OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I love answering your questions and I'm always happy to share what I've learned on the journey, but recently I have been receiving the same question over and over again, namely,
“Help, my book isn't selling. What can I do?”
Most of the time people include a link to their book on Amazon and I can see immediately why they aren't making any sales, because although I'm an author, I'm a reader first and I've been shopping for books on Amazon for years.
My Amazon #1 bestselling book, How To Market A Book covers everything in details but the following checklist will also help you identify your problem and solve it quickly.
I have also included lots of links so you can find all the extra material on this (ever-growing!) site.
[As always, these are not rules, because there are no rules in this crazy, fast-moving self-publishing world. There will also always be outliers who get away with not doing any of the following, but these will at least help with some guidelines!]
1. Is your book available as an ebook?
99% of indie authors will not have print distribution in physical bookstores, and I would postulate that all the success stories we have heard in the last 2 years about indie authors and huge sales have come from ebook sales, not print.
Print books can be a good idea if you have specific reasons around wanting print. I decided against print but in 2013, I changed my mind, returning to print editions for all my books.
BUT/ if you want to sell a lot of books online, then make sure you have an ebook for sale as well.
There has been an influx of ebooks (and print books) self-published in the last year, as well as traditional publishers beginning to re-issue backlists digitally. I've heard a lot of people complain about this so-called ‘tsunami of crap', but personally, I believe you can surf the wave and make good sales even if you're starting now. The ebook market is growing globally as new countries come online and even within markets like the US and UK, ebooks are becoming more widely accepted.
So first off, get your ebook published.
I use Scrivener for formatting in Kindle, ePub and Word formats and then I publish on Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life and Smashwords or BookBaby for the rest (US citizens can use B&N Nook PubIt as well.) It's not hard if you spend some time with the various help pages.
2. Has your cover been professionally designed?
Book buyers still shop with their eyes. If people make it to your book sales page and your cover is terrible, they will not click the Buy button.
Don't use a painting your child did or that you did yourself. Don't DIY based on a YouTube video. Don't assume you can make a professional cover.
Do research your genre on Amazon and take screenshots of books that stand out in a good way.
Do take pictures of books you like with fonts and designs you like.
Do check out the ebook cover design awards at TheBookDesigner.com to see some great covers and some truly awful ones. Then hire a professional cover designer, give them that information and work with them to create a professional cover.
If you don't have a budget for this, then work extra hard until you have that extra money. Seriously, I believe this is non-negotiable if you want to stand out in the crowded market.
3. Has your book been professionally edited so it reads well?
I am passionate about the value of editing and editors, especially for new writers, or books in a new genre.
You should edit your books until you can't stand them any longer, and then you should consider hiring a professional editor to help you take it further, because you cannot see your own words after a point because you know the story so well.
You need other eyes, preferably professional eyes who will critique you honestly and tell you where the problems are, especially if the book is truly awful – and sometimes it is (and that's ok because you can write another one).
Stephen King in ‘On Writing' says to rest the manuscript for a while, so put it away and when you have some distance, read it again. You may be horrified by what you find but better now than when it's out there in the world. Here's some more articles on editing and my recommended editors.
If you can't afford a pro editor, then you can try using a critique group of readers within your genre, or join a group like the Alliance of Independent Authors to network with other like-minded authors in order to network and potentially barter your skills. Bartering shouldn't be underestimated in the online world.
But definitely do not publish your book if only you and your best friend, or your Mum, have read it.
4. Have you submitted the book to the right categories on the ebook stores?
Sorry, but not everyone will like your book.
You may think that everyone will, but they won't. You might not want to put it in a box or a genre or a category, but you have to because that's how readers find it. The category/genre reader has expectations and if you don't ‘fit' they will be disappointed. That's not to say you need to follow any specific rules in your writing (let's not get into that now!) but when you load it up to the distributors you do have to choose which categories and tags to use and they need to be meaningful.
You need some distance from your book in order to do this, but consider where your book fits within the online bookstores. This means deciding on the categories, tags and keywords associated with your book.
It's also important to match reader expectations and the promise of what your book delivers with what your book is actually about.
There is no point having a book with a swirly, girly pink chic-lit cover in the horror section of fiction. It won't sell, however good it is.
There are some scammy sites out there that will tell you to aim for the categories that will rank the best in order to have a Bestseller on Amazon. That's just silly because your book won't match the expectations of the readers and even if you get a bump in sales, it will completely dry up very soon.
