I wrote my first book, Get Yourself Hired NOW!: The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That!” several years ago. Concurrently, I released my job search organizer, “Get Yourself Hired NOW!” 6 months later, I released, “No B.S. Job Search Advice;” 6 months after that came, “The Single Best Question You Should Ask on Any Interview.’ Then came, “Look Me Up: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Social Networking Your Way to Job Search Success.”
They all sell regularly on Amazon (for the Kindle) and on BN.com (for the Nook). In addition, I sell copies in PDF format for people who want to read from a piece of paper. I don’t do print.
A few years ago, I started to release short guides to for recipes and card games. They have titles like, “Crockpot Cooking for People Who Can’t Boil Water,” “Pressure Cooker Recipes with Chicken for People Who Can’t Boil Water,” and “Playing Solitaire: 25 Versions of One of the World’s Great Games.”
The solitaire title alone outsells my job search book by more than 3:1 in each and every month!
What does that tell you about people?
It suggests to me that most people would rather waste time playing solitaire than develop the skills to help them get back to work or do more than conduct themselves in a “hit or miss” way in their job search.
Job hunting does not need to be difficult or time consuming. It is a skill, just like the ones that you employ in your work that can be learned. Yet most people would rather lose good opportunities that they want for lack of that skill rather than spend $9.99 for an ebook, whether it is mine or someone else’s, to get better at the skill that will help them earn $10000, $20000 or $50000 more in their next job.
They would rather spend $5 to learn how to play solitaire or cook better.
Does that make sense to you?
It sure doesn’t make sense to me.