It’s the simple things, isn’t it? We’re authors. We want to sell our books. We want to make it easy for readers to purchase our books. Effortless. Or, lat least we should. I started this morning with a quick Twitter check before I faced my morning edits. Coffee in one hand, tablet in the other, I came across an interesting Tweet and followed it to the author’s post. So far so good. I read through the description of the author’s new book, saw the price was only $0.99 and thought, great. I’ll buy it this morning and have a new book to read as my reward for finishing today’s chapter edit. I then clicked on what I thought was a purchase link and was taken to another page on the author’s website, with more info about the book. Bummer, but okay. Remember, I’m still working on my first cup of coffee here.
I scanned the page–having already decided to buy I didn’t need to read the post, right? Found an AmazonKindle graphic somewhere toward the bottom and clicked on it. I then came to another page on the author’s website with more information about their book. And another non-workable link to purchase. I’m half-way through this cup of coffee now, and a little more awake. So I actually focus on the words and read this kiss of death: “Please visit Amazon and search on my author name [deliberately not inserted here – you should know who you are] to buy this and my other books”.
WTF?
Here I was, the veritable Holy Grail of consumerism, a reader ready to impulse buy, and the sale was shut down. I mean, seriously, shut down. Because hey, like any other average person, while I might be willing to make a few clicks on my handy tablet in search of immediate gratification, I’d really have to want your book to jump through those kind of hoops.
Lesson learned. If I want to sell my books, I need to make it easy to purchase my books.
