Can I Sell 500,000 E-books Before Xmas?: A Wise Man Once Said......

..... If I stick up one finger instead of two, do you think they will understand what I mean? ML Stewart 2011.

For the regular readers of my blog, you will remember that, as part of this social experiment, I conducted a dalliance into the aspects of negative publicity. Namely by provoking heated debates regarding my religious novel. The idea was to receive some great negative comments to help launch it... “Publish and be damned” was the finest. As a direct result I have been banned from 70% of Christian Forums in the UK and US.

All publicity is good publicity, especially when I have received some embarrassingly outstanding reviews for FBK1. When you create movement, you create heat. As Mr. Anonymous fell for, hook, line and sinker.

After my counter-attack against him (see the last blog) he started his own thread, entitled...

“Rude author blasts commentor who complains about typos.” (Yep! That will be me then.) I encourage all of you who are learning something from this experiment to read through it. The link is below. http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149734

It is an outstanding piece of work; I am branded a “tool”, an “idiot”, “mentally ill” and all manner of things my teachers used to call me at school. My, how it brought back fond memories. The first reply to his post was this, “That blogger is an attention whore. This ignorant outburst will only help him garner even more. Best SEO tool there is.” (That's Search Engine Optimization for those of you that don't know) Very astute and by God it worked. The traffic to the blog soared overnight (directly from his link) and distribution levels of FBK1 jumped dramatically as a direct result.

Mr. Anonymous did, in one day, what I have failed to do in the past three months; he increased my blog readership by almost 200%. In brief, I have always found that controversy helps, it gets people talking (even if they are putting you down) but you will always have the curious who want to delve deeper and see what all the fuss is about. This is an especially useful tool to use with so-called “academics” because they just can’t let a sleeping dog lie.

When I first read his anonymous comment, I considered deleting it, but I soon realised that I could turn it to the experiment’s advantage. I am also a member of the Mobile Reads Forum, but I am not going to interrupt their bitching session, it’s far too valuable. Thank you Mr. Anonymous but don’t believe everything you read, you may end up with egg on your face.

Marcus Blakeston wrote: I wouldn't worry too much about critics, though I wouldn't go out of my way to antagonise them either :) Can I ask how you got it to be free on Amazon? I tried to get a couple of Punk Faction stories on there for free a while ago by getting them to price-match Smashwords but they just took them off.

ML Stewart replied: Hi Marcus. I honestly don’t know. I can only think that it was due to the fact that Smashwords had it on offer for free and someone must have reported that fact.

George (Anonymous) wrote: What you say about your uninfluenced, virginal life or the death of a parent is irrelevant. Invest less time in online ranting and fix your typos because as a self-publisher and author, you are your own editor/proofreader. (proof reader is not one word George :)

ML Stewart replied: At this point I am not prepared to comment on the death of a parent but I would like to thank you for your compassion. Let me tell you in fact what the problem is and I only realized today. To quote someone on the "rude bastard author" thread. "He doesn't write; he types." Which is an advancement from Hemingway's days, nevertheless, this is correct, and a friend of mine uploads the books to Kindle. The draft of FBK1 which he uploaded was not the final edited version. This only came to light after a couple of reviews mentioning the problems with grammar, there/their/they're. When I checked my final manuscript, none of these errors were present, when I checked the first draft they were blindingly obvious. That person is now sitting in an electric chair repairing the damage he has done to my literary career. But thanks for the advice. Tool!

Emma wrote: So what if he's got typos it's a bloody good read and I've read!

ML Stewart replied: Thank you Emma, I like someone whose head isn’t stuck up their arse.

Before I conclude today’s blog. I just thought that I would mention the fact that my only banking facilities are offshore. I have spoken with my accountant and whatever money I receive from Kindle sales will inevitably be swallowed up by charges due to the fact that they issue cheques. I could be the number one seller and still probably not see a penny.

Experimental Statistics: I will not break down the exact figures for all 3 publications. This information I will release at Christmas. Total readership as of today: 11,239.

Blog Readership: 789.

Pissed Off Critics: 1

The Facebook Killer: Part 1 is #3 in Kindles Top 100 Free books

The Facebook Killer: Part 2
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #175 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

o #2 in Books > Fiction > Horror > Thrillers

o #2 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Horror

o #56 in Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers

The Sunday Club is still only in the #1,800 region and rising, sales are increasing on the back of The Facebook Killer.

FBK1 has received 13 reviews and averages 4/5.

FBK2 is yet to receive it’s first review. And yes, I am shitting my pants about this.

Remember gang; if you can’t beat them...kill them.

All the best,

ML Stewart.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that The Facebook Killer: Part 1 is number 6 in the UK Top 50 iTunes books. I whooped Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's arse.

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