The last word on ‘pay to play’ – Room/Post 101

Pay to play comes of age.

Warning. This post is long and has no pictures.  It also contains ideas that may be upsetting! 

In the past I’ve annoyed all kinds of indie writers by using the phrase ‘pay to play’ in connection with publishing.  People seem to get all upset when I mention that behind all the ‘helpful’ social media offered to us by the big conglomorates, there is something deeper (I don’t say darker, I don’t say more sinister, I’m not talking conspiracy theory here) going on.  It’s about the money folks.

And after fending off one too many sponsored links on Facebook (FB), I’ve cracked. I now suggest that like any ‘dealer’ we are being led by the nose.  Love social media right? Yeah, of course. Something for nothing right? Wrong.  That dealer who would give you the first hit for free does so knowing you’ll be back for more. And when you are fully addicted you’ll part with loads of cash to get ‘the good stuff’. And the more addicted you are the more you’ll pay because you need to pay more to get the same ‘hit.’  Well, not that I’m calling any of the big conglomorates ‘dealers’ and not that I’m suggesting we’re all in danger of becoming ‘junkies’ but I’d just like to point out something that’s come to my attention.

Recently I’ve been getting deluged by sponsored links on FB. None of which I’m interested in and all of which clog up my newsfeed so that I’m less and less likely to visit at all. I just get bored scrolling through what is in essence FB SPAM.

It got me wondering why/how all this has now started. I mean, I’m as good as anyone at avoiding the right hand side of the screen on anything these days (the advertising slots) but I went to my ‘page’ and the machinery was hanging out (as it sometimes does) and I found a promotions thingy.  So I clicked, just to see what would happen.

I’d just written a review and it offered me the opportunity to promote it. It said my reach was 54 (presumably the number of people who subscribe to my page who haven’t switched off getting things from me) Paid reach was EMPTY and then I clicked on the PROMOTION button.

It told me that for a mere £7 I could get 3 days promotion reaching an estimated 1900 – 3000 people.

Then I looked at the maximum budget.  Okay, if I paid $50 or £34 I could get a ‘reach’ of 6,600 -12,000 people.

Okay, I’m not suggesting there’s anything WRONG in this. But it does rather reveal what FB is all about doesn’t it? It’s not just about friends making friends, talking to friends, sharing with friends now really is it? It’s about people SELLING to other people. Paying to promote their product/work/self  to other people.  Ah well, at least there’s no confusion about that any more.  And I understand why it is that I’m getting bombarded by stuff I have no interest in. Other people with more of a ‘commercial’ bent think that by paying FB to promote their stuff they’ll find more other people who will buy their stuff.

Look, I know people think I’m stupid and cutting my nose off to spite my face by my ‘non commercial’ attitude to all this. But seriously folks, I’m not. In a past life I worked both in financial services AND in advertising so I do know something about marketing and ‘reach.’ And I am reasonably firmly convinced that (at least for myself) even if my post is promoted to 12,000 people who FB algorithms think would be interested, I will not make enough sales to pay for the advertising.  What I have to ‘sell’ is not that kind of a ‘product’.  My posts are about my thoughts and beliefs and things that interest me. I’m not turning these into a commercial transaction. It would be objectifying my very self. My books are similar. They are not just ‘product’, they are something which requires a ‘thinking’ mind to make a ‘choice’ because the kind of reader who is incapable of making these decisions for themselves generally do not ‘get’ my writing (either in blog or ebook format!)

So  I object to FB’s latest version of  subliminal marketing on an ethical level sure (and I know that’s quite unfashionable in our caring consumer capitalist world) but I also challenge the hard financial figures.  Believe me, if I thought I’d get even 1000 sales from ‘reaching’ 12,000 people I’d consider it.  The figures I think are more interesting though is how many people with FB pages will ‘try’ this just once. That’s a lot of £7’s or £30’s isn’t it!  That’s the bottom line.  FB isn’t working for you, you are working for FB.  Sorry to be the one to burst the happy bubble.

