Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Will There be More Volumes After This One?

 


One of the questions I've been asked is, "Will there be more volumes after this one?"

It's a natural question, as this book only covers the first month of the war, and there is still much to write about. I could easily see several more volumes, and I'm willing to write them. Military Miniatures Press, the company that published this book, wants me to write more. There is not reluctance on this end -- except for one small problem....

The book isn't selling.

(The Ranking of the book, as a few hours ago)

There were a few problems when it came time to publish the book. First, the Kindle version was unable to handle the number of photos, resulting in no kindle version, which destroyed the pre-sales. That was a learning experience, one that will be taken into account the next time. Second, the ad campaign that was supposed to run on both Twitter and Facebook were shut down before they could start. The book was caught up in something I wanted to avoid talking about on this blog -- Politics.

Social Media has been a powerful voice over the last fifteen years, but it has also suffered from an attitude that they know what is best for their subscribers. It was quick to throttle anything that thought smelled of pro-Russian viewpoint, or what they saw as monetizing by Russians. Also, Meta, Facebook's parent company, briefly allowed Ukrainians to call for Putin's death before pulling back after criticism for taking sides and shut down anything that seemed to be taking a strong position for or against the either side.

A quartet of articles looking at this activity are here: Ukraine war: Meta restricts Russia from running Facebook ads amid row over media censorship, Meta Meets the Reality of War, Facebook takes down Ukraine disinformation network and bans Russian-backed media, and Facebook Is Now Allowing Itself to Be Weaponized.

In the words of my book's editor and the man behind this idea: "The big thing is that we never got any momentum from pre-sales or social media advertising because of the censorship, which was consciously done by Twitter and Facebook to avoid entangling themselves with the war and Russian retaliation. It strangled the baby before it was born." 

What is really annoying is that the Social Media's decision to throttle the book's PR was short-sighted and done without actually looking at the book itself. I and the people at Military Miniatures Press are not pro-Russian mouthpieces -- if anything, our sympathies are with the Ukrainians. 

Another problem has been the political divide that has blinded some people to reality. A few have decided this isn't a fight we should get involved with, seeing Ukraine as nothing more than Russian Light, and this war is a quasi-civil war. They point out the oligarchs and corruption as reasons why we shouldn't be sending them military equipment or supplies. Also, twenty years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq has left the US population with war fatigue. Understandable, and less open to criticism than the blind political blindness a few talk-show hosts and politicians have been touting.

My own opinion is this: would you rather support and supply a country who is not only shown a willing to fight Russia, but has been wreaking havoc on what was the number two military in the world, or do you want to wait five or ten years down the road, and have NATO fight the same Russian military, now with combat veteran soldiers and a restocked force in Poland or the Baltic States? So far, Ukraine had devastated the Russian Army, savaged the Russian Navy, and has made the Russian Air Force of not consequence. The right support, with the right safeguards, will help the Ukrainians secure the victory they need and deserve. That's enough of my personal feelings....

In any case, the Social Media's knee-jerk reaction destroyed any momentum the book had, and there is nothing we can do about it. I am frustrated and I've tried to do my best to get the word out, but with Social Media censoring topics they don't agree with, and this has hurt sales. It has only two ratings, and while both are 5-star, it needs more ratings to make it more visible.

I want to get this book out, to have people read it. I think it's the perfect type of book for someone who wants to know what happened, without getting bogged down in details and politics. But with the easiest route blocked, I don't know what we can do to promote the book. 

I have been on a couple of video podcasts. The first was Blaine Pardoe's show, which can be found here: The Blaine Pardoe Show / 9-15-2022. We just discuss the book and nothing about the recent unpleasantness. Also, I know I spelled my name wrong -- it was a bit of a leaning curve and we were in a time crunch. This podcast, with SOFREP and that is here: Episode 613: James Rife and Craig Reed, Military Historians and Authors. And Michigan Toy Solider Co. posted a video that flips though the book so you can see what it looks inside. That video is here: A MichToy FLIP-THRU: THE RUSSIAN UKRAINE WAR FACTBOOK. Take a look and listen, then please consider buying the book.

That's it for now, more later

Craig

**********

If you want to take a closer look at the Russian-Ukraine War Factbook, or to buy it, you can go here: https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Ukraine-War-Factbook-Craig-Reed/dp/B0BL5CRLLK/ref=sr_1_18?qid=1672081631&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+A.+Reed&s=books&sr=1-18&text=Craig+A.+Reed

or here:

https://www.casematepublishers.com/distributed-publishers/military-miniature-press/the-russia-ukraine-war-factbook.html#.Y6oA4H3MJ0w

For my other non-Battletech writing, all four of the Outcast Ops novels I co-authored with Rick Chesler are on Amazon and are part of the Kindle Direct program. In the US: 

Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov on Amazon!

In addition, there is a physical version of Watchlist here: Outcast Ops: Watchlist Paperback

For those in the United Kingdom,
Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov on Amazon UK

For anyone else, please check your country's Amazon Website (if there is one).

Also, check out the other Outcast ops novels:
Outcast Ops: Game of Drones by Rick Jones and Rick Chesler
Outcast Ops: The Poseidon Initiative by Rick Chesler.

In addition, Outcast Ops novels are on audiobooks! If you're member of Audible, you can listen to them free! The audio versions can be found here: 
Outcast Ops: Shadow Gov (Audible)

The audios for Game of Drones Games of Drones (Audible) and The Poseidon Initiative The Poseidon Initiative are also up on Audible, or though Amazon!

Please read or listen and leave a review!

 




Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)