard (Jun 13, 2011)

x2far said:


> I'll give you guys a head's up.
> 
> He's done some hardcore Twitter stuff to build his audience.
> 
> ...


From the look of his Twitter account, he's what I call one of those "Twitter marketing guru" types. I knocked up this flowchart once, explaining how these wildly successful marketing gurus become so hugely important 










Locke's definitely got that pretty even following/follower count going on, and there's no engaging of his audience, or replying, just a bunch of link shilling. I probably shouldn't knock a guy with a million sales, but that kinda thing is not for me. The type of people who'll follow you back just because you follow them aren't such an active audience. But hey, he's got the sales, and I'm sure that, and that alone was what he was aiming for, but it all seems like more of a numbers game than anything approaching writing as an artform.

Of course, I say this as someone with over a million sales less than him. Although I'm incredibly proud of my work, on an artistic level (and he may be too). Horses for courses.


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

SuzanneTyrpak said:


> A true marketer: that's the impression I got when I read a recent interview he did. He's a successful businessman, and he saw an opportunity.
> He's also putting out a book about how to write a novel in four weeks--or was it two weeks? In any case, it's working for him, so congratulations, but I write for other reasons. Just not my style. I'm sure he'll do well with his latest marketing endeavors, but these kinds of spiels turn me off. And I have a background in marketing. Guess I'm weird.


Hey, I hear ya, Suzanne. In fact, my initial take on this was 'Affiliate Marketing strikes Kindle'. I even expected a Landing Page and sales funnel spiel..!!

I certainly can't write a book in 2-4 weeks. Nor would I try.

That said, I do appreciate the time he appears to have put in building a list via Twitter (followers he converts from Twitter to email). That stuff is time consuming and very challenging. Anyone who has tried to build traffic and convert it to a list will appreciate the level of agony that entails.


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

I'm a Twitter twit. So, I guess I could learn something. Truthfully, though, I want more time to write. I like money as much as anyone, but I write what I want to write, because I love writing it. I have no interest or desire to write according to a formula. That's why self-pubbing has been such a gift. 

Maybe we can come up with a pyramid writing scheme.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Feh.


----------



## JodyWallace (Mar 29, 2011)

Will the book remove even the toughest stains, too?


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

JodyWallace said:


> Will the book remove even the toughest stains, too?


I do hear it juliennes fries...


----------



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I gotta admit I'm curious to read this. I wonder what the chances are of Amazon making it a freebie for a couple weeks?


----------



## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

Locke on the 99 cent pricing:

"People might insist that my success was due to nothing more than my pricing, but I had these same titles priced ... at 99 cents for seven months, and sold virtually nothing."


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Folks, I've merged two related threads about John Locke.  Sorry for any confusion.

Betsy
KB Moderator


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I sped-red the book yesterday, although it's not that long.

I figured I would pay five bucks for the story of how he sold a million books, even if there was nothing useful for me in it. 

I'm not sure how I feel about his "plan". I think I need to read it again. There was stuff in his "plan" that everyone does. There was stuff that I figured out for myself would be a good idea to do.  There was stuff that I never considered doing that might be a good idea. But there is stuff that I don't think is a good idea (for me), and that I am skeptical about its effectiveness.

So I don't think I will be following his plan step-by-step. I could see people following all the steps and making money, for sure, but not with any kind of guarantee, of course. It's one more strategy, but I think you can take things from it.

Oh, and I have no problem with him charging $4.99 for it. A writer should be free to put whatever price tag they choose on their work. He makes a fair defence of the price in the book, but I don't think he needed to.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I know John Locke always said that he sold very little on other channels. It could well be that Amanda Hocking hasn't sold a million KINDLE books, but I guess nobody but her will really know that.

It is a little suspicious that Amazon announce this the same day he releases his book. However, I suspect that he passed this mark a couple of weeks ago and asked Amazon to delay the announcement.

It worked.

The book is #52 in the Kindle Store. For a how-to book on marketing. Not bad. And at $3.49 in royalties per copy? Yowzers.


----------



## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Amazon knows how many Kindle ebooks Amanda Hocking sold, and they'll let the world know when she reaches a million, which will be soon enough.

I'm almost through John Locke's book, and it's definitely worth the price.

David


----------



## Tommie Lyn (Dec 7, 2009)

David Wisehart said:


> I'm almost through John Locke's book, and it's definitely worth the price.


I agree. Actually, I think it's _more_ than worth the price.

Some of us may think there's nothing new in what he reveals in the book, i.e. using twitter and blogging, but, while many of us do use twitter and we do blog, we don't combine those efforts in the same way John Locke does. I agree with him that it's the unique way he combined his use of them that made the difference (and he even points to the specific turning point when he began employing it and what resulted from it). I don't know if I'd be able to duplicate his activities and achieve the same success, because he's driven by the marketing and I'm driven by the writing. While I realize marketing is important, and I do think success is a good thing...it's the storytelling that consumes me.


----------



## Jack Wallen (Feb 9, 2011)

I'm currently reading his "how to" book. Even though, so far, I haven't read anything that made me go "holy crap I'm doing that all wrong", there is still a lot of good advice and reading his story is interesting.

he's a very nice, down to earth guy. i know this because he's a client of the support firm I work for. he was a self-made millionaire well before he started writing. he also (even in his book) professes he's not a great writer -- but a great businessman. 

my hat's off to Mr. Locke. it's good to see someone real, down to earth, and honest flip the bird to the nay sayers.


----------



## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

Good read, I learned a thing or two.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

In case anyone is interested, I wrote a blog post today on yesterday's announcement, including my take on his new book:

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/john-locke-sells-a-million-books-then-tells-the-world-how-he-did-it/


----------



## Guest (Jun 21, 2011)

I didn't know he was already a millionaire.  That changes things.  It makes his feat less impressive.  With his bankroll, I don't consider him a traditional "indie" at all.  He has resources and contacts that normal people do not have.  $25,000,000 buys a fan base.  People are attracted to wealth.  Through around enough money you become a celebrity.

Dissappointing.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I didn't know he was already a millionaire. That changes things. It makes his feat less impressive. With his bankroll, I don't consider him a traditional "indie" at all. He has resources and contacts that normal people do not have. $25,000,000 buys a fan base. People are attracted to wealth. Through around enough money you become a celebrity.
> 
> Dissappointing.


He didn't spend $25m buying fans!

There are a lot of rich people who have written books which have flopped.

What he did do was spend $25,000 in the first six months on all the "traditional" marketing ways, and it netted him $47 in royalties.

Once he switched to free marketing methods only (blogging, twitter, etc.) that's when his sales rose.


----------



## Sara Pierce (May 15, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I didn't know he was already a millionaire. That changes things. It makes his feat less impressive. With his bankroll, I don't consider him a traditional "indie" at all. He has resources and contacts that normal people do not have. $25,000,000 buys a fan base. People are attracted to wealth. Through around enough money you become a celebrity.
> 
> Dissappointing.


 Really? He sold all those books because he was RICH? With all due respect, I disagree with that assessment: it wasn't his WEALTH that sold the books, it was his marketing strategies. Who cares if he was already a MILLIONAIRE, it was him selling himself and his stories that garnered him 1 million sales, not his bankroll. Frankly, as someone who comes from a background of wealth myself (not quite $25m, or wherever he's at now) I'm insulted by your accusation.


----------



## Millard (Jun 13, 2011)

I wondered if the multi-millionaire thing was even true, or if it was part of the patter/persona, as another little 'hook' to get people interested.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

He does appear to have written two business books some time ago. "Building A Dynasty" and something else I can't remember.


----------



## Guest (Jun 21, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> What he did do was spend $25,000 in the first six months on all the "traditional" marketing ways, and it netted him $47 in royalties.
> 
> Once he switched to free marketing methods only (blogging, twitter, etc.) that's when his sales rose.


Really? I'm suppose to believe a self-made millionaire and internet guru wasted $25,000 on traditional marketing only to find success with his "buy the book to find out how" free methods?

I'm sorry. The more I read about this, the more something smells. Craig already pointed out that Amanda apparently already hit one million before Locke. When she signed the publishing deal, that was the number all the news articles were throwing around. Meanwhile, the same day Amazon makes the announcement, Locke has a book out on how he did it? SOMETHING does not compute in the timeline, and until that is settled the whole thing is suspect. It is too convenient.

And yes, his wealth IS an issue. _Wealth buys leisure_. Wealth means you have all day to spend twittering and posting on Facebook (or having an assistant do it for you.) Do you think the author of Aragon would have been anything other that a marginally talented self publishing teenager if his parents did not have the financial means to take a year off from work to promote his book? Do you think Locke would have had the time to engage in so much social networking if he was a plumber or a forklift driver?


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I didn't know he was already a millionaire. That changes things. It makes his feat less impressive. With his bankroll, I don't consider him a traditional "indie" at all. He has resources and contacts that normal people do not have. $25,000,000 buys a fan base. People are attracted to wealth. Through around enough money you become a celebrity.
> 
> Dissappointing.


Really? Many of us on this board are very in the know on self-published authors and I think many of us had no idea John Locke was a millionaire. I'm not sure how that factors into his success at all. If we don't know, how do his million readers know?


----------



## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Can someone point me to the reference on Amanda selling 1 million ebooks? Everything I read was that she made over a million dollars, not sold a million ebooks.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hey Julie,

I'm not John Locke's friend or defender, but there is a couple of things I must take issue with.

First off, he is a full-time businessman, and a part-time writer. I guess he has his own demands on his time, like the rest of us.

Is life easier if you have $25m? I would imagine it is, but I also imagine I will never find out!

The timing of the book and the announcement seemed convenient. But when I took a closer look, he has passed the million mark by a little bit, and I imagine that he asked Amazon to hold back the announcement a few days so he could launch the book on the same day. Clever marketing, if you ask me.

With regard to Amanda Hocking, as I said on my blog, the only people that really know her sales figures are herself and Amazon.

The previous announcement re. her hitting a million was, as far as I am aware, in relation to her sales across ALL retailers and ALL formats, not strictly Kindle books.

I don't know if she has passed a million Kindle Books yet, only Amanda Hocking and Amazon know that. I would imagine her fans are asking the same question, and I would imagine we will hear something from her or her agent in that regard.

Money can buy you editors and publicists and staff and everything else. But it can't sell your books for you. The only thing that has EVER sold books is word of mouth. You can't buy that.

John Locke sold a million books because he wrote stories that a lot of people wanted to read and he made sure he got the book in front of them.

That's it.

Dave


----------



## Alex Sinclair (May 5, 2011)

I only just read that he was a millionaire just now and it does make me go "Ah, now I get it." lol, but you know fair play to him. I think the writing world is very hard to break. I think every author that does well needs to be congratulated, as its a dream come true to have so many people read your work. I hope he is the start of many authors that do well. I mean my friend put out their book of their tour in Iraq (Keepers of the Gateway to Hell) yesterday and already it is a best seller in the U.S/U.K, which is amazing considering it is their first book. I know several authors here that sell tens of thousands a month, which is brilliant and hopefully one of them will reach a million and show that you can achieve great things without having financial influence. I didn't know he was a millionare. I think that taints it a little but, but nevetheless the book reviews look good, so goodluck to him.


----------



## Sara Pierce (May 15, 2011)

Julie, what gives you the idea that Mr. Locke sits around "leisurely" counting his money? Wealth breeds wealth, sure, but like everyone else he had to work his hiney off to get there and has to work as hard to stay there. He is a brilliant marketer and salesman; THAT is what got him to where he is, not his money. Much of what he makes goes into that marketing but he freely admits it's the free things (blogging, Twitter, replying to EVERYONE who contacted him) that jettisoned him out of relative obscurity, not the money he spent. Most of us have to work for a living and write on the side but, hey, I'm posting here while on my day job and you're obviously able to respond and I presume you have a day job, so what makes you think one needs to be living a "life of leisure" to manage this feat?


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Let's look at this from another angle.

The guy is worth $25m

He has sold a million 99c books, earning him around $350,000 (minus costs).

That's chump change to him.

I'm sure he has more valuable ways to spend his time. But he chooses to do this. And I'm sure that if he had told his accountant or financial advisor that he was moving into the publishing business, they would have told him of an infinite number of places he could make safer and far more lucrative investments.


----------



## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

Congratulations!


----------



## Guest (Jun 21, 2011)

I think people are missing my point.  The issue is not his wealth per se.  The issue is that he is taking advantage of desperate indies by peddling a book promising his results ... but his results are the result of his circumstances as much as his marketing savvy.  It comes across like those seedy vanity press sites that plaster the faces of "famous" self-publishers on the front without explaining the context in which those people were successful.  Even the title has that seedy "get rich quick" vibe going on with it.  THAT is where this whole thing is making my skin crawl.  I love to see people succeed as much as the next, but I also want that success explained in context and not repackaged in an effort to mooch money off of other indie authors.  There are a LOT of people on this forum who write full time.  And there are a lot more who aren't writing full time but still making good side money.  And they do a lot to support their fellow writers and share advice.  But this... this just reeks of get rich quick dream-selling.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Alex Sinclair said:


> I only just read that he was a millionaire just now and it does make me go "Ah, now I get it." lol, but you know fair play to him. I think the writing world is very hard to break. I think every author that does well needs to be congratulated, as its a dream come true to have so many people read your work. I hope he is the start of many authors that do well. I mean my friend put out their book of their tour in Iraq (Keepers of the Gateway to Hell) yesterday and already it is a best seller in the U.S/U.K, which is amazing considering it is their first book. I know several authors here that sell tens of thousands a month, which is brilliant and hopefully one of them will reach a million and show that you can achieve great things without having financial influence. I didn't know he was a millionare. I think that taints it a little but, but nevetheless the book reviews look good, so goodluck to him.


Nice to hear about your friends book selling so well. The UK must be a nation of avid readers given the number new titles published each year. For a couple years they surpassed the number of new titles US publishers put out. This is all with a population base of 61 Million.

Despite all the emails and twittering and marketing John Locke had stories that readers connected with and if they didn't like his stories they wouldn't have bought 1 Million ebooks. No matter how great the marketing is--the story has to make people buy it.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Woah Julie!

I don't think you should hang, draw, and quarter the prisoner before you examine the evidence!

I'm guessing you haven't read it. If that's the case (and I apologise if I am wrong), then it's unfair to judge the contents.

I have read it. I don't think it has the kind of vibe you talk about. I'm not 100% sure what I think about it, I need to read it again.

There is some good advice in there that anyone can use. I made a couple of small changes to my blog halfway through reading it, and that alone *could* cover the cost of the book - over time. Maybe. I'm certainly seeing a few extra clicks go from my blog to my Amazon pages. Not much, but we will see - and that's just one small thing he mentions.

As for the "system" he shares, personally I don't think it will work for me. But I think I can cherry-pick.


----------



## Guest (Jun 21, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> Woah *****!
> 
> I don't think you should hang, draw, and quarter the prisoner before you examine the evidence!
> 
> I'm guessing you haven't read it. If that's the case (and I apologise if I am wrong), then it's unfair to judge the contents.


I have not judged the contents. I made a comment on the vibe I was getting off of the presentation. Nor am I drawing and quartering. I am making observations based on presentation and appearances. Maybe I am hypersensitive because I use to be a door-to-door salesperson like John. (I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door). And I was good at it. Won six vacations. But I walked away because I stopped liking myself, because anyone who has been involved in direct sales for a significant period of time knows there comes a point where you start selling people things they don't want, need, or can afford because you have a quota to meet and the boss expects you to sell. I sold $1500 vacuums to people who had no carpeting, for gods' sake, and they thanked me for it. So maybe I'm cynical. But all I can see is a saleman making a sales pitch at doe-eyed customers who want to be like him.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Jason Kristopher said:


> I was waiting for that.
> 
> Oh, and I bought his "How I Sold..." ebook. For $5, if I get one or two usable ideas (that I'm not already doing) out of it, it was worth it to me.


I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy that. As you say, just one or two new ideas (to me) would be worth $5, but is he really likely to have ideas that haven't been on Konraths, Rusch's, DWS's or other blogs we all read?


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> Hey Julie,
> 
> I'm not John Locke's friend or defender, but there is a couple of things I must take issue with.
> 
> ...


Dave, not stepping into any argument with Julie because I can understand her point of view as well, but I have to say I agree with every point you made here. We've all seen money thrown at paid advertising for books by big publishers which didn't pay the printing costs.

It doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't buy that kind of success in publishing. Kudos to John Locke. i'm still not sure about buying his book on how he did it or whether I could use his "method" but I'm more than willing to learn from other authors.


