Message for LinkedIn Users – the world’s first ever mass networking experiment.
First of all, many thanks for following the link to come to this page. I was anxious to get everyone away from the LinkedIn site as I do not want to infringe any rules that they may have about this sort of thing. Also, apologies to anyone who may have been referred to this page more than once!
So far as I am aware this is the world’s first mass networking attempt, and credit must go to various other LinkedIn members who suggested it. In particular, thank you to Stan Relihan, whose pieces I always enjoy, and who sparked my interest in this with an interview he broadcast a little while back. Basically, we are going to try to reach over 8 million people. Ambitious, huh? Well, we’ll see.
OK, here’s how it works and here too I am afraid is where the naked self-interest comes in, because I am going to run this around the launch of my new book “Major Benjy”. For those who don’t know, this is similar to what Sebastian Faulks has done for James Bond. There is a wonderful series of “Mapp and Lucia” books which were written by an English author called Benson, and with the blessing of his estate, I have written a new one. I can guarantee that it is well written (because it’s been reviewed by four different novelists including a Booker Prize nominee) and that you will enjoy it, because the stories are funny. OK, end of commercial.
Incidentally, there is a “David and Goliath” angle here because the book was rejected by just about every major publishing house on the grounds that it wouldn’t sell more than a few thousand copies. Wouldn’t you just love to prove them wrong? By the way did you know that several of them turned down “Harry Potter”?
This is what I would like everyone to do. It’s really very simple, but it does rely heavily on your goodwill, so please imagine me grovelling abjectly at your feet at this point … OK, that’s enough.
First, please buy the book online by following the appropriate link. If you are asking at a bookshop for it instead, all they will need to know is the title (Major Benjy), the author (Guy Fraser-Sampson) and the publisher (Troubador) but the ISBN (978-1906510-749) would be a welcome bonus.Then, ask a LinkedIn question to all YOUR contacts, asking them to come to this page and follow the instructions. Also, ask them to make they sure that they then ask a question to all THEIR LinkedIn contacts asking them to do the same.I will monitor as best I can the number of the number of orders that have been placed through this page and will report progress periodically.
Before I finish, a word of explanation since you may think this is just a shameless marketing ploy. I am not doing this for the money – any writer reading this will understand instantly what I mean. Retailers, both bricks and mortar and online, discount the book. The publisher then typically receives about 50% of what they sell it for (NOT the price on the cover), so you can be already down to about 30% of the cover price. The author then gets a royalty (in this case, 10%). That is based on what the publisher receives, i.e. 10% of perhaps 30%, so about 3%. In this case, a third of that is then going to the estate. Enough said, I think. I am doing it for two main reasons: (1) to prove the power of e-networking (if we can move the needle on the Amazon best-seller list, what further proof is required?) and (2) to prove that a great book published by a small independent company with zero promotional budget can still succeed, despite the disdain of the mainstream “Goliaths”.
Finally, I should receive a small amount as an Amazon associate for every book which they sell as a result of a click-through from this site. I am undertaking to pay any such sums to the Royal Marsden in London, the UK’s premier cancer hospital, the nominated memorial charity of a good friend who died of cancer a few months back. Again, I will report through LinkedIn on the sums raised. Many thanks for reading this far. My very best wishes to you, whether you decide to support the project or not.
Online book purchase links: