Anyone notice their booksales falling off a cliff the last 2 months?

Steve

My book only came out at the end of September, but my sales seem to be gathering speed now... which is good for such a specialist book I think. A friend of mine was saying last week that she has noticed a drop though, but her book's a novel.

Hi Gina,

I have 2 books. Like you, I write for a niche. I am glad your sales are growing. Your book looks like it would a cool Christmas present also.

Regards,

Steve

Good for you, Gina! Are you self-published? How do you keep track of how many books are being sold?

I'm a niche, too, and fell out of the top 10 in my tiny category for the first time. I heard a radio program on book sales falling with the economy. I know in the past library usage always increases. But the point of the program was if you are going to buy fewer holiday gifts, make them books! Great idea!

Phyllis, I am relying partly on the Amazon partner scheme (is it called 'Associates'? I forget) as I have links on my web site (US and UK ones) directing readers to Amazon, and my Amazon command centre tells me if anyone has clicked through a link and bought a book from either site. Also, my Amazon ranking changes every time books are sold so I've been monitoring that. Of course, the latter method isn't an exact science and I have no idea of the actual numbers involved, but it gives me a fair idea of what's going on. I won't know what the exact figures are until they filter down through the system and finally reach me, which I'm told takes months. I don't know what's going on elsewhere.

The friend I mentioned, who has noticed a drop in sales, has been watching the same figures... the clicks from her Amazon scheme links and her sales rank, and her rank has dropped considerably. Her book was doing well until about a month or so back and then the sales seemed to dry up.

What was I talking about? Oh yes...I haven't got a clue what's selling elsewhere, but the specialist nature of my book makes it unlikely that it's going to show up in many bookstores. Most of the stores I visit have practically done away with any sort of art section anyway. Shame on them.

Do fact books sell better than fiction at Christmas, or vice versa do you think? I'm not sure there's any rhyme or reason to it all, but I would have thought that cookery books do well about now.

My publisher sends a statement every 6 months but I also use Amazon as a gauge. My POD has a 1 month delay in reporting Amazon or other type sales.

I think a lot of things have stopped selling in the last month or so. Yes, Christmas is the best time for sales.

Steve

Yep, my book sales have been a little slow lately. =)

http://www.cardshark.com/content/view_ar...

My book is not moving very well on Amazon but sales at book signings are still good. I started a contest to get more traffic on my website and to have a little fun. :)

Sales have seemed a bit slow lately, but with Christmas drawing near, it should help. I've also added a contest on my site this month for opportunities to get Amazon gift certificates with purchase or when joining my site. See what you think about this idea at http://www.freewebs.com/conniearnold/

Hey Steve et al - I was actually quite relieved when I saw this discussion - yup, our book sales have fallen off a cliff the last two months, too. I am relieved to know that (perhaps) I shouldn't take it personally. The book is still selling, but veerrrrry slowly. I kept wondering why my promo activity was having an inverse effect on sales <:o
It has caused me some anxiety, that's for sure. I think the current economic climate is affecting all kinds of things, including books. Thankfully books are relatively inexpensive consumer items, but there's been a lot of belt-tightening for sure.

I am also hopeful for a solid holiday sales season. My fingers are crossed!!

Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands

Yes. Like every retailer in the universe, I too am wondering what Christmas will bring. My editor told me that for them to continue to publish me, it would depend on sales.

I am also interested in economics and every indicator suggests sales of everything fell off a cliff.

Steve

Who is on LinkedIn?

I joined a Publishing Industry group. I'm sorry, I cannot remember their name. I think we need to let the bricks and mortar stores know what we think they need to do to improve sales.

JMHO

Rowena Cherry

I'm on LinkedIn, but I've not been tinkering with it for long and I'm just getting used to the groups there. I'm going to go and have a look around for that group now...

I'm on LinkedIn but I wonder if their Groups can actually accomplish anything. I belong to so many group there. I'm not sure if I belong to that one. I'll have to look....

My novel, Heart of Diamonds, came out September 1 and so I have no hard numbers yet. I sense book sales everywhere have fallen off, though and a conversation with my publisher last week confirmed that.
The recent quarterly financials from Barnes & Noble were very grim--and they did not include the most recent months when the economy has taken an even more serious downturn. I rather imagine book sellers are experiencing the same lack of traffic and lighter purchasing patterns as other retailers.
At least I have my stocks and bonds to fall back on.....Ooops, guess not!

Does anyone think Kindle has promise?

Steve

Hi Stephen. We were discussing the fall of booksales in another group. Most agreed that they think the economy is impacting booksales.
Have a blessed day!

I am on LinkedIn, though I haven't spent a ton of time there:

Secret of the Sands on LinkedIn

I would be happy to find ways to improve my presence there & make it work!

