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  • Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    Does posting purchase links in social network comments lead to book sales?

    It’s been only two days since I started my Annoying Links test, and though I originally intended to stretch the test for a full week, I am going to cut it short. Why? A couple of reasons. One, I simply feel dirty posting links everywhere (even though I stated very explicitly up-front that the links were for study purposes only). Two, though only two days have gone by, the test isn’t looking too positive.

    The abbreviated results

    Will posting self-promotional links in social network comments lead to book sales? Maybe. But is feeling like a dirty sales person worth it? No.

    The process

    Over the course of 2 days, I posted a total of 42 comment replies on Facebook and Google+, each containing two links at the end of the post. The posts themselves were genuine responses to comments, things I would have posted even if I weren’t conducting a test.

    The two links at the end of the post were 1) a self-promotional link for my book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin and 2) a link to the original annoying link blog post which explained why I posted annoying links in the first place. Examples below:

    The results

    44 visits to explanation blog post. During the two day test I received 44 social referral visits to the You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week post. The most important ones to look at are those from Facebook and Google+ (which are the two networks on which I posted links).

    • 19 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+

    10 visits to the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin purchase page. The I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin campaign page was established strictly for the purpose of this test, so it was restricted from being indexed by search engines which would potentially disturb the test. In other words, the most likely way someone could get to this page is through one of my comment posts.

    • 6 visits from Facebook
    • 1 visit from Google+
    • 2 direct visits (meaning the URL was likely copy/pasted)

    1 click on a link to purchase a book. I tagged each one of the bookseller links on the buy page with a Google Analytics event tracking code so I would know exactly how many times each was clicked.

    • 1 click

    Was it worth it?

    Out of 44 annoying links I received 1 potential book sale. In short, no, it wasn’t worth it.

    Sure, expanding the networks in which I posted links may have helped. I could have also posted more than 20 (x2) links per day. I might even have had some success by being more strategic with my posts. Or perhaps by rejecting the desire to qualify the links with a comment about their annoyingness could have helped. But, even with those assumptions, I’m just not comfortable with the shotgun link approach.

  • More Stephen King Family Guy references. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

    More Stephen King Family Guy references. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

    (part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)

    An old episode, and honestly one of my least favorites. Not sure why, but this one just never did it for me. These two references come from the season two episode titled “A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Bucks” in which Chris becomes a hot-shot New York artist.

    First, an evil stuffed clown at a carnival:

    Stewie: “Ooooo how deliciously evil looking! It’s like something out of Stephen King”

    The evil clown doll may be a reference to King’s character “Pennywise the Clown” from his novel“IT!” (catch credit goes to TVRage.com)

    The above aside then leads directly into the second Stephen King gag, a more direct reference in which King (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) sells his publisher (or agent) on a terrible idea for a book. The publisher, of course, buys it.

    Stephen King: Okay, for my 307th book .. this couple is attacked by a… uh… A lamp monster! .. ooh…
    Publisher/Agent: You’re not even trying anymore, are you?
    King: ..
    Publisher: When can I have it?

  • You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week

    You may notice some really annoying links out there during the next week

    UPDATE: The results of this annoying link test can be found by clicking here

    (If you got to this page via an annoying social media or blog comment link, keep reading. This is all for the sake of science.)

    I’m a data nerd. I’ve gone record stating such, and I’ll go on record again. Something about seeing charts and graphs and trending lines and mapping the effect of X to Y and…let me pause to catch my breath a bit. I am fresh off a really successful Goodreads.com user study thing, so I’m itching to get back to the spreadsheets.

    So why tell you this? I am going to conduct a week-long test of sorts that will probably be a bit more intrusive than most of my other studies. I’ve noticed a lot of incessant product whoring on forums, blog post comments, and social status updates. You know the kind: “BUY MY BOOK HERE,” and “IF YOU LOVE VAMPIRES CLICK HERE.” Annoying right? But people keep doing it. Why? It must work, right?

    Right?

    Well, that’s what I’m going to find out. Over the next week or so I am going to end as many post comments and social status updates as possible with a link to the purchase page of my book. I’ll track the clicks to my website. I’ll also include a link to this blog post so that people are perhaps not entirely put off by the annoying sales pitches. I understand that having two links may dilute the test, but I’d rather play it safe and hopefully alleviate any hate.

    Once I have the results, I’ll post them here. Check back in about a week. The test may last longer, depending on how things work.

    I know this is risky—If I was smart I’d create fake profiles, rather than use my real ones, but I’m not smart.