You can choose a category that fits your book AND is easier to rank in, for example, I use categories Action Adventure and Religious Fiction. I rank occasionally for the former and consistently in the latter. That's optimization, but it is still true to the book and to the reader's expectations.
If you're struggling with this, choose 3-5 authors your book is like, not what you want it to be like, but what it is really like. That will help you find the right category.
A great book on categories and Amazon algorithms is David Gaughran's Let's Get Visible.
5. Have you optimized your Amazon sales page with a hook, quotes from reviews and other material?
I have seen some Amazon sales pages with not just typos but terrible grammar.
Some of them make no sense at all. Some are just the back blurb with no review quotes or other things that might draw a customer in.
Basically you need to treat the product description like a sales page. People will not buy your book if your description is badly written or hard to understand because it's an indication of the quality of your book. Here's another great article on 11 ingredients of a sizzling book description.
If you want to see a fantastic example, check out CJ Lyons Bloodstained which continues to rock the Kindle charts. That product description seriously rocks. CJ also explains all of this in our ProWriter Marketing course.
You can format your sales description with colored headlines and other funky HTML by using Author Marketing Club's Premium service (which also includes a fast-track way to find appropriate reviewers).
6. Have you priced your book realistically, or at least tried different price points?
It's important to say on pricing that no one has a clue how to price ebooks and authors are having success at many different price points. Check out this great article on The Passive Voice and the comments below to get an idea of the widely different levels of pricing and success.
However, I had one author ask why his debut novel wasn't selling, and when I checked his sales page, the ebook was priced $11.99. It was his first novel and he had nothing else for sale.
However good your book, however marvelous the cover, your first novel is unlikely to sell at that price. Most ebooks are under $9.99, and a lot of fiction is under $7.99, with many indie books being under $5.
The 99c price point still has some power even after the algorithm changes but you might go somewhere in between, changing your price with promotions as well. I have my books at $2.99 right now so I make $2 per ebook. You get to set your own prices but there's no way you'll sell much at those very high prices.
7. Have you written, or are you writing another book?
Sure, there are some breakout successes, but most indie fiction authors making decent money right now have 5 or more books. For non-fiction authors, you can expect to make your money on back-end products and services and not book sales anyway.
The more books you have available, the more virtual shelf space you have, the easier it is for people to discover you. Plus if a reader finds one they like, they may buy them all so you make more per customer.
I was as guilty as anyone of trying to hype my first novel, because it took so long and I thought it was a precious snowflake. I still believe you have to hustle those first thousand sales with everything you have, but my sales and income jumped when I released the second novel with very little fanfare because I already had an established presence on Amazon and they do a lot of marketing for you when you have multiple books, e.g. emails to people who bought your last one.
I am also fascinated by the rise of novellas and serials as a way to create more books, more quickly. Hugh Howey is a great example of someone who wrote novellas in different series and then continued the direction of the stories for the novellas that took off, Wool being his most famous and lucrative. I am definitely moving into this model in 2013 in between longer works.
8. Have you done some kind of promotion or marketing to let people know it is there?
Again, there are no rules and in fact, everyone has different results from different marketing tactics. Some hit a mega-success with none at all, but I do think that you need to hand-sell your first 1000 readers because they won't just appear out of nowhere.
Remember: Marketing is sharing what you love with people who want to hear about it. You don't have to be hard salesy, scammy or nasty. Just be authentic and share your passion.
If you need some starter tips, you should definitely be building your email list from your own website and also from a signup at the back of your book.
If you do that with book one, you will have at least some people to market to with book 2. It's a start, and it grows over time. This is my only non-negotiable recommendation for authors, because you never know what will happen with all these sites we depend upon for sales. If they disappear, or the terms we publish under change, then your email list of fans and buyers is all you have.
I also believe that social media can sell books, but it is a slow build over time and you have to have other goals than just book sales, e.g. networking with peers and other authors. It's not instant sales so you can't rely on it. The whole author platform thing is massively useful in so many ways but it is only one aspect of book sales.
If you have some budget you can pay for promotion, but be targeted and track results.
The biggest leaps I had on the Amazon charts were from paid promotional pushes on sites that market direct to Kindle readers. I have used Kindle Nation
Daily, Pixel of Ink and BookBub and there are new opportunities all the time. I more than made my money back but the rankings were worth it. Prophecy hit the Action Adventure list above Lee Child! (of course, it dropped away but the screen-print is worth gold!)
