Writers Quitting…

Three Letters…

In the last seven days, I have gotten not one, not two, but three letters from writers about ready to quit. Now I get these letters occasionally, I think all professional writers do. Sort of a last gasp before letting the dream float away. Not sure why three this week. Maybe the way the world is right now, I don’t know.

All three had clearly spent some time. None of them were published wide, seeming to think Amazon was the be-all and end-all. Real bad information there.

Two of them had in the ten-or-more-book range before discoverability, but one had 24 books. No sales at all, or just minor ones.

None had done a Kickstarter, one didn’t have a web site. Two had spent money on ads and those failed, as expected.

So what did I do? I looked up their books on Amazon and instantly found all three of their problems.

Their covers sucked, I mean actively sucked. Uniformly sucked. Their names were small, no branding at all, and most of the books I could not tell the genre from the cover at a glance. Big oops. None of them had a concept of “thumbnail” covers.

So I went to the next step a reader would go to just in case I found one of the covers interesting. Sales copy.

To a book, they all wrote dull, passive-verb plot, and mostly giving the entire book away.

Not one reader would make it past the horrid covers and the dull sales copy, so even if the math of discoverability worked for them, no reader would go the next step.

So these three writers, all about to quit, had spent the time writing and publishing (at least to Amazon), but had built huge walls against any sales, then were discouraged that their walls they had built to make sure no book would sell were working.

This is not stupidity, just a flat unwillingness to learn that at its core, publishing is a business.

I did my best, in my own blunt fashion, to encourage these three, as I do with everyone, to continue forward.

And there is help. One more time I will repost the two mentorships that I still have room in. If you are approaching discoverability and your sales are still flat or nothing, there are reasons and you can fix them. I can help you.

But just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, as I said the other day, will not do it for you. And sadly, that is what those three writers were doing. I hope I broke the deadly cycle for them.

Here is the information on the mentorships. You want to make a lot more money in 2026, one of these might be the best holiday present you give yourself.

Kickstarter mentorship…

That’s right, one-on-one, I will help you build and launch a book kickstarter in the next three or four months (or whatever works for your timeline) that will fund, and get you readers for your books, then I will continue to help you with how to fulfill the campaign.

Fear stopping you. Or just not getting around to it. I can be the engine and deadlines that get you going and you can start any time with any project.

And then in the following six months I will help you with a second campaign. You will have two successful campaigns from this and have the confidence to keep doing more. (I will of course be around to answer questions.)

So afraid of doing a Kickstarter? Can’t pull the trigger? Or just want to do it right?

I have done 59 of them successfully and will work with you personally, one-on-one to help you launch a campaign that will fund. And then fulfill and launch a second one, fund, and fulfill.

Basically I will be your private Kickstarter instructor. I plan on learning a lot and having a blast, and helping you realize how much fun campaigns are as well.

Cost is $1,000 fee for my mentorship. Simply send the fee to PayPal and use the email dean@wmgpublishingstore.com.  We can start with your first one any time you would like. Questions, just write me.

PERSONAL SALES HELP MENTORING…

I still have room. And you can start now or next year, either is fine.

Here is why I am going to do this. To put it bluntly, as I said above tonight, many writers are simply creating stories that won’t sell for one reason or another, often having nothing to do with craft.

Sometimes learning this stuff early helps before you get to twenty or more major titles published, but often a writer gets to that discoverability threshold of 20 books and still does not see an increase in sales. That means something is off in the product. (At that point, the story is a product.)

Getting a reader to spend money for a book comes in four steps.

• 1… Cover and author name. Branded name and cover branded to a genre.
• 2… Sales copy.
• 3… Opening that makes a reader want to buy.
• 4… Ending, validation that make readers want to look up more work by the same author.

(The endings also includes back matter.)

We have done cover workshops, and in varied ways I have worked with writers on sales copy, mostly just saying it is good or bad. We have done the Depth workshop to help with openings, but not in a way that focuses on sales. And we have an endings workshop that also does not focus on sales.

But in any kind of class structure, this would be impossible. To get a writer on the correct path will take time and very much one-on-one help.

And often the right path to selling might be just more ways of exposing good books to readers But first you got to get them to buy the book and that is where I can really help you.

So taking the pattern from what Kris did with the craft writers she worked with, I am going to help a few writers make sure all elements are working to help in sales.

Here is the structure of the Personal Sales Help I am going to do.

• 1… I will give a short story assignment for a brand new short story (or one you have already written) that is due in two weeks.
• 2… You will need to also send me the cover for that new story and the sales copy for the story on the due date. 
• 3… I will read the story, with a focus on the opening pulling readers in, and a focus on the ending getting readers to want more of your work. Then I will help with the cover and the sales copy so the entire package works together. The focus will be sales.
• 4… This will last for six months only, or 12 assignments, whatever comes first. Later assignments will include back matter.
• 5… I will work with any writer at any point in their career, but you must be able to complete a short story and do your own cover and sales copy. I will not read a work in progress or a novel. 
• 6… Fee is $2,000 and needs to be sent to PayPal to dean@wmgpublishingstore.com (Note… that is a dead email and is only a PayPal address.)

The goal is to get your stories, your covers, your sales copy to professional sales levels and increase the amount of readers and thus over time the sales you have going into the future.

This does not include any of the mentorships or coaching I have done in the past. This is a focused thing for six months.

Questions, write me. Subject Line “Personal Sales Help.”

Again, this is for sales, and I will read your short stories and look at your covers and sales copy with that focus completely.