It makes sense to seek advice for new writers from experienced authors when you’re just getting started.

For one, they’ve been doing this for a long time. So, they know well enough what works, what doesn’t, and what pitfalls to avoid.

There’s nothing wrong with seeking their advice if you can learn a thing or two from their mistakes.

The amazing part about the author community is that authors love sharing their experiences with fellow authors.

While many of their advice for new writers is something that you should take to heart, there are times when it may be wise to go against conventional advice.

Like many authors, I do follow their advice for new writers. But after some time, I decided to bend the rules since their advice didn’t seem to work as much as I had hoped.

Here are some of the advice for new writers that I blissfully ignore.

Set the first book in the series as permafree

The idea behind setting the first book in the series is pretty straightforward – you want as many people as possible to sample your work.

And the best way to go about it is to set the first book in the series for free.

When we’re talking about setting it to free, we’re not talking about having it available for free for a limited time.

We’re talking about the forever free book.

Thus, the name permafree.

Once they enjoy the first book, they’re more likely to buy the next book in the series or anything you publish.

Why this advice falls flat on me

The issue with this approach is that you end up attracting readers who may not be the right fit for your book.

Sure, you can hook these people to your book with your amazing writing.

But no matter how amazing your writing is, it won’t appeal to them if they don’t read in your genre or it doesn’t meet their preferences.

Like it or not, they’re not going to buy your next book even if they’re on a discount.

What I do instead

The solution to the problem is simple – I no longer offer the first book in the series for free.

Instead, I set the price for the first book to $4.99 and the next book in the series onwards to $7.99.

Of course, I can always charge less than $4.99 to entice more people to buy the book.

But I end up sticking to the $4.99 price tag since people who are willing to pay this much are interested in reading my book.

And there’s a big chance they will read the book right away too after the purchase.

Have an email signup on my website to get people to join my email list

What is the best way to get people to join your email list, you ask?

Well, it’s to offer them something for free to entice them to sign up, of course.

You can offer all sorts of things from free email courses, free books, or perhaps sample chapters of your books.

Regardless of what you plan to offer, your potential readers will be more likely to sign up if they get something enticing in return after joining your email list.

Why this advice falls flat on my face

Believe it or not, getting people to join your email list in exchange for a free ebook is much worse than setting your books to permafree.

Not only that you end up attracting people who aren’t the right fit for your book. But you end up attracting freebie seekers too.

Sure, you can argue that setting your books to permafree will still attract freebie seekers to get your book.

But I find you tend to attract freebie seekers much easier with email signups.

They can use something like a temporary email address to claim your free book.

It’s clear from the get-go they don’t care about you and your books. They just want that free book and forget about you once they get what they want.

What I do instead

Out of the advice I get about building an email list, this is the only advice I keep.

But rather than having an email signup on my website, the link to the email signup will only be available on the back matter of my books.

That’s the only way for people to claim the free book.

The email signup you see on my website is only for receiving my blog updates.

You won’t find the link to claim the free book anywhere else on my website.

Be on social media

While this advice isn’t specific to being an author, the adage applies to businesses overall.

Be where your audience is if you want to reach them, say the experts.

No matter how niche or obscure your business is, you can be certain that you’ll find them on social media.

Luckily, they no longer push the idea that you have to be everywhere on social media.

But you will still need to be present on social media since they’re more likely to engage and buy from you if you have an active social media presence.

Why this advice falls flat on my face

It’s not that hard to figure out why social media doesn’t work for me – I hate it.

I don’t think things will work for me if I loathe them so much.

And in this case, it’s social media.

Lo and behold, more than a decade later we finally realize that the conversion rate for social media marketing is pitiful for the effort you have to put in.

It makes me wonder why we need to put so much emphasis on social media when the conversion rate is plain awful.

What I do instead

Well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I quit social media for quite some time as I write this.

There’s no reason for me to be on social media when the traffic that I get from social media is minuscule.

It’s not going to impact my website traffic if I go cold turkey with social media for eternity.

And I don’t see myself coming back to it either.

Should you be doing the same?

Well, of course, the answer is no.

Keep in mind that I made the decision not to follow the advice based on my own data.

If you don’t have the data to back your decision, then you’re just shooting yourself in the foot for not following the advice of the authors who have come before you.

So, what you should do then?

Test the advice you get first and see how things will go for you from there.

You can then decide for yourself whether you want to keep the advice or ditch them altogether.

That’s the best way to go about it not just in your author business, but in life too, in case you’re wondering.