Introductory Post--Mission Statement, Yada Yada

This blog is called Why This Book Sells.

I hope that it's a rather self-explanatory statement, but just in case, I'd like to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog to anyone who might stumble upon it down the road.

I'm an indie author who's chosen to be relatively anonymous online.  But I've been writing since I was a wee lad, and publishing independently via ebook format since 2011.

By now, I've authored dozens and dozens of books under different pen names and in different genres. My books have been in the top 100 (paid overall store) of Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble and Kobo.

However, this blog isn't about my books, nor is it about me trying to teach you (or anybody other than myself) how to sell books.

This blog is hopefully going to be about a community of authors who are interested in WHY ANY PARTICULAR BOOK SELLS.

People who want to analyze everything from blurb, to title, to opening pages, to genre, market trends, pricing, cover design...and the list goes on.  I'm hoping to attract the brightest and most analytical minds who enjoy doing this as much as I do.

This is for fun, but also for education and profit.

Profit, how, you say?

I believe that those of us who think and learn and challenge ourselves to analyze in such a way will ultimately get better at selling books than those of us who don't.  

And so, in the end, I do feel that this blog could be a tool to help others make money as they improve their understanding of writing and publishing BOOKS THAT SELL.

What this blog will not be, hopefully:

A place for negative feedback.  

We're going to be taking other authors' work and discussing them in a public forum.  Normally, I'm all for open discussion and saying just about anything you want.  But I'll probably be moderating this blog a bit more heavily when it comes to negative statements about other authors' work.  I don't want authors who might be discussed here to feel burned in any way.

It will not be a place to complain about how "crap sells" and "good stuff isn't appreciated by the masses."  If you want to voice those opinions, go elsewhere.  I'm not against griping--I gripe on more occasions than most--but that's not why we're here, in this space.

And finally, I hope this blog will be a cool place for likeminded authors and digital book enthusiasts to congregate and share wisdom for free.  If we can help some newer authors or struggling ones in the process, even better!

I feel like this will be a blog that will prepare authors much better than the majority of books and classes and other gimmicks that folks pay for.  

And yet, here we are giving away the information for nothing, simply because we love writing and publishing and we like talking about what sells.

So that is the end of my chatter.  If you like the idea, stick around, read, participate. If not, adios and don't let the door hit you on the way out.  ;)

In the next post, we will start to discuss our first book!  See you there!