    An example of the links you may see:

    Check out I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, my newest novel: http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, an “American road novel from hell”: http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    “Covering ground similar to the works of Sherman Alexie and Chuck Palahniuk, this is an author worth keeping an eye on.” -Publishers Weekly. Read I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin http://bit.ly/ReadKevin

    Why am I posting this annoying link? See here: http://bit.ly/AnnoyingLinks

  • Reading Riddley Walker and Fighting a Cold. Likely Not a Coincidence.

    Reading Riddley Walker and Fighting a Cold. Likely Not a Coincidence.

    I’m fighting a cold. And losing. Viruses seem to attack at times that I otherwise have both time and motivation to write (fiction, that is, not a quick blog post). One day, I’ll write an entire collection of vignettes under the influence of TheraFlu. Until then, I’ll stick to complaining that my body apparently doesn’t want me to write fiction.

    Today’s bout comes at an especially bad time as I have two projects underway that I am damn excited about. One, I’ve hinted at a few times before (coded 4C until myself and the other writers involved come up with something better), which is about 80% complete. I can smell the maggots on the bloody horizon. The other, a project I haven’t much started but for sketching a few ideas and doing some homework reading, is already gnawing at me. The homework: read Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. The assignment: a dare to write something, anything really, immediately afterwards. The teacher: Sarah D’Stair, writer and wife of writer Pablo D’Stair. Together, they are a formidable peer pair of peer pressure.

    A couple weeks ago in Chicago Sarah, Pablo, and myself (along with an entire host of friends and writers) sat down to a few drinks at Miller’s Pub. Conversation drifted to writing, then needled down to my own writing (Sarah’s insistence, not mine, I assure you), then further pricked at my style of writing, one which was described in variations of meticulous, precise, and, perhaps, over-wrought. So, a dare to write something more lose, more free-flowing, something to explore language rather than wring some beautiful (what I think is beautiful) language drug from it. I accepted. And now that I’ve had a few days to think about my drunken acceptance, I’ve leveled, but in a way that’s made me even more excited about the project than I was when first dared.

    I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to loosen up the way Hoban did with Riddley Walker—the book reads like a mix between Middle English poetry and the ramblings of a dented waterhead—but the core concept, that of letting language, for lack of a better term, flow, is intriguing. I look forward to it. Once I get over this damn cold.

  • Get a free print copy of I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin. Goodreads giveaway ends March 31st.

     

    Goodreads Book Giveaway

    I Didn't Mean to Be Kevin by Caleb J. Ross

    I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin

    by Caleb J. Ross

    Giveaway ends March 31, 2012.

    See the giveaway details
    at Goodreads.

    Enter to win

  • New story, “The Lipidopterist,” read live at The Meshuggah Cafe, recorded by Booked Podcast

    New story, “The Lipidopterist,” read live at The Meshuggah Cafe, recorded by Booked Podcast

    The fellows over at Booked Podcast are gents in the truest sense of the word. By that I mean they are whimsical placcards on the bathroom doors of bar restrooms. Also, they happen to be amazingly active participants in the podcast and reading communities, so much so that they are dedicating many future episodes of their podcast to live readings as recorded during the 2012 AWP Conference in Chicago, IL.

    Though my reading, done at The Meshuggah Cafe in St. Louis on February 28th, wasn’t officially part of the AWP Conference (which started February 29th in Chicago), the entire week blends for me into a single mess of drink, friends, and drunk friends.

    This recording captures the first time I had read “The Lipidopterist” out loud in front of an audience. All-in-all, I think it worked.

    Have a listen, then check out Booked Podcast for more. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you will never miss an episode.

    Lastly, head over to Amazon to buy “The Lipidopterist,” why doncha? It’s even available for FREE if you have that Amazon Prime thing.

  • New short story available at Amazon.com, “The Lipidopterist.” Man collects human lips. Ex-wife wants half of his collection.

    New short story available at Amazon.com, “The Lipidopterist.” Man collects human lips. Ex-wife wants half of his collection.

    It has been a while since I’ve had a short story to whore out to the world. While I’ve been busy bombarding poor souls with news of my 3 recent book releases, I haven’t had much to say in the way of short stories since…well, since September, if you can count my non-fiction piece “Denis Johnson Almost Drank My Pee” as a short story at Dark Sky (though “short story” implies fiction, and the Dark Sky piece isn’t). Anyway, my story “The Lipidopterist” is now available as a Kindle story over at Amazon.com. I recently read this story in St. Louis at the Meshuggah Cafe. The reactions were quite good, I must say.

    I believe it is also part of the Kindle lending library thing, or at least will be shortly. Still, though, it’s only $0.99. Fork over the coins!

    Available now from the fake publisher Viscera Irrational. Buy. Read.