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6 Reasons People Buy Stuff
How to write and market your memoir much better than me
Slugs are winning the race against sales of my memoir. It’s engaging, well written and floats far out there in a vast ocean of reading material. Not unusual when you consider that 2.5 million titles are released worldwide each year.
Then consider I indie-published as a first-time author… and at a time when in-person events couldn’t take place. Thanks again, Covid. A grand total of nine Goodreads reviews praise The Incompetent Psychic with 45 stars. Several more readers have sent lovely emails and said nice things out loud. Kind friends count for a lot, but don’t generate quite the same sales totals that important quotes by recognizable names on a front cover tend to.
Okay, sales are sluggish. I asked Google, ‘Why is this?’ Up came a list of the 6 reasons people buy stuff. I managed to ease in at #6.
Consider that non fiction books are just more stuff… manuals to teach short-cuts to satisfaction. This list of desires suggests that if you want to exploit the buying public for profit you have to write a bulletproof screed and title it: How to Land a Mega-Paying Job so you can Hire an Entourage of Go-fers and Bodyguards.
I wrote The Incompetent Psychic instead. Here’s how I missed the mark…
1) Desire for Financial Gain
I describe a forty-year career as a full time, freelance artist. I might as well have written, “Turn your back on this target before aiming at it.”
2) Fear of Financial Loss
Nope. You’ll need a different instructional manual for this fear — one I’m not qualified to write. All you get from my book are suggestions on ways to make fear bearable whilst shooting for a creative vocation. I did offer some tips on how to get over, through and around some other great big fears like, not being good enough, getting mocked and death.
3) Comfort & Convenience
I understand wanting a life that is the equivalent of sleeping on memory foam, but comfort and serenity are two different beasts. I didn’t shoot for a comfy book. Convenience suggests less work, more appliances and paid helpers— helpful advice I also didn’t offer.
