Yesterday, I said I’d give away for free writing secrets just like those Nick Daws is selling for fifty bucks from his website.
Before I do that, though, let’s take a look at how Nick sells what he sells.
1. Nick Daws, “Best Selling Author”
Best-selling … according to whom? Did he make the New York Times best seller list? The best seller list at USA TODAY? The best seller list at one of the big book chains, like Barnes and Noble or Borders or Books-a-Million?
He doesn’t say … and believe me, if an author makes any legitimate best seller list, he’ll tell you which one it is. (“On the New York Times Best Seller List for Two Years!”)
I can’t be sure, but I’ll bet Best Selling Author Nick Daws became a best seller the same way Joe Vitale did. Mr. Vitale sells a system by which authors of electronic books (written in just seven days) can be come best sellers. It works this way:
– Write a quick, sloppy e-book in seven days.
– Upload it to Amazon.com.
– Conduct a massive email and spam campaign offering lots of worthless, “free” incentives if people will buy your book on a specific day.
If an unusual number of buyers — perhaps as few as a hundred — buy your book on Amazon on any one day, your book will, for that day, shoot up the Amazon sales ranking chart (and sink back down pretty quickly after that).
But, for that one, shining moment … you’re an Amazon.com Best Seller … and you can, forever after, claim to be a best-selling author.
Hey, for that matter, I’m a best-selling author, too! My book, Putting the Tarot to Work, is the best selling book on brainstorming with Tarot cards on the market! (Actually, it’s the only book on brainstorming with Tarot cards on the market.)
Wow! You’re getting tips from a best-selling author right now … for free!
2) Buy Now!
When you reach Nick Daws’ website, you’re greeted with great news: the price of the package will be reduced, and a BONUS PARCEL will be included, on all orders received BEFORE a date that, mysteriously, is always about twelve to twenty-four hours from whenever you visit that web page.
A quick look at the source code for Daws’ web page reveals the secret behind the sale: the date is calculated and inserted on the fly whenever the web page is loaded.
Nick’s not really lying to you. All packages ordered BEFORE that automatically generated date will be reduced in price … because the package is always reduced in price. The goal of this little statement, though, is to make you feel you’ve stumbled on Nick’s web site just in time … and to convince you to buy now to avoid tomorrow’s price increase.
The same trick is employed further down the page: the date associated with the “personal letter” from Nick Daws is also computer-generated to make it look as though Nick has recently updated the page!
3) As seen on CNN!
Nick claims his work has been featured on CNN, Yahoo Internet Life, MSN’s Pick of the Web, and CNET’s Editor’s Choice. Wow! Is Nick’s work really generating all that attention?
Well … sort of. I went to CNET and did a search on Nick Daws. There were no articles about him or his writing system. There was, however, one “sponsored link” — in other words … a paid advertisement.
Most people will read, “As seen on CNET’s Editor’s Choice!” and believe Nick’s CD of Writing Secrets was reviewed and recommended. It would be more accuracte and honest to say, “As advertised on CNET in an ad Nick paid for!”
(But that doesn’t sound nearly as impressive, does it?)
4) Recommended and Endorsed by …
Take a look at the folks who are raving about Daws’ program. Do you recognize their names? Have you ever read one of their books? Have you ever even seen one of their books?
I get the impression most of the folks who endorse Nick’s writing program are a lot like Michael Forbes of Journalist.net. Whoa! Doesn’t that name — Forbes — sound impressive? Isn’t that the name of that financial news magazine?
And he’s from Journalist.Net! Surely Journalist.Net is one of those dot-com news powerhouses, yes?
Nope. See for yourself — Journalist.net is, in fact, a pretty homely little web site. It features links to a few press releases (many of which are broken), an index of worldwide journalists (about fifty-nine of them, one of whom says she writes about “anything, except really technical stuff!”), and a limited range of services (fax gateways, etc.) that poor shmucks can buy from the site’s creators.
5) Write Any Book in 28 Days!
You can write a book in an hour, for that matter. Heck, here’s one I wrote in thirteen seconds:
“Marcel studied his face in the mirror. The scars from the night before were fading, lost beneath a thick growth of stubble. Satisfied, he crawled back into bed and slept the morning away.”
