I don’t Get It!

There are many things that I simply don’t get. Selling books is one despite trying very hard this last three years or so to figure it out.

Can anyone answer these questions?

1. If you have a hit book why does the next book that you write not sell?

Yes, Your Haunted Lives has been in the top 10 in supernatural in the UK and in the US for around 3-months yet The Pink Bus (a book I think is my best work to date), isn’t selling at all. Is it about title or cover? apparently not, for I also put out the Pink Bus under another name with different title and cover with the same result.

2. Why can I not create a brand?

I have strove to create a brand in my writings – G. Michael Vasey is that brand and yet the only book that sells any real quantity at the moment is Your Haunted Lives. I have an author’s page and a back catalog. In the back of each book is a list of my other books. So why do people not buy them? Why does no one interact with me online in social media? Why is my mailing list only 140 people?

3. Why are my blogs hardly visited?

I have been blogging since 2005. I am a veteran. Yet, my blog receives no more traffic now than it did back then. It’s packed with great articles – as well as some dross!, its promoted in all of my books and much more yet I may as well not bother it seems.

4. Even more perplexing – why do sales of Your Haunted Lives not translate into visits to my ghost site?

This one has me stumped. The book is selling very well – between 5 and 20 copies a day. It quite clearly says it is a collection of edited stories from the site. It asks people to go there and visit explicitly. But based on traffic, it seems they don’t. Stumped, puzzled and amazed.

I have come to a conclusion. Quit moaning. At least I am selling some books – more than average. Why should I complain?

Well, it’s because I cannot get my head around why everything you read and are told to do simply DOES NOT WORK for me. I have no idea why one book takes off and another does not. No idea why people don’t buy the back catalog having read something they enjoyed or visit the website the stories came from…..

On Amazon, it says that I have had hit books and it lists them….

Your Haunted Lives
Ghosts In The Machines
My Haunted Life Too
My Haunted Life

Four hit books on Amazon but what happened to the ones in between?

God’s Pretenders
My Haunted Life Three
The Pink Bus
How To Create Your Own Reality

I guess the lesson is clear – write throw away ghosts story compilations and enjoy some modicum of success – try to actually write and fail.

Oh well….

Suggestions and comments welcome – but then no one ever does.