Free is still a great option, especially if you have multiple books, as it means people can discover your work with no risk. Fantasy author Lindsay Buroker talked about this in our interview where she revealed that the first book in her series is permanently on free with her other books at $4.95. You can do this by making your book free on Smashwords and eventually Amazon will price match it.
9. Have you asked for reviews, or submitted to review sites?
There's been a lot of scandal about the sock puppet reviews but reviews are still critical because they give your sales page social proof and they feed into the book site algorithms.
I give away a lot of free books to people who might like my genre and ask that they leave a review if they like it. No hard sell, no pressure, no expectation. This is easy if you have built up a list from the last book, or if you have built a platform and in fact is one good reason to do this. Traditional publishing has been doing this forever so it is not a new or a scammy tactic.
Remember that not everyone will like your book and not everyone will leave a review, or a good review, but it is a start. [And remember, don't respond to bad reviews!]
You can also contact book bloggers or Amazon reviewers to get more reviews. This is hard work if you do it manually, but you can use the Author Marketing Club's Premium service to short cut the process by finding reviewers for books like yours.
You can also listen here to Rachel Abbott in this interview talk about how this strategy got her to #1 on Amazon.co.uk.
10. Are you working your butt off?
Generally, I'm an even tempered type of girl, but when I get emails from people asking why they're not successful and they've done nothing on this list, I get a little annoyed!
Especially when this site has over 700 free articles on writing, publishing and marketing and there's 75+ hours of audio for you to learn from for free. Oh yes, and a 57 page Author 2.0 ebook on all this.
That's all available for free, but I also have a book you can buy for less than the price of a coffee – How To Market A Book.
There is no excuse not to be educated, even just from this site.
I absolutely believe that you can be a great writer and make an income from writing.
I have to believe that for you because I believe it for me, and I have left a stable job and steady income to take a chance on being an author-entrepreneur. I've been on this path since 2007 when I decided to write my first non-fiction book, so I am 5 years into working my butt off to change my life.
But writing books is not a get rich quick scheme.
I look at authors like CJ Lyons, Scott Sigler, Chuck Wendig, Joe Konrath, Bob Mayer and so many others and I know they are working their butts off every day writing and getting their work out there. The recent success of Sean Platt & David Wright in landing a Serial deal with Amazon is because they work incredibly hard at writing all day, every day to produce new content for their market. They are my heroes.
These guys are pros and they know it takes hard work to get there and hard work to stay there.
So please, if your book is not selling any copies at all, go through this checklist and honestly evaluate what you have done and how much effort you have put in. Please also share this with other people who may be asking the same question.
I'd love to know what you think, so please leave a comment below. What other tips can you give for people who aren't selling any or many books?
Images: Bigstock Help button, Bigstock Buy Me button, Bigstock price tags, Bigstock hard work ahead.
Cailin says
Thanks for this, Joanna. Two questions: what do you think of marketing nonfiction through Google AdWords? Also, what’s your opinion on Kindle Countdown Deals?
Cailin Koy, author of Go From Blog to Brand in 30 Days
Joanna Penn says
Hi Cailin, I don’t think the profit margin is big enough, certainly in fiction, to use Google Adwords. Perhaps for non-fiction if you have a very clear funnel and upsell to more pricey products, but I can’t see how it is worth it for books. Better to do a free giveaway to start to get traffic and reviews on the book.
I haven’t used Kindle Countdown deals – as I am on multiple platforms – but I have seen mixed reviews – some have found it great, some just haven’t seen any impact at all. It’s worth trying lots of things though – you never know what will stick 🙂
Waqas Masood says
Trust me, you read my mind. I was looking for exactly what you’ve outlined. Fantastic tips! You’re my publishing mentor now 🙂
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ISBN-13 9781872684932 £39.95, the full solutions of 2800 exercises are on a CD of 550 pages
and three books (A) Examination Test Tapers for C1/C2 ISBN-13 9781872684338 £12.95
(B) Examination Test Papers C3/C4 ISBN-13 9781872684949 £19.95 (C) Examination Test Papers FP1/FP2/FP3 ISBN-13 9781872684505 £19.95
Anthony Nicolaides
Author and Publisher
Delroy Waite says
I am about to publish my first horror fiction and found this site while searching on google.
This information is just what I needed to both publish and promote my book, I shall be following these instructions very carefully.