----------



## A_Writer_ (May 22, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy that. As you say, just one or two new ideas (to me) would be worth $5, but is he really likely to have ideas that haven't been on Konraths, Rusch's, DWS's or other blogs we all read?


Yes, he is. I've just finished his book.

Angelina


----------



## Pamela Kay Noble Brown (Mar 3, 2011)

WOW!!!  Amazing. Congratulations Mr. Locke.  Wow!


----------



## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I have not judged the contents. I made a comment on the vibe I was getting off of the presentation.


$5 for detailed marketing advice from the first indie to sell one million ebooks at Amazon. What are we complaining about exactly?

And who's being forced to pay the $5 or complaining that the information is junk?


----------



## Margo Lerwill (Jun 13, 2011)

I'm in the process of reading the book. Something that I don't think has come into the conversation yet is the fact that Mr. Locke purports to have made his money in insurance sales. Having been married to a man who worked in a seriously RAH RAH RAH sales-driven industry, I recognize it in his writing voice, so I tend to believe he's got a hardcore sales background, whatever his financials do or don't say.

That sales background is what I think makes the book helpful, while also making a good portion of it hard to slog through. It's written like a sales presentation (and I hate those), but to be fair the super-salesmen I met through my husband were like that 24/7.

I've finally gotten to the meat of the 'system' he is talking about, and I have found several takeaways that have justified the cost to me. I _don't_ think like a super salesman. Even when he's presenting ideas I've technically heard already, he's doing so from an angle and philosophy that doesn't occur to me naturally. I'm not going to be turning into a cheerleader for his sales system any time soon, but I did find a fair amount of value in it (and I'm not done with the book yet).

Will it be worth it to others? Impossible to say.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I'm sure it's worth 4.99 for most indie writers.  If you find that too much you can email John and he just might send you a free copy within a week.

Then again, I'm sure the content reviews will be posted here fairly soon by those who bought.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy that. As you say, just one or two new ideas (to me) would be worth $5, but is he really likely to have ideas that haven't been on Konraths, Rusch's, DWS's or other blogs we all read?


There are new ideas in there, for sure. But ideas are all in the execution. He takes some obvious stuff, some old stuff, and some new stuff, but he argues that how you put them together is crucial.

He is certainly the first person to suggest that blogging infrequently was a factor in his success!!! I can't explain what that means without getting into the whole system, but that's one part I don't think could work for me.

I can't really judge his ideas without testing them. And some of them I don't want to test for various reasons. But there are a couple of things I will definitely try. Whether they work for me or not is another matter.

It was certainly an interesting read. I will admit that were parts where I just didn't see the logic in what he was saying. I really have to read it again, and think about it a little more. But I don't feel ripped off for my $4.99, far from it. Opinions may differ, and I expect they will.

There is certainly a lot of ammo in the book for his detractors, and I would imagine the contents will cause a little controversy. He probably knows this too, and knows it won't hurt either.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

AJHamilton said:


> Yes, he is. I've just finished his book.
> 
> Angelina


Thanks to you, Dave and the others who answered that question. Sounds like it's worth the rather modest cost so I'm going to download it.

Thanks.


----------



## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Despite the title, John's book is not a "get-rich-quick scheme."

It starts with the fact that he's written ten books.

David


----------



## Gerald (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't understand how the thread went from "Congratulations, John" to "oh, you're a millionaire already? That's different."

As someone said a few posts ago, you can't get around the fact he wrote some books that a ton of people wanted to buy.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Gerald said:


> I don't understand how the thread went from "Congratulations, John" to "oh, you're a millionaire already? That's different."
> 
> As someone said a few posts ago, you can't get around the fact he wrote some books that a ton of people wanted to buy.


Since I am absolutely convinced that you can NOT buy a fanbase, I'm ignoring those comments. If it were that easy every time the Big 6 put big bucks into a book it would be a best seller which just plain ain't what happens.

Now as far as his book, I just downloaded it and started reading. I feel that ANY book that makes me say even once that I never thought of it that way is worth the money. That is exactly how I reacted to this comment in Ch 1:



> When I invested my own money to start my insurance agency no one accused me of making a vanity investment. When I invested my own money to buy a life insurance company no one called it a vanity investment. When I paid cash for my first office building, planning to lease it out for a profit, no one accused me of making a vanity investment. When Bill Gates and Paul Allen invested their time and money into developing code for the Altair computer, no one accused them of writing vanity code.
> But if Bill Gates and Paul Allen invest their own money to write a book, they're no longer businessmen, they're vain! And any company that charges them to publish that book is catering to their vanity! How absurd is that?
> It's laughable.


Don't worry I'm not going to post a bunch of quotes if nothing else because it's not fair to copyrighted material but that is (within a discussion) well within fair use, I believe.

Anyway, I think I've gotten my money's worth. Make me a sell a million books too? I doubt it, but all I ask is my money's worth and some thoughts on self-publishing. Fair enough.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I laughed at that myself alright.


----------



## Jack Wallen (Feb 9, 2011)

Margo Lerwill said:


> I've finally gotten to the meat of the 'system' he is talking about, and I have found several takeaways that have justified the cost to me. I _don't_ think like a super salesman. Even when he's presenting ideas I've technically heard already, he's doing so from an angle and philosophy that doesn't occur to me naturally. I'm not going to be turning into a cheerleader for his sales system any time soon, but I did find a fair amount of value in it (and I'm not done with the book yet).
> 
> Will it be worth it to others? Impossible to say.


well said. i've always been an artist by trade and have the hardest time thinking like a business person. the very idea of "selling things" is so counter-intuitive to me that it almost hurts. i feel dirty "pawning my wares" and tend to shy away from it. usually i can only stomach this act by doing so with a bit of humor.

Locke's book might be just the thing I need to help me through that process.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Those of you who have read the book, do you think the advice he gives in the book is applicable to other products, too, or is specific to books/ebooks?  I'm willing to read a good marketing book by a successful entrepreneur.

Also, I notice it's lendable...anyone willing to loan me their Kindle copy? 

Finally, I never heard of him before this thread, but I'm going to check out his fiction, so if publicizing his million books is part of his marketing plan, it's working.  He's apparently sold a bunch of his "How-to" books here and probably some fiction, too. 

Betsy


----------



## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Those of you who have read the book, do you think the advice he gives in the book is applicable to other products, too, or is specific to books/ebooks? I'm willing to read a good marketing book by a successful entrepreneur.
> 
> Also, I notice it's lendable...anyone willing to loan me their Kindle copy?
> 
> ...


I think it's applicable to other products as well.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi Betsy,

It looks like I can't lend on Kindle-for-PC.

He has started several different business from the ground up, so I would say a lot of his approach can be applied to other things, if not all the nuts-and-bolts of his system.

His brain is hardwired for marketing - that I can say for sure.

Dave


----------



## A_Writer_ (May 22, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Thanks to you, Dave and the others who answered that question. Sounds like it's worth the rather modest cost so I'm going to download it.
> 
> Thanks.


You're welcome. Let's see if you still thank us once you've read it. (I think you will)

Angelina


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Dave--

It's been a while since I loaned something, but I believe you loan from your Amazon account, not from the Kindle for PC app?

If I can get a look at it (and I don't think a sample would be enough), and think it's useful, I'll get it to use as a reference.

Betsy


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Dave--
> 
> It's been a while since I loaned something, but I believe you loan from your Amazon account, not from the Kindle for PC app?
> 
> ...


I'm happy to lend.

Where do I go to? I've never done this before.

I checked the "order" page and the kindle account page but the only options I get are to deliver it again to my PC (can't select anything else) or delete. Am I in the right place?


----------



## Margo Lerwill (Jun 13, 2011)

Jack Wallen said:


> well said. I've always been an artist by trade and have the hardest time thinking like a business person. the very idea of "selling things" is so counter-intuitive to me that it almost hurts. i feel dirty "pawning my wares" and tend to shy away from it. usually i can only stomach this act by doing so with a bit of humor.
> 
> Locke's book might be just the thing I need to help me through that process.


I'm coming from a very similar position. I not only feel awkward trying to sell things (even when I think it's a great product), but I am spectacularly full of FAIL. I'm one of those people who couldn't sell ice water in Hell. It's slightly different with the writing, because I have a lot of years invested in the writing and a few story credits to make me feel a little more confident, and because I feel like writing is something I'm _supposed_ to do. Metaphysical language aside, even if I feel more comfortable with the idea of trying to market my writing, that doesn't mean I know how to do so (let alone do it _well_). I don't want to be one of those people we all get sick of after 2 seconds of self-promotion.

You might get turned off slightly by his 'entertainment over art' approach, but I don't think that's a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

dgaughran said:


> I'm happy to lend.
> 
> Where do I go to? I've never done this before.
> 
> I checked the "order" page and the kindle account page but the only options I get are to deliver it again to my PC (can't select anything else) or delete. Am I in the right place?


Let me check, Dave....

Betsy


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Do you see the "loan this book" link on the product page?


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

If you go to the product page of the item, it should say, right underneath where it tells you you've purchased the item, it should have a link that says, "Loan this book to anyone you choose." (As Monique says  )

If you see that, let me know and I'll PM you my email address.  Note that while I'm reading the book, it's not accessible to you for up to two weeks (the max loan period).  So wait until you're ready.  I'll read it through quickly and if I think it's of use, buy my own copy, so we're really only talking two or three days.  Four max.

Betsy


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

That's fine with me Betsy, put if there are dog-ears or jam stains, I know where to look for you.

Now, maybe I am being thick (it wouldn't be the first time), but I can't see a "Loan" button anywhere on the product page.

I see the link saying "You purchased this item..." but there is nothing underneath.

Is this because I am on Kindle-for-PC? Can I not loan books?


----------



## J. Carson Black (Feb 27, 2011)

jackz4000 said:


> One really great thing about John is that he is perfectly happy to sell his books for 99 cents and spurns all advice to raise his prices. He turns down agents and publishers who think they can make a buck off his novels because he would rather reach many readers than make more $.
> 
> He has a simple premise that yes, some traditionally published novels are better than his--but are they 10 or 15 times better, as reflected in the pricing?
> 
> A consumer might say that a similiar trad title is twice as good, maybe 3 times as good and that might be true for his genre and with that reader. But other similiar novels may only be 10% or 30% "better" or worse, yet still maintain much higher prices (12.99). He has his own voice and style and more power to him, he is doing something right.


Jack, you are sensible as always. It's a very good point. John Locke is clear-eyed about his writing and the business, and he gives millions of people hours of pleasurable reading. Good on him!


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

dgaughran said:


> That's fine with me Betsy, put if there are dog-ears or jam stains, I know where to look for you.
> 
> Now, maybe I am being thick (it wouldn't be the first time), but I can't see a "Loan" button anywhere on the product page.
> 
> ...


Sadness! It appears to be the case...oh, well. I think I'll put it in as a request in the Lending forum...and eventually I'll get it. Thanks, anyway, Dave!

Betsy


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Sorry Betsy.

I could type the whole thing out, but I have this book I'm supposed to have done already...


----------



## John Hartness (Aug 3, 2009)

Locke may not have enabled lending when he set the book up on KDP - it's an option. 

I guess my only whine about it, and the thing that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth - is that he sells every book EXCEPT the sales book for .99. That does make it feel a little dirty to me. Now anyone can price anything they create at whatever price they want, but it's does make me feel a little like he's trying to profit off of other writers by selling this book for 5x the price of all his other books. 

On the other hand, it's likely that he understands the audience for a writing sales book will be considerably smaller than the audience for a thriller. And it's his prerogative. I'll probably buy it at some point. But this week I have writing and editing to focus on.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

John Hartness said:


> Locke may not have enabled lending when he set the book up on KDP - it's an option.


I checked that before I asked.  Under product details it says "Lending: Enabled." It was worth asking, though... 

Betsy


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

John Hartness said:


> On the other hand, it's likely that he understands the audience for a writing sales book will be considerably smaller than the audience for a thriller. And it's his prerogative. I'll probably buy it at some point. But this week I have writing and editing to focus on.


He actually says that in the book. He priced it at $4.99 because the target audience is smaller (amongst other reasons).


----------



## seattlegurl2 (Jun 21, 2011)

Okay, Hello everyone, I'm new here; so, how did John Locke sell a Mill e-books? Is it posted here is some short succinct easy to follow program? Ha! Of course not. Oh well, I'm looking forward to being part of this Writer's Cafe. I used to call my blog the writers cafe, but now it's Literary Liaisons. It's all the same. I'm open to any and all marketing tips for my non-fiction book, Romance & Money. Cheers! Mindy (Seattlegurl2)


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I don't see any problem with buying if you think it might help you.  If you don't like it you can easily get a refund.  It's zero risk.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

jackz4000 said:


> I don't see any problem with buying if you think it might help you. If you don't like it you can easily get a refund. It's zero risk.


Well, that's true, but I don't return books because I didn't like them, only if there was a problem with the book. I figure it's up to me to be a well educated consumer before buying the book. I've only returned one book that I really did buy by mistake from the Kindle. So my personal idiosynchracies prevent that.  I'll likely buy it, it sounds like it will have some useful info, even for this quilter.

Betsy


----------



## seattlegurl2 (Jun 21, 2011)

Thanks. I may check it out. Be well, Mindy


----------



## seattlegurl2 (Jun 21, 2011)

I agree, I've never returned a book. Thanks, Mindy


----------



## Jamie Case (Feb 15, 2011)

J. Carson Black said:


> Jack, you are sensible as always. It's a very good point. John Locke is clear-eyed about his writing and the business, and he gives millions of people hours of pleasurable reading. Good on him!


More like hundreds of thousands. If he's truly great at marketing then his fans buy multiple books.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Jamie Case said:


> More like hundreds of thousands. If he's truly great at marketing then his fans buy multiple books.


He talks about that in the book. He reckons he has around 100,000 fans, and the rest were curiosity purchases that won't buy another of his. That's why he thinks it is important to write quick, sell cheap, and publish lots.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Well, that's true, but I don't return books because I didn't like them, only if there was a problem with the book. I figure it's up to me to be a well educated consumer before buying the book. I've only returned one book that I really did buy by mistake from the Kindle. So my personal idiosynchracies prevent that.  I'll likely buy it, it sounds like it will have some useful info, even for this quilter.
> 
> Betsy


Well, I don't return them either Betsy, so your idiosynchtaric nature is a shared trait, but it seems some make a stink about the 4.99 price etc. Most writers do get returns though. The price is about the cost of 1.25 gallons of gas and there's a chance an indie writer will probably get good mileage from that gallon. Even if it only helps sales by 10%, it is a help. But, what worked for him may not work for another author. Remember, his big talent aside from his marketing was that he had stories that a good chunk of people wanted to read.


----------



## Millard (Jun 13, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> He talks about that in the book. He reckons he has around 100,000 fans, and the rest were curiosity purchases that won't buy another of his. That's why he thinks it is important to write quick, sell cheap, and publish lots.


*shudder*

Not a real love for the art or craft there, it seems.


----------



## Gerald (Dec 11, 2010)

Millard said:


> Not a real love for the art or craft there, it seems.


I think it's a different kind of writing. Dean Wesley Smith adopts the same approach. Joe Konrath, too. The more books you write, the more books people can buy. That's not to say that, necessarily, they're any worse than books which take 10 years to write.


----------



## KateMadison (Jun 21, 2011)

@Betsy I can loan you the book but I need a specific email address to loan it to.  I assume it has to be the one associated with your amazon account.  That's how it worked through booklending.com . Message me? 

The timing of the book is auspicious but not suspect.  He had been working on the book for quite awhile and waited until he reached the million club to release it to get the most exposure for that title.  John is a business man first who happens to like writing and not working for anyone else.  But I think there is a concept that applies to John Locke as well as many other millionaires I have met which is this: you don't get to that level unless you are great at evaluating business opportunities.  Locke has said many times that he thought a 35% return was great.  And he kind of got stuck with 99c mantle bc he didn't want to alienate his fans (who were clearly 99c readers).  

Also, the concepts in his book are pretty original.  Yes, they involve twitter/blogging/email.  But there is a subtle difference in the way Locke uses those tools.  He very rarely tweets about himself, first off. That in and of itself is just plain weird compared to most authors on twitter.  He is a salesman, but is perfectly aware that no one likes to be sold.  And then he has a specific plan for getting people into an email relationship and, yes, responding to EVERY email- usually very fast.   I guess when you look at that last one, it isn't very original from a sales/business point of view.  But I don't think many authors think in this way, and maybe they should.  

