Anyone who knows me can vouch that I’m not much of a salesman. Au contraire, I can easily state that I have got to be the worst salesperson in the history of sales! In my latest project, I decided to write a book about a covert espionage operation in russia, with the goal to undermine russia’s infrastructure to the point where it would be more than noticeable in society, government, and military. The book was written and then published earlier this year.
The idea of this project was to sell as many copies as I could, deduct the (very low) printing cost from each sale, and send the remainder – the total profit – to an organisation that helps civilians and military in Ukraine. Due to my poor sales skills (it cannot be the book, ’cause that’s great!), hardly any sales were made.
In a mood of optimism, I decided to buy a first batch of 25 copies and sell them quickly. Then I’d order a new, hopefully bigger batch, and sell these too. As an author, I can buy my books at cost and that makes them very cheap. Selling at a reasonable price, I’d churn out a nice sum of money in no time at all. The optimist again, I assumed to sell ‘m all in weeks only. In reality, I sold a few, but most have been gathering dust in a box at home. I carried them around for sale to almost all car shows I visited this year (which are many) – no sales. I mentioned my book in combination with relevant news on Ukrainian successes attacking russian infrastructure – no sales. I even made a few mentions of the book on Facebook, but got more biting comments than sales – actually, no sales here either.
Note that I’m not complaining. I’m just anxious to get the money the books would have made to where I promised it was going, Ukraine.
If you can believe experienced authors who sell a lot of books, it’s all about marketing. Obviously, you gotta have a good book. But I don’t think that’s the issue. You’re supposed to announce to your readers that you’ve started a new book, and then keep them informed during writing, and hooked for when it is ready for pre-order. And of course you gotta have ads on Facebook and ‘other places’. The ‘salesman’ that I am, and mostly looking at cost, that ain’t gonna happen. In my view, ads are a waste of money.
Also, I have no clue who my readers are and where or how to approach them. When I read others’ books, I don’t go and follow the writers. I don’t look at any ads announcing a book about to be released. Heck, I do my very best to ignore any kind of advertising! Most books I’ve read in my lifetime were written before the internet and smart phones were even invented. So apparently, my behavior as a consumer negatively dictates my behavior as a marketeer.
Long story short:
I’m giving away my remaining books! As I still want the Ukraine help to get what they were promised, I’ll be chipping in the assumed profit myself. So, that way I’m sticking to my word, which is very important to me.
As I hoped to sell the books I’ve got left for €15 per copy (which is a bargain in my view) and the printing cost was about €2 per book, I’ll add €13 to my Ukraine account for each book that I give away for free. And I absorb the shipping to me.
How can you get one?
Just contact me on Facebook, BlueSky, or via the comment link at the bottom of this page. Only exception: if it needs shipping, that’s on you.
Fair warnings:
- When I’m out of copies, that’s it.
- For the remainder of this giveaway action, the book will still be available on amazon, but with the final copy being given away, I’ll remove the book from amazon (as I’ve already done with all my other books).*
Paul
Sweden
2025-08
*While I was happy to sell my books on amazon before, I wasn’t overly impressed with bezos attending the inauguration of the current prez-attempt, hence my newly found averse with amazon. Obviously, the same goes for zuckerberg, but I have yet to find a viable Facebook replacement. Mister musk’s is tweetr is another one, but a very good Tweetr replacement was easily found, go BlueSky!