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I didn't decide to be born, and when I was, others made decisions for me until I was old enough to make my own. Even then, what I decided often left me subject to what others decided, much of which affected me directly.
It's the same with you. We all have an infinite number of lives we would have lived had we made different choices in the past, which is the essence of the Unlived Lives Trilogy. You can only imagine what your life would have been like, but you can experience the lives of Raymond, Shelly, Asian, and others as they visit the lives they would have lived had they made different choices in the past. https://www.williammatthies.com/unlived-series.html #paralleluniverse, #multiverse, #psychologicalthriller, #fictionbooks,
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I included the video in this post in an ad on Facebook and Instagram this past October. Book sales were okay, but not nearly as strong as before.
I've since learned that Meta changed the algorithm it uses to provide an audience for advertisers. Now, instead of placing emphasis on the audience I select, the algorithm weights that lower, and instead, uses the words and images in the ads to define an audience it believes will be more interested in my books. It didn't work, and I stopped all Facebook/Instagram advertising. If I am to start again, I need to second-guess Meta's algorithm, which second-guesses me, and I need your help to do that. Prior to this change, I created Unlived ads based on interactions with people, including many of you reading this now. I know who my customer is; the algorithm believes it knows better. Question for you. The attached video portrays the dark side of the Unlived Lives stories. Who do you think would be inclined to click the link in the ad after seeing this video? Who would not? You can comment here, or, if you prefer, directly at [email protected]. Thanks in advance. Raymond, Shelly, and Asian are living lives
they would have lived had they made different choices. Where would you be now? www.williammatthies.com  New Year's Eve: A time to reflect.
I should have taken more time to do that. I do now. I think about friends and family who have passed, particularly those whose demographics are similar to mine. A few when we were younger. That didn't pertain to me, or so I thought. It does now. Unlived Lives stories sometimes include a mirror in which a person on the outside of the glass can see their doppelganger on the inside. Their unlived self. I no longer need a mirror to do that. I've reached an age where I see many of my lived and unlived lives, remembering those so important to me in the past who are no longer here. You will see yours if you're old enough to look for them.  (An end-of-year post for my self-published author friends.)
. . . The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn had been out six weeks. I had coerced and threatened all my friends and family to buy it. Total sales by the end of 2024: 47. Sales from January 1, 2025, to February 28, 2025: 3 Sales to date for Raymond, and the sequel, The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett: 1,572. What changed? Well, for starters, I was out of friends and family. If I wanted to sell more books, I would have to find more of each or learn how to sell to people I didn't know who didn't know me. I completed the Click Testing for Authors course at the end of February 2025. I began advertising on Facebook the following week, and on Instagram in April. I thought I would also place ads on Amazon, possibly LinkedIn, and/or Goodreads. I don't want to bad-mouth anyone, but when it comes to selling books, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) works, the others . . . 🙄 Speculative question for (authors) today. If the book in this image existed (it doesn't), would you read it?  Starting December 8 through January 1, The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn ebook is available for 50% off the regular price. But only on Smashwords.
An excellent opportunity for you, and as gifts for your friends and family to meet Raymond, Shelly, Asian, and all the other characters in Raymond's unlived lives. Happy holidays!  My daughter-in-law was walking her dog this past weekend when she noticed an Asian man approaching. She said his walk and mine were so similar that she had to turn and stare at him after he had passed. That gave me an idea for a possible plot vehicle for a future Unlived Life story.
A Caucasian character encounters his Asian doppelganger (or the reverse), the result of his parents having married someone else. Had one of my parents married an Asian person, my daughter-in-law (who happens to be one-quarter Japanese) might have encountered half-Asian me in an unlived life. Shelly's and Raymond's stories are essentially two-dimensional. The choices those characters made created their unlived lives. The idea that choices made by others before they are born is to the Unlived stories what three-dimensional chess is to the game of chess. A whole new dimension. Speculative question for today. How different would you be had your parents married someone else?  No statistics tell us what percentage of adults would choose to live an unlived life. But stats do suggest how many that might be:
Given the choice, would you choose to live your life differently?  This is a link to an AI answer to the question, 'How many new books are published each year?'
This is either good news or bad news, depending on whether you are a reader, a writer, or both. Good news for readers, bad news for the overwhelming number of self-publishing authors struggling to get our books recognized. But maybe not good news for readers either. This all began when Amazon started selling books online in July 1995, thirty years ago! You may have forgotten, or never knew, books were the first product Amazon offered for sale. How do you find what you want to read? I want to know because one, I read and struggle to find books I will pay to read, and (hopefully) enjoy. And because two, I write books, I hope you will pay to read and (hopefully) enjoy. Four million new books a year is a lot to sort through. Speculative question for today. Is any number of new books a year too many? I've been commended and criticized for leading readers to one conclusion they soon found to be a dead end.
In The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett, Shelly decides to be with Lionel in Israel. The story places them there, describing their jobs, relationships, and lives in some detail. Soon, Shelly is off to a different, unlived life. There are three reactions to this and similar plot twists: - You got me, I like plot twists. - A bit complicated, but okay. - Reading this gives me whiplash. Shelly's story, Raymond's before her, and those in Reckoning (spring 2026) are about lives those characters could have lived had they made different choices. An infinite number of unlived lives. Shouldn't readers reading about lives never lived expect things not to be as they assumed they would be? Speculative question for today. Is a predictable life more preferable to one less predictable? |
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