Anyway, I thought it was good info, especially at 5 bucks.  May we all see his same level of success.  

Kate Madison
Coming Soon: Empty- An Apocalyptic Romance (with Zombies)


----------



## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

John Hartness said:


> ..., it's likely that he understands the audience for a writing sales book will be considerably smaller than the audience for a thriller.


This is exactly his justification.


----------



## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm a slow writer (for novels at least), but I don't think slow always equals good and fast always equals bad. There's a whole history of fast writers who were very good.

Harlan Ellison used to type short stories in bookstore windows and stick the pages to the window so everyone outside could read them. Some of those stories went on to win major prizes.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I think a lot of people aren't looking at what he is saying. He doesn't say not to write the best book you can. His book is about marketing and a lot of it SHOULD appeal to people who don't like marketing.

He says NOT to pimp your book on Twitter -- or not normally anyway. 

He says TO write meaningful blog posts and spend some time and thought on them.

That isn't what most people would consider hard-core promotion, but it has worked for him. 

And as for as the shudders at writing lots and publishing a large list. Joe Konrath says the same thing. So does Dean Wesley Smith. So does Kris Rusch. So do a number of other people. It's what Amanda Hocking did.

Let's not start acting all superior here. It's good advice if you can do it.


----------



## K. E. Hawkins (May 17, 2011)

He has been successful in a number of businesses. He was able to take his business skills and apply it to marketing his books for even more success. I'm impressed.


----------



## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

John's book is great.

Every indie author should read it.

The book is basically about how John creates stark raving fans who then help him sell his novels.

He uses all the familiar tools that most of us use already (website, blog, facebook, twitter, email), but he has refined and perfected a system that moves people from the sphere of social media into a highly-targeted email list that he calls his "Guaranteed Buyer List."

That's the heart of the book, and his advice is golden.

I'll leave John to give you the details.

Buy the book.

David


----------



## indie.ebooks (Mar 30, 2011)

I bought his book yesterday - How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! - and read the whole thing in an hour.

Part of what he is talking about I have used in setting up my website/blog. He has a system to take your books and make them huge. I don't know if what he does will work for everyone but it cant hurt to try.

Every self pubbed author here should read this book. This is not a magic bullet solution, its a marketing strategy, one he has used successfully.

Why would he tell everyone what he has done? Why share this? Is he just trying to sell one more book, is this a gimmick?

These are all fair questions.

My answer: what he is selling is a strategy, its like learning how to sell. Some people do it well, make it look effortless, others
find it hard to master. The strategy he has will not stop his core audience from buying his books but reading this might help you find your core audience.

Why am I having such a rave about this? I had an Oprah aha moment reading this book.
I dont think that I will be alone in that. It sounds cheesy but do yourself a favour and have your aha moment.

Cheers
Nadine


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

Well thanks to this thread and the reviews on Amazon, I just bought this. Hopefully I will have time tonight after it cools off and I get my writing done, to read it.


----------



## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

Ryne Billings said:


> Great news to hear on my birthday.


Happy Birthday, Ryne!!


----------



## J. Carson Black (Feb 27, 2011)

Bottom line, I bought his book.  I figure $4.99 is a small price to pay to listen to someone who has sold over a million ebooks.  Even if there's only one jewel of wisdom in the whole darn thing, it would be worth it for that.


----------



## BuddyGott (Feb 4, 2011)

I was reluctant to buy it at first. Then I figured that I've paid around the same price as the book for issues of Writer's Digest before, so why not? (I've often felt that Writer's Digest isn't worth the money, but that's another story.)

I'm about halfway through the book and feel it was a very good investment. I'm close to publishing my first novel and I've found a lot of useful ideas in Locke's book. I don't see myself using all of his tactics, but some of them will definitely be worth trying.


----------



## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

John Locke has been scheduled to guest blog at A Moose Walked into a Bar for sometime now. Since the amazing announcement by Amazon, he has graciously agreed to be available throughout the day to answer questions and comments. Stop on by! He also shares a funny personal tale. 

http://amoosewalkedintoabar.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-blogger-john-locke.html

Karen


----------



## DDScott (Aug 13, 2010)

*Do you have any questions for the newest Kindle Million Club Member - John Locke?!*

_He's hangin' out with us at The WG2E today:_

http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/wg2e-big-time-congrats-to-john-locke-the-newest-kindle-million-club-member

_Oh, and he's also got a literally LMAO anecdote on today's Moose Bar:_

http://amoosewalkedintoabar.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-blogger-john-locke.html

C'mon and join the John Locke Rocks Parties!!!


----------



## Emeline Danvers (Apr 11, 2011)

I find it amusing that people are criticizing John Locke because he was already rich before he started writing his books. How do you think he got rich? Hard work! He taught himself how to sell, how to market, and he had the RIGHT ATTITUDE! Why did he wait til Amazon made the announcement to publish this book? He's smart--it's called _timing_. He knew he was coming up on his million book mark, and held the book til then. Otherwise, the title would be "How I Sold 901,394 Ebooks in 4 1/2 Months." Not as catchy.

Am I a fan of his? No, haven't read his books yet. They're not really my genre. But I did buy and read his "How I Sold" book. It's good. I wish there was more to it, but I'm guessing he's holding info back for a second and possibly third book. Why? He's a marketing guy. He's smart. Is it worth the $5? Yes. To me, anyway. It has what the other two "how to publish indie" books I bought don't have: real, helpful marketing info.

If you think you don't need the info in there...think again. Since reading the book last night, I downloaded TweetDeck so I could get serious about my Twitter use. In that time, I'm already going crazy from the authors I'm following (*some of whom are from KB*) who are innundating me with promos for their own book or someone else's. Guess what? I ignore them now. They're wasting their time, and I'll probably end up unfollowing them. It's not that I don't like them...I just don't want to be "sold" to all the time. Those people need Locke's book. Seriously.

I like his approach. Yes, he has a background in sales. Yes, he's using certain methods to market to people. But it's tolerable. He either genuinely cares about his readers, or is at least smart enough to LOOK like he does. Most people who are trying to market their books to me don't know me, don't want to know me, and don't care about me. They just want to innundate me with their book crap. And why should I buy? After I buy, they'll still be throwing a million sales tweets at me. Locke is more restrained...he doesn't "over contact".

He teaches you how to REALLY use twitter and blogging, and I like his approach. One piece of advice I really found useful was that he says not to spend much time on marketing til you have at least three books out. His reasoning was very sound. I blogged about it in my review today of his book.

I don't see how someone wouldn't find $5 worth of advice in that book, unless they're just so overly critical that they can't see the forest for the trees.


----------



## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I bought it today. I read it today. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go shower to get the slimy sales voice out of my brain.


----------



## Ursula_Bauer (Dec 12, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> And yes, his wealth IS an issue. _Wealth buys leisure_. Wealth means you have all day to spend twittering and posting on Facebook (or having an assistant do it for you.) Do you think the author of Aragon would have been anything other that a marginally talented self publishing teenager if his parents did not have the financial means to take a year off from work to promote his book? Do you think Locke would have had the time to engage in so much social networking if he was a plumber or a forklift driver?


You raise an interesting point. Time can't be manufactured, but it can be bought, if you don't have to slog at the day job - what else could you do? If someone paid all your bills and met all your family obligations for one year, and you were free to spend that time as you wished, what would that currency buy you as an author? It's not just money, think of all the authors w/kids, aging parents, spouses/partners w/medical issues, their own medical issues...the list racks up. When I first started nursing school ten bazillion years ago, we had this touchy feely get to know yourself workshop. The first thing they did was make us all pick up blocks for everything that qualified as a commitment requiring time and, therefore energy. You could not use your shirt, a bucket, your buddy, to hold blocks you could not fit in your hands. one block for a spouse/partner, one for each kid, one for each aging parent, one for each club/volunteer position, one for each job (most of us had many jobs), one for each religious organization and community organization and one for each event we attended, weekly, monthly...needless to say w/in the first few minutes we all had blocks falling about the room and no one held on to much It was a good lesson - no one had a block for nursing school yet, and if we wanted to succeed, we had to make room for that block. The more $ you have outside the normal paycheck, the more support, the less blocks you have to hold and the more time you can devote to writing and promotion, so in that sense, yes, banked cash, or a patron like parents, can give an artist an edge. Who's holding your blocks? How many did you drop to write and self publish? NOt saying Locke doesn't have points, or didn't bust hump to get where he is. He did and he is willing to share some tips and that alone is worth gold. I plan to order his book and read a few of the one's he's written. In addition to hard work, he worked smarter: leveraging certain advantages, if only those learned running his first business. So what blocks should we drop, and what things in our backgrounds can we leverage to add to success? And if we did that in addition to having a big pile of leisure time, wow.


----------



## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Well, I bought it. I was expecting to sneer a little and probably return it. I'm not sold on the kool-aid that anyone's pushing.

And yet...there was some good, interesting advice in there. It's all told from a salesman's POV, of course, so if you are marketing/corporate-adverse, it'll probably make you cringe. But I thought it was very, very interesting reading. And there's stuff I'm going to apply to my own career, which is nice.

I bought it expecting to return it...and I'm keeping it.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I bought and read it this afternoon. Many of you seem to be irritated that he is already a millionaire. He did say, more than once, that the things that he spent money on did not improve the sales of his books. I found the book quite inspirational. He has obviously been having very low sales for a year or more. It appears that his sales improved as a result of his own actions initially not by something someone else did. I haven't read any of his novels, and am not sure that I should, yet.

The way some of you are talking about sales and marketing--it sounds as bad as pornography or child trafficking. Also those who haven't read the book are saying he has a lot of time because he is a millionaire. My impression was that he is pretty busy. I also don't understand why so many of you are upset by the price. If it improves my sales it will be more than worth it. 

I hope I'm not p*****g off a whole lot of people, but I think this book has a lot of interesting information, and I will certainly try some if not all of it. I'm just not sure who my most ardent fans are and wish John had written a bit more about that. 

He also gave us a lot of information about what not to do.

Ann


----------



## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I'm totally diggin' on his success. *And* I loved, _Wish List_!

(As an aside: he seems to a grateful and humble human being! Unreal!)


----------



## Tom Junior (Apr 4, 2011)

His approach is really one I'd already thought intuited from justing looking at the successful kindle writers: 

- Write Fast
- Publish Fast
- Put out a good and entertaining book.

This is what Hocking, Konrath, Selena Kitt, and a whole slew of others have done. It works, you can't argue with it. 

And for those who slam him for being already wealthy. Plenty of authors, who had no money at to start with have found success. It's what's compelling about e-book phenomena. None of the things Mr. Locke did to be successful cost any money. At least not from what I've observed. There's nothing wrong with success and there's nothing wrong with writing quickly.  I'm buying the book & want to check out what he has to say.


----------



## Emeline Danvers (Apr 11, 2011)

jillmyles said:


> Well, I bought it. I was expecting to sneer a little and probably return it. I'm not sold on the kool-aid that anyone's pushing.
> 
> And yet...there was some good, interesting advice in there. It's all told from a salesman's POV, of course, so if you are marketing/corporate-adverse, it'll probably make you cringe. But I thought it was very, very interesting reading. And there's stuff I'm going to apply to my own career, which is nice.
> 
> I bought it expecting to return it...and I'm keeping it.


I think Jill makes an excellent point.  There's good stuff in there. But if you are automatically turned off by sales/marketing talk, you probably won't like it. Of course, you probably will also have a harder time making it as an author, because most indies will have to market the heck out of their books to get noticed. There may be a lucky few, like Amanda Hocking, who made it without spending much time on marketing in the beginning. But I think that is the exception rather than the rule.

And as to Locke's wealth and "leisure"...the dude has _sixteen _businesses. Granted, he probably has people running each one. But if you know anything about that type of person, you know they spend a LOT of time working, even though they no longer have to. Look at Trump...he's a bazillionaire, and still works his butt off. Why? Those people like to. And that's a big part of their success. The other part? Never giving up, and never having a negative attitude.

Locke says anyone who follows his system exactly and has a decent book will succeed. But the problem is, the average person will look at it and think "it won't work", or won't do the system exactly, or more likely--will give up as soon as it gets hard or they don't see instant results. That's the difference between Locke and the average joe. We're looking at the obstacles while he's looking for the way around them that he is sure is there.

I'm not saying his method will work for everyone, because there are probably other methods out there that work too, and are a better fit for your personality. I'm just saying that the guy is successful, he seems like a nice guy (at least that's the persona he puts out) and there are worse things you could do than follow the advice of a super-successful person.

I'd also like to mention that it's a smaller world than you might think, and publicly trashing a successful author is a no-no in the world of publishing. We may be indies, but some rules of publishing still make sense. Trashing authors/publishers/editors publicly, especially without grounds, isn't the smartest thing in the world. Sure, it's a free country, and you can express your opinions...and readers can express their opinions of your opinions by not buying your book, and spreading the word. Just something to think about. Remember, this may be an author's board, but these posts still come up in google searches.


----------



## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I love it!  Again, it gives me hope.  Right now I am celebrating the fact I have sold over 500 novels so far this month..a new high level for me.  So, this gives me hope that it can go even higher.


----------



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Ok, I'll be another of the guinea pigs. I finally gave in and bought the book last night and will report back after reading.


----------



## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

I also posted this in the recent Twitter thread, but here's an example of the kinds of advice he shares:

"Beyond special achievements, you should virtually never promote yourself on Twitter. Why? If you're working Twitter properly, your friends will promote you, and you can publicly respond to their comments, adding a little along the way ...

Again, never promote yourself, except in passing. Tweet about the people you like and the people who have written or done something you think your readers will find interesting. The key is to be sincere ..."


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

I'm attempting John Locke's system this week and would appreciate it greatly if my colleagues at KB would visit my blog for a moment, read today's post, and tweet it (link at the bottom of the article) to your Followers. If the sentiments in the post do not sit well with you or your twitter group, then thanks for your time and consideration.

http://gordonryanauthorchat.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Gordon Ryan


----------



## kempton.mooney (Jun 19, 2011)

Keep us updated on how your twitter buzz goes. I don't use a twitter account, but I am curious how useful it is as a marketing tool.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

i missed the part where he said highly politicize your blog. But maybe that was what he meant.


----------



## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

What is the system (in a nutshell)?


----------



## Midnight Writer (Jan 4, 2011)

Gordon Ryan said:


> I'm attempting John Locke's system this week and would appreciate it greatly if my colleagues at KB would visit my blog for a moment, read today's post, and tweet it (link at the bottom of the article) to your Followers. If the sentiments in the post do not sit well with you or your twitter group, then thanks for your time and consideration.
> 
> http://gordonryanauthorchat.blogspot.com/
> 
> ...


Great post, Gordon. Thank you! And thank you for your service.

Lanette


----------



## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

You have a beautifully set up blog.  Lots of pics and a great banner.  

I think once you find your target audience, you will do very well. I think you might find a lot of your target audience on forums and places that share your views.   I wish you the best of luck.

And in case anyone forgets to mention this:  Thank you for your service to our country.


----------



## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

Lanette Curington (MidnightWriter) said:


> Great post, Gordon. Thank you! And thank you for your service.
> 
> Lanette


LOL..I think we were posting at the same time, Lanette.


----------



## southerntype (Aug 17, 2010)

Lanette Curington (MidnightWriter) said:


> Great post, Gordon. Thank you! And thank you for your service.
> 
> Lanette


+1


----------



## Bob Mayer (Feb 20, 2011)

Well it's a concept.  I think doing so risks alienating 50% of people but possibly endearing 50%.  

I'm frankly not a fan of Clancy.  He sold insurance and never wore a uniform.  Hunt was a thrilling read which he obviously got help on that he has never credited as there was a true, classified mutiny on board a Russian cruiser and the submarine info was classified at the time.  He worked in Annapolis.  Naval Academy.  First novel ever published by Naval Institute Press.  Hmm.

Clancy came to Ft Campbell and literally spoke down to the officers of the 5th Special Forces Group, Task Force 160 and 101st Screaming Eagles.  As if he knew more and had experienced more.  His book on Special Forces was a joke, parroting everything the Pentagon PR machine fed him.  And his portrayal of Spec Ops in his novels is so far off the mark of my experience, I really can't stomach it.

Sorry to go on a rant but sometimes the portrayal of the military in many thrillers is a fantasy that I think feeds into a mindset that doesn't get the reality.  Additionally, 99% of people don't even understand what the Tea Party was.  It was a protest started by smugglers like John Hancock because the British were lowering taxes on tea and the smugglers were afraid the British tea would now compete with their smuggled tea.  However, the concept of no taxation with representation is correct.