So this is just a little warning for all of you who now think that promoting your work and/or yourself this way is going to get you sales. (or even more sadly, new ‘friends’) This is all throwing mud at walls. Ask yourself: How many ‘flyers’ do people print for Edinburgh festival/pizza delivery and how good a return do they get on them?  A real return. Not just ‘reach’ figures. When was the last time YOU bought something off FB recommendation?  When was the last time you bought something OF MINE off a post I wrote or a FB recommendation?  That’s the figure that really interests ME. I think I sell from posts maybe, from word of mouth more and I sell sporadically at best.  People don’t ‘click on’ in my experience.  It may be just me and yes, when it comes to the money coming out of my pocket it’s me I’m thinking of.  You may be different. You may be ‘selling’ something different, you may have ‘friends’ who don’t object to being sold to in this way.  You may have hundreds of ‘pseudo’ friends who will buy whatever comes with your name attached.  If so, great. That means that you are part of the water cooler movement. It’s ‘cool’ to be connected with you and people are happy to let others know that they ‘like’ you.  I’m not that kind of person. I’m clearly a more acquired taste. And so for me, paying money to get people to SEE me isn’t going to work.  There’s no point me employing mainstream marketing tactics (which is what this is) for a niche product.

I’m sorry but I think FB has persuaded us (like all good dealers) that we can ‘all’ be part of the mainstream. Or that FB is ‘niche’ friendly.  Wake up folks. It’s not.  It’s the same hierarchical pyramid I first encountered when studying the causes of the Russian Revolution.  There are a few at the top and a mass working really hard at the bottom. I have always known I’m a peasant not a monarch or oligarch.  I just fear for all my ‘friends’ who from time to time seem to believe that ‘anyone can be president’ that ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’ and sundry other modern myths.  I’m just pointing out that FB is another of these.  Your ‘friends’ are not really your ‘friends’ nor are they are a beautifully targeted marketplace who will suck up anything you care to advertise.  Well, mine aren’t anyway. And I’m certainly not.  I buy books on the recommendation of people I respect, these days often through comments or reviews or email conversations or blogposts.  But I never buy a book without  doing a fair amount of research  – including the ‘search inside’ and where possible checking out the writers blog/web page.  I click around.  So sure, I may check something out if I see it on FB. I ‘click on’ but I wouldn’t say I ‘buy’ based on that alone. It’s the start of a personal journey of discovery – which, yes, takes me far away from FB.  For me FB and Twitter offer a fast (junk) food version of the world. I may find ingredients from there and work towards finding the ‘slow’ ‘organic’ version but I seem to be in the minority there. Twitterfeed seems to have a shelf life of 15 minutes – throw mud and it’s fallen off the wall in 15. FB is getting nearly as bad.  How far down do you scroll? You throw the mud at a newsfeed and it lasts as long as a scroll down 2 pages? And if people have many friends and all those sponsored links, I reckon it’s coming close to the Twitter 15 minutes – is this what was really meant by 15 minutes of fame?

For me, these days as soon as I see SPONSORED LINK I just get pissed off. I haven’t yet had one that had anything  I am actually likely to be interested in (and so that proves to me that at least for me the algorithms aren’t working. And if they don’t work for me as consumer why should they work for me as seller?) What’s more annoying is that I’m finding it hard to find anything other than sponsored links or pontificating comments or trivial day to day chat on FB.  Some of it is amusing, some of it entertaining but ALL of it is time consuming and VERY LITTLE of it works for me either as a consumer or creator of fiction.  There are maybe five people whose lives I’m interested in enough to actually want to follow them on FB. Others whom I’d like information about their work etc, but I find that this tends to get lost within the mass of stuff I’m not interested in and it’s better to check out their blogs.  I believe we are now all drowning in information overload. We can’t find what we want because there’s so much out there in our faces we don’t want. And for me, the answer isn’t to SHOUT LOUDER or PAY TO PLAY.  If I’m going to have to pay to get even my ‘friends’ to see what I’m up to – I’m out.

