Spencer Dryden
I never was very good at Physics. My undergrad
advisor told me 'physics is something you should have had to have known.' Newton told us that a body at rest tends to
remain at rest. Newton didn't have to observe the motion of the planets to
discover the principal. All he had to do was become an author. Wait, he was,
and in fact he sold pretty well. Okay, a fiction author in the 21st century.
Is there anything out there with that requires overcoming more inertia than
trying to move a book? Newton provides
us with an answer. Newton's formula
reduced to algebra is P= M x V, where P is momentum, M is mass of the object
and V, its velocity. Once again, employing Spencer's wacky science if we solve
for M where V (rate of sales) is nearly zero the equation is M=P/V. Mass
approaches infinity when there are no sales (V). The book therefore is too
heavy to move. The key is raising sales velocity (V) but we all know that. (And
you're wondering why I didn't do to well in Physics?)
I have been in several careers where overcoming
inertia is a big struggle. I was miscast as a salesman for many years. In my
last sales job I went from zero to over $100,000 in annualized commissions in
slightly more than a year's time-during a time when commercial insurance rates
were falling and commissions were being cut. (Sound familiar?)
Then there was my foray personal services. I became a handyman for hire. I started with
widowed friends of my mother-in-law. I never advertised. All my business came
by referral. I have more work now than I want. I am trying to ease my way down
to a few hours per week so I'll have more time for writing. It's been a great gig.
People don't know how to fix things anymore. As long as I can fix toilets I'll
never starve.
Then there was my long time interest in TV/video. I
started making little 'how to' videos of
fixes I encountered on the job. I used a
little video camera and a PC compatible consumer version of a commercial
editing suite. Frankly my videos were
terrible next to the slick productions done by manufacturers and other HGTV
wannabees. The difference was that I showed things as they actually looked in
real life because it was real life repairs. With only few tags I put my videos
out in the ocean of alternatives. Not much happened at first but several of my
videos have crossed the magic 100,000 view threshold. People had to be looking
hard to find my stuff. Many have raved in the comments about how helpful my
video was to their quest. I even have a
motto for DIYers, "If you do it yourself, the tools are free." There
was no way to 'monetize' my efforts so I quit producing videos a few years ago.
Thankfully I don't need the revenue from writing.
It's an inexpensive, entertaining and engaging past time to take into
retirement. I never imagined it would be as difficult to get traction as it has proved to be. I have spent
the last year flapping my arms as hard as I can trying to get this thing to
lift off. My fifth book will be released later year. Aside from purchases by
few friends I have barely registered any sales. Yet I have put far more
marketing effort into the venture than anything I have done in my life. There's
always another angle that someone is pitching—mostly things that worked ten
years ago— but frankly most of our efforts only fall into the field of vision
of other writers. And for me, it reduces the creative energy I need to write.
I realize time was a factor in my other 'successes'
and in time my efforts may prove successful. On the other hand, guys my age
have this nasty habit of waking up in the morning feeling fine and by five
o'clock they're on a slab at the funeral home or in a wheel chair with a drool
cup at the nursing home. I only have today and I cherish it.
I like the flip side of Newton's observation much
better, that bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Sir Isaac, can you give a
bro a little push here?
