Archive for Book Sales
Authors Complain That There’s Too Much Competition
Too Much Competition to Sell Books?
Someone on a forum lamented that, with so many books on the market, the competition makes it nearly impossible to sell books. »»
Brick and Mortar Bookstores vs. Amazon for Authors
Brick and Mortar Bookstores vs. Amazon for Authors
An experience, a stat and a reflection on brick and mortar vs. Amazon:
An Experience
I write resources for those teaching character »»
People Are Buying Books – Lots of Them!
Some people look at struggling bookstores and the woes of traditional newspapers and magazines and conclude that nobody reads anymore and it’s a bad time to write »»
Follow all the rules for your publishing success
Most don’t. The temptation is this. You’ve spent all this time and energy on your manuscript. So you type up this query letter in a day and fling it out there.
An acquisitions editor told me recently, “Most submissions are worthless.” So, to separate yourself from the herd:
1. Know what the publisher is looking for. (See the current edition of Writers Market.)
2. Find how to write a query (refer to one from agent’s site).
3. Polish it and get input and polish it again.
Convince Me You Can Market and Sell Your Book
Actor Johnny Depp once said in an interview that beyond learning his part, he tries to add “that little something extra.” You can see that in his films. Captain Jack Sparrow was outrageous!
Let me suggest that, in order to get your manuscript noticed, you need to “add that little something extra.”
Build an Individualized Platform
Guy Kawasaki was one of the original Apple employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh computer in 1984. Today he works as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, listening to people’s upstart ideas and deciding who to help fund. In an interview, Kawasaki observed an important differentiator among business start-ups. From his vast experience, if a person raves about how his venture will make tons of money, he doubts it will succeed. But if someone describes in glowing terms how his venture will help lots of people, Kawasaki is all ears. Here’s one that’s likely to fly.
To Learn Self-Publishing, Read Dan Poynter
Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book, 465 pages (Para Publishing, Santa Barbara, CA, Sixteenth Edition, 2007). Includes helpful glossary and index.
Since I’m moving toward self-publishing another book, I needed an education on the publishing process. Poynter fit the bill.
Enhance Your Amazon Sales
Whether you self-publish, go with a traditional publisher, or something in between, you’ll want to do everything possible to enhance your sales through Amazon.
I’m currently reading Sell Your Book on Amazon, by Brent Sampson. Buy it. It’s easy to understand and walks you step by step through the Amazon tools that can make the difference between a book that never gets noticed and one that becomes a best-seller. And the best news is (for a cheapy like myself), most of the tools are absolutely free. And since “marketing techniques are only as valuable as the profits they generate,” he ranks the Amazon tools from five star (only idiots wouldn’t use this tool) to one star (only use this tool under special circumstances).
How One Author Sold 150,000+ Copies of His Book
Yesterday, I started reading Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval, a former publicity director of several publishing houses. She emphasizes that even if you have a traditional publisher with a marketing department, authors must market their books if they expect them to sell.
She begins by sharing the story of James Barron, who wrote a “funny and informative” book for expectant fathers. At the time of Deval’s writing, Barron had 185,000 copies in print. How did he do it? A couple of things stood out to me:
