Published on 12, July, 2020
I have published some e-books on Amazon. Since I am a largely unknown author and since there are so many books on Amazon, I thought about getting some help with marketing them.I visited a pubisher whose website claims to have some expertise in Amazon publications. A chat window popped up and this guy asked me about my genre and the number of pages in the book. I told him that this was a children's graphic novel about autism and that it had 108 pages. He then asked for the URL address. After I gave him the URL address, he said, "GREAT BOOK!" in all caps with an exclamtion mark.
This put me off because he hadn't read the book. He only had time to click on the address and to look at the title cover.
I wrote, "How do you know that its a great book? You haven't read it."
He wrote back to say that it's very rare to see a graphic novel with over 100 pages.
I said, "Length does not always equate to quality."
He then began to tell me about his many years of experiece in publishing and how he was an expert with a good eye towards ...
I terminated the chat conversation. I felt as though he was condescending and was trying to flatter me to get his business. I did not appreciate being manipulated.
In thinking about this, I think that I would have been far more recpetive if he had said, "GREAT IDEA FOR A BOOK instead of having said, 'GREAT BOOK!"
Did I over react by terminating the conversation? I wasn't looking for a sales pitch. I most certainly wasn't looking to be flattered. I just wanted information about how this company could help me market the book.
No I don't think you did, if something dosen't feel right, trust your gut, if something looks to good to be true then it usually is.
Thank your for your reply. I have spent a lifetime trying to fight my literal mindset which tends to want to believe everything that people tell me. A lifetime of experiences have taught me that people lie. It saddens me that people do this.
I think we're all taught not to trust our instincts, sometimes something isn't an outright lie or an attempt to mislead you, but it can still be the wrong thing for you. Unlike many autists I'm a very instinctive person and not always that literal, without going into to much, I've learnt after many years to trust myself, people ho are trying to persuade me to do something don't often like that I can't give a "logical" reason why I say no, but I tell them that No means NO and then I get as stubborn as a whole herd of mules and won't be moved even if threatened with violence, which has happened more than once.