Number 1

Last week I had the best day! I completed a 38 hour fast without any hunger and lost 5 pounds. Then I went to copy the link to my new Midcentury Doll Repair book and saw it was the #1 New Release on Amazon in one of its categories!

I was over the moon. Luckily I took a screenshot because…

wouldn’t you know it, the very next day it was bumped off first place by different titles. 

I was pretty bummed but then I got to thinking, this is really a good thing. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the “bestseller” book lists are basically lies. Publishers or authors buy thousands of copied of their own book to get them on the list and then they return them. Another thing a lot of people do is give the book away for “free” if you “just pay for printing and shipping” as an enticement to sign up for their course or recurring monthly subscription. The books they buy to send to people bumps them up to the bestseller list. Pretty disappointing, right? Once the book has been on a best seller list you can always say it was on the list.

Now, I don’t give away my books and I’m too honest to buy a ton of them and then return them so my book got the #1 spot honestly. I don’t know how long it was #1 because I just happened to check. I’m sure glad I got the screenshot to prove it! Now, however, I can always say it was the #1 New Release on Amazon, even for just one brief and shining moment!

I don’t give books away because I don’t have another pricey subscription or anything to sell after the book. My books are expensive because I am literally giving away the secrets of the trade ~ once you learn this stuff you don’t need me anymore so I lose that income. 

Besides that, the price you see on Amazon is not the price I am paid. Amazon takes roughly half of the income on each book. Their agreement states I must sell them on Amazon because I use KDP for the printing. I can pay for printing and shipping and sell the books on other sites but I am not allowed to sell them for less than on Amazon. So, I have to make them expensive to make sure I actually get paid enough for writing them. 

There are all kinds of doll repair books that are now out of print because the authors just didn’t find it worthwhile to have more printed up. Those books now sell for hundreds of dollars. I think it’s sad the authors didn’t get any of that money! This is why I steer people to my eBooks, which are not available on Amazon; I can charge a lot less. 

I might have something up my sleeve, however. I just got off the phone with a world-renowned doll supplier who is interested in buying my books to sell on their site. If they will buy enough of them I may take them up on their offer. They would be able to sell them for less because they have such a large following. I think I would have to lower the price on Amazon; I’m not sure because I wouldn’t not be selling them directly on my site. I need to read the contract. But the prices could drop if all this goes through. Don’t worry if you bought a copy; I will either refund you or send you extras to make up for the price difference in the event it actually happens. I am super excited to finally be getting attention on my books and products!

Also, you can learn literally everything I know from my blog for free. I get literally hundreds of questions about doll repair every month. When I point people to my searchable archives to find the answer for themselves pretty much everyone instantly says they can’t find it. The archive search always works for me so I suspect people are not being completely honest about how hard they tried to find it! But since I spend so much time answering all these questions I can point to my books as a way to find everything easily and actually get paid for my time.

For you though, my subscribers and best customers, I am willing to lower the price. Just for you, a signed copy of my Midcentury Doll Repair book is $75 with free US shipping and my Doll University 2nd Edition signed hardcover book is $100 with free US shipping. This is a very limited offer: I only have 5 of the Midcentury books and 6 of the Doll University. Email me at ateliermandaline@gmail.com if you want to claim yours ~ it’s first come, first served!

If you want to save by purchasing the eBooks (formatted to print beautifully at home) you can get a great deal on those by clicking here.

When you order the books (physical or eBooks) from me I will send special gifts, including two more books and free enrollment in a course.

The Father's Day Sale is happening now on Etsy, for even more ways to save on Mandaline products and books.

In other news, if you follow me on Pinterest you probably noticed all my boards disappeared. This is because I just took Jenna Kutcher’s Pinterest course and found out I needed to redo the whole thing. Years ago when I started my business Pinterest was my greatest traffic driver. I used to get 40-50 thousand views every month. Recently, though, my views and engagement plummeted. 

It turns out Pinterest completely and totally changed their algorithm. They used to reward you for the number of times you pinned something. It didn’t matter if the link worked forever. I used to pin every one of my product listings from eBay and Etsy. I also used to use Pinterest for doll research and I had thousands of dolls pinned to one board. Now, though, they want the links to work and they punish you if they don’t. So, I had to just hide all my boards with those broken link pins. 

I am not very happy about it because I think a lot of people use it as a research tool like I did and not necessarily as a means to get to the various websites. I had so much knowledge on that doll board and I loved sharing it with you! Pinterest wants to lure in advertisers by telling them most people on their site are there to shop and buy so that’s what they want all the links to work.

Never fear, however! I learned how to get around the new algorithm from the course and I am slowly rebuilding my boards with plenty of dolls for you, both for purchase and education. I still have some low-carb recipes and books and mindset boards, and of course my Deals board with all the money-saving offers from me and my affiliates. Please check it out here.

And if you miss any of my old boards, like my gardening or camping ones or you would like me to curate pins on another topic please hit reply and tell me about it. I am spending hours every week on my Pinterest and I want to make sure it’s valuable to you.