Brian says
I found myself agreeing with all your points on the steps an author can take to try and ensure that their book sells. I also like the fact that you get a bit testy with the authors that haven’t tried to take any of the actions you suggest.
There are so many ways authors can help themselves after all. Like you I also think professional editing is a must. If a book is as you say ‘truly awful’ it is essential that the author knows. Because if they publish that book without at least taking corrective action to make it better, they are setting a standard that most people will assume will apply to every book they publish thereafter. Better not to publish than to publish rubbish.
Suraj says
Great article – known pointers yet good to be reiterated & as you said, unless I work my butt off – rewards are tough to come, with possibly every 2nd mature adult planning or publishing at this time 🙂 !!
Just want to know in case anyone has some idea on how effective the website redroom.com is ?
Also – Do get to visit my website and give your reviews if you want to 🙂 – Would love that…
Dewald van Deventer says
Hi. I am a visually impaired writer.
I have written my first book in Afrikaans, my home language. I haven’t done any professional editting to it. But I gave it to a self-publishing company, who ripped me off with their prices, and, after a few months, just disappeared.
I tried another one, but didn’t have the money, at that time, to print my book.
So now I published it on:
http://www.lulu.com/
but it can’t be submitted to Amazon, etc. because it’s a foreign language.
And, what’s more, I’m sitting here in the US, and the book actually has to be sold in South Africa, my home country.
I was thinking to start writing in English. Maybe that would be the better choice.
Thanks for everything!
Heather Stretch says
Hi Dewald
All the very best in your ventures.
My father, Peter Rimmer, lives in South Africa, and I publish his fiction books in the UK, predominantly on Amazon. It is exceptionally hard work and a 24/7 effort is required. Try looking at Smashwords.com and I would recommend working through Joanna’s website as she has lots of useful tips which I will be looking at too, some of which I already utilise. Get stuck into social media like Twitter and Facebook and build a fan base – lots of South Africans on both. In addition, I have just been in touch with South African Global Communities where they are offering a free site for South Africans to sell their products. Inbox me for further details if you wish books@peterrimmer.com.
All the best
Heather
Jodi Desautels says
I have been asked by quite a few people about where to publish as an indie author. I have published through Create Space. However, I am always looking at new publishing options. I always want to find the best option for both my benefit and the benefit of my readers. Keeping the quality up and the price down as much as possible is very important to me. I am thinking about trying Lightning Source for my next children’s book. What are your thoughts? If I understand the site correctly, I may be able to get the price down more for my readers. Thank you. ~Jodi
Joanna Penn says
Hi Jodi – yes, Lightning Source is good – but you should also try Ingram Spark, which is a new service for print publishing.
thomas says
I will try some of your tips here, because I want to use the book I have up now on Amazon, to get more leads, but what if you are broke?
What would you advise me to do?
Thanks for the great article.
Joanna Penn says
Hi Thomas, most of this stuff can be done free or cheap – but you will always need some budget if you want to self-publish professionally.
You can make your own cover in MS Word here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/10/20/book-cover-design-ms-word/
and you can find a writer’s group to barter editing, you can do a website for free and pretty much all online marketing stuff is free – it just takes time.
RA Marshall says
In the interest of getting educated, I’ve read up on the big book promo sites (BookBub, EReaderNewsToday, BookGorilla, etc.), but I was wondering if you or anyone else has any thoughts about or experience with using Google AdWords or Facebook ads as a method of promotion? My thinking is that the sites like BookBub often require you to have some good reviews on your book going before they will run an ad for you, so when you’re starting from scratch, where do you get those first few readers and therefore reviews? I was thinking that AdWords / Facebook ads are a potentially cost-effective method to jump-start the process.
Thoughts??
Joanna Penn says
Hi RA,
Basically, you have to look at the cost per click, and neither Facebook or Google Ads are cheap enough to warrant buying for the cost of a book, generally priced very low. It can be done for a spiked promo if you have investment, but it’s not a long-term strategy as it is too expensive. Book specific sites like BookBub are a better investment.
Heather Stretch says
Hi RA
I have used Facebook’s pay per click, and spent quite a bit of money. I am not convinced it has had a return on investment. So I am personally a little skeptical now. I have heard that Facebook ads really only work for the big global organisations like Coke. It would be interesting to hearing what other people think. I haven’t tried Google and also not convinced. I feel its all a trial and error exercise to see what works.