So.  I think the Locke method is working.  Thanks for your service and all the best with your books.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Bob Mayer said:


> Well it's a concept. I think doing so risks alienating 50% of people but possibly endearing 50%.
> 
> I'm frankly not a fan of Clancy. He sold insurance and never wore a uniform. Hunt was a thrilling read which he obviously got help on that he has never credited as there was a true, classified mutiny on board a Russian cruiser and the submarine info was classified at the time. He worked in Annapolis. Naval Academy. First novel ever published by Naval Institute Press. Hmm.
> 
> ...


But is it working? Or rather, is that really the Locke method to alienate everyone who doesn't happen to agree with one's politics? I understood Locke to be saying we should write blog posts with emotional punch, not politicize them. (Maybe I missed something)

And is it a concept? Or is it an agenda?

I have no idea what your politics are, Bob, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find they're not even within shooting distance of mine.

I read your novels anyway (or some of them). I read them because you write well and know what you're writing about. But I'll tell you the truth. I have always made it pretty clear on twitter, for example, what my political leanings are. I am considering that that was a serious mistake. Why the heck should my readers care? They may (as Locke implies) want to know me as a person... but my _politics_?

I haven't quite made up my mind on this, but I obviously won't buy the OP's novel because I am now convinced he is pushing an agenda. I don't read novels that have an agenda other than telling a good story.

Would I have bought it anyway? Maybe. Maybe not. *shrug*


----------



## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I haven't quite made up my mind on this, but I obviously won't buy the OP's novel because I am now convinced he is pushing an agenda. *I don't read novels that have an agenda other than telling a good story. *


JRTomlin, I agree with the bolded part 100%. Having said that, while I can contest some of the points Gordon argues in his blog post, I do want to defend his book. I have read State of Rebellion and it is an honest book. What I mean by that is that Gordon doesn't cheat, his characters are real people and not types.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> JRTomlin, I agree with the bolded part 100%. Having said that, while I can contest some of the points Gordon argues in his blog post, I do want to defend his book. I have read State of Rebellion and it is an honest book. What I mean by that is that Gordon doesn't cheat, his characters are real people and not types.


I think that makes my point though, Michael.

I think he may have convinced anyone who doesn't agree with his politics not to read his book. And I'm not sure I can criticize him too much, because I may have at times done the same thing. Not on my blog, except on a blog post today where I discuss exactly this issue, but on twitter I have made it clear what my politics are by articles I've linked to.

Is that counterproductive?

I don't mind in the least reading novels by people whose politics I don't agree with but a writer who makes a big point of it runs a risk of doing exactly that--coming across as a politician instead of an author.

Edit: On the other hand, offending anyone who doesn't share his politics seemed to be his goal on the concept that they're not a "target market". I tend toward having a broader target than only people who agree with my politics, but he may be right for his own marketing scheme. I just am not at ALL sure that's what John Locke was getting at.


----------



## RebeccaKnight (May 1, 2011)

I agree that you should be yourself in your blog. People gravitate toward blogs with some personality, which is why I'm usually pretty blunt in my blog about my feelings about social issues, publishing, etc, but I always try to do it in a way like "here's what I think are the facts--what do you think?"

However, I think there's a way to express your personality and opinions without alienating people. I'm not sure how I feel about your blog post. As someone who holds the opposite political views (seemingly), I don't feel like there was much room for discussion in your post. I enjoy blog posts that open up a respectful discussion versus taking a hard stand.  

Just my two cents  .  Best of luck to you!


----------



## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I don't mind in the least reading novels by people whose politics I don't agree with but a writer who makes a big point of it runs a risk of doing exactly that--coming across as a politician instead of an author.


Okay, I see your point. I don't know too many details of The John Locke method of success, but I find myself wondering if one could duplicate it. Just in the past few months, Amazon has changed their algorithms, thousands of people are trying the 99 cent (or even free) model, and nobody has a series of books exactly like Locke's, for better or worse. I can't even duplicate my own method of success, let alone contemplate someone else's. All I can do is continue to write as well as I can and continue to try different things.

Speaking of the OP, Gordon is one of the nicest people I have met online and I don't see him forging the path of a firebrand conservative. He's more of a "gentle answer turneth away wrath" type, in spite of the politics of the aforementioned post. Even though he had reason to find fault with my polygamist thriller series, due to his LDS faith, we had some great conversations and the insight he gave me has actually bent the story arc of my series, which is something I never would have thought possible. Politics aside, he is a fine man and a good writer and I hope he finds success.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> Okay, I see your point. I don't know too many details of The John Locke method of success, but I find myself wondering if one could duplicate it. Just in the past few months, Amazon has changed their algorithms, thousands of people are trying the 99 cent (or even free) model, and nobody has a series of books exactly like Locke's, for better or worse. I can't even duplicate my own method of success, let alone contemplate someone else's. All I can do is continue to write as well as I can and continue to try different things.
> 
> Speaking of the OP, Gordon is one of the nicest people I have met online and I don't see him forging the path of a firebrand conservative. He's more of a "gentle answer turneth away wrath" type, in spite of the politics of the aforementioned post. Even though he had reason to find fault with my polygamist thriller series, due to his LDS faith, we had some great conversations and the insight he gave me has actually bent the story arc of my series, which is something I never would have thought possible. Politics aside, he is a fine man and a good writer and I hope he finds success.


Oh, I wish him every success. There's not a writer on this forum I wouldn't say that about, including any I strongly disagree with politically. Someone of almost any political bent can be a fine person and a good writer.

I don't think even John Locke says that someone can exactly duplicate his success but he made a big point that people are not using blogs effectively. He suggested writing fewer blog articles but ones with a lot of staying power that expressed deeply held feelings. I'm sure the two he used as examples to some extent reflected political beliefs that differ from mine--but they weren't rants or even overtly political. He actually had some pretty practical suggestions as well such as putting your blurb at the front of your novel instead of your copyright notice.

I liked his suggestion of writing fewer blog posts but trying to make them meaningful. He suggested aiming them at your target audience as well, but I really don't think he meant you should offend anyone you don't think is--for one thing people CAN surprise you.

So anyway, I'm thinking about the whole politics thing. Keep our mouth shut? Mention it but try to be diplomatic? Or go the full-out rant style?


----------



## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

caethesfaron said:


> I think your blog post speaks to your target audience. Unfortunately, that audience isn't me or my social circle. However, good job on putting the principles in John Locke's book to action.


I'm down with this. Sounds like a fantasy to me. And, this whole thing feels like ploy to get us to read the blog, and tweet about it, as if we aren't ALL trying to sell.


----------



## ashel (May 29, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I liked his suggestion of writing fewer blog posts but trying to make them meaningful. He suggested aiming them at your target audience as well, but I really don't think he meant you should offend anyone you don't think is--for one thing people CAN surprise you.


The thing I have noticed most about John Locke, in everything I have seen of his public persona, is that he has been very, very, very careful not to actively alienate ANYONE. To the point where it has to be a deliberate strategy, because no one is that balanced and agreeable all the time. No one. I mean, unless he's a cyborg? He doesn't profess to have beliefs on anything divisive*; when people criticize or insult him, dude shows up and is *invariably* gracious and humble, making his critics look like total a-holes (which, to be fair, they frequently are); and he's just _nice_. And kinda flirty.

His target market is definitely women. Check out the photo he has everywhere. That was on purpose.

Dude is a marketer. He's brilliant at it. He's a salesman. That's not a dig; I've worked sales jobs, in one guise or another, for much of my adult life, and in my experience, while most of the midlist sales people are total scumbags (sorry, but it's mean in the middle), the top dogs are either 1) stone cold sociopaths, or 2) manage to be actually genuinely nice, genuinely POSITIVE people, who believe in what they're selling, and are honest because they've picked a product that they can sell honestly. They actually add value. (Don't ask me what the breakdown of that is; it's depressing.) If John Locke were a stone cold sociopath, with his sales talent he'd be a titan of industry _yesterday_. But like, an evil industry, per the sociopathy.

He's not. He picked another thing he knew he could do well, and the version of that thing that he could sell, enthusiastically and honestly, and he went and sold the **** out of it. Politics aren't part of his package. It's not his bag. Maybe it will be down the line (although I really doubt it, since it would bleed into his brand), but not for the product he's selling now. It's just not relevant.

There is a huge market for politically biased or messaged works. People love to be told that what they already think is right. They like echo chambers. They love to feel validated. If that's what this dude is going for, awesome.

If you're looking for people to see your work as anything else, I'd suggest leaving politics out of it. JRTomlin is right: politics (in the US, anyway) tends to taint anything it touches, particularly if the author declares his politics outright, or worse, as part of a marketing strategy. It can't be part of the package. It either is the package, or it isn't.

Also, I doubt that The John Locke Method as described in his book would be as successful for him now as it was when he implemented it, but I think it would still see considerable success, if only because most of the people who try it just won't execute well. Locke definitely executes.

Man, this got kinda long, huh?

*That I've seen. It's possible I'm entirely, entirely wrong.


----------



## ashel (May 29, 2011)

Oops. My original post got away from me a little bit -- all that bit about how John Locke is a brilliant marketer...in the end, he's made it very easy to like him, and very hard to dislike him. That's kind of a bottom line. (And making it easy for his fans to be invested in his success...but I'm gonna stay focused!)

The other road you can take is to aggressively stake out a niche that is invested in being different, and caters to a target market that revels in being reviled by people who are not them. I am not - NOT - making statements about politics; just about selling stuff. It's frequently used in politics, on both sides of aisle, but politicians didn't invent this stuff. (Oh, maybe they did, I'm not versed on my Roman orators. Whatevs.) If you need a counter example: some dude got rich selling t-shirts that said simply, "Disco Sucks." 

Anyway.

Both can work for you.

Both are highly competitive.

But one probably involves a lot less aggravation.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I don't think John Locke said anywhere that we should try to seperate out our target market by offending others politically. Gordon I think your blog was way too political. Don't know much about Norman Rockwell wasn't in USA then, but my father fought all through WW 11, and you'll not get me to buy books by talking about the wonders of the tea party (the modern one I mean). Now maybe I should not have said that, and certainly I think you are a very polite moderate writer, Gordon. I think you just misintrepreted John Locke. 

I wish you every success with selling books, but please recheck what John Locke actually wrote.

Ann


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Bob Mayer said:


> Additionally, 99% of people don't even understand what the Tea Party was. It was a protest started by smugglers like John Hancock because the British were lowering taxes on tea and the smugglers were afraid the British tea would now compete with their smuggled tea. However, the concept of no taxation with representation is correct.


Heh, excellent point, one I'm not sure I've ever seen made in the mainstream media. Although like many things, the exact truth depends on which primary source you believe, the East India Company was certainly about to drown in its own debt due to some poor choices it had made. The British government (most of whom were shareholders in East India) removed the duties on tea East India shipped to America. You can draw your own conclusions about the motivation. I actually think there are elements of the situation that could be rallying cries for either the left or the right. In any case, ignorance of history seems to be a national pastime.

To the topic of discussion, I dunno how good an idea it is to be explicitly political when trying to market fiction, but stranger things have worked, that's for sure. I suspect that doing so only works if your book is pretty directly a political statement also. Which for sure will turn away hordes of readers, such as myself. I recently received a positive review for my novella about terrorism and bin Laden where the reader had started out concerned that she wouldn't like a conspiracy thriller on that topic because of the potential for political statements (of the generally left-wing sort). Fortunately, she read the book and discovered that her fears were not borne out. But I imagine plenty of people have stayed away from it entirely, even though I've taken pains to avoid political statements in the book. It's a fact of life when you stray into certain subject areas, let alone when you have an overtly political public image.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Frankly, I'm just curious how this is going to work out.
I'm under the impression that Locke chose his subjects in a less controversial area, i.d. subjects almost anybody could agree with.
It's clear you're speaking with passion to a well defined audience. Well defined, and at the same time rather exclusive. 
But maybe that is enough.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

modwitch said:


> That doesn't mean there aren't nuggets in his advice that are worth finding and applying. But a system? Color me skeptical.
> 
> Gordon, I wish you luck with this approach. ... I admire your guts in putting it out there - but it seems like a statement of the heart, rather than a smart marketing move.


I happened to be reading Locke's book today, and regarding the price to sell your book at, he suggests one truly know what niche market you are aiming for. If you're writing in a genre, then is it a large genre? If so, then 99 cents can be a good price. He makes it clear that price is NOT necessarily what makes sales. His book about publishing has a smaller market than his novels, so he priced it at $4.99. Self-published writers will buy it, not a huge percentage of readers using Kindle. My market is readers of literary comic fiction that typically feature an everyman misguided in love. It's not a large genre market, so 99 cents won't get me a lot of sales.

Locke also says you know you're doing the right thing if you find readers who love your book and others who hate your book. Expect some angry reviews as you become more popular. Because you're so political, you'll get those people automatically. You'll also find some people eager to get your next book. Keep track of those people.

So it seems to me there's a system there.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

If you're like me and you saw that John Locke, independent author, managed to sell as many books as seven other authors who have large publishers behind them, you want to know what he did. Thus, when I saw he came out with a book explaining it all, I had to click and buy.



Now that I'm more than halfway through, I'm finding helpful tips, such as with Twitter, which I joined only last week (@MeeksChris), and I'm still trying to understand how to use it.

I also find a lot of sales truth that he offers. I learned a lot about sales when, out of college with a degree is psychology, all I could find for work was selling tile at Color Tile. It taught me a lot about sales and life. One thing I learned as a salesman is not to come on too strongly as I see whenever I happen to drive onto a car lot. Salespeople like white-shirted vultures descend. I see a sense of that sometimes here on Kindleboards. Desperation repels.

The heart of Locke's book seems to focus on smart selling. If you use Facebook, for instance, are you telling people what pie you just ate? Does that really make people want to find your books? He's not saying to directly refer to your books, but bring up interesting things that make people want to know you more. Your blogs might use the same themes that are in your novels. He points out he only writes about seven blogs a year, but each one is written with care. He uses Twitter to bring up other people's interesting blogs and tweets.

Anyway, there's a lot there to absorb. If you've read his book, are you doing anything differently now? What?


----------



## Will Granger (Apr 12, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> But is it working? Or rather, is that really the Locke method to alienate everyone who doesn't happen to agree with one's politics? I understood Locke to be saying we should write blog posts with emotional punch, not politicize them. (Maybe I missed something)
> 
> And is it a concept? Or is it an agenda?
> 
> ...


I don't think Gordon was trying to alienate people. He was just stating his opinion about America today. I'm glad he was brave enough to state his feelings. Congrats to him for being honest.


----------



## Eve Yohalem (Apr 1, 2011)

I don't see how anyone can blog honestly and authentically and not reveal their politics. To borrow an old feminism slogan: the personal *is* political. Our world views are in our voices and the topics we choose to write about. And even if a blogger avoids political hot button issues, their politics seep through if they're writing with an authentic voice.

If Gordon happens to feel passionate about things that may infuriate or alienate 50 percent of his potential readers, he may feel like the smart marketing move is to cover other subjects in his blog. But my guess is that if readers follow him long enough, they're going to glean his point of view anyway.


----------



## Bryan Cohen (Aug 28, 2010)

I'd definitely be interested in if this had any immediate impact in sales, Gordon. 

Writing the blog posts wasn't the only step in John Locke's bag of tricks though. For you who haven't read it, here's more or less how it goes. 

1. Connect with people on Twitter by following those who have interesting things to say and spread their work to become closer friends with them (legitimately friends with them, not just for business purposes). 
2. Create a simple blog that caters specifically to your audience. His post on Michael J. Fox was a great example as it embodied "every day heroes that can be larger than life" which taps into his Donovan Creed character. Make the blog timeless and spreadable. 
3. Send the blog post to your Twitter friends. 
4. Generate new Twitter friends by sending the blog link to people who searched about related subjects. For example, a person talking about Parkinson's Disease might be interested in reading the Michael J. Fox article. 
5. Hope that the blog post plus your close Twitter friendships have led to you collecting e-mail addresses. You can stimulate this by asking your followers on Twitter/Facebook, etc. for their e-mail addresses. If they aren't down, you have yet to cultivate a close enough relationship. 
6. Collect the e-mails of those who have said they LOVE your books and put them on your Guaranteed Buyers List. 
7. When a new book comes out, e-mail a portion of your GBL every day, hopefully boosting your book into the Top 100. Once there, those who only buy from the top 100 can help to keep it afloat. 
8. Rinse/Repeat. 