I wrote a book which deals (in a non specific way) about the impact of social media on communication and society in general. It’s called Brand Loyalty. In 3 years I reckon I’ve sold about 300 in paper and e format.  And some people have even read it! When I gave it away on Kindle it rose to #1 in Amazon political bestseller (free) list within 6 hours. Oh the irony. I promoted it quite hard.  In ways that you can only do when you are giving it away for free. I didn’t pay to promote it. I mean, I was giving it away for free already. How much of my money do they want? I pulled the ‘free’ plug when about 500 had been given away.  It felt like it had stopped being a book and was becoming a ‘flyer’. I didn’t (and don’t) believe all these people bought it, read it and loved it so much they recommended it to their friends – if so my ‘free promo’ would have worked and I’d have sold more copies since.  Instead if I do ‘the math’ really all that happened was I gave away at least £500 of ‘profit’ and if you take the cost of the whole ebook that’s about £1500 down the drain. For what?  To be worldwide #1 for a day or so.  My ego’s not that big for me to be impressed by that.  The spectre of ‘vanity’ publishing still does loom large. But somewhere between vanity and pay to play marketing, I have this bad feeling that I’m being manipulated if I engage with the process.

It turns out that until and unless I spend money promoting Brand Loyalty (and my other work), it will never ‘hit the big time’. That’s fine, I don’t object if I know what the game is, but it’s NOT an open and equal playing field for all now is it? Money is still the over-riding way that you can get people to think your work is ‘good’.  I totally object to that.  At the moment I’m lucky that it’s still free to blog so that I can restate my position (to the few who aren’t fast food information junkies) that we live in a ‘pay to play’ world and that if we don’t start paying attention we will find that we are in a big shiny version of 1984 before very long.  Looking at FB Promotions, I’m beginning to think we already are.

This isn’t sour grapes. It isn’t being naïve.  I’m simply suggesting that social media and large distribution companies are NOT the way for niche marketing to work. We are the cannon fodder which keeps their operations going. If you’re happy with that fine. If you’re part of the ‘cool’ mainstream crowd, fine. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the future of niche creativity is going to aided to any great degree by mainstream social/marketing media. That’s my advice anyway. Save your money.

Now, of course I’d like you to buy Brand Loyalty. If you are interested in the ‘issues’ above and like fiction. Or want to learn something more about me as a writer and my vision of the world. Otherwise, what’s the point of you buying it?  I’m not trying to ‘alienate’ the potential  reader. But I’m not going to spend money promoting it.  Informed choice is important to me. I’ve never wanted to buy anything that has been thrust in my face by a sponsored link from FB and I wouldn’t expect you to either. I don’t believe that ‘telling’ you about myself is ‘promoting’ myself. You may disagree. I don’t know how to make it any clearer. I refuse to engage in a consumer capitalist model every time I open my mouth. I’m just saying what I think, expressing my views on the world. And as a writer, I write about them. And you can read what I write, some for free, some for money.  But it’s your choice. I’m not bullying you or begging you or subliminally targeting you in any way. I’m just telling you I EXIST and THIS IS WHAT I THINK and THIS IS WHO I AM.

There was one brief shining Camelot moment when I thought that it might be possible for people to use social media to pass on things that might really be of interest to each other  – so that people who might like to read my books would find out about them – but that hasn’t happened. People don’t seem to like to use social media for that.  It’s a virtual water cooler. People want to share jokes, or prove that they are following fashion the same as everyone else.  Most people don’t seem to think that it could be a place for ‘voices’ which are otherwise silenced because they are not commercial could be heard.  In fact the backlash has been that if you do tell people about such things you are ‘self promoting.’ Once again I say, oh the irony. Because what people seem to fail to notice is that FB is doing massive promotion all the time and that we’ve now come to the point where social media is using us far more than we are using it.  I can’t understand how people who get arsey when I tell them of my work (or that of other people I know which I rate) – much in the same way I would if I had a conversation with them in person ‘I’ve read/written this book I think you’d be interested in) don’t mind when FB is doing it to them.  Maybe I’m missing some important point.  But for me, I thought that if people were ‘my friends’ it was because they were interested in me and that includes an interest in my writing (since I am a writer!) and reading habits.  That’s the sort of thing I want to talk about. But it seems to be frowned upon. That’s not the function of social media apparently. It’s for sharing trivia or paying to sell things to people.  Call me old fashioned but that’s not the way I live my life. And the way things are going, less and less people actually have me ‘switched on’ in their FB thus it becomes less and less likely that they will keep abreast of my work through this channel. And so it’s less and less worth me posting there.  The law of diminishing returns has kicked in bigtime.