My point: writing an hour a day, for thirty days, you probably can create a book of sorts … but what kind of book? How long? How interesting? How well polished? How “finished”? How marketable?
And that’s ultimately the most deceptive thing Nick Daws does with his writing program: he dangles dreams of best-selling authorship before his potential customers … but his only real promise to you is that, using his system, you can write a book in thirty days or less.
Rather conveniently, he fails to mention that writing a book is just the first step. You’ve got to sell that book, to find an editor or publisher willing to invest in your book, to find a means of distributing that book to other people, to find a way of creating demand for your book.
Without these other things in place … all you’ll really have is a book.
6) A Publishing Contract in 90 Days!
“But Mark!” you protest. “Nick says I’ll have a publishing contract within 90 days, or I’ll get my money back!”
I’ll go Nick one better. I can get you a publishing contract right now, today.
How? By sending you to what’s called a vanity press. I guarantee a vanity press will publish your book. Heck, a vanity press will publish anything — a book of your crayon drawings, four hundred pages of the letter “e,” a collection of your old emails — if you’ll pay them to publish it.
Before you order his package, be sure to ask Nick if he’ll guarantee you a publishing contract with a publisher who will pay you more money than you’ll have to pay them!
Conclusion
Nick Daws claims to know a lot about writing … but after looking at his site with a skeptical eye, I’m convinced he knows more about high-pressure sales, deceptive advertising tactics, and bilking you of fifty bucks than he knows about writing books.
If Nick has to resort to tactics like these in order to sell you his “writing secrets,” how likely is it, do you think, that he’s got something really valuable to sell you?
Hey, Mark. Everything you said about this marketing scheme makes sense, and was my first impression about Writing Under 28 Days. When I told a friend I was considering it we laughed out loud for five minutes. Yet, here I am actually wishing I had a PC instead of a Mac (huh?) so I can take advantage of something like that dream you spoke of — freewriting, an hour a day, perhaps with some magical guidance from a marketing scam artist who might just have the ticket! What if it’s TRUE?
Have you checked out the software? Is the software a rip off, or just the dream?
Let me know, please.
SS
I’d just like to point out that, Nick Daws didn’t create the sight that is selling his product! DUH!!! Jeez Louise! Did you really think that he would?Go to subliminal-power.com or subliminal-CDs.comhe just used the same people to sell his product that’s all! Sure they know a whole ton about advertising, who doesn’t!I really think you are misleading people about his course, he practices what he preaches, and man, he is rich and famous now!! He has written 30 books in the past three years. Now, look at that any way you want, but if they were cheap shitty little things as you indicate WHO THE HELL WOULD HAVE PUBLISH THE TWENTY-NINTH ONE OF THEM??!! No one. Simple as that. Ask anyone in the business, if the author is producing b/s then they get a negitive reputation real, real fast. Five books would be well enough. To keep writing after ten shit books would be amazing! But thirty??????
Since you’re clearly a shrill person with an axe to grind, I’ll keep this simple:
1) I never said Nick designed his own web site. I *did* critique *how he sells his work* through that web site.
The website in question uses exaggeration, deception, and distortion to foist Nick’s products on unsuspecting buyers. Whether he came up with the site itself isn’t the point. However, the fact he chooses to advertise his work this way says a lot about him … and his material.
2) I can’t testify to whether or not Nick Daws is as “rich and famous” as he claims to be, but I’m open to evidence as to whether or not this is true. Got any?
Currently, I’m limited to what I can find through Google and Amazon.com. Nick claims to have written 30 books; his personal website, where you’d expect to find them listed, lists only nine.
Some of these books are listed at Amazon.com as “spiral bound.” While not always the case, most “spiral bound” books are self-published.
I mention this mainly because you asked, “If they were cheap … little things as you indicate WHO THE HELL WOULD HAVE PUBLISH THE TWENTY-NINTH ONE OF THEM??!!” The answer? If you go to a vanity press, you can publish as many “cheap little things” as you like.
You make a lot of claims without offering much evidence (hey — sounds a lot like Nick’s web site, doesn’t it?). If you’ve got more than conjecture, vulgarity, and ALL CAPS to back up what you have to say, I’m all ears.