So, the Locke method includes the blog posts as part of it, but it's all part of a tapestry of creating genuine relationships on Twitter, crafting blog posts that don't necessarily alienate people, but ones that certainly try to inspire a particular demographic, and the hope that there are people excited enough about your work so that you can add them to your GBL. I've read the book through twice and I'll probably read it again eventually to refresh myself, but it's a time consuming and difficult method to maintain. I do believe that if someone can truly replicate it, it could create results. I certainly hope that someone on this board can be the person who does .


----------



## John Twipnook (Jan 10, 2011)

Just finished Locke's marketing book.

I think Modwitch is right when she says Locke's system worked in a unique moment in time. Things have now changed. Moreover, the more that authors use Locke's system and start flooding Twitter trying to drive traffic to their blogs, the more things will continue to change. I think Twitter readers will become more skeptical/cynical about whether an author (or band, or politician, etc) is trying to tug heartstrings in order to effect a practical result that benefits the tweeter. So Locke's system will become less effective over time.

I think Bryan's right in concluding Locke's system is very time-intensive. Frankly, I don't see how Locke could write his books so quickly, AND devote so much time to tweeting and emailing prospects one-by-one, AND work full-time at his regular business on top. If he pays other people to do some of the work I guess it's possible. He has plenty of money, as he often mentions, so maybe that's the secret.

I'm not slamming Locke, I just think what works (or worked) for him won't work for me. Things have changed, and they're going to change more. Plus, I simply can't spend hours a day tweeting, emailing, etc. Maybe some day I can hire an assistant (and believe me, on that day I'll send virtual champagne all around). But right now, I'd rather focus on putting out the absolute best quality work I can (a "good" as opposed to an "effective" book--Locke's distinction), and trust that through market efficiency and taste, my readership will grow eventually.


----------



## Weirdling (Jun 25, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> He is certainly the first person to suggest that blogging infrequently was a factor in his success!!! I can't explain what that means without getting into the whole system, but that's one part I don't think could work for me.


That's one thing I disagree with too, but you are an informational blogger. Informational bloggers need to post frequently. However, his point does make me feel better about not always having something to write every week on my blog. Not that I'm popular; rather, I'm unpopular, but that is okay. The new blog works better for me because it fits me, who I am, better than my old ones.

There were a few other things I disagreed with in his book, but mostly, it gave me a lot of ideas. And that is always great. I can work with ideas 

Jodi


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

John Twipnook said:


> Just finished Locke's marketing book.
> 
> I think Modwitch is right when she says Locke's system worked in a unique moment in time. Things have now changed. Moreover, the more that authors use Locke's system and start flooding Twitter trying to drive traffic to their blogs, the more things will continue to change. I think Twitter readers will become more skeptical/cynical about whether an author (or band, or politician, etc) is trying to tug heartstrings in order to effect a practical result that benefits the tweeter. So Locke's system will become less effective over time.
> 
> ...


Locke claimed not to spend hours a day tweeting and emailing. I am going to take him at his word. The part of his system that is a full stop for me is collecting email addresses and emailing people.

He also said pretty plainly that he did not flood twitter with tweets about his blog.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Eve Yohalem said:


> I don't see how anyone can blog honestly and authentically and not reveal their politics. To borrow an old feminism slogan: the personal *is* political. Our world views are in our voices and the topics we choose to write about. And even if a blogger avoids political hot button issues, their politics seep through if they're writing with an authentic voice.
> 
> If Gordon happens to feel passionate about things that may infuriate or alienate 50 percent of his potential readers, he may feel like the smart marketing move is to cover other subjects in his blog. But my guess is that if readers follow him long enough, they're going to glean his point of view anyway.


Eve, there is a difference in ranting about your politics and revealing them through your world view and voice.

People with all kinds of politics can write a good story. I could make a good guess that Bob Mayer and I don't agree on politics from his world view and voice, but he never pushes a political agenda. I have enjoyed several of his novels.

Someone who push an agenda and uses their blog for rants? Not so much.

You are missing a distinction, I think.

Mind you, offending people and ranting about how horrible anyone not in the Tea Party movement is may work for him for all I know. But I still think that is not what John Locke was recommending. Locke's subjects were specifically (from his examples) subjects that ANYONE would agree with--that being brave in the face of suffering is admirable, for example, not that anyone who doesn't agree with your politics is destroying the US.

I don't claim to be innocent. I regularly tweet links that make my politics pretty clear. Perhaps I also step over that line, not because my politics are wrong but because I may be pushing them in an inappropriate place. That's something I'm thinking about.


----------



## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Locke claimed not to spend hours a day tweeting and emailing. I am going to take him at his word. The part of his system that is a full stop for me is collecting email addresses and emailing people.


It's perfectly reasonable to send out a press release to known readers and fans. Those people are happy to be informed about a new book by an author they like. It should be used very selectively, however. Once per new book and not random spam.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> It's perfectly reasonable to send out a press release to known readers and fans. Those people are happy to be informed about a new book by an author they like. It should be used very selectively, however. Once per new book and not random spam.


It is actually more the collecting of email addresses that I'm not comfortable with, Michael. If I know someone is a fan, I don't mind emailing them with a release of a new novel, but asking people for their email address makes me cringe.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> ...not that anyone who doesn't agree with your politics is destroying the US.


 Not to mention that there is a big, big world outside the US. I doubt anyone in Finland, Malaysia, or even the UK will have a strong emotional reaction, either way, to the Tea Party (what?).
One of the components of Locke's system is that you have to sincerely, honestly and genuinely be interested in people. Not just write blogs that are 'designed' to appeal to them, with the purpose of peddling your wares.
For that - and I admit I have some trouble in that department myself - you first have to have a crystal clear image of who your intended audience is.


----------



## Doug Lance (Sep 20, 2010)

I think your post is a bit too combative Gordon. Unless that attitude is how your audience connects, I don't think a political warning is how to connect with people. Usually on a first date you should avoid religion and politics. I think for a loyalty transfer post, you should treat it like a first date with new potential readers.


----------



## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> It is actually more the collecting of email addresses that I'm not comfortable with, Michael. If I know someone is a fan, I don't mind emailing them with a release of a new novel, but asking people for their email address makes me cringe.


True. That's part of the reason I'm a novel writer instead of a food blogger or something else. I don't really like the feedback. I find it unsettling, to say the least.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> It is actually more the collecting of email addresses that I'm not comfortable with, Michael. If I know someone is a fan, I don't mind emailing them with a release of a new novel, but asking people for their email address makes me cringe.


Same here. But I do have an opt in/opt out email-newsletter on my site.
I clearly state that its purpose is to tell you about new books I publish, and that you can subscribe and unsubscribe whenever you want.
I somehow feel less cringy about directing people to that option.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Not to mention that there is a big, big world outside the US. I doubt anyone in Finland, Malaysia, or even the UK will have a strong emotional reaction, either way, to the Tea Party (what?).
> One of the components of Locke's system is that you have to sincerely, honestly and genuinely be interested in people. Not just write blogs that are 'designed' to appeal to them, with the purposes of peddling your wares.
> For that - and I admit I have some trouble in that department myself - you first have to have a crystal clear image of who your intended audience is.


I know people in the UK who know what the Tea Party movement is, but they're political anoraks (like myself to be honest). Very possibly most people don't.

I also have a problem with having a clear image of who my intended audience is. Someone who likes stories about Scottish history? Someone who likes fantasies?

I don't feel that I can pinpoint who these people are. The assumption that men/women/young people/old people/blacks/gays/whites/Native Americans do or don't like certain types of stories doesn't make me very comfortable either. I'm not sure I want to TRY to know who my "intended audience" is.

Or maybe I think my intended audience is people who like good stories and that can be all different kinds of people.

So maybe I can't and wouldn't use his method because philosophically I disagree with it whether it would work or not.


----------



## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

So in his how-to book does he ever talk about why he decided to write novels? That's interesting to me because he's 62 I believe, and he purports to have money. 

And I don't think he's trying to gouge writers by charging $5 for his book. I think that's a simple business decision in his mind. That's the right price for a book aimed at a niche market, I'm guessing is his reasoning.


----------



## John Twipnook (Jan 10, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Locke claimed not to spend hours a day tweeting and emailing. I am going to take him at his word. The part of his system that is a full stop for me is collecting email addresses and emailing people.
> 
> He also said pretty plainly that he did not flood twitter with tweets about his blog.


"I typically spend several hours a day answering emails."

""My fans know I often have to 'go dark' (meaning I have to occasionally stop Twittering for awhile) when trying to catch up on my emails or writing... How much time should you devote to Twitter? Try for an hour each day."

"I always (eventually) answer those [posts and blogs] who mentioned me, then I have a list of my close Twitter friends, and I will mention as many as I can when I have the time. Sometimes I go weeks without tweeting, sometimes I spend six hours tweeting about the blogs and posts I found interesting."


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Gordon,

I've merged your thread on the John Locke system with the existing thread about John Locke.  Sorry for any confusion.

Betsy


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

John Twipnook said:


> "I typically spend several hours a day answering emails."
> 
> ""My fans know I often have to 'go dark' (meaning I have to occasionally stop Twittering for awhile) when trying to catch up on my emails or writing... How much time should you devote to Twitter? Try for an hour each day."
> 
> "I always (eventually) answer those [posts and blogs] who mentioned me, then I have a list of my close Twitter friends, and I will mention as many as I can when I have the time. Sometimes I go weeks without tweeting, sometimes I spend six hours tweeting about the blogs and posts I found interesting."


His recommendation as you mention is to spend only an hour a day on Twitter.

I would say going weeks without tweeting and then tweeting for six hours would average out to LESS than that. I do something similar tweeting every day on stuff I've found on blogs that interests me (all too often political which ... I'm questioning but haven't decided to stop doing)

I wish I got enough fan email and responses to justify a few hours a day on email. Ha! The email part of his "system" is the part that I really don't see how to implement.


----------



## Guest (Jun 27, 2011)

My gosh, we're up to 8 pages of heated comments over a 5-buck book!

And not 1 page about the price of Starbucks coffee.


----------



## Bryan Cohen (Aug 28, 2010)

Okey Dokey said:


> My gosh, we're up to 8 pages of heated comments over a 5-buck book!
> 
> And not 1 page about the price of Starbucks coffee.


Can you BELIEVE the price of a latte these days? 



> I think your post is a bit too combative Gordon. Unless that attitude is how your audience connects, I don't think a political warning is how to connect with people. Usually on a first date you should avoid religion and politics. I think for a loyalty transfer post, you should treat it like a first date with new potential readers.


I think that really nails the concept of the loyalty transfer post, Doug.


----------



## Guest (Jun 27, 2011)

This is one of the most confusing discussions on the net.

Now I don't know whether to seek advice from a millionaire, or give my 5 bucks to a homeless guy on the sidewalk for tips on how to be successful.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Okey Dokey said:


> This is one of the most confusing discussions on the net.
> 
> Now I don't know whether to seek advice from a millionaire, or give my 5 bucks to a homeless guy on the sidewalk for tips on how to be successful.


Spend it on a coffee at Starbucks, and realize that if Hitler had won the war you would be drinking German ersatz.
(Weren't you missing _him_ in this discussion?)


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I think if Gordon or any author wants to post a strong blog like Gordon has they run the risk of turning off some readers who might have been inclined to buy his book.  OTOH, there are those who would strongly agree with his blog and would buy his book and some would buy it even if they disagreed somewhat with his politics.  So I see it as a wash and he is targeting a certain segment of the market who agree with his politics.

Locke?  If 2000 authors mimic his methods their result will probably be different than John's.


----------



## Guest (Jun 27, 2011)

_Quote:
. . . realize that if Hitler had won the war you would be drinking German ersatz.
(Weren't you missing him in this discussion?)
Unquote_

This discussion has just gone from confusing to REALLY confusing.

Let me switch over to the comics.


----------



## Katja (Jun 4, 2011)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Not to mention that there is a big, big world outside the US. I doubt anyone in Finland, Malaysia, or even the UK will have a strong emotional reaction, either way, to the Tea Party (what?).


Since I'm from Finland, I feel qualified to answer that. When someone mentions Tea Party, all I can think of is this: http://satwcomic.com/parenting and I'm not really that interested about it, that I'd bother to go to Wikipedia to check it out. 

What it comes to Locke: Well done! Bought the book, though I doubt I'll learn that much from it, since I like to thing I handle the social media rather well - keeping a blog or tweeting is nothing new to me. I'm just interested in the story.


----------



## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm Canadian. I don't care about the tea party past or present, unless it involves me getting a free tea latte. In that case, I'm all over it.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

There is a blog today that is a MUST READ--why Locke might benefit going with a big publisher: http://bit.ly/k0sONc

It puts perspective on what one's ultimate goal is. Also, today JA Konrath writes about how his literary agency has now found a way to help him: http://t.co/Q91YM9P

Food for thought.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

TK-- It easier to tweet about pie, especially if you live near Coco's pie shop as I do. What's interesting about Locke is he's giving practical advice about selling to non-salespeople. If I can sum up what he's saying, it's "Every tweet should have a purpose--so do it with heart and consideration of people's time."

I'm fascinated by the numbers in the blog I mentioned above. If he's made $350,000 on ten books, then that's $35,000 per book, and he might do better with a big publisher.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Christopher, I've merged your  thread with our existing John Locke thread.  Sorry for any confusion.

Betsy
KB Moderator


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

After all this merging, I can't tell what's active conversation and what isn't.... but I had to comment on one part of this thread:

Gordon made a political statement on his blog.  I don't agree with it.  I am rather the extreme opposite.  I am, however, incredibly depressed and appalled at all the people jumping up to say "Don't dare ever say anything controversial!  Hide who you are!  Don't ever offend anyone!"

This is what is wrong with America. This is why we can't compromise on anything.  Because we make people pretend they don't believe in things just to "get along."  When you do that, allow people to pretend that everyone agrees with them -- which is not good for anyone's sense of reality.  It makes us powerless in the face of politician's claims and those who twist the news.  It also diminishes us as a culture.  We can survive being disagreed with.

This fear has gotten so bad, that I had a woman tell me I should NEVER let anyone know my character is a registered Democrat for fear of offending people.

I keep thinking of Harvey Milk, and his campaign to get gay people to come out of the closet.  As long as people don't know their friends and family members are gay, they can continue to outright hate gay people.  But if they know you, and everybody else knows you, they can't vilify you without losing the respect of others who know you.  You can then have a simple, and civil disagreement.  

So Gordon, hate what you said, loved that you said it.  Good on you.  

Camille


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

daringnovelist said:


> "Don't dare ever say anything controversial! Hide who you are! Don't ever offend anyone!"
> This is what is wrong with America.


I'm sure there are a lot of other things wrong with America, but thanks for pointing it out to the rest of the world. 
(Hopefully this was not too controversial.)

I think the issue is, what are you trying to accomplish here?
You write thrillers. These could have a general appeal to many people all over the world.
This blog post, aimed at Americans, almost makes the rest of the world feel unwelcome. This unnecessarily excludes a vast majority of readers. By the strong message aimed at Tea Party sympathizers, the audience is then made even smaller by alienating all other Americans, including some Republicans.
The result is that this book now runs the risk of having only niche-appeal, while, if left alone, it maybe could have had general appeal.

Maybe this could work. Maybe it will appeal so strongly to those people you try to reach, that it doesn't matter that a lot of people will balk at the blatant political message.

It reminds me a bit of the controversy between Lewis and Tolkien. The latter thought the Narnia-books brought the religious message (e.g. Aslan=Jesus) in a far too crude way. The Lord of the Rings has its own religious (spiritual?) message, but more subtly and adroitly woven into the story.

It all depends on what you're aiming at, but I doubt this is what Locke had in mind.


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Andrew Ashling said:


> I'm sure there are a lot of other things wrong with America, but thanks for pointing it out to the rest of the world.
> (Hopefully this was not too controversial.)


I assume you're not in America? What's going on here right now is very much like what happened before the Civil War. It's scary. People will run you off the road for having the wrong bumper sticker on your car. And mentioning that you are a union member (and nothing else about your politics) can get you stalked and harassed online. Seriously, all the other things wrong with America go back to this "segregation" in which people feel it's all right to vilify the other side of every debate. To make people feel they don't DARE disagree.

I'm not saying you should go around offending people. I'm saying that the only way to stop people from using "offended" -- or anger or hatred -- as a weapon is to stop being afraid of it.

