First - let me show you what Wikipedia says about Panic...
Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction.
When I get these emails/PM's I'm not looking at the problem from a viewpoint clouded by fear.
Because of that I get to see the problem with a clear mind and can see what needs to be done in a logical manner.
You can do the same even if it is your problem and you are in a state of PANIC.
All you need is Time Out.
Seriously - you just need to walk away from the thing that is dominating your thoughts for long enough to let 'normal reasoning' return.
In publishing that's quite simple - Write.
Write the book you're currently writing or start writing the next book... and focus on that story.
Take time out - walk in the park, smell the flowers. When you get 'TOO INTO Something' your vision becomes clouded and you can't see what matters.
You can't see what needs to be done to sort out this monster who is looking back at you every time you face your fear.
It's a mirror :)
If you're looking at a part of your publishing business and panicking because something isn't working, don't forget what is working. If you've written good books and they aren't selling, then the main core of your business is GOOD.
You've created Assets that you can profit from for years to come once they are released from the shackles that are holding them back.
Here are some examples of things that helped members remove shackles from their businesses. Maybe you will see what could be problem listed below...
- The book needed a cliffhanger
- It needed a stronger cliffhanger
- It needed a better cover, blurb, title
- It needed a more targeted cover, blurb, title
- Your Facebook advertising was targeting the wrong people
- You needed to spend more on FB Ads to reach the point of profit
- Your ads weren't attracting attention
- The book needed editing
- You got a lot of downloads but they weren't targeted so they didn't convert [*]
[*] Recently I've had a few people show me their downloads that have been strong and then tapered off with few sales from them. I always ask "Was that from a FreeBooksy Ad?" and the answer is often - Yes.
Here's the problem... If you get a lot of downloads from places that aren't specifically targeted to your genre, they won't convert well into sales of the subsequent books. They give you a false sense of success when the real success is actually in the numbers before those un-targeted downloads happened. They need to be taken out of the equation to look at the true performance of your business.
So here's what made me decide to create this post.
I got a distress call from a Kindling member who thought she was in trouble until the real picture of her business was uncovered.
She ran a Freebooksy ad and got a lot of downloads... but as I've mentioned, a lot of them wouldn't have been very responsive to her chosen genre (It happens. People download stuff that they might never read)
Here's a summary...
- Her downloads were 20 books a day before Freebooksy
- When the ad was live it went to 200 a day and then dropped back rapidly
- The conversions to sales in that period weren't great (as expected - as mentioned above)
- When they fell back to 20 a day she started advertising on Facebook
- She was disappointed that this only gave her 97 downloads a day
- I pointed out that it was a 480% increase and her conversions were good
- Freebooksy is no Bookbub but they have now segmented mailing lists so that will help improve things (this post is not about Freebooksy or Bookbub - it's about the underlying positive aspects of a business the author thought wasn't good)
- She had a series of 3 books and had stopped working on book 4 because she had become despondent - BAD move - Your Books are your assets and they are what will make you the money
- Her conversions from the free book to the first paid book (99cents) were good.
- Her conversions from the first paid book to the second paid book ($2.99) were great so as I looked at what she was telling me, I knew she was on the right track building a great business that only had one problem... not enough people knew about her brand YET.
- What I looked at were the percentages, conversions, buyers after downloads... the statistics of her business because they are what really mattered.
- The numbers weren't large but the statistics of the numbers were very good.
The figures proved that she was building her business correctly but had yet to reach the point where she was satisfied with the direction she was headed.
Fortunately she had readers waiting for book 4 so there was something to refocus on, other than negative thoughts about a positive business she was building.
Here's what I think the problem is with many people...
- The mind works a whole lot faster than reality.
- What we want to happen doesn't always happen when we want it to happen.
- When we see others getting somewhere fast we think we're going slow.
- We don't always know the backstory of the overnight successes - often it's longer than what we know and they have been through the same self-doubt and dare I say envy that is clouding a person's current thinking.
- Success stories can be positive and negative at the same time... both inspiring and disheartening - but that is only because of your own self belief - If you view them as disheartening then you need to ask WHY and address that, because that could be what is holding you back as much as any of the mechanics of publishing.
More people fail at the last post than anywhere prior to that.
The reason - TIME
Things have just taken too long compared to our expectations.
Here's a reason why things can take too long.
Because of our expectations.
If you find you're not getting to where you want to be as fast as you want to be there - then that is taking your focus away from doing what you should be doing and that is wasting your TIME and pushing your goalposts further away.
- If your statistics are sound, even if they are based on very little action, then you're on the right road.
- If you're slow walking to the right place then you're on the right road.
- If you stop and watch everyone else running into the distance, then you've misstepped and that has cost you time and progress.
- If you're on the wrong road NOW is the best time to turnaround but make sure it is the Wrong Road before you turn and not simply a SLOW road that will speed up as you build momentum.
The Kindling member I'm talking about in this post is on the right road but she had let the wrong mindset cloud her judgement. I can see the diamond - she just needed a little time out before coming back to keep polishing the stone.
She's done that today with 6000 words of the next book.
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