Person on the Page

As a follower of a few Facebook groups for writers, I’ve been surprised by the comments of some members who lament that they have written a book, edited it and formatted it themselves, and uploaded it on Amazon. Why does it have no buyers?  Why aren’t they making any money?

What would give these writers the idea that making their manuscript available on Amazon, without exerting any effort at promoting and marketing, would result in automatic sales? What would give them the idea that if they place their writing online, it will immediately generate income?

After puzzling over these writers’ assumptions, I began taking notice of the ads I was seeing on Facebook. There I found the answer to my questions. Many marketers of courses and coaching services for writers promise just such miraculous returns for their efforts. Most offer one- to two-hour sales pitches (described as free webinars or boot camps) for their products. 

I decided that if it was free, I would listen.  Not that I thought I would want what they are selling. I was more interested in the way they package and attempt to sell their courses and services.  How do they play on the hopes of writers?

I focused on three marketers in particular: Christina Galbato, who offers her Blogger Bootcamp; Matt Rud, whose coaching service is called Write Your Book Already; and Christine Kloser, who offers courses and a writing community called Get Your Book Done.  My exploration of the way they present and promote their products led to a few discoveries.     

• All three claim that by using the methods they discovered they enjoyed a six-figure return in relatively passive income. Each of them implies, of course, that if we purchase and act upon their package of information, we will also make six figures a year with our writing.
   
• All three report that, because of the passive income they reap from their writing, they can travel the world and enjoy plenty of leisure time to do the things that they’ve dreamed of doing. Apparently, the prospects of world travel and leisure are strong enticements for writers.
  
• All three insist that writers can earn an attractive living without promoting or marketing their work, without an email list or social media following. They all claim that writers need not invest money to promote the success of their book or blog (except, of course, the money we invest in their product).
  
• All three itemize and place a value on each component of the course or service they offer.  The total cost of these itemized components, as we might guess, would be prohibitive to most of us. After showing us a grand total value that would prevent many of us from taking advantage of their product, they show us the extra-special low price that we, and only we who have signed up for their free presentation, will pay. Then, to create a sense of urgency, they cut that price significantly for those of us who will purchase their product immediately, on the spot. 
  
  
• They all three promise that their webinar sales pitch will be presented live so that attendees have the opportunity to ask questions about the product.  All three webinars include a chat box and a Q&A forum in which attendees can communicate with the presenter.
  
• All three claim that their surprising financial success as writers led them to want to help others achieve similar success by sharing their secret method.  All three suggest that they now devote their lives to helping others. 

1. Christina Galbato’s Blogger Bootcamp

Her website suggests that Christina Galbato is an entrepreneur with several profitable pursuits.  A self-proclaimed highly successful travel blogger, she is also affiliated with the Woodstock Retreat, a getaway in the Catskill Mountains. I suspect, though, that her primary focus is the courses that she offers in building a social media following, blogging for profit, and creating online courses.

I attended what was advertised as a live webinar about making a six-figure living with a blog. The advertisement suggested that I would be able to ask questions and interact with Galbato during the session. While it did include a Q&A forum and a chat function, the webinar was clearly pre-recorded. Galbato greeted by name attendees as they entered the webinar and introduced themselves.  My name appeared in the chat, but she did not greet me oddly skipping over my name in the chat list.  Effort was made to give the impression that what was happening was live, but it was not. 

Everything about Galbato’s presentation is polished, aesthetically pleasing, well-organized, and well-presented. Stunning photos of Galbato at leisure in various coveted resort locations suggest that, like her, bloggers who purchase her bootcamp course will be able to travel the world while their blogs generate income. The webinar included some of the standard information about blogging that anyone can discover through rudimentary research.  Learn about SEO. Blog regularly. Offer high-quality content. Employ social media to build a following. The less obvious keys to success, of course, are offered in the boot camp, the price of which dropped twice during the webinar.       

2. Matt Rud’s Write Your Book Already

Matt Rud (aka Rudnitsky) promises to help would-be writers plan and finish what he defines as a “punchy” book.  I attended his webinar after viewing Galbato’s presentation. Rud’s seems like a DIY parody of Galbato’s professionally designed material. Like Galbato, Rud shows photos of himself in locations across the world, suggesting that he, too, can enjoy travel and leisure because of his success. But unlike Galbato’s, his photos are grainy and obviously photoshopped.  In one, for instance, his image is poorly superimposed over what appears to be a stock photo of the Great Pyramids.

Like Galbato, Rud claims that his webinar is live and that attendees will be able to ask questions and interact with him. However, the presentation is obviously pre-recorded. Rud puts a good deal of energy, though, into creating the impression that it is live.  He checks the chat frequently and responds to people by name.  But the comments to which he is responding do not correspond to what the viewer sees, and any comments or questions that I entered in the chat were not acknowledged. Throughout his presentation, he stops to sip water to help maintain his voice, claiming that he rarely speaks at any length because he is so busy writing.  Yet, when I signed up to attend the webinar, I noted that one is offered every other hour throughout the day.  His claims just don’t add up.

Rud presents himself as a random guy who stumbled upon a key to financial security through self-publishing on Amazon. His book Smart Sports Betting: How to Shift from Diehard Fan to Winning Gambler was an instant success, he says, and continues to generate income.  If he can do it, we can do it, too. All we need is his coaching. His webinar includes a wealth of misinformation about traditional publishing. Traditional publishers are the enemy. They don’t want us to be successful. The way to success is Rud’s way.  If we act now, we, too, can watch the money flood in. 

3. Christine Kloser’s Get Your Book Done

Christine Kloser’s claim that her webinar is live is true. Hers is a Zoom meeting in which the attendees are visible and audible.  She responded to my entry in the chat and called me by name. A few times, her screen froze and she had to re-enter the Zoom meeting. At the end of her presentation, she invited each of the attendees to speak, and some of them did.

Kloser’s presentation gives the impression that she is a hard-working, no-nonsense woman who can help us overcome our self-doubt and procrastination and finish that book we’ve been dreaming of writing. Her website reveals that she does this by teaching a brand of meditation purported to clear the mind of our doubts and allow us to make unimpeded progress on our project. She also offers lifetime membership in a writing community that provides support and encouragement for would-be authors. All of this for a monthly subscription fee.

My exploration of the books that she has authored that are displayed on her website revealed that Kloser runs her own publishing company, Capucia Publishing, through which she helps writers get their books into print. For a fee, of course. So first she’ll sell us the wherewithal to write our book, then she’ll sell us her vanity publishing service. She can hold our hand through the entire process of making our publishing dream come true. 

Besides being entertained by the salesmanship and psychological maneuverings of these three cyber-success sellers, I learned a few things from this experience.

First, no wonder some writers are surprised when they upload their books on Amazon and no money appears in their bank account.  They may have been led to believe that they could make instant money by someone who sold them the secret to financial security.

And finally, the people out there who claim to be successful bloggers and writers with a passion for helping others achieve similar success are far more likely to be trying to make a living by taking advantage of people who dream of publishing a book and being able to support themselves with their writing. They are chasing their own dreams of generating passive income for themselves by creating automated courses and selling them online.