Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Roskill is getting many 'Likes' on Face Book, but those come with a 'catch!'

I have recently pushed my book, ROSKILL, Face Book and by doing that it has achieved a fair number of likes. At the last count this morning it was nearing 450. ON the face of it, I should be pleased but there is a certain damper when it comes to analysing the hits. When I go back and look at the profile of the ‘Likers’ of Roskill, I look to see what category they are using to ‘Like’ Roskill and only about 40% of them are for the ‘Books’ choice. My conclusion---people are hitting the ‘like’ choice randomly and it must be something about the title of Roskill, because many of them come from the area of Mt Roskill or were educated at one of the schools if not Mt Roskill Grammar , itself. Fine by me, because others then go from those hits and it is in a sense, accidentally getting the book out there. When I look further (Jeeze, I hope this doesn’t sound creepy!) at the ‘profiles, there is no shortage of young people who love gangs, drugs and various other ‘youth attractions,’ so I guess I have the target audience re age right, because Roskill is primarily aimed at teenagers, early twenties and yes, their parents too, but I find it either funny, perplexing and a little confusing, when I see the pictures of those actually choosing the ‘book’ category having alongside Roskill, the Bible, and drug or gang related titles. See what I mean about my perplexion!’ So---what do I do when it comes to selecting the winner of the free book when the hits reach a certain number? Three people have won the book so far and I have been able to deliver the book only to one person, who incidentally placed feedback that was most pleasing. That young person knows who she is and I think her. BUT---when I try to contact other who have won, via the ‘friending’ option, I am met with a wall of mistrust or nothing at all. Maybe they look at my profile and think that I am whacky—lol. They should look a little deeper into my profile and they will see that I work in a job that involves a great deal of trust. I suspect that most of them don’t even follow up on their ‘Likes’ or friendship requests. OK, this is what I shall do from now on: I will continue to give away free copies of Roskill, but I shall do it like this. When the magic number in my head is reached, I shall out those names who ‘hit’ the ‘like’ Roskill option, and who do so for the BOOK, then out them in a hat and make a draw. That way at least I am sending the book, once they get back to me, to someone who actually reads. Does that satisfy those who are not just randomly hitting the like button for any number of reasons? I want the book to go to ‘readers.’ So if you are ‘reading’ this, go to my website and have a look at Roskill. If you manage to read this today, then turn on TV1 on Thursday morning, at 9pm, NZ time and watch Good Morning. I am scheduled to be on then (baring some terrible news, like the destruction of the Labour Party, taking precedent!) discussing my book, Roskill. Am I nervous—you better believe it! www.authorneilcoleman.com The download for the book, on Kindle or reading AP go to http://amazon.com/dp/047325655X And yes, there’s more! You get a free download of you buy the hard copy. Plus, if you contact me direct at neilcolemanauthor@gmail.com I can give you an even better deal on the hard copy (NZ only) Have a nice day and I hope I have cleared up a little bit of a conundrum!