Don’t Buy My Book

Have you ever wondered how much of the globe’s population speaks English? I just looked it up:

18.8%

Perhaps it’s my American ethnocentrism at work, but I found that stat to be a bit lower than expected. Regardless, the point I am building to is: I don’t want everyone to buy my book.

If you don’t speak English and aren’t attempting to learn, I don’t want you to buy A Bloody Business or any of the other novels.

Also, I’d wonder how you were reading this in the first place, but I’m sure there’s lots of translator plugins for web browsers. More of my ethnocentrism at work.

So, my potential audience has already decreased from 8.19 billion down to 1.54 billion. Still a sizeable amount, and if I sold to even a tenth of them, I’d be a happy author.

Still, there’s other considerations that shrink my potential market even further:

Please, Consider the Following

Platform: In exchange for better royalties, access to Kindle Unlimited, and Kindle Select promotions, all my books are exclusively sold through Amazon and Audible.

Why does that matter? Not everyone has an Amazon account, and though it’s free to sign up, not everyone wants one. Same with Audible. Plus, not every country is served by Amazon when it comes to shipping print books. Audible and Kindle, I imagine, are universal since they’re fully digital delivery.

Then again, not every place has reliable power and internet, so more ethnocentrism from me.

I don’t have an exact figure to cite here, but some portion of English-speakers either can’t or willingly don’t have access to the marketplaces where I sell my books.

Genre: I’ve used this example before, and I think it’s perfect to deploy here:

On one end of the spectrum, we have those who like to sit down and watch mindless reality television for their evening entertainment. It doesn’t matter if it’s scripted or if none of it matters in their own lives.

On the other, we have those who will watch historical documentaries despite often knowing full well how it ends. No, the Germans do not conquer Stalingrad this time (or the last 30 times you’ve watched something about the battle), but isn’t it amazing how the Soviets turned the tide?

I imagine there’s incredibly scarce overlap between these camps, and that most view those in the opposing circle with disdain: why waste your time with that?

We are all capable of change, so I am in no way implying someone in either camp can’t find themselves enjoying something new (hell, maybe even switch sides). For example, I listened to Brute Force by Scott Meyer which was only partially “in genre” for me and ended up loving it. Definitely my favorite book of 2024. We are complex creatures who love to defy easy classification and dichotomy wherever possible.

Still, the odds are higher that one camp will enjoy the blend of history, humor, and hitman (yes, that is a genre 😉) that A Bloody Business brings to the table more than the other. I’ll leave it to you to determine which.

Format: A Bloody Business kisses novel length at just over 40,000 words. In a world of competing demands for decreasing attention spans, I saw this as a good thing. Light, fast, and an easy way to catch up on your yearly reading goal of X books.

Still, I remember one of the assistants at the physical therapy practice mentioned “I read a book every few days.”

And I said, “Ooh, he’s probably going to be less than satisfied with my book’s length.”

He did not bring up length when we talked about the good and the bad. Still, the fact remains that some want more content than this book can offer.

Again, I think on the macro scale, more of the world prefers short to long these days. But there are those who hunger for massive tomes and giant series, to which A Bloody Business satisfies neither.

And, hey, if we all start pushing back on easily served entertainment and rebuild our ability to focus deeper, then A Bloody Business would find itself on the losing side of history (the irony). Do I think that’s likely? Probably not, but I would love to see it happen even if it hurts my book’s longevity.

Also, I am fortunate to have found a narrator among my circle of close friends so I can offer audiobooks along with print and digital, but not everyone is so lucky. Or some books don’t even make sense to produce as audiobooks.

Point being, I wouldn’t want an audiobook lover to buy my print book unless they really wanted to read it. Otherwise, they’re getting a subpar experience and are already biased in their opinion of the work.

The Ultimate Point

It’s impossible to please everyone.

Does being a lover of history mean they’ll automatically love my book? No.

Does being a hater of history mean they’ll automatically hate my book? Probably, but I have faith I could win them over.

So, with all the considerations above limiting the potential audience size, I choose to see every non-sale as a victory. Each time someone clicked an ad, a newsletter link, or a link on my website and didn’t buy, I like to believe they did so because they realized this book probably wasn’t for them.

I’d rather avoid a bunch of disappointed or even enraged readers leaving bad reviews, returning the book, and taking to socials to flame me and my work. That all might still happen, but I am at least doing everything within my control to avoid that outcome. Or, at the very least, decrease the frequency of these negative outcomes.

Between the cover art, back cover text, product description, and all the details Amazon provides around the book (page count, language, content sample, etc.), we work in tandem to provide said person with all the details needed to understand the contents, vibe, and format within. That they made an informed decision not to purchase is just as important as those who made an informed decision to buy.

That’s the whole goal.