The Eleventh Ascended: The System in Three Phases
I got another email today. You know the ones.
This one’s from (we’ll call them) “The Eleventh Ascended.” They say they’re an agency. I believe them. You don’t just accidentally become that ascended.
They took the time, very patiently, to explain how Kira and I can finally become authors when we grow up.
This one had a system. Not just a system… a three-phase system.
Which, importantly, is actually one system.
We’ve been doing it wrong this whole time.
In my head, I responded:
EA: Hi,
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Hello, stranger. Here to talk to me about my books?
EA: Untethered by Kira Lorne is not a book that should be “advertised.” It should be positioned.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Yes, I totally agree. However, I think this is the wrong Untethered. The one on Amazon that appears when you search Kira Lorne is not her book. We’ve tried to fix this. No one at Amazon cares or will pick up the phone.
EA: In the contemporary romance space, emotional vulnerability is currency…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s the authors paying for ads on Amazon that speak the loudest on the world’s most monetized platform—but that’s probably not even our biggest issue.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: The bigger issue is that Kira and I no longer publish through Amazon. If you click the book, you’ll see that. Our titles show up there through a third-party aggregator, probably tied to print distribution. I’ve tried to fix it. Again, no one cares.
EA: That is why I would approach this through what I call the Authority Ascension System.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: I would call it really bad marketing for a service we literally cannot use. We don’t have a KDP dashboard. We don’t run Amazon ads. We’re not in the system you’re trying to optimize.
EA: This is not social media ads here, Amazon ads there…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: I get what you’re describing. Truly. But again, your service depends on tools we don’t have access to.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Also, if your system is as good as you say it is, you’re positioning your own service wrong. You should take a percentage of sales. Every system that actually makes money works that way. You make us rich, you take a cut, everyone wins.
EA: Phase One is Emotional Positioning…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Oh, there are phases.
EA: Phase Two is Precision Amplification…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Okay, there are actually phases.
EA: Phase Three is Intent Capture…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Crap. There are three phases. This is a full system.
EA: All three phases operate as one system. Awareness feeds authority…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Then just call it one system. Much easier to remember.
EA: Search behavior increases conversion. Conversion strengthens long-tail discoverability.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Hold on, I had to look that up.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: So what you’re saying is:
Dance, monkey. If enough monkeys clap, we’ll upgrade you to slightly bigger cage visibility.
EA: The goal is not short bursts of traffic…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Right. Goal: sell stuff. Glad we clarified.
EA: I have outlined how the Authority Ascension System would roll out…
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Wait, so now there’s an outline… for the three phases… that make up the system… that ascends me into authority
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: OK so, this Ascension, I’m all about this, Ascending is good right? So you’re going to give me the System, to ascend and I’ll get more authority…no, wait, I was trying to stick the landing on that and I screwed up your script,
I lost it somewhere in there, but I respect the commitment.
EA: Would you like me to send over the full Authority Ascension blueprint?
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: Absolutely. Send me the golden recipe. I promise I won’t resell it.
CODY. THE MAN. THE MYTH: But seriously, you should consider taking a percentage instead of charging upfront. If it works as well as you say, you’d make a lot more money—and people might actually believe you.