Giant-sized guilty marketing pleasure

Couple years ago I published the giant-sized: “Email Players Annual #1” I included it as a bonus with the December 2021 Email Players issue, and started selling it as a 1-click upsell with certain of my offers since. And yet even though… 1. Nobody subscribed because of its cover beforehand 2. Nobody cared what the cover looked like beforehand 3. Nobody even knew there was anything with a cover on it at all beforehand… …I invested about 6 months of time and some $5,000 into having it designed, before even really caring about ever selling it or profiting from it. Why? To answer that I have no choice but to tell you an almost shameful secret: Over the past few years I’ve had each and every one of my book covers (and certain software graphics, like BerserkerMail, for example) framed and displayed on my office walls. Not just because I think they bring a unique flair to my otherwise plain vanilla place. Not just to impress the few people I even let inside my office. But also because in most of their cases, I put a lot of thought into the concepts & ideas before handing them over to Email Players subscriber Kia Arian to work her magic to bring them to life. Same goes for the covers created by the great Kirk DouPonce (who designs covers for all the big mainstream publishers) who did the covers for my Enoch Wars horror novels & also my Villains books on influence & persuasion. Same goes for the artwork I had created for the 9th Enoch Wars book interiors last year. I also framed & hung up the comicbook-style ads selling my Copy Troll book in the October 2019 & October 2021 Email Players issues. And most recently: I bought all the original penciled art for the Email Players comicbook #1 that ran through all the 2021 Email Players issues (that I gifted to Email Players in this month's November issue), which I will probably give as unique bonuses to especially worthy customers going forward, while keeping some for my righteous office & main residence (running out of wall space in my office) walls. The point here is, my house is well “Benified”, to say the least. In all these cases: I spent a lot of time & money to see my vision for them realized. And I’ve overall invested well over $10,000 in all these covers and graphics so far. (With more in the hopper — i.e., the 4 or 5 books’ covers I launched this year.) Frankly, I spent several months back-&-forthing with Kia and upwards of $5,000 alone just on the various concept artists I hired at her firm to get that first Annual’s cover as close to my vision as possible. I did recently have to reign myself in though, when I had a particularly complicated cover idea that would have cost my business $14,500 for a cover for a low ticket book (my BizWorld book) that is mostly just for lead gen I could not financially justify the investment for. We all have our limits... All of which might beg the question: Why bother investing so much time & money in that Annual's cover? Especially when the cover for that Annual did not “sell” anyone on getting that annual issue in any way, shape, or form, since nobody had even seen it until it arrived in the mail? The answer is simple: I wanted an “excuse” to add yet another piece to my growing art collection. In other words: I don’t see them as just “covers.” They are part of a carefully curated art collection. Some art collectors collect classic paintings, or pop art, or impressionist, etc. Me? I’m a “collector” of art almost exclusively for my own IP. If that seems elitist (and an argument could be made…) think about this: Many years ago, the great sci-fi novelist Ray Bradbury was being interviewed about his thoughts on his old friend Walt Disney. If you know much about Walt, you’d know he was a notorious procrastinator, needing motivation to get things done, especially as he got more successful and rich beyond the dreams of avarice. And Ray Bradbury said something very interesting about that. Specifically, he said Walt was highly motivated by surrounding himself with this animation and art to get more work done and accomplish more of his goals and ambitions. In other words: It wasn’t to impress people. It was a way he motivated himself to grow his business, brand, and legacy. And so it is for my own business. I have found that by surrounding myself with my book covers, graphics, comicbook-style ads, etc in my office (and, again, it’s all started creeping into the main residence — my latest cover for my Markauteur book is the “family portrait”, since Stefania, my late dog Zoe, and Willis are on it, which now hangs above the TV) I am far more motivated to work harder, push farther, and think more ambitiously than I ever would otherwise. I did not “spend” all that money on my designs. I invested it. And have seen that investment returned many times over. Anyway, do what you want with that info. But it’s further proof not everything profit-related can be tracked with a spreadsheet. And if you want to see my entire methodology for authoring the visual & design-side of my marketing universe, and how I use those visuals & designs to help create a passionate horde of customers who love to buy inside the world I’ve built and hate to leave it… then my Markauteur book reveals the whole shmear. It ain’t cheap, especially for such a thin book. And it ain’t for the rank & file on my list. But if this intrigues you, you can get it at a substantial discount during today’s sale. To get in on this, here is what to do: 1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase 2. Buy it before Friday 11/19 at midnight EST to get it at the discount 3. Use code POMPOUS at the checkout (Make sure you see the price change before entering your info) Here’s the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/design]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA