Some People Can't Even Give It Away

A Literal Literary Loser Tries a Losing Strategy... in Order To Win?

My 18th (holy number!) book, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” officially came out on Tuesday, November 15.

It spent two weeks as #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases Russian Historical Fiction list. (What’s funny is that when my characters lived in the USSR in the 1930s and 1940s, the primary time period where the book takes place, they most definitely would not have been considered Russian, either by their fellow citizens or themselves.)

However, two weeks does not a bestseller make. Book marketing is a never-ending process.

Why do we market our books? To sell more copies! Why do we want to sell more copies! To make money!

I write and sell my books in order to make money. Which is why I wrote an earlier post entitled, Never Take Advice From Someone Who Isn’t Paying You. It made some readers so angry that they angrily responded to my post on social media. Which exposed it to more people. Which sold more books. Which made me more money.

So why, if as my critics contend, I am “no better than a loan shark” because I write to make money, am I now giving my writing away for free?

Why, to make money, of course!

I’m not giving away “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” for free. Nor am I giving away it’s predecessor, “The Nesting Dolls,” for free. Or my Regency Romance, “The Fictitious Marquis,” which the Romance Writers of America dubbed the first Jewish Own Voices Historical.

What I am giving away for free is a biweekly historical fiction serial being published every Monday and Wednesday on SoapHub.com.

Why am I doing that?

Well, first of all, because “Go On Pretending” is set in the early days of soap operas, when they were making the transition from radio to TV. And what’s a more appropriate place to syndicate a serial about soaps than on a website dedicated to soaps? It comes with a built-in audience guaranteed to already be interested in your subject. I don’t have to go out looking for them. They’re already gathered. (Not that I don’t also promote it on soap-opera Facebook groups and other social media. I am not one to rest on my laurels!)

Second of all, “Go On Pretending” explores some pretty sensitive issues the general public may not be ready to embrace yet. A biweekly serial gives me the chance to collect feedback on my story. It’s a running focus group to help me make this book the best it can be before printing it between two covers.

When I worked for Procter & Gamble Productions, I wrote a biweekly serial for them called “Another World Today,” where I asked readers to vote on where the story should go next at the end of every episode. It taught me a lot about writing to please my readers. “Go On Pretending” is following the same model.

“Go On Pretending” is free for anyone online to read.

Why? So I can hopefully make money!

At the bottom of every installment, there is an ad for my current work, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region.”

Will my technique of giving content away for free help me make money on paid content?

I’ll let you know - as soon as I figure it out myself.

I wouldn’t be a Literal Literary Loser… if I only made good choices.