Camille


----------



## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I don't know where we are with this now, and I must admit I haven't read all the posts. I think if 2,000 of us write deep, heartfelt blogs in order to attract our core readers it won't work. Readers will think we are flakey and/or get tired of reading heartfelt blogs. It wasn't John Locke's blogs that drove me to his book--it was the fact that he sold a million in five months. Those blogs would not have pushed me toward the books. I read two books not because I'm a woman and liked his picture, but because he sold a million in five months, and I wanted to know --a million of what. I may or may not read another book. I did think they were funny.

I think all of these methods of selling espoused by different writers worked for that person at that time with whatever book they have written, but I think it would not be wise to read their how to book and blindly follow every move they make. However if anyone else sells a million and writes a book I will be reading it, but I think the way to sell books is write good books, make them as perfect as you can, try to make them different in some way, and be yourself. If you are yourself some folks will like you, and others won't--no matter what your politics or religion. I hope we are still friends, Gordon regardless of the Tea Party.

I put my book out a year ago and I see a big change in that year. What worked then will not work now. To succeed as writers we have to keep improving, changing and working very hard. If you make it big with one book don't spend all your money it is not guaranteed that the next book will take off. We are all crazy anyway--it would be a lot easier to make money selling real estate. So far the person who has made the most from my book is my editor. 

I am just blabbing now so I'll stop back to promoting or writing.
Ann


----------



## Guest (Jun 27, 2011)

P.A. Woodburn said:


> I read two books not because I'm a woman and liked his picture, but because he sold a million in five months, and I wanted to know --a million of what. I may or may not read another book. I did think they were funny.


Can someone explain this point to me, as so many threads have been merged now I'm sort of lost. A couple of people commented about using his picture to attract women. Er...I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I don't get this point at all...


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Gordon responds:

What a whirlwind!  Gone for a few days on family business and come back to find my friends and colleagues divided.  I have no intention of presenting a lengthy rebuttal with one exception.  I believe it was JRTomlin who said my post referenced that I "hated" people who didn't believe in the Tea Party.  That was not only "hateful" but factually incorrect.  I stated my views, not someone else's or lack thereof.

Perhaps Camille put it most appropriately from my POV.  We have become so polarized in America that, when combined with the "tolerance" quota, we are unable to stand our ground for fear of opposing others.  Over the past year I have been on KB, it is clear to me that many liberal thinkers occupy our board.  I have never chastised them, rebutted their stance, and in fact have often praised their books and writing. 

If someone likes pumpkin soup and I like green pea and ham, that does not mean we can't dine together.  We have gone much too far in our variance, IMO.

I do, in fact, write even-handed books, but as another poster said, the long haul will "out" my philosophy.  I have no desire to hide my beliefs, nor do I challenge you on yours.  But in choosing my target market (as Locke suggests) it was clear to me that my readers, 4 to 1, are on the Right.  I make no apology for that, nor for my affiliation with them.

Is it not possible to state my view (for after all, I write in a politically charged environment about terrorism, American values, and world response) without criticizing yours?  I have tried to do so.

The response to my blog post has been excellent.  I did not use that blog (although I had started it to keep in touch with family, then shifted to Facebook) for over a year.  It had only 248 visits in about 18 months.  Since the patriotic article posting, and some Twitter, it has had another 1,000 visitors in less than 36 hours.

We are writers, folks. We have, or should have, opinions.  I try to state MINE, not to blast yours.  After reading nine pages of this thread, I can't say the same for some of our colleagues.  How dare I state my opinion in my writing?  What was I thinking?

Thanks to everyone who agrees (and those who are a bit timid to make that known) and thanks to those who disagree but understand my right to stand.  How boring if we all agreed.  About what would we write?

Gordon Ryan
Veteran (and a happy July 4th to everyone.)


----------



## Doug Lance (Sep 20, 2010)

I don't think the point of a loyalty transfer post is to cause controversy. Shouldn't the goal be to connect on a _human_ level, not a political/belief level?


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Doug Lance said:


> I don't think the point of a loyalty transfer post is to cause controversy. Shouldn't the goal be to connect on a _human_ level, not a political/belief level?


Disagree, Doug, as this thread demonstrates. Loyalty transfer is to identify those with whom you have an affinity. After spending a couple of years attempting to be "all things to all people" in my writing, I have identified my target market. I lose nothing with expressing my views in that blog post, certainly not those readers who are not inclined to read political thrillers anyway. My reader loyalty comes from the right. Hence, loyalty transfer. I have clearly identified myself to that segment.

The problem arises when someone wishes, as several on this thread have attempted, to challenge my position. I have no qualm with that. I honor their position, simply disagree with it. No reason to pretend a kinship.

I think you see loyalty transfer as assuring diversity and accepting all P'sOV. I don't.

Gordon Ryan


----------



## Doug Lance (Sep 20, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> Disagree, Doug, as this thread demonstrates. Loyalty transfer is to identify those with whom you have an affinity. After spending a couple of years attempting to be "all things to all people" in my writing, I have identified my target market. I lose nothing with expressing my views in that blog post, certainly not those readers who are not inclined to read political thrillers anyway. My reader loyalty comes from the right. Hence, loyalty transfer. I have clearly identified myself to that segment.
> 
> The problem arises when someone wishes, as several on this thread have attempted, to challenge my position. I have no qualm with that. I honor their position, simply disagree with it. No reason to pretend a kinship.
> 
> ...


All silly controversy and strong emotions aside, do people connect with the post as strong to yours as they would to Locke's? You know, I could read your post and say "hey this guy believes what I believe and that's cool. I wonder what his books are like." but with Locke's posts I think, "wow this guy _feels_ how I feel. I feel compelled to read his books."

It might be that it will work for your genre, though. I'm trying to figure out the method.


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

I'll add something -- since Gordon brought this back to the writing/marketing issue somewhat:

Standing for something means you have integrity.  And integrity is always attractive.  It's GOOD for you.  It's good for your image.  You may turn some people off, but so what?  Maybe they aren't your audience. (And if the people you offend ARE your audience, maybe you're going after the wrong audience.)

I think people mistake integrity for ethics and morality sometimes.  They are not the same.  Integrity is about being of a whole cloth. It's like when nautical people talk about the integrity of a hull.  It's something that holds together, doesn't leak. 

Now, for some professions, politics are a hole in your integrity and should be kept out of your professional life.  Judges, soldiers, police officers, journalists, even some diplomats.  And maybe some writers are looking to be liked by everyone -- but to be liked by everyone means to be loved by no one.  Our duty is to present the world as we see it -- fairly, but with a sense of meaning.  Who you are is a part of that meaning.  It only cheats the audience if you scrub it clean (and worse, hiding who you are behind the scenes) of the meaning you give it.

I go by this motto: Be brave, be fair, do good work.

Camille


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Doug Lance said:


> I don't think the point of a loyalty transfer post is to cause controversy. Shouldn't the goal be to connect on a _human_ level, not a political/belief level?


You can't really connect on the human level if you aren't who you are.

Here's a story to illustrate: One of our senior professors had her 60th birthday a while back. She's a radical lesbian, and one of her old partners showed up at the party to tell a great story that was a lesson to, imho, everyone in the world.

When they were young college students, it was a time when being openly gay meant you faced a lot of hostility. Even so, the professor insisted that they should take a walk through the neighborhood every afternoon, holding hands. And any time they passed a neighbor working in the garden, the professor would stop and admire the petunias and ask how they kept aphids off their roses, etc.. (She was an avid gardener herself.) She didn't talk about being gay, or about sexual politics or anything like that on these walks. But she had a butch haircut, and wore labrys earrings and held hands with her honey, and overall was completely out of the closet. And she won the neighbors over -- not to her political point of view, but to accepting her as a neighbor and a person.

So you might say "yes but that's what I mean -- she was connecting on the human level." She sure was -- all the while being OPENLY gay. And yes, she made no bones about her politics either, and if anyone were to come to her house, they would certainly overhear things about the issues that meant something to her.

Now think about how different it would all be if she were to have hidden the fact that she was gay. She would not really have made that connection on a human level. She would have been a fraud. She would have been a prisoner of her own posture as well.

Camille


----------



## Guest (Jun 27, 2011)

Very excited for John Locke. I found him very inspiring before all this. I admire his humility as well. Seems like a good guy.


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Camille, I continue to be immensely impressed with your recent posts (and earlier ones, of course) because they demonstrate exactly what I believe.  We (probably) are not on the same political wave length, but to have dinner with you, to participate in discourse, would be an honor and an enjoyable experience because of your ability to present your world view, AND your ability to understand that someone might have another POV without affecting yours.

We hear so often in advice to people, "just be yourself." But generally we are NOT ourselves. We pretend to be who we think other people would like.  There is a place for that, of course.  It's called tact and diplomacy.  The British evolved it to a fine art, to the point of never revealing their position.

Anyway, Camille, thanks for your voice of reason and sanity.

Gordon Ryan


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

modwitch said:


> Totally lost in this thread now, and I don't know how Locke collects emails, but I have a sign-up on my site for a "new releases email list". It shocks me how many people sign up. I think they want to know when the next book is out, and I surely don't want to make that hard to learn .


Debora--

Locke has a "Contact John" button, but I love your idea even more. He's essentially giving people a way to contact him if they have comments or questions, but you're just asking outright for them to add their name to a list if they want to know.


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Thank you Gordon.  I had good role models, including Monsieur Voltaire: "I may not agree with a word that you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

I am sure we are probably pretty close to polar opposites, politically.  But here's the thing: if I had snubbed every artist who had views radically different from mine, I would never have known how grand, how superior, how much more meaningful RIO BRAVO is over HIGH NOON. 

Camille


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Camille, I have oft quoted Voltaire myself.  A very simple, yet meaningful concept.

As to the two westerns, time for you to 'fess up. You just had a crush on Ricky Nelson.

Gordon Ryan


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

Re: the LA Times piece that calls Locke an idiot for self-publishing, here's a blog post that says not so much:



> We should remember that Kellog is talking about a homogenous product: she talks only about ebooks in her article.
> 
> That means John Locke and his notional traditional publisher would be selling exactly the same thing: the same words in the same format.
> 
> ...


----------



## Doug Lance (Sep 20, 2010)

I am trying to figure out for myself the best way to emulate Locke's style of "life-changing blogs".

My point is that politics aren't human. They're not even real. They're just abstract ideas, beliefs, and values. There is no emotional weight to them. 

My point is not that political beliefs should be hidden or that anyone should be fake. 

For a loyalty transfer post as described by John Locke, you are expressing how you feel about a person or concept and that feeling will transfer onto the writer feeling the feelings. Now back to Gordon's post, it starts out great. Referencing an artist that he admires. Rockwell seems to be the focus of the post. But by the end, the post dissolves into near all political. I think the post could be improved if the focus remained on Rockwell and the nostalgia associated with him.


----------



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> Camille, I have oft quoted Voltaire myself. A very simple, yet meaningful concept.
> 
> As to the two westerns, time for you to 'fess up. You just had a crush on Ricky Nelson.
> 
> Gordon Ryan


Actually it was Dean Martin. 

In re Doug's point: Doug, I like your approach, because instead of saying "beware of being controversial," you're talking about being effective. And since I'm not the audience for Gordon's post, I can't tell you whether it's effective. But I will tell you this: beliefs -- political or not -- are all about emotion, especially these days. Of course you get a loyalty transfer from that kind of appeal. The question is whether you're getting the one you want. Maybe there is a problem of the opening of the post being so different from the rest -- if so, maybe he would be better not to change the point of his essay to match the beginning, but find a way to telegraph his point better in the beginning. Give a better lead. Possibly just a better headline or a lead image.

Camille


----------



## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Now, that's what this forum is all about - writers telling writers how to write.  I like that kind of criticism from both Doug and Camille.

Actually, I was trying to tie several things together. Rockwell painted America as he saw her. Family, loyalty, humanity. Tom Clancy (like him or not) created a character, Jack Ryan, that epitomized those attributes.  In a world (spies, military heroes, action guys and gals) where love 'em and leave 'em, lie to achieve your ends, etc., was the literary norm, Clancy's Jack Ryan was none of the above. He reveled in being married, having his children, told lying politicians and CIA leaders to shove it.

Then, the controversial part: the Tea Party.  I certainly admit that mention of this group brings fire and brimstone (wait, did I just include a religious metaphor?) to those opposed to their POV. Yet the great bulk of those adherents are, as charged, older white males.  Yet before one accuses them of bigotry or racism, please note that with strong statistics to back it up, these same folk are taking to Herman Cain in droves, a conservative black man.  Most of that particular generation, myself included, simply want to revive a time when most everyone loved America and where she stood.

Lest this become political, prohibited at KB, my point is that writing is supposed to be evocative.  John Locke's sentence (paraphrased) "if you're not angering people with your writing, you're not writing," struck a chord with me.  So, I openly decided to "target" my potential market, knowing full well that I would detract any semblance of appeal from those not likely to buy my books, or a second one if they ventured into the first.

As Michael Wallace said, (or perhaps another poster here) if one reads my reviews, they will find that the general premise is I present a balanced philosophical position throughout the story, yet certainly "take sides" when putting the whole picture in perspective.

I tried to do the same with my blog posting. I stated (as a writer should) what *I* believed, not what *You* believe, or should believe. Read and accept or reject.  The essence of persuasive writing, I submit.

Gordon Ryan


----------



## Steven Lewis (Nov 23, 2010)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Re: the LA Times piece that calls Locke an idiot for self-publishing, here's a blog post that says not so much:


Thanks for the link  I was so incensed by the nonsense reasoning in the Times that I couldn't help myself. I don't mind the traditional vs self-publishing debate (I'm self-published but think publishers get a bum rap) but I hate nonsense masquerading as journalism.


----------



## Guest (Jun 28, 2011)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Re: the LA Times piece that calls Locke an idiot for self-publishing, here's a blog post that says not so much:


Did you go read the *actual source material?* The article did not ONCE call Locke an idiot. THAT HEADLINE is an attention grab by the blogger of the type that makes me lose respect for people. The original article is actually a rather straightforward discussion of pricing. I don't agree with all the points in it, but the original article did not remotely insult Locke or self-publishing. The author's point is simply this:

All things being equal, if Locke had done everything the same but been published traditionally, he would have made more money. Keep in mind a couple of points. John did not sell a million copies of a single book. He did it with 9 books. That works out to an average of 112,000 per title. A completely impressive number to be sure. If those books had been sold through a traditional publisher at a royalty of $1 each, he would have netted $112,000 per title. Instead, he netted $39,200 per title. The author is effectively paying him a compliment. He's good enough to be able to get a trad deal, and if he had gone that route he still could have done all his Twittering and such but made more money. There is nothing in regards to a trad deal that would have prevented him from connecting with his fans the way he did. And even if he sold HALF those numbers because of the higher price involved with trad publishing, he still would have made more money.

Now we can argue that a self-pub author CAN chose to sell for a higher price and get a bigger royalty ... er, wait...actually, no we can't. Because every self-pub and their brother is under the impression that you CAN'T sell books for more than 99 cents if you are "unknown" so the bloggers math doesn't come into play. But the point is, while you may disagree with the times article, if you are going to be ticked off at anyone, be ticked off at the blogger who LIED and accused the Times of saying Locke is an idiot when no such statement was said.

THIS SORT OF CRAP NEEDS TO STOP! Both the deliberate distortion of what reporters actually say, and the jumping to conclusions based on what a blogger said someone said. That headline is an inflammatory lie that has no place in a rational discussion.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Steven, I liked your blog, and nearly all of what you say, I agree with. There are a couple shades of gray to consider. Kellog seemed to be saying that in the long run (versus the short run), Locke might be better off with a big publisher at this point for two reasons:

1) He'd be getting a large advance up front for each of his new books, more than the $35,000 he's made on average so far for each book. Thus, he'll still be making money at the same rate he's making now, if not more.

2) He'll have more time to write his books. Once the books are in the pipeline, they can be coming out as often as Michael Connelly publishes, which is at least twice a year.

His books will be in bookstores all over the world, thanks to the muscle of a big publisher. His success has added pressure to authors to sell their books at 99 cents under the mistaken belief that 99 cents alone is what sold them. My guess is 99 cents is a great way to hook readers, then make the next books in his series $2.99 or more. Mark Coker at Smashwords did a huge study on what price do people pay that still feels inexpensive and worthy of impulse buying. His study concluded on statistics alone that $4.95 was the ideal price. Of course, it's still subjective. Someone might think a Michael Connelly-like or Jonathan Franzen-like novel was a steal at $4.95, but that an okay-sounding thriller might be worthy of just 99 cents. 