My conclusion. I need to step away from FB.  I have already stepped away from Twitter.  For Twitter I think you need to be at it every 15 minutes throughout the day and it really is throwing a wee bit of mud at the biggest wall in the world.  I’m not that ‘chatty’ a person. I don’t do small talk. I do big talk. I talk of what’s important to me and I don’t feel comfortable talking to people who don’t want to listen.  So tweeting is not for me.  And FB now, the same.  I’m going to change my personal ‘strategy’ back to blogland. Where at least for the moment speech is still free. You know where to find me. I’m here. I shall say what I think via my own site and people who are interested will come and find me here.  Then it’s up to them to tell other people who might be interested.  I’m not committing FB suicide. I’m not engaging in FB death.  I shall still link my posts through FB (and Twitter) so that anyone who is out there can find them if they want. But I’m under no illusion that this is much more than SETI combing the universe for signs of intelligent life.  The conversations will happen here.  Where no one has to ‘pay to play.’  I will not pay for your attention. I will not pay money to bug or harass you or make sure I’m the first and last thing you see when you log onto FB.  I’ll just stay in ‘my house’ and you can come visit whenever you like. And I’m happy to come to ‘your house’ and chat virtually too.

And if you are interested in Brand Loyalty or any of my other works its not hard.  Publish links are everywhere on this site – you just have to have the will  to ‘click on’. 

Now we are 100.

The beady eyed amongst you will see that the ‘logline’ for my blog is ‘writing the e-revolution.’  That’s what I’ve been doing for the past year or so. And as things fall, it turns out that this is my 100^th post. So it should be marked in some way, right? 50 years old. 100 posts. Nice bit of numerical symmetry.   Now I could quite easily have compiled a list of 100 things I’ve learned from the e-revolution but I thought I’d give you all a break and stick with the top 10.

So – here are the Top 10 things I’ve learned so far as relates to the e-revolution.

