Thanks "Anonymous" for adding this question: "How can I increase sales of my Amazon book?" to my "How can I help you" page.
Let's dive in!
So. You have written a book and you want sales.
Are we really going to ignore the elphant in the room?
What do I mean?
Authors don't like hearing or answering this question.
IS YOUR BOOK WANTED?
Let me put it another way. I am assuming you have published your book somewhere public, like Amazon. Has anybody bought it? Anbody at all? Any good 4 stars upwards feedback? Ideally, before you even wrote your book, you should have undertaken some research and market testing to see if anyone liked the idea of reading your book. Did you do that?
Authors don't like hearing or answering this question.
IS YOUR BOOK WANTED?
Let me put it another way. I am assuming you have published your book somewhere public, like Amazon. Has anybody bought it? Anbody at all? Any good 4 stars upwards feedback? Ideally, before you even wrote your book, you should have undertaken some research and market testing to see if anyone liked the idea of reading your book. Did you do that?
Okay, another question. Have you given your book to anyone you know and have they genuinely said they like it enough to buy it? Have they bought it? Have they recommended it to others?
If the answer to the above questions is "NO!" then my advice is do not worry about sales until you can say "YES!".
If you are still here, I am assuming you have a book people want and you have made a few sales and have had good feedback. Now I can help you with finding out what you can do to increase your sales?
First of all, which platform is your book on? The main ones tend to be Amazon KDP and Lulu. Of course, if you know your niche market then you can also go through a publishing house like Hayhouse.
Once you have found a place to publish your book. You need to also do another obvious thing. Make sure the cover page and editing is excellent. Notice I said excellent. Do not go down the route of just hoping the world of readers is going to view your book and instantly forgive the dodgy title and cover design and buy it in truck loads. It is not going to happen! Here are some great places to help you with book design:
- Canva [CLICK] is great if you want to design something yourself. And don't forget the free help from Amazon KDP [CLICK].
- Fiverr [CLICK] is a good place to find someone reasonably priced to do the cover for you.
- 99designs [CLICK] is a good choice if you want someone to do it all. They have a video, explaining all, on their home page, check it out.
- Bookbaby [CLICK] have a good reputation and are worth a look.
Obviously, do your own Google search to see if you can find a book cover design company that suits you. Perhaps you have one near you, so you can go to them and see the designs in person.
- Canva [CLICK] is great if you want to design something yourself. And don't forget the free help from Amazon KDP [CLICK].
- Fiverr [CLICK] is a good place to find someone reasonably priced to do the cover for you.
- 99designs [CLICK] is a good choice if you want someone to do it all. They have a video, explaining all, on their home page, check it out.
- Bookbaby [CLICK] have a good reputation and are worth a look.
Obviously, do your own Google search to see if you can find a book cover design company that suits you. Perhaps you have one near you, so you can go to them and see the designs in person.
Great! So you have a book people want. You have an excellent book design. Finally, we can really delve into the business of how to increase your book sales.
Get yourself a literary agent! This is often overlooked. A good agent will obtain and negotiate author contracts with publishing companies. They will help submit your book. They will be your wingperson to make sure your best interests are being looked after. Basically, a good agent already has the network and experience to get your book to the right publishing company and get the best deal for you. Hopefully this will also lead to further book requests. If you are interested, here [CLICK] is a database of agents you can look through.
Don't want an agent? Okay well these days you still do not have to go it alone. You can go to the likes of Fiverr [CLICK] to get all the support you need. Just make sure you check the reviews, and double check they are genuine.
Next you must get some reviews. How? If your book is on Amazon then hopefully people are leaving reviews already. If they are, listen to them! Does the book need tweaking, a new edition. Do not be afraid to tweak it. You can also get reviews aby asking your social media followers, family and friends. There are some paid places to get reviews but I find the whole concept of paying to get a review a little odd. People should be wanting to leave reviews, and the only way they will do that is if they read the book and have a place to leave a review. Which brings me to your website and social media channels.
Do you have a website page you can add your book? Do you have a social media profile or page you can add your book? If the answer is no, then get going. It is easy to add a post with an image of your book and some good copy stating what the book is about. If you do not want to pay for a website and hosting, then some ideas are to use Blogger, Facebook Pages and Tumblr. All of those offer free hosting. And keep the page simple. This is my page with my books [CLICK]. Don't forget too, that if you are using the likes of Amazon, you can use some embed code to add your book to a page (see the bottom of this page for an example - click the book image and it takes you straight to Amazon).
