Facebook subscriptions

As you (probably) know, the purpose of this Facebook page is to promote the book I most recently wrote, also titled The God Conclusion. The book is listed at #19 in the Religious Studies: Science and Religion category, but it is merely #112,259 overall in the Kindle Store. Translated into numbers, I’ve sold several hundred books, but that is only a small fraction of the people who allegedly like my Facebook page. Sixteen thousand people like my Facebook page, and seventeen thousand follow it, but I can’t even sell one thousand books.

If even half of the 16k people who “liked” this page had also bought my book, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation because I wouldn’t be several thousand dollars underwater on my advertising campaigns. I’m not complaining; I’m stating facts.

For whatever reason, there seems to be a major disconnect between the people who follow this Facebook page and my book, even though this Facebook page primarily exists to promote my book. While I have never expected nor intended to become rich from royalty payments, I confess I have become somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of going broke trying to sell an $8 ebook ($14 for the print copy.) I don’t even mind breaking even, but I’m not interested in prolonged deficit spending. I’m rapidly approaching retirement age, and I’m never going to be able to retire if my work costs more to produce than it earns.

Now, if you’ve been holding out for the audiobook, you won’t have to wait much longer. Once the book has passed Audible’s quality control check, it will be available for sale. If that’s the case, leave me a comment and let me know. If enough audiobooks are going to be purchased when it becomes available, perhaps I won’t have to resort to what I’m about to suggest.

This is a business; I need to make money. So, how do I produce more revenue? Meta has offered me the option of selling subscriptions to The God Conclusion Facebook page. I mentioned this once before but said I’d rather sell books than subscriptions.

The problem is that I’m not selling enough books to sustain the campaign. I’m currently publishing five or six posts per day. Under the subscription model, everyone would still be able to see at least half of my posts each day, but to see everything I post, you would need a subscription. I’ll admit this solution is not ideal, but I’m grasping at straws at the moment.

Of course, the best way to support the Facebook page is to buy my book. To be honest, selling subscriptions feels a little bit like desperation to me, but the income-to-expense ratio has gotten out of hand, and all things being equal, I’d rather keep The God Conclusion Facebook page going. I feel like I’ve bonded with many of you, even if I haven’t been able to convince you to buy my book. Something’s gotta give, but it can’t continue to be my bank account. At the moment, my options appear to be:

1. Sell a lot more (several thousand) books.
2. Sell a decent number of (several hundred) audiobooks.
3. Sell subscriptions to the Facebook page.
4. Shut everything down, and give up.

If nobody liked the Facebook page, I’d be leaning toward option #4. If option #1 was already working, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’ve tried just about every trick in the book I can think of to sell my book, and nothing has worked so far. I’m hoping that the audiobook makes up for the revenue deficit, but it won’t be available for at least several more weeks, if not longer. I may not be able to wait that long. If you have any better or other ideas, please elaborate in the comments.

Thanks.