1. If you can dream it you can do it. You can do what you like. You can make up your own rules. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I first learned this in the world of drama where for 6 years people kept telling me I couldn’t do what I was doing. I just kept on doing it.  100s of performances resulted. Many lives were influenced. Some even changed.  It’s the same with publishing. I can write and publish whatever I want. Whatever length, whatever subject matter, and no one can stop me any more.  As long as you are prepared to make the sacrifices, you can do what you like.  You just have to realise that if you don’t ‘play’ by the mainstream rules you won’t get mainstream acceptance. And equally, if you don’t play by the emerging ‘indie’ rules you won’t get indie acceptance. But you can still follow your own path. You can make a niche for yourself. Other writers/publishers/groups may not like it but you can still find readers out there if you don’t let mediators (open or hidden) take control of your life.  And NEVER listen to people telling you ‘you can’t do that.’  You can.  You just have to be fully prepared to pay whatever price is necessary. Of course you cannot achieve a logical impossibility. You CANNOT eat your cake and have it. (Though you can have your cake and eat it). But you can’t sit on the fence or try to join both camps or play on both teams.  Not if you really want to do YOUR OWN thing.  You just have to accept that lots of people will have lots of reasons not to WANT your own thing. Avoid them. Look for the people who DO want your thing and don’t let the others divert you. Because they will. It’s in their best interests that you ‘fail.’ But if you don’t pay attention to their criteria of ‘success’ and instead make up your own definitions of it, you can succeed. On your own terms.
2. Leopards don’t change their spots. For most people the e-revolution is like everything else. So they use it either as a marketing tool or a means to an end. The end being fame/fortune and mainstream acceptance. The reality is they are pissing in the wind. All the good lives are already gone. Most of us are cannon fodder in the publishing war.  We are simply here to make up the numbers.  We are being sold some second rate version of ‘The American Dream.’ For me the e-revolution says ‘wake up.’ Unless you step away from the trenches you’re going to get hurt.  Sure there are nice supportive people out there but people are people and promote self, use others is as much a mantra in indie publishing as it is everywhere else in life.  The ‘enemy’ is not just the mainstream. There is an ‘enemy’ within as well. Every writer who sees you as a competitor. Every publisher who knocks you is trying to jockey for their own position.  For me, co-operative collaboration is the key.  It’s not a ‘business model’ that many find appealing but it’s mine.  I stick by my belief that fundamentally creativity is not an industry.
3. Mainstream rules apply. The elite will always find their way to the front. (See above) So if you don’t want to be cannon fodder and want to live a free life you have to let go of your preconceived ideas and turn your back on ‘the system’ wholeheartedly. Open your mind to other ways.  I’ve lost count of the amazing writing I’ve ‘discovered’ once I stopped following the ‘rules’ for ‘good literature.’  I have learned  so much more about writing and people and the world this way.  I learned how I’ve been cheated all my life by believing party line about ‘literature’ and ‘quality.’  Here’s my top tip. For the really good stuff you need to visit the smaller rivers and byways. Amazon is not the only river. There are other books than FACE. It’s a big world. There’s something for everyone.  But if you restrict yourself to what you’re told to like, only you will suffer. Yes, when you go off piste people may ridicule you. But when they do, consider their agenda. Why is it important that they put this or that down? Find the reasons. Read the small print. And be brave.
4. Warning – this revolution may change the way you see the world.  How this has impacted on me is quite significant. In the past two years I’ve had the history and myths of publishing exposed and I’ve gained a much greater understanding of the question why literature?  Other world views are available. But that’s my journey.  I read differently now and more importantly I write differently now because of what I’ve learned through the e-revolution.
5. Mind the gap – between literature and fiction. What is literary fiction? I’ve realised that truly ‘name is the thief of identity.’ When people fix something into a genre or a ‘quality’ they are in fact just reinforcing the dominant world view, or that of the cultural elite. It’s a power issue.  As writer and reader we don’t need to worry about that. We just need to write honestly and as well as we can as writers, and as readers we have to be open to forming a communicative relationship with the writer. The author is NOT dead.  Sometimes he or she is hiding behind the narrator, but I know there are plenty of authors for whom ‘intentionality’ is their watchword.  As F.Scott Fitzgerald said,  ‘write because you have something to say, not because you want to say something.’ Writing and publishing a book is a communicative act. A two way street.  Don’t think that you have to only drive on motorways because the ‘map’ doesn’t show the unclassified roads. Explore. Freely.
6. Words that do not match deeds are unimportant.  Awesome is as awesome does.  And a man may be judged by the company he keeps. Frankly, some people tell lies. Some tell half truths, some believe that it’s okay to do dodgy things in order to get a sale or visibility.  My natural state has always been to take everything on face value.  The e-revolution has cured me of that naïve optimism. I approach everything with caution now. I don’t take any claim on face value. Caveat emptor! For me integrity and honesty is more important than a sale. Every time. I work on the three strikes rule.  Once I’ve been gulled three times I completely disengage.  I like to think I’m still open, but I’ve learned to look deeper into surface ‘truths.’
7. Unto thine own self be true versus Follow the bouncing ball.  Ethics is not something that many people like to apply to their everyday lives.  People are happy to pontificate about ethics and get very upset when ‘their’ world view is disturbed.  Particularly on issues of ‘quality’ and ‘professionalism’ but few people are happy to go the Calvinist route and follow something to its logical conclusion.  Sock puppets bad? Don’t be one. Trolls bad? Don’t be one.  Back scratching reviews bad? Don’t write them. Many people who shout loudly about something being unfair when it’s coming their way, don’t seem to shout at all when the same thing is benefitting them.  It’s a two way street.  But I’ve found too many people rush off after ‘the next big thing’ and are prepared to ignore the real ethical issues when they don’t suit them. The ‘right’ thing isn’t a choice from a menu. It’s the ‘right’ thing.  Consistency is important to retain integrity.
8. A dream come true. You can talk to REAL writers. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Imagine you could talk to Dickens, or Orwell. Well, with the e-revolution, if you like a writer chances are you can ‘talk’ to them. Intelligently about their work I mean, not just chatting nonsense.  The possibility is there. To communicate directly between writer and reader. Surely this is the dream of any reader – to go beyond the text and actually engage with the writer – sharing our experience of the world.  In a world dominated by trivia this is a much under explored area.  The chance to talk about writing with the writer – okay, not something the postmodernists (or even modernists) are probably too keen on, but for the rest of us, for those who know that writers are people too, it’s an amazing concept and can be an incredible reality.  I’ve made some great ‘friends’ that way in the last year or so.
9. Be the change you want to see. The relationship between writer and publisher can be different.  But you have to do it.  For me one of the main delights of the e-revolution is how much I’ve come to enjoy being a publisher as well as being a writer.  But that’s because I’m a publisher MY WAY not according to the standard ‘rules.’
10. 10.   In my fathers house there are many rooms.  In the e-revolution there’s a place for everyone. Cyberspace is huge. Can be daunting of course, but you just have to find your niche. You’ll have to work at it.  But there’s no point wasting time in the kitchen if you are after a bath. No point complaining that Irn Bru doesn’t taste like whisky. You need to learn to avoid wasting time in places that are not to your tastes and find the places where ‘likeminded’ people hang out.  I’ve found that most people are NOT like me (many don’t even like me!) but that some people do. So I spend my time with the folks I like, not trying to justify or ingratiate myself with people with whom I have nothing in common. It’s the only sensible way to be in a world where there are not enough hours in the day to engage with ‘everything.’  Find your place. Be happy there.
11. The way that can be named is not the way.  I’ve learned the importance of tolerance –Prior to the e-revolution I’d already learned that it was pointless to be an ‘anti-capitalist.’ I became a ‘non capitalist’.  I live in a capitalist world. That doesn’t mean to say I have to actively play by the rules, or waste my life railing against the rules. The rules are the rules. What I can do, by being a non-capitalist (same as by being an ‘indie’) is make up my own rules.  And play by them with consistency and integrity.  Other people can do what they like. Their path is different. All I can do is stick to my way as honestly as I can.

