Well, that was a false start!

A few posts back I was talking about the magic number 15 - apparently, according to one of those many on-line webinar thingy's from a hugely successful marketing company, once you manage to get 15 reviews then Amazon's algorithms kick in and start to market your book for you. No promises of great things, but lets be honest, if Amazon start doing the marketing aswell then there is every reason to expect some movement in a positive direction.

The webinar even said that it didn't matter how many 'stars' each reviewer gave, you just had to have those 15 reviews.

I was very lucky and managed to receive 16 reviews! (side topic here; I have had three people contact me to tell me that they can't post reviews?! Apparently they keep getting a rejection message and, even though they have followed the advice of said message they haven't been able to post reviews - good old Amazon!)

So, where was I? Oh yes, 16 reviews. IF the Amazon algorithms are working then... well they've missed something, namely, my book! There has been no great charge up the charts for Invictus Part 1 - Introducing Richard, even though, of the 16 reviews it does have, there are 11 five star and 5 four star reviews, still zero pick up from those pesky algorithms.

In truth this was always the expected result; I was always brought up to believe that if something seemed too good to be true, then it usually was. I'll agree that I definitely lean towards the 'cynical', but that comes with years of life experience. When I see these true marketing guru's promise the earth, dangle the carrot and tell everyone just how great they are - I just can't help myself, I need the evidence. In this case the free advice (get to 15 reviews and you will rocket) - EPIC fail, Based on that alone, any hard earned pennies I may have lying around are staying lying around.

As an Indie Author, there are probably at least ten different homes that are crying out for those pennies, each a lot more productive and beneficial: editors, proofreaders, cover designers, etc. And, as there are so few Indie Authors that can make an actual living from their writing, I would presume most need to be mindful of the outgoings - The vast majority of these Marketing webinars want one thing, your money. They are a business; their biggest marketing success involves marketing themselves, and of course the get-rich-quick, can't fail trust us, schemes that they are selling. They are targeting Indie Authors because they know that most of us don't have a real clue as to what we're doing so paying for their guidance is so tempting, we are that soft target.

I'm not saying that they are ALL like that, I just haven't found one that is different yet. If I do I'll let you know, here - I'll have my butler write the post, or maybe the maid.