If you do have a digital book page then also think about using some expert marketing companies to help with SEO. Now hands-up, I have to admit I used to be the COO of this company and so I wholeheartedly recommend it to for getting your page the maximum attention it deserves. Exposure Ninja [CLICK]. This company feels like an extension of you, they make you feel like their teams are with you all the way. I am not going to list any other marketing companies here because they are all you need to start ranking your web pages.
Promoting companies are another useful way to increase your sale. Here are a few for you to try:
- Mindstirmedia [CLICK]
- Scribe Media [CLICK]
- Story Monsters [CLICK]
- And so many more, start searching Google.
- Mindstirmedia [CLICK]
- Scribe Media [CLICK]
- Story Monsters [CLICK]
- And so many more, start searching Google.
Goodreads [CLICK] has to be mentioned here. By signing up to the site you can submit your book into their database and you can also get people to read it and review.
Also, have you joined writers groups and or book clubs? They are a great way to get feedback on your book. Remember not to take feedback personally. If too many people say the same thing then your book needs to be tweaked. It is also worth asking if there are any book fairs you can go to and sell your book, or give it away free for a review. If you are confident in your book then go for it!
Don't be afraid to find a celebrity to help review your book. How? Okay, so maybe you don't know Brad Pitt, but maybe someone lives locally who is well respected. How about you post a free book through their door with a note (don't forget to give your contact info and where to leave reviews). If your book is good then surely they will respond? Note, with social media, you can also try and direct message celebs (or at least trending people who like the book topic you wrote about). Heck why not?!
And finally... Should you pay for adverts? Where are you best putting your hard earned money? Well, first of all, do not be afraid in this digital world to find physical magazines that you can advertise your book in. For example, if your book is written about Sci-Fi then find a Sci-Fi magazine to place an advert in, hopefully you are then narrowing down the reader to like what they see and want to read more.
What about paid ads like Amazon KDP? Do they work? Yes they do. You can ask for help setting up on Fiverr [CLICK] if you are not sure how to go about using KDP ads. What about Google Ads, or Facebook Ads... You know what, they all do work. But here is the reality most people do not want to face up to. It costs money! Yes you can be smart and you can learn to keep your daily total cost capped, but reality is that it will cost you at least $100 a month and for that you are likely to see 10 or more sales a week but it all depends on your book. It goes back to do people want your book, does it look good, is it edited well? If yes, then you could sell more a week. The more you sell the more the algorithms love your book and will start helping rank your book higher in the search result when people type in the book they want to buy.
Again you can use companies like Exposure Ninja [CLICK] to help you with ads. If your book is wanted, it will sell.
And don't forget the power of KEYWORDS in your advertising campaigns, book title and book description. I won't add more info here, because keywords need to be covered in a separate post. For now, just keep in mind keywords are a major part of people searching for and finding your book, and in Amazon search also ranking your book. Paying a company to do this is a great shortcut to getting the sales attention your book deserves.
What about paid ads like Amazon KDP? Do they work? Yes they do. You can ask for help setting up on Fiverr [CLICK] if you are not sure how to go about using KDP ads. What about Google Ads, or Facebook Ads... You know what, they all do work. But here is the reality most people do not want to face up to. It costs money! Yes you can be smart and you can learn to keep your daily total cost capped, but reality is that it will cost you at least $100 a month and for that you are likely to see 10 or more sales a week but it all depends on your book. It goes back to do people want your book, does it look good, is it edited well? If yes, then you could sell more a week. The more you sell the more the algorithms love your book and will start helping rank your book higher in the search result when people type in the book they want to buy.
Again you can use companies like Exposure Ninja [CLICK] to help you with ads. If your book is wanted, it will sell.
And don't forget the power of KEYWORDS in your advertising campaigns, book title and book description. I won't add more info here, because keywords need to be covered in a separate post. For now, just keep in mind keywords are a major part of people searching for and finding your book, and in Amazon search also ranking your book. Paying a company to do this is a great shortcut to getting the sales attention your book deserves.
Okay, that is me done for today. I hope all of this information has helped you. If you appreciate it, please leave a nice comment below. As always, take care today.
Author: Christian Jacques Bennett*
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Search Terms: Book Sales, Amazon, Agent, Kindle, KDP, Lulu, Publishing, Marketing, Advertising, Ads, Ad, Ideas, Writer, Writing, Help.
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