“The more product you have on the market, the greater the chance that readers will find you. It's the simplest way to market your work and the one most suited to writers.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Discoverability
Writing a series, or books aimed at a similar audience is one of the smartest things you can do to market your books.
This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
Repeat customers are much easier to reach than new customers
A survey carried out by International Thriller Writers (ITW) found that readers tended to search for books by a specific author that they knew when they wanted to buy a new book.
It also takes between three and four books for a reader to remember the name of an author and become a fan, so if you have a series (and even a three-book boxset), you are more likely to be remembered next time. As anecdotal evidence, I pre-order books from a few of my favorite authors because I'm a fan of a particular series.
The rise of binge consumption on Netflix and online streaming means that people want longer entertainment experiences. Some readers will not even commit to a new series unless there are multiple books available so they can immerse themselves.
Series make more money for authors
Mark Coker reported in the Smashwords 2016 Survey that “when we compared the average sales of the top 1,000 bestselling series books against the sales of the top 1,000 stand-alones, the series books had 195% higher earnings and their median earnings increase was an impressive 127%. Readers love series!”
It's faster to write books in a series
For fiction, you know the characters and the world, so you just need a new plot. For non-fiction, you know your target market, and what they need, so you can write more books to suit them.
You can use branded covers to create a look and feel for your series. This can also make book cover design more cost effective, as the title and images need changing for each book, but the overall design will stay the same.
Example using series fields
Series can be used for non-fiction, too. Just link books for a similar audience together using the series field. For example, this book is part of my series Books for Writers.
When a new book in the series comes out, you can do price promotions on the first book in the series, or make it perma-free in order to drive traffic every day. You can also use a pre-order to get early sales for the book.
This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
