You wrote a great book,
finished editing it,
released it,
and have been marketing like a crazy person.
Family and friends love your work. You're even getting reviews from people outside your personal circle.
There's something to be said for this surge in early sales!
So what happens when all those people already have your book and you're not seeing new people connecting on your networks or buying your book? Are your sales doomed to flatline forever?
Not if you take charge!
Family and friends love your work. You're even getting reviews from people outside your personal circle.
There's something to be said for this surge in early sales!
So what happens when all those people already have your book and you're not seeing new people connecting on your networks or buying your book? Are your sales doomed to flatline forever?
Not if you take charge!
Mistakes happen but they can be fixed
If your sales have sputtered
out, you should reassess everything and make any changes necessary to rev the sales engine again.
Ask yourself the following question and be prepared to
answer it in total honesty:
Is there something about my book that doesn’t fit, something that doesn’t feel right, that I need to change so it connects with a bigger audience?
If sales and traffic have stalled despite consistent
marketing, chances are, even though it may be really hard to admit out loud,
the answer to the question will be yes.
Despite how hard it was to admit it to myself, I got there with my book. I got there so hard with my first novel that I actually removed it from the market entirely.
No lie.
Despite how hard it was to admit it to myself, I got there with my book. I got there so hard with my first novel that I actually removed it from the market entirely.
No lie.
If you get to this point, stop worrying
about it because many self-publishing authors go through this reassessment. Hell, even traditionally published authors release second and third editions all the time.
Changes are made to better fit with this ever changing book market and they get a resurgence of interest.
As self-publishing indie authors we're the only ones who can decide our books need something new. Admitting what that is might be tricky so here's a list of few things you can look at while you contemplate:
Changes are made to better fit with this ever changing book market and they get a resurgence of interest.
What do I need to fix?
As self-publishing indie authors we're the only ones who can decide our books need something new. Admitting what that is might be tricky so here's a list of few things you can look at while you contemplate:
Price. Is your
book 125 pages of fluff but listed at $19.99 as an eBook? Sure you can make up to
70% of the royalties on some sites but listing a short eBook at $20 is unlikely
to bring too many readers. It might be time to do a little more
market research and adjust the price to reflect your findings.
Layout or format.
Those pages didn’t organize themselves and poorly formatted pages can kill even
the best of stories. Make sure page numbers, chapter order, headers/footers and
font are correct and consistent throughout so readers aren’t confused or put
off by inconsistencies.
The host of your
book. Is your book for sale on some obscure site that only you've heard of? I made that mistake with my first book and it cost me some
early sales. Look into the biggies – Amazon / CreateSpace, Lulu, Smashwords –
to determine your best positioning. You might need to
reformat the document to meet the new site’s guidelines (or for a pdf if you
decide to sell on your own site) but the time investment is always worth it if you
can garner more readers.
Jacket copy. I
always think of the movie Forces of
Nature. Sandra Bullock’s character calls Ben
Affleck’s character a "blurboligist" because he writes jacket copy for a living. His character has made a
career of writing this type of copy. Why? Because getting a 300 page book
synthesized down to about 100 words that hook a reader is a true art form. Should you hire someone who specializes in this style of writing to write yours?
Cover art.
Perhaps the most critical of all elements of a book is the cover. Everyone says
not to judge by this piece but let’s be honest, we all do it and with good reason. Historical shouldn’t
feature modern technology on the cover. And if your book is about a murder the cover should tell that story too.
Your story. I
apologize in advance for sounding harsh but, does your story suck?
Do you have plot holes? Do all the characters sound the same in the dialogue?
Is the writing stiff, grammatically challenged or full of spelling errors? Pay
attention to your feedback and then go back to read your own book. Redline
anything that feels wrong or reads poorly. Rewrite and re-release if need be. That's what I had to do and my book is still down because it just doesn't feel right yet.
Your marketing
efforts. Don’t waste time talking up your book in the wrong places. You’re
not going to connect with your audience if you go somewhere they aren’t. Research
in this area is highly underrated and should be started the moment you have a
draft. Connect and network in the right places for you and your book.
This is the last tip
post but it isn’t the end for you and your book
It’s hard to believe how much information we’ve covered over
the past 8 posts! I hope you’ve found this series useful and that these
tips help you to get your book together and ready to sell.
Check back in when your book is going live, I'd love to hear all about it!
Check back in when your book is going live, I'd love to hear all about it!
Image courtesy Stuart Miles on freedigitalphotos.net
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Earlier posts in this series:
Tip 1 - Write the Book
Tip 2 - Forget Your Book Exists
Tip 7 - Marketing Never Ends