Locke seems to have proved his brilliance as a writer, so he might up the price on his next ones--if he doesn't do what Amanda Hocking did and go with a big publisher. I wouldn't find that a negative thing. I have nothing against big publishers. My own goal is to write more and fall into the Internet less.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> All things being equal, if Locke had done everything the same but been published traditionally, he would have made more money


While I agree that the title of the blog post was misleading to the point of being a lie, I don't agree with the main argument of the journalist either.
As far as I can see this seems to be that Locke would have made more money being published traditionally.
Hm.
* Would he have been published at all? Or would he still have been waiting for an agent/publisher/contract? Because in that case by now he would have made the grand total of $0.00. OK, maybe _now_ he can get a good deal, thanks... to having self-published and self-promoted his books.
* How long would it have taken traditional publishers for _nine_ books, you think?
* It is by no means certain that a traditional publisher would be able to sell as many books _at a far higher price_ than Locke did on his own.
* Locke's ebooks will keep earning money for a long time to come. The amount we're speaking of was earned in _barely five months_. Every day he makes money of his books. Looking for a traditional publisher the _first_ of those nine books would probably still be in the pipeline.

What has Locke gained by self-publishing:
* A lot of money.
* He retains _all_ rights to his books.
* Excellent prospects of being traditionally published if he should want that (which I doubt).
* A strong negotiation position.



Christopher Meeks said:


> His books will be in bookstores all over the world, thanks to the muscle of a big publisher.


Not necessarily. Only the Dan Browns and the like get that kind of distribution. E.g., some authors that are probably household names in the US are totally unknown in Europe.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I agree with much of Andrew's post above.  How many paper books (HC or MM) would a traditional publisher printed?  What would they sell for?

If Locke's books were sold at agency pricing he may not have sold much at all.  He acheived the numbers he did because his ebook was 99 cents and I doubt he would have even sold many at 5.99, let alone 9.99.  The stars were in alignment and he was at the right place, with the right stuff and the right time and he WON.  Just like General Patton--and he's got the look too.


----------



## Sariah Wilson (Mar 7, 2011)

I stayed up late last night reading the "How I" book.

And I was fascinated.  I'm not a marketing/sales person, so the language was a little bit foreign to me, but he broke it down in a way that even I could get.

I'm an introvert, so making friends does not come naturally to me (even online!).  I will obviously have to try harder to make those connections and find my target audience.

I did wonder though with Locke revealing his secrets, and other self-published authors rushing to emulate him, will this method lose its effectiveness?  Was Locke being the only one doing it part of what made it work?

Even if I can't emulate his success, I certainly do think he had advice that pertained to me and my situation that I plan on incorporating into my own marketing plans for the future.  I'm going to read it again to get all the info solidified in my brain.  

As for the price - I definitely would have paid even more for it.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Sariah Wilson said:


> I stayed up late last night reading the "How I" book... As for the price - I definitely would have paid even more for it.


Sariah, I finished the book yesterday, too. I happened to like his specifics about writing "life-changing" blogs, which he called the key to his success. He said he'd use Twitter and Facebook plenty before that, but he had no sales. In a blog, I sense, he could pull in readers to his style and interests. Anyway, I woke up this morning knowing exactly what I'd write because it's all true.

You can see if mine is "Lockian" or not. It's here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/christopher-meeks/the-event-that-shaped-my-life

--Chris


----------



## indie.ebooks (Mar 30, 2011)

Christopher Meeks said:


> You can see if mine is "Lockian" or not. It's here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/christopher-meeks/the-event-that-shaped-my-life
> 
> --Chris


LOL I read your blog before reading this post and my exact thought when I read your post was 'Is this a deliberate John Locke story or is it a coincidence?'

I think you got the point that John is making exactly. It will be interesting to see how it works for you. I hope you have a list of people to do direct tweets to, a shout out to everyone just gets your message lost in the mix I think.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

indie.ebooks said:


> LOL I read your blog before reading this post and my exact thought when I read your post was 'Is this a deliberate John Locke story or is it a coincidence?'
> 
> I think you got the point that John is making exactly. It will be interesting to see how it works for you. I hope you have a list of people to do direct tweets to, a shout out to everyone just gets your message lost in the mix I think.


Nadine, you're only one of two direct tweets I did today about my blog. As you know, I only learned about direct tweets yesterday. I'm thinking maybe Locke did a lot of direct tweets himself about his blogs, and those loyal people wrote to other loyal people vs. the blog itself selling books. I've had about 150 people read the blog so far (or at least go to it) and no sales, so it's not as if people read one blog of mine and must buy the book. I can think positively, though, and hope people downloaded a free sample. That would make more sense to me.

One thing he didn't talk about but I'm considering, now that I've been building www.chrismeeks.com for the past week, is to offer free ARCs. Locke didn't say if he did that, but it seems to me that brings more interest than a blog. Maybe not. I'm open to seeing what happens.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I do think it's a mistake to copy his blog style. That is his style that matches his blog and novels. I *think* what he was trying to get at was to write meaningful blog posts that match our own style.

Life changing ones? I doubt it but something more evocative than whether or not to use passive voice!

Gordon, I hope your aggressively political blog works for you. I don't see anything in Locke that recommends driving away potential readers and nothing in his blog posts that I read seemed likely to do that. He SAYS to make people mad, but I honestly don't see where he actually does it.

That doesn't mean your style won't work for you. If your novel is aggressively political, that style of promotion is certainly suitable. Whether you are attracting bigots or not is a question that doesn't belong on this forum. For that matter, even bigots have the right to buy novels.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

Christopher, I read your blog. It was interesting. You did not get me riled up in anyway. I didn't know that school kids are so anti science now. When I was in school (don't ask) science was all the rage. Didn't purchase a book, but I think you are on the right track.

Ann


----------



## A.R. Williams (Jan 9, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I don't see anything in Locke that recommends driving away potential readers and nothing in his blog posts that I read seemed likely to do that. He SAYS to make people mad, but I honestly don't see where he actually does it.


I purchased the book yesterday. I didn't read it all, but read some and skimmed others since it was so late. I think the part he was talking about making people mad is in the writing of the book itself and not in the blog post. Basically, write the type of book you like to an audience that also likes the same things. If you like description, then write a book that has a lot of descriptive elements and don't worry about the people who hate a lot of description.

I think he has a lot of good suggestions. Maybe not suggestions a person can copy exactly as they are, but ones in which understanding the idea of what he is saying is more important than mimicking his technique in a carbon copy manner.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

P.A. Woodburn said:


> Christopher, I read your blog. It was interesting. You did not get me riled up in anyway. I didn't know that school kids are so anti science now. When I was in school (don't ask) science was all the rage. Didn't purchase a book, but I think you are on the right track.
> 
> Ann


Thank you, Ann, for reading the blog and commenting on it. It occurs to me that all of us are looking for the door that's the floodgate to sales, but a single blog is unlikely to bring riches, contrary to what Mr. Locke is suggesting. He says he wasn't selling anything, and then after his first personal blog, composed over two days and polished, sales started happening, cascading into an avalanche. I'm wondering if he had other blogs people had read before that, so when they came to his really personal one, people saw enough of his style to buy into it?

We don't make best friends in a single meeting. We come across a person a few times, and a friendship starts to grow. The same has to happen with a blog. You read a person a few times, and then think, "I bet his book is good."

Locke, too, wasn't saying a blog should rile one up but, rather, the reader should identify with the writer.

--Chris


----------



## Guest (Jun 30, 2011)

Christopher Meeks said:


> We don't make best friends in a single meeting.


True, but I have scared the bejessus out of people in less than six seconds. THAT, boys and girls, is a real talent.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> True, but I have scared the bejessus out of people in less than six seconds. THAT, boys and girls, is a real talent.


Funny how saying the wrong thing, accidentally or without thinking, can have unintended consequences as fast as a scorpion's sting. The earlier debate that examined politics reflected some of that.

I'm just learning Twitter, thanks to Locke there, too, and I came across a guest post by Raymond Benson on Konrath's blog (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-post-by-raymond-benson.html) that brings up the heart of the matter for many people reading this thread. It's that people have done things that others have said to do, and still the magic isn't happening. The worry is that Locke's advice won't work, either. Konrath's friend Raymond says:

"I did all the things Joe says to do. Get good covers, generate some buzz on the Kindle message boards, announce their availability on Facebook and the like, and market them the best I can. And yet, my sales are puny. As the author of twenty-five published books, and one who has made money from traditional publishing, I am now scratching my head and rubbing my chin and looking at my friend Joe and asking, 'What's wrong with this picture?'"

One thing Konrath or Locke perhaps don't make clear is that each of them has a blog site visited by thousands daily. A popular blog brings results. Vicki Lieske's blog for writers probably helps a lot. Yet if the advice is, "Create a website that a lot of people come visit," that may be as easy as having a best-seller in the first place.

Julie, I've come across your comments a handful of times, and I sense you're selling a lot. Anything in all this discussion that makes the most sense to you?


----------



## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I read the book yesterday, and spent the day writing a new blog post. I tried to stay true to my usual blog writing voice, and in the past, I have written posts a little bit similar, but I definitely put more thought and effort into this one. It's only been up about an hour, so no way to tell if anything will come of it.

I've had a blog for over a year and have a modest following, but most of the followers are writers because I hadn't self-published when I started it. I tended to follow and post on the blogs of other people in the same boat as me--unpublished and looking for an agent. I don't even know how many of those people stop by anymore. Most of my hits come from my Amazon feed, Twitter, FB or people searching out my blog.

I'm actually kind of relieved that the blog posts are infrequent. I'd been struggling thinking I needed to blog at least a few times a week to keep people interested.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here's my new blog post: http://mmcdonald64.blogspot.com/2011/06/un-super-heroes.html


----------



## MQ (Jan 5, 2011)

I've read John Locke's book.  He presents the steps that he took in order to sell a 1 million + books.  I found one or two things that I feel I can do but the rest may not work for me.

And that's the key here.  What may have worked for him, may not work for others (I believe someone alluded to that in earlier posts).  Unfortunately, as Indies we are looking for that magic pill that will propel us to new heights.  There isn't.  Just like there isn't one way to write a book.  There just isn't one way to become a bestseller.  

Having said that, I do feel it is important for Indies to keep experimenting with different 'methods'.  One may not work for you but another might.

So, the experiment continues...


----------



## Guest (Jul 1, 2011)

Christopher Meeks said:


> *****, I've come across your comments a handful of times, and I sense you're selling a lot. Anything in all this discussion that makes the most sense to you?


I'm not selling a million copies, but I can pay my bills.

I've been involved in POD/digital sales for almost a decade now. So frankly I'm a bit jaded. Everyone is so excited and talking about the Locke method, but frankly from what people are saying his "method" is nothing more than common sense. I have to say I am amused by the rash of "edgy" blog posts trying to generate controversy. I've been naturally a witch for years and some of the same people swooning over Locke are the same ones who have told me "if you can't say something nice yada yada yada." But John sells a million books, so maybe being blunt and honest is in vogue now.

So what is he really saying?

Be yourself. Well, duh. Who the heck else are you going to be? When you speak, speak with conviction and mean what you say. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Understand your market and let them see who you are.

Only promote when you have something worth promoting. I've been saying that for years. Nobody cares about yet another self-publishing author uploading a file.

Respond to your customers. This is Branding 101 here. It's called customer engagement. When customers feel a connection to the brand, they want to protect it. A few years back, Palladium books almost went bankrupt due to someone embezzling funds from the company. Kevin Seimbieda issued a press release telling his fans what happened and the trouble the company was in financially. Do you know what happened? The fans rallied to the company's defense, making purchases and even direct donations to help keep the company afloat.

My marketing strategy is much different from most people because I am not dependent on Amazon. Amazon is actually one of my slower sales outlets. My print and digital books are sold on over 30 sites. Instead of freaking out over Amazon rank and tags and reviews, I market directly to my target demographic and they buy where they want to buy. I have always had a business plan built around selling 50 copies per site, instead of 1000 copies on one. I don't plan for any single book to ever be in the top 20 of a category on Amazon. My business structure doesn't require that.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Gordon, Christopher, Mary (and others who may have written a Locke blog post),

It would be interesting to know what your results are in terms of visits to your sites and sales.


----------



## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I'm not selling a million copies, but I can pay my bills.
> 
> I've been involved in POD/digital sales for almost a decade now. So frankly I'm a bit jaded. Everyone is so excited and talking about the Locke method, but frankly from what people are saying his "method" is nothing more than common sense. I have to say I am amused by the rash of "edgy" blog posts trying to generate controversy. I've been naturally a witch for years and some of the same people swooning over Locke are the same ones who have told me "if you can't say something nice yada yada yada." But John sells a million books, so maybe being blunt and honest is in vogue now.
> 
> ...


Some good comments, Julie.

If I may:

1) I agree, being yourself should be the basic and obvious rule. One of the problems here is that some people don't have the confidence to be themselves. I'd suggest to those people; if you've got the confidence to put a book out there for public purchase and review, then _surely _ you must have enough confidence to be your self? _Surely... _

2) I didn't hear about the Palladium story. Sounds very interesting. I'll go digging for it.

3) My sales come from a variety of sources, too. My first book was a top 20 bestseller at a major book chain (in Australia, where I live) - despite being an indie. Three months ago two thirds of my readers were in Australia. Now, that ratio is closer to 50/50 (I released on Kindle about 3 months ago), but in another three months I expect the situation will have reversed to see only one third of my readers in Australia. While new sales are great, the shift is being caused by Kindle sales. I don't mind where my readers are or whether they're reading on paper or ereaders, but I am quite conscious of all my eggs slowly being gathered in one basket. Looking to maintain some diversity is a good idea.

4) I also do think some people have misinterpreted some of what John Locke has said.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> True, but I have scared the bejessus out of people in less than six seconds. THAT, boys and girls, is a real talent.


Pfffft. I can scare people faster than that!


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

A.R. Williams said:


> I purchased the book yesterday. I didn't read it all, but read some and skimmed others since it was so late. I think the part he was talking about making people mad is in the writing of the book itself and not in the blog post. Basically, write the type of book you like to an audience that also likes the same things. If you like description, then write a book that has a lot of descriptive elements and don't worry about the people who hate a lot of description.
> 
> I think he has a lot of good suggestions. Maybe not suggestions a person can copy exactly as they are, but ones in which understanding the idea of what he is saying is more important than mimicking his technique in a carbon copy manner.


I think you're right, AR. I also believe, like Julie, that what Mr. Locke was trying to say was to be yourself and to take the risk of putting yourself out there. It's easy (and I see writers do it over and over; heck I have) to post on the wonders of sentence structure which isn't going to show anything about who you are or, for that matter, who you admire.

I do think he made some interesting points such as that if your blog posts are substantial and thoughtful that you don't necessarily have to post three a week or some outrageous number. Some people do and it works well for them (Bob Mayer, for example) but it's not the only possible successful strategy.

And it SHOULD be obvious that you get more out of Twitter and other social media if you're not spamming about your own work, but we all see people making that mistake day after day, so I don't think the message is ill-taken.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Gordon, Christopher, Mary (and others who may have written a Locke blog post): It would be interesting to know what your results are in terms of visits to your sites and sales.


I sold 12 books. My new book, "How I sold 12 eBooks in Two Days" is not likely to be a best-seller, either. What I wrote came from the heart, and I've had slightly-better-than-average traffic to my blog site, 320 hits. (I average about 100 a day.) Whether all 12 books came from the blog alone is probably doubtful as I've been trying Twitter for the last week, and I've also created a website, www.chrismeeks.com. As I mentioned earlier, I don't expect one thing to open the door.

@Julie, thanks for your insight. Each item makes sense to me. One item brought up a realization: "Respond to your customers. This is Branding 101 here. It's called customer engagement." When I was an editor at a publishing house, I learned quickly that if I responded kindly to writers about why we weren't accepting their manuscript, every so often I'd get a response back swearing up and down, calling me names and how their nephew loved the book and how stupid I was because I could have made a lot of money from the author. A few would send a stream of such missives, so then I sent out the small, "Thank your for your interest in our company. Unfortunately, your manuscript doesn't meet our needs at this time. --The Editors." As an author now, I'm learning to re-engage with customers.


----------



## Guest (Jul 1, 2011)

Christopher Meeks said:


> When I was an editor at a publishing house, I learned quickly that if I responded kindly to writers about why we weren't accepting their manuscript, every so often I'd get a response back swearing up and down, calling me names and how their nephew loved the book and how stupid I was because I could have made a lot of money from the author. A few would send a stream of such missives...


