Dingus of the week, the writer who (probably) lied about his book on Medium

Happy Friday,

Some guy wrote an article on Medium saying he self published a children’s book and made over $5,600.

Most self published books fail horribly so my first thought was wow, maybe I’d like to talk to this guy, see what he’s doing right. So I clicked to read the piece.

Second thought— yeah, maybe not.

The post wasn’t about selling his book. It was about how easy it was to create it. He used free images off the internet and made the cover using a free Canva template. The gist was you, too, can make a children’s book.

Dozens of comments. Most of the early comments were of the “omg, how did you sell so many books?” flavor. The dollar figure in the title was the hot button. No one replied to the actual content of his post.

Way down at the bottom, one writer noted that the book only went up in late July and has no reviews anywhere. Not on Amazon or Lulu, where it’s published. He didn’t reply to that comment, of course.

It’s possible he’s not lying, I suppose.

Maybe he has a mailing list and sold hundreds of copies in two weeks because of his list. But wouldn’t you think even one person would leave a review? One? Seems to me a list would be the only way to move a lot of copies fast, and that people who are on his list might be more likely to leave a review.

Course there’s another option. Maybe he sold hundreds of copies and didn’t get a single review because the book is that bad.

Either way, 3 things struck me…

First, the total mismatch between title and content. The title didn’t reflect the content at all. The title should have been about how easy it was to make a children’s book because that’s what the post was about. That’s the definition of actual clickbait. When the content doesn’t deliver on the promise the title made.

Second, what a wasted opportunity. That alone makes him the dingus of the week. There’s a boatload of struggling authors on Medium. This guy actually wrote a children’s book. Two, in fact. One in June, one in July. There was opportunity to have a real conversation about self publishing and the struggle to get sales. A lot of people would have identified with that. But instead, he blew it by writing a stupid clickbait title that didn’t even match the content.

Last thing that got me was the comments.

Most commenters took him at his word. Believed he did, in fact, earn over $5k in a couple of weeks. They’re full of questions. How did you do it? Can you share some tips? I did not expect so many people to take him at his word. But they did.

No one cared about how he *made* the book. Their comments weren’t about the content, they were about the title. Good old money hot button. They just wanted to know how he sold so many copies and earned five grand.

Maybe he did sell a crap ton of books. More likely he didn’t.

But it begs the question — where is the line between gullible and trusting?

Is that why Medium has such a problem with meta posts and how to make money on Medium posts? Are we really that gullible, as a whole?

I would have understood that in 2000. But it’s 2022. Do we still need to teach people not to believe everything they read on the internet?

Why do people believe so easily?

---

What I wrote this week…

• Can We Stop Complaining About Meta Posts & Address The Bigger Problem?

• In 1860 One Lying, Racist Excuse For A Man Got Abortion Banned In America

• Six Harsh Truths I Learned From 2 Million Views Here

---

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, click the heart to let me know. I use hearts as indication of what to write more about. :)

xo,
Linda