Nick Daws’ website even looks home-made, and has tons of spelling/grammer erros, which doesn’t impress me…especially coming from someone who’s supposedly a best-selling author. Besides, have you looked at his short stories? They’re crap.
Having worked in advertising for years, I can tell you those advertising “strategies” Mark points out are highly mis-leading but very effective! Not because people are stupid, but because they hope it’s the one thing that will finally “work” to make their dream a reality. People like Daws make me angry by exploiting dreams like that. Good thing consumers are wising up these days.
The truth about writing a novel in 28 days? Entirely possible, as other sources will tell you. But there’s no “secret” as Daws claims. the knowledge is readily available: You can find books on Amazon.com that step you through it. I’ve done it myself. Yes, it’s a first draft. But first drafts (although the most intimidating) shouldn’t take the most time. Re-writing is what takes time. So, you’re looking at six months to a year before you’ll have a polished draft.
Some good resources to guide you through writing:
The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, by Evan Marshall
Writing the Short Story, by Jack Bickham (equally effective for book-length work)
I saw Nick Daws’s site, and I reckon it took me longer than it should to smell a rat.
So I went to search Amazon and B&N for what kind of masterpieces such a best-selling author. Couldn’t find anything worth the alleged fame. Working in Italy or Germany? A collection of URLs for writers?
Maybe these two booksellers were boycotting Mr. Daws’ publisher due to some unrelated deal. So I went to AltaVista to search for his name, and this is how I landed on your site, where I discovered that my suspicion was well founded.
After having translated many books, I’m writing my first one. It’s taking much, much longer than 28 days for one single reason: lack of discipline.
So I’m developing a possibly more expensive and perhaps less efficient method, which should work for me. I’ll put a box beside my computer with a calendar pasted on its side. I will be allowed to tick every day that passes by as long as I have worked for at least one hour on my book. If I haven’t, I’ll have to drop $2 in the box before ticking the day.
At least, if I don’t open the file for 28 days, I’ll have $ 56, which is better than spending $ 50 on something I didn’t use all this time.
Considering the facts you provided, this logic is about as good as Nick Daws’ for selling his CD.
How about the stories about the other authors?Agatha Christie, Carlson, etc.I wonder where this came from. Is this true? I mean, how can you fake this? Either they did it or they didn’t. I may not be able to beat Dickens or Christie. But what about Carlson? Hey, I guess I can write a self-help book.You don’t need a lot of brains to read it, so it won’t require a big brain to write it – I guess.I never did it.But as you pointed out so eloquently, Nick Daws may not be the best one to learn from.It’s that damn concept of “What if” again.I once heard it’s the reason for all human stupidity – which makes it a wonderful sales tool.By the way…Did you know you can publish your crappy 13-second-book for free. Just go to lulu.com.Then you can get your own scam-site running ;-)Something like “How I wrote a book in 13 seconds and got it published for free`”.Get a pdf full of blank pages as a bonus if you order today …Boy, I guess I should work in sales.
Just came across this site when searching for Nick’s own site.
Want to say that I actually purchased this course and really enjoy it.
Not sure how you can make these comments without actually seeing it first!
He also has genuine credentials here: http://www.writequickly.com/author/testimonials.aspx
And no, I’m not connected and couldn’t give a second toss if Daws disappeared tomorrow. I’m just saying you’re a bit too “clever” for your own good, boys.
Katapultman:
Thanks for stopping by.
The “genuine credentials” you site for Nick Daws are not credentials … they’re testimonials. There’s a difference.
Did you bother to follow up on any of those “testimonials” you cited? Tellingly, only one comes from a legitimately published author. Her publications, incidentally, were all written *before* she discovered Nick’s methods … and in her testimonial, she admits she hasn’t yet employed his method to actually write a book!
The other books referenced in the other testimonials all appear to be self-published books and e-books. I didn’t spot one legitimately published work in the lot. Did you?
That alone should tell you something.
Finally, my comments, especially in this entry, are about *how* Nick sells his work. I don’t have to see *what* he’s selling to make comments about the *way* he sells it. (Though the way he sells it, frankly, tells me a lot about his work!)
I love your book you wrote in 13 seconds. I also quite enjoyed the critique of the hype.