My week isn't complete if someone isn't telling me what an idiot I am for refusing to publish his/her masterpiece.


----------



## A.R. Williams (Jan 9, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> It's easy (and I see writers do it over and over; heck I have) to post on the wonders of sentence structure which isn't going to show anything about who you are or, for that matter, who you admire.


I don't know about that. When I like something, it's an internal process that triggers an "I'd like to write like that thought." I don't always notice it, because it can be straight from the subconscious. But, the fact it's been internalized means it has changed the way that I view sentences, the rhythm of words, and my word choice. The thing is though, your voice or who you admire, can be a combination of all these different voices that have been internalized by the subconscious. It comes out when you write and how you decide to edit. Posting on the wonders of sentence structure and building powerful sentences will show people who you are, it's inevitable because part of writing is controlled by the subconscious.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

John Locke just wrote me (thank you much, Mr. Locke), and now I'm getting clearer on more of his process. One thing he mentioned to me was that in writing an important blog, be sure the people you direct to it are either your friends on Facebook or are following you on Twitter. Therefore, you're not appealing to total strangers but to people who know you a little bit--which makes perfect sense.

So I'd say part of the process if you're trying the Locke method is to have a lot of friends on Facebook and people following you on Twitter. One thing he didn't mention in his book--and he may not have tried it--is to create a newsletter. I tend to write two or three blogs a month and then take those and send those out as a newsletter using www.icontact.com as my deliverer. The advantage of a newsletter is I get to add photos throughout it and make it personal. If you want to see my last newsletter as an example, go here: http://www.icontact-archive.com/eRg7e0rQgUk_ZPnY1p-nP6hI_tBCkTry?w=2

I've had a steady thousand thousand people, and I get emails back every month after I send one out. When I have a new book, my subscribers tend to buy on the day I ask, making my ranking go way up--which I deeply appreciate. (If you want to subscribe, by the way, just go to www.chrismeeks.net and drop your name and email address on the form.)

Now my goal is to build onto this steady base, particularly now that Love at Absolute Zero is getting such good reviews. Even my sister Laura called just now, having finished it, surprise in her voice. "I really, really liked it," she said. "This one is really _good_." I know she wouldn't say my last novel was bad because it, too, got great reviews, but I sensed from her perspective that the last one was for reviewers and English majors, and this new book appealed to her as an average reader, and she found it compelling reading, which she didn't expect. She added, "The end is great."

If I can win her over, that gives me hope others will find it.

The last thing about Locke's letter I'll say is it was more than perfunctory. He must have hundreds a day to answer at this point, yet he encouraged me to write him back from time to time. He commented on my blog I wrote, finding it well written and involving. All in all, I've learned the blog itself is good, so go to work using Facebook and Twitter in a personal way. Don't be a spammer.

--Chris


----------



## lacycamey (Apr 25, 2011)

I'm currently reading his book and really appreciate the knowledge and humor! He obviously knows what he's doing. I instinctively just knew twitter and a regular blog would be extremely valuable in marketing and strategy. However, for me, since I'm writing a chick-lit trilogy, as well as other genres-supernatural thrillers under penname, and "classic love stories", I'm one of those authors who have multiple genres.

For my blog to target one audience is hard. My blog is not "chick-litty". I just love sharing information with people, like real knowledge! Like goal setting, living intentionally. Currently, I'm about to do a blog series on focus and the human mind, etc. Does this fall into chick lit blogging? No . So it goes a little against what he's advising, but I think the point is, to have an engaging blog like Bob Mayer in "Write it Forward" suggests.

@Chris, that's awesome that he wrote you back ;-). I know he tries to reply to every reader and I think that is wonderful. He seems like a genuinely nice guy! I'm going to check out your website!


----------



## RonnellDPorter (Apr 20, 2010)

This is more of a question than a comment, but... Who's John Locke? I mean, obviously he has his own thread so I feel like I should've heard of him by now... I feel like Harry Potter asking who Voldemort was


----------



## lacycamey (Apr 25, 2011)

haha, @Ronnell  It's okay! He's from Lost!!! And he is "John Locke" from E Kindle world. He's sold over a million books in 5 months. He's a very successful business man, as well. HE wrote a book called, "How I sold a million E books in 5 months." He's teaching is strategy to other authors and it's very helpful! Has tons of books in top 100 on Amazon.

Joe Konrath features him on his blog, regularly, as well! 

You should check his book out! It's great! $4.99. A steal for the valuable information! 

@chris- your book sounds so good! I totally see it as a movie! "Love at Absolute Zero"! Love the cover!


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Thank you, Lacy! Now that I see your cover, which is wonderfully feminine, I have to tell you one thing about mine. Last week when the first reviews started coming in, which thrilled me, I noticed all the reviewers were men. That may have been by chance, but I asked MJ Rose, a best-selling author whose company, AuthorBuzz, has a unique perspective on publicity (she started out as a self-published author) if she liked the cover. She said yes--a little too masculine for her tastes, but she thought it was a good cover. I went to my book designer, saying that I really loved his cover BUT I didn't want it to exclude women because they read more fiction than men. Could he soften it somehow? I didn't want an entirely new cover, just something different, perhaps another color.

The first cover he sent me had the word love and my name in PINK. It was god-awful. Then I remembered another early design he did of an ice cube with a cute heart on the side. "Maybe a heart?" I suggested.

Thus he came up with a modified cover, which I find even more eye-catching. You can see it here: www.chrismeeks.com. (I haven't uploaded the new one to the Kindle Digital Platform yet.) The goal is to get people to notice it and then check out what the book is about. I'm glad the blurb itself is appealing. I appreciate your note.

--Chris

P.S. I just went to your blog--very good--and I have to agree with you that there's a modern challenge of FOCUS. I told myself I'll not look at the computer or Kindleboards this morning, but after two phone calls and the cats demanding attention, I had to see what the new posting here was about. Now for sure it's back to writing.


----------



## lacycamey (Apr 25, 2011)

@ Chris, thanks a lot about the blog comment! Yes, I really like your new cover! I want to read your book! And I'm definitely female! lol.


----------



## lacycamey (Apr 25, 2011)

@chris - oh, and I have cat, too! lol, and he is high maintenance! Chews every wire, but I love him! It's like I have a young toddler...!


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> I sold 12 books. My new book, "How I sold 12 eBooks in Two Days" is not likely to be a best-seller, either. What I wrote came from the heart, and I've had slightly-better-than-average traffic to my blog site, 320 hits. (I average about 100 a day.) Whether all 12 books came from the blog alone is probably doubtful as I've been trying Twitter for the last week, and I've also created a website, www.chrismeeks.com. As I mentioned earlier, I don't expect one thing to open the door.
> 
> @Julie, thanks for your insight. Each item makes sense to me. One item brought up a realization: "Respond to your customers. This is Branding 101 here. It's called customer engagement." When I was an editor at a publishing house, I learned quickly that if I responded kindly to writers about why we weren't accepting their manuscript, every so often I'd get a response back swearing up and down, calling me names and how their nephew loved the book and how stupid I was because I could have made a lot of money from the author. A few would send a stream of such missives, so then I sent out the small, "Thank your for your interest in our company. Unfortunately, your manuscript doesn't meet our needs at this time. --The Editors." As an author now, I'm learning to re-engage with customers.


Thanks Christopher. 

I also wrote a blog post. You can check it out here: Of Bullies and Bitter Weeds


----------



## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> I sold 12 books. My new book, "How I sold 12 eBooks in Two Days" is not likely to be a best-seller, either. What I wrote came from the heart, and I've had slightly-better-than-average traffic to my blog site, 320 hits. (I average about 100 a day.) Whether all 12 books came from the blog alone is probably doubtful as I've been trying Twitter for the last week, and I've also created a website, www.chrismeeks.com. As I mentioned earlier, I don't expect one thing to open the door.


That is a hilarious title.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Tara, thanks!

@Andrew--I read your blog, and it works well. It's impassioned. You have the right tone. Good luck with it.


----------



## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> @Andrew--I read your blog, and it works well. It's impassioned. You have the right tone. Good luck with it.


Thanks, Chris. Nice of you to say so. Since I'm really bad at faking sincerity, I went with the real thing. I do feel strongly about the subjects of bullying and rape.

Now, this is going to sound awfully sycophantic, but I had read your blog as well. I just haven't had the courtesy to comment on it. 

So, here goes. I think it should work well for you and your intended audience... which could be everybody. Because who has never experienced that sense of wonder at the universe and felt the need to know more about it? Kudos and good luck.


----------



## Bryan Cohen (Aug 28, 2010)

Figured I'd stay in the wonderfully-merged John Locke thread with this one .

I have written a Loyalty Transfer post and I thought I'd see what y'all thought.

I haven't just written the post though, I thought I'd test out a straight mimicry of John Locke's site down to the littlest detail. I have also started using his Twitter methods, though I have yet to send this post out yet. I'd be interested to see what people thought. Hope everyone has a fantastic 4th yesterday!

In Praise of Xander Harris


----------



## Arthur Slade (Jan 20, 2011)

Christopher Meeks said:


> So I'd say part of the process if you're trying the Locke method is to have a lot of friends on Facebook and people following you on Twitter. One thing he didn't mention in his book--and he may not have tried it--is to create a newsletter. I tend to write two or three blogs a month and then take those and send those out as a newsletter using www.icontact.com as my deliverer. The advantage of a newsletter is I get to add photos throughout it and make it personal. If you want to see my last newsletter as an example, go here: http://www.icontact-archive.com/eRg7e0rQgUk_ZPnY1p-nP6hI_tBCkTry?w=2


I think Locke sees his blog as his newsletter--one of his goals is to get people to sign up to receive his blog by email. I also run a newsletter, which can be a great way of tracking who is actually opening the emails and clicking on the links.

BTW LOL'd at the previous post (that i now can't find) of "I sold 12 books in two months".


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Arthur and Others:

I'm the one who sold 12 Books in 2 days, and I haven't been tracking sales since because I've been so involved reading all the posts here as well as absorbing Locke's book. As a service to Kindleboards, I've reduced all the advice to once easy blog, "Ten Simple Things for Becoming Rich-Rich-Rich in Self Publishing."

In fact, my hope is that all two-hundred-some posts here be deleted and there's just a link to my summary, which will save people time reading, allowing them more writing time. Go here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/christopher-meeks/ten-simple-things-becoming-rich-rich-rich-self-publishing

Good writing, you all. 

--Chris


----------



## SJWrightAuthor (Feb 11, 2011)

I just bought his book a week ago.  Although I haven't finished it, I can definitely see a lot of value
in what he has to say and what steps he suggests to writers.  And congrats to him on his success!


----------



## Mark Young (Dec 13, 2010)

Just picked up an eBook copy of John Locke's How I Sold 1 Million eBooks In 5 Months! and can't put it down. For those of you considering self-publishing venues, this a good common-sense approach to developing a business plan for your career. I know John's frank approach to self-publishing is going to rankle some in the mainstream publishing industry, but he is not writing for those individuals. He is writing to authors, for authors.

I am only about half-way through, but he has given me much to think about in my own writing career. I did something I rarely do. After buying the eBook, I went ahead and bought the print copy for my shelf.

Just wanted to pass this information on to those who might be struggling. Just another tool to slip into your arsenal.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Mark, I've merged your thread with our existing John Locke thread....

Betsy


----------



## Mark Young (Dec 13, 2010)

Betsy: Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow. Sorry for the trouble.


----------



## JMJeffries (Jun 13, 2011)

I also purchased John Locke's ebook on selling 1 millions ebooks and I found much of the information to be practical.  I raced through it the first time I read it and now I'm reading it a second time more slowly.


----------



## Guest (Dec 23, 2011)

5 months later, what does everyone think? His twitter approach has not matched my experience at all. I'm puzzled actually, cause he almost never seems to post on there either.


----------



## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Attebery said:


> 5 months later, what does everyone think? His twitter approach has not matched my experience at all. I'm puzzled actually, cause he almost never seems to post on there either.


He has changed his approach. What worked then may not work now, especially with so many reading his "How I" book. I usually get a couple emails per month from him.


----------



## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Near as I can tell, here is what worked for him and can work for you too, if you can duplicate the variables. Write a bunch of short, humorous, violent crime novels in a series. Release them all at the same time for 99 cents at a time when the market for cheap and free books is just starting to grow. Get traction with a couple of books and a bunch of publicity for being one of the first mega-successful indie writers at a time when e-books have suddenly jumped into the nation's consciousness.

Absolutely this technique would work if duplicated. Several other writers had some success following a similar plan. Unfortunately, most of that stuff can never be repeated because the world has already moved on.


----------



## Lefty (Apr 7, 2011)

I would think Locke would climb - I didn't even know the latest Creed was out. He has the first book of a new series out that is #60 currently.


----------



## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

About a month ago I bought John Locke's "How I sold..." book and I think it has plenty of excellent ideas in it, a number of them being unique.

So I did my own Loyalty Transfer blog post, which actually took me a lot of work and over a week to write:

*The Lord of the Rings 2012 - A Political Epic Retold by a Drunken Monkey 
*

. . .


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Mike,

I agree with you, and I'm finding that Twitter is a) addiciting--I enjoy tweeting and reading some tweets and b) Twitter isn't particularly effective in my book sales.

While I do find I can drive people to my web page as Locke suggests, a few things are different than they were for him. One is that I can't send everyone to the same important blog over and over again because my followers tire of it and then I start losing followers--faster than I gain them. I'm not saying I am tweeting the same tweets again, which would be even more boring, but rather, I can't send people to the same place too often. That means writing new blogs weekly rather than every month or two.

Also, once people read my blogs, very few go on to buy my book from there. This perhaps can be simply a difference in personality. Maybe people were incredibly moved by his blogs (those samples in his book) and they wanted more of the guy. I suspect, though, that there are many authors tweeting now, it's not the same environment. There are also more authors publishing than ever. At times, I feel there are more people tweeting than reading tweets. Even though I'm following about 200 people, the stream is so heavy with tweets, how can a person possibly read more than 1% of them weekly? I joined the IBC Collective recently and signed up for their free webinar in using Twitter because I feel there must be ways to get a better handle on it than I have.

Last, with the publishing industry changing so quickly, I suspect that Locke's approach is already old hat i.e. ineffective. If you don't know about Darcie Chan, she wrote a tender and literary book, "The Mill City Recluse," about an old woman looking back on her life, and it was the #4 bestselling book in all of America for 2011--and she didn't read Locke's book, but stumbled across a few great things. It's also well written. I interviewed her before she made such a record, which you can read here: http://redroom.com/member/christopher-meeks/blog/interview-with-best-selling-novelist-darcie-chan

If you want to know more about the state of the industry, I happened to write an article for the Huffington Post called "Two Hats For Today's Writers (and 10 Awful Truths)", which you can read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-meeks/book-publishing-decline_b_1155560.html

--Chris


----------



## C_Routon (Jun 7, 2012)

I'm keeping this comment in the old thread, although I know it's been a while, to keep from combining them again. 

It's been six more months for some of ya'll - how are you doing with his system?

I bought his book at $2.99 on sale a couple of months ago. The main lesson I got from it was to discover your target market. I had to think on this for a while. Eventually, I clarified my thinking and actually wrote up a description of my ideal reader, Sally Jane. I'm in the process of working blog posts now and I'm reading over my description of Sally Jane as I work on it. 

Now I don't know that I'm right in my description. That will come with time, I hope, as I get reviews and feedback, and my Sally Jane will change. But I believe that I'm starting my blog off right, being more reader-centric than author-centric. It's easy as a writer to start writing posts about something the reader couldn't care less about. 

I have started on Twitter and I'm finding it impossible to keep up. Right now I'm followed / following other writers instead of readers. But I have been able to connect with review sites through those writers, which will allow me to connect to readers in the future. I'm being careful to retweet, tweet interesting things, take part in hashtag conversations, and just generally be me. 

What I am confused about now is how to get the blog post tweeted or mentioned by others. I could tweet it, but I don't think that the writers following me would be interested. He says he knows where to find his audience, so I need to find out where the Sally Janes hang out and get them to come to the blog, tweet it, share it, etc. All without being over the top about it. 

Another issue I will have is my next book is not going to be the same genre, so I'll need to focus on finding the people who like that type of book, and can I get Sally Jane, a romance reader, and Mike, the paranormal / fantasy / historical novel reader, coming to the same blog and liking it? I'll cross that bridge later, I guess.


----------

