F. P. > Status Update

Well, when you put all your apples in one basket, there are no other apple-filled baskets to go around, and people will stop coming around you because they aren't getting an apple-filled basket.

Considering Amazon keeps shoving surveys into my face every two seconds about whether I like their ads, Amazon must be suffering with less revenue from them. Why wouldn't they be? In my opinion and experience, Amazon does not show your ads anymore to people who would or are buying books, based on the data I'm getting back, and that's only when Amazon actually shows your ads at all, which is much much less nowadays. The ad impressions are a lot lower. Or maybe people are shopping for books less, at least on Amazon, or maybe all those things and more are going on.

Whatever the case, twice now they've sent out mailers pissing me off--the mailers tell you that Amazon has "identified" certain books of yours that would do well if advertised. The first mailer I had written about here in complaint, but then later decided to try a few of the books Amazon suggested--I figured maybe Amazon would show those more now because they've just suggested them. Guess what happened? Nothing, except that I lost yet more money.

The second mailer suggesting books to advertise that came days ago--Amazon included my Randia Star Rose book, which hasn't had any sale or borrow action on it in over 6 months!! I restarted an ad for it anyway days later for another reason, and guess what happened....

That's one big reason why I'm taking the Rose books down this month; Amazon just isn't showing them anymore the way they used to. All I do is blow money on them. That Randia book actually did okay when I first published it, but then it became clear that Amazon no longer wanted to advertise it; you get only a few days to "impress" Amazon's systems when a book comes out, so there is no long-term marketing plan you can use for Amazon ads--unless you're already selling lots of books--a catch-22.

In my opinion and long experience, there's no level playing field and no way to break in using Amazon's system. Amazon decides who sells books, not the public. Amazon decides which books get pushed more, not the public. Amazon decides which books have all their one and two star reviews hidden,* not the public. Amazon decides which books get shown repeatedly and how frequently they're shown on pages where books are shown, just like Amazon does here on Goodreads.

The more I keep spending money on Amazon's ads, the more money I'm effectively giving Amazon to advertise the same writer's book and movie! I get increasingly broke, and I still don't have a reading audience and, because of Amazon's ads, I still have lost 7 times more money than I've gained as a writer!

What am I doing? Next time Amazon shows me one of those surveys, I'm going to tell it to ask THAT WRITER to run ads and give them more money. He's loaded with dough, reads, audience support, high accolades, awards, genius-by-penis--stop nagging me to finance his ridiculous success so he becomes even MORE successful! Any money I give Amazon as a writer is apparently going to them to advertise him and his books all over the place, not me and my books!

Leave me alone, Amazon. I can't even click that mailer function off--I could only click that Amazon send it to me less. I don't want it at all. Stop sending it to me, Amazon. Stop showing me surveys that I've filled out many times before, and you didn't listen to a damn thing I said in them about how to better your system. Why on earth should I fill out anymore surveys?

You have to come into writing with support from a significantly sized group of people or "the right people" from the get-go--and the only people who typically have that kind of support are people writing books that have already been written before, and are currently "on trend."

If you're an original writer, do yourself a favor and take up basket weaving instead.

(*And then of course the bandwagon and other effects kick in when people see a book has ZERO 1 or 2 stars, and many people probably then think the book's so popular and the best writing because surely so many people wouldn't say it was if it wasn't, and those new people, too, will be more likely to rate it highly--and they might not rate it lowly because they don't want to be UNpopular and be attacked when such a hoard of high raters are there--and then that book's ratings will stay high through this self-supporting feedback cycle! I do not understand when most of the public doesn't seem to understand that it's participating in a huge marketing gimmick pushed on it by people who think that the public is stupid. Instead of responding the way that pusher wants, the public should reject it!)

(And, because Amazon has conveniently switched to only showing reviews by percent, you cannot even click into where it says 0 percent 1 stars and 0 percent 2 stars to see ANY reviews that are 1 and 2 stars (at least I've tried--and there is nothing to click--it's blanked out in gray). It effectively looks like there are ZERO 1 and 2 stars on that book. No book in the universe is liked and thought well written by everyone; you can come right here to Goodreads on a particular book with many thousands of reviews and see the truth of that. None of the thousands of people rating that book low here on GR and other places here have given it 1 or 2 stars on Amazon? Come on.)