Rai

I think (& hope) that Kindle has a good future ahead of it. Since our book, Secret of the Sands was published as an eBook by Bristlecone Pine Press/Maine Desk in Aug.08, it's been selling regularly as a kindle book. Of course, I am always delighted to find new ways to reach more readers. Here is the link to our kindle book:

Secret of the Sands kindle edition

I hope that eBooks do well, both as an author & someone who loves trees :)

Rai

If you depend on the normal ways of selling books, ie Amazon, bookstores, and the like, yes your sales will be next to nonexistent. With Amazon and Ingrams trying to control the POD market, you can pretty much figure that's not going to work right now. Ebook sales, however, are going up. They're cheaper, faster, and have several other advantages over print, so their sales are rising. Still not a book you can cozy up with, but the price difference is making them more popular. If you want to sell print books, you have to get outside the usual bookstore route. Where do you want to be? Depends on what you write, but there are other outlets. One author I know writes Biker fiction, so she sells real well through motorcycle shops. Try grocerystore chains, especially for children's books. Get where the people are already, not where they have to come looking amongst thousands of other books to find yours. The economy will actually be good for escapist type works, where people can get into another era or another world and just forget about things for a while. Do the usual, get the usual. Do the unusual, well who knows what might happen.

Dave,
that's an interesting comment, thanks. I like the idea about the grocery store sales -- do you think a book about the yoga of money would garner sales in a grocery store?Brent Kessel

If it appeals to the masses at all, it might. I'd drop the yoga reference. You lose a good portion of your potential audience right away. Most women, and almost all men, see the word yoga, they won't touch the book or read any further. Money is always a good word to have on it. You might call it the Dance of Money. That is unless of course you actually meant The Yogi of money though that word still loses the audience quickly. Of course, for sale in California, Yoga of Money might be a better reference than anywhere else.

I'm also on LinkedIn as well.
Since my book has recently come out I do not have a gague to offer on sales as yet.

Hi Dave,

Those are good comments you made. I know a couple of authors who have done just that & had really good sales as a result. For example, a couple have golf-themed thrillers, so they approached pro shops, etc. & found a welcome reception. Another one who lives in NYC, has signings at local bars/pubs with rousing success. Another author set up a signing at a meeting at a ladies club (Red Hat I think) & sold a ton of books.

Rai

Hi everyone,
This is a great topic. My book, NIGHT OF FLAMES: A Novel of World War Two was released in October, 2007 in hardcover and then just last month in paperback. My experience has been that sales are affected mostly by the promotion I do with targeted audiences. Since my story focuses largely on events of WW2 in Poland and Belgium, I have targeted those ethnic groups in the US and written articles for Polish-American and Belgian-American periodicals along with advertisements about the book. The publisher has been willing to share costs of advertising. I've also promoted it locally here in Wisconsin through NPR radio and local TV talk shows. Last year the hardcover hit about 2,000 on Amazon at about this time of year. The paperback is now down to about 6,000 - 9,000 on Amazon but it seems to track with the amount of targeted effort. I strongly second all the opinions expressed that you can't just rely on the publisher to promote the book.

Douglas W jacobson,
Author, NIGHT OF FLAMES: A Novel of World War Two
Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II

My book, Utamaro Revealed, is about a Japanese woodblock print artist, so I've got a talk lined up at The Museum of East Asian Art in Bath (UK). We have to go to where our target audience already gathers... join associations and forums... mingle.

My book sales have nose dived. I think partly due to the economy and partly due to lost momentum in the doldrums of summer. I try to get to as many SF conventions as I can. Those and SF bookstores are the only way I can get on the niche bandwagon. I'm on LinkedIn too and have made good contacts from forums there.

My book sales have been doing well. Then again, it is an anthology of poetry by bikers themed on motorcycles, so it is a great gift idea. Those who ride love anything to do w/ motorcycles. So luckily, I've got a book on the market seemingly not doing badly at all.

Interesting comments. I have been operating under the delusion that my books, because they are so good, would float to the top. Nope.

I am not one to do the self-promtion thing. I wish I could. Unfortunately, a family, a full time job, and I am writing another book, conspire to run off with all my time. Any time left is used for another hobby; napping.

Cyber Monday is almost upon us. I guess that should tell me something...

Hey Dave -

I'd be interested in your biker friend who writes biker fiction. My book, RUBBER SIDE DOWN, is Biker Poetry, and we want to follow it up next year w/ an anthology of Biker Prose, titled SHINY SIDE UP. And maybe the two of us could actually help each other out w/ promo ideas...

Hey Stephen -

I was never the self-promotion type either, but have quickly become just that. Otherwise sales will continue to suffer. As others have said, you'll get nowhere, no matter how well written a story, by letting the publisher and distribution company do all the work. Like you, I work full time (run my own construction business) and I too am putting together my next book, Speaking Perfect English for Spring publication, my first full-length book of poetry. Plus I do the readings and book signings (where half my sales have come from) and drive 2 states over every other month to visit my 20 year old daughter, a tattoo artist who needs to keep practicing on Dad to further her career. Point is, I have to make time for the promo stuff, one way or another, otherwise no one else will.
JoeGo

I just signed up for LinkedIn recently, but haven't explored it yet and figured out how to fully use all it's options. Anyone here w/ any info on whether or not it's worth my time to pursue that avenue?
JoeGo

I've not been on LinkedIn all that long, and have been too busy for the most part to devote enough time to really getting into the swing of things there, but my husband's been on the site for a while and thinks it's well worth the effort.

As a publisher, ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS, and an author, I totally agree that the book market is dramatically changing. There is no question in my mind that 'brick and mortar' stores are not the wave of the future for books. New authors and independent presses would be wise to focus efforts on internet marketing rather than the excruciating process of trying to be on the shelf of a B&N. As a publisher, we have two priorities: get the book on Amazon and get