Of course that’s 11.  My rules. I can break them if I want.  You can read or not. That’s your choice.  You might stop at 10 saying ‘but you said it was 10.’  If so, you miss out, don’t you? And probably won’t have understood a thing I was saying. Which is fine. Some people ‘get it’.  I’m not trying to convert or convince, I’m just saying what I’ve learned – which is what I said I was going to do. Job done. Move on.  Happy to engage in dialogue because of course true communication is more than a monologue.

And who the hell am I? Well, last count I’ve e-published 20 ebooks since October 2011, blogged, had short stories published online.  I’ve run an ebook peer review site with integrity, I’ve set up an online ebook festival and I’m about to turn publisher for a large catalogue of ‘forgotten’ classic works.  I’ve made some friends, I’ve made some enemies. I’ve tried to deal openly and honestly with everyone I’ve come across.  I anticipate that by 5 years into this ‘revolution’ I will have published maybe 100 works.  Even if I remain invisible to ‘them’ I will still have done it. At this point of the 100^th post I’m reasonably happy with my contribution to writing the e-revolution.  I may have done no more than write ‘I wos here’ in the virtual pages of history, but I AM here and that’s good enough for me.  And you know where to find me. If you’re reading this you HAVE found me.  So if you know someone else who might like to know me, tell them. How else will they know? And if I’m not to your taste – you never have to come back here again. It’s your choice.  That’s the beauty of the e-revolution. Choice abounds.  It’s for each individual to make an informed one. That’s the responsibility of the individual. If you don’t make a choice, someone else makes it for you.  Be free. Make your own choices. Choose what you like.  And choose when to explore beyond your comfort zone. But most of all make your OWN choices.

And here’s something I’m ‘sharing’ which for me encapsulates some of the above.  I like this. If you do, explore further.