Veracity: Conformity to facts; accuracy,

_{Probity: The quality of having strong moral principles; honesty, and decency.}

Most likely, the two words above are spoken infrequently in one's daily conversations. Or, for that matter, are not part of a typical businessman's or woman's thoughts. 

On the other hand, these words are likely to be separate from the client's vocabulary.

They are words that must be ingrained in your mind. 

In all my years of military leadership, running civilian businesses, and dealing with the writing world as an author, they are words as scarce as hen's teeth.

Today, I will talk about writers and the marketing of our books.

My pappy once gave me some advice. He said to write what you are passionate about and make the rest of the shit up!

There is nothing wrong with that as long as it is fiction. If it is nonfiction, you must be fair and honest.

That goes for marketing also. Watch and listen carefully to people or businesses that contact you and want to market your novel. Before you spend a dime, understand what they are telling you.

Let me explain. One company or individual will say to the newbie writer dying to sell one book. "We have 40,000 people on our email lists. Another will say they have 250,000 people on their email lists. Some divide the list into specific genres. They will say things like we will tweet out your novel 3x a day or for one week and keep it on our website for a year or forever. Some say we will have an image of your book with a caption, and the newbie writer gets excited. You can buy packages: bronze, silver, or gold. You can pay for a one-shot deal or pay monthly. 

You will notice all with made-up testimonials. In fact, I read a report that the photos are of models. Sometimes, when you read the small print, it says they are not actual photos of customers. Now, you have images of famous people explaining how good a product is when it is fake and produced by AI.

 

In some ways, they may be telling you limited, truthful things. 

They may have thousands of emails and have sorted them out into genre-specific fields. They don't tell you that you most likely have a better shot at winning the lottery than selling a single copy of your book. 

Your book may be presented to thousands of email addresses who may not see them, ignore them, or are not interested. 

All you have to do is send them a check or credit card number, pay $20.00-$40.00-$60.00 or more, and get disappointed.

With most of these companies, a phone number is nonexistent. 

Many of these advertisements sent to you are people who sign up for affiliate marketing to make a quick buck. If you have a complaint, they ignore it or tell you they just passed the advertisement on to you; they are not the actual company. 

 

Before you spend your hard-earned money on this sort of deal, at least check them out and see if they have a guarantee. The answer is NO! Their escape clause is that we cannot guarantee someone will buy your book. If they say YES give them a shot.

 

 

My only advice is to develop a team around you that cares about you, people who have veracity and probity and have fun.

PS. Do your own damn marketing! Get in the street and meet people.

If you need more assistance, contact me at my author website: gunnymac.com