Best wishes
Heather
Fiona Tarr says
Thanks Joanna. I am really enjoying the challenge of marketing my first novel and your points have been very helpful. Especially the genre selection point. I went for the standard genre when publishing with Amazon, however I think you have given me a few ideas on fine tuning my selection. Regarding paperbacks. I was blown away by the number of friends who have asked for the paperback, so I have published in ebook and paperback.
Francois says
Hi Joanna:
On the back cover does my author picture need to be professionally taken. I have plenty of pictures and wonder if I can use those as they show me in a more relaxed and natural setting.
Thanks so much for all you share.
Joanna Penn says
It’s a personal choice Francois, but remember it has to be 300dpi for print. I think investing in a pro headshot is a good idea, and you can also use it all over the web. Local photographers are often inexpensive too.
Klaus Schirmer says
Hi Joanna
My first fiction novel – Cold Factor – has just gone into print (first 200 copies) with the website currently under development (should be up and running in about 4-5 weeks time).
I must say the points you raised are all highly valid and, to me at least, reassuring. I opted to work with a small local publisher. They did the cover design, the editing (I cannot emphasise how valuable the editors input was), are sorting out the website / ebook, ISBN numbers as well as giving me advice on pricing and marketing and a host of other related issues. Sure, it costs money and is not exactly cheap, but after going through your 10 questions I am glad I did.
You certainly have a new follower!
Regards
Klaus
H.S. Palladino says
Great article! Love your site! I have a question that no one seems to be able to answer though. What if you are working on your first novel and the book cover/title is not yet determined? What kind of ‘book picture’ do you put on your web-site to spark interest?
I’m currently working on my new web-site but lack a good answer to this. I have a professional photo of myself, I’m blogging etc, but my book cover is still not finalised and I’m debating what to do.
Lena Deresse says
You are so right when you say it takes hard work AND patience to become a successful writer. I am a newbie; it’s been only 2 months since I published my book Cooking with Imaye ( http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cooking%20with%20Imaye) on Amazon.
In the meantime, I have started working on a revised edition, being that I have made some improvements (adding more pictures and such) over the past 2 months. My question is, should I keep the original copy up on amazon or replace it with the revised edition?
Great article! Thanks
CJ Kross says
This was a really good article. I’m glad you posted it. I was debating whether to throw more money boosting posts or if I should just make it free. It seems like free pays off in the long run. I am working my butt off. It’s so hard to work a 9 to 5, sell a book and write the next one so you can have 5 or more books, but I’m getting it done. The first 2 were written in grad school.
joybelle2012 says
Hi Joanna,
Well I’ve ticked all your boxes except for one. I have not done any promotions or set up an email list for my books, which are now all listed with Smashwords in their premium catalog with brand new large sized covers. Also on Kobo, which is starting to produce some results, as well as on Kindle, which has done 0 in a year.
I’m 75, so I’m not into this modern marketing methods, but I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and go there. Its just that sending out emails seems so blatant and also obtrusive to me. Then again maybe its the right thing to do.
I’ve had an idea to set up all my covers plus a bit about each book in one of those transparent pocket books with sleeves for each title, so that I can go to markets and fetes and sit there and sell them. I imagine that if I make my table attractive with pictures of the covers and my laptop, people might be interested in ordering a story direct, which I can send immediately attached to an email. Do you think this could work? I’ve got the books in various formats, so I can send whatever they require.
I’ve had plenty of downloads on Smashwords, but nobody buys the books unless I put them on for free, when the ‘sales’ shoot up to 60 or 100 within hours of me doing this. Then immediately I put on even a $0.99 price tag, the sales drop off again, although people still tend to download the free 15% part.
Not sure what to do about this, as the books have been edited, run through Grammerley, approved by my reading bunch, and all with nicely designed covers.
Is there something other than the email list that I’m missing here?
Please, I’d like your input if you have a moment, but I’m a pensioner, so I can’t afford to spend much money on this. (I do put the books into twitter and facebook, by the way)
Best regards,
Joy
Krista Madden says
Great stuff! However, I have had my first book perma-free for nearly a year now on smashwords and other outlets, and Amazon still has not adjusted it on their site. This is even after repeated attempts at letting them know that it is free everywhere else. I also had some readers tell me they contacted Amazon to let them know too. I just don’t know any other way to get through to them. My Amazon sales would be doing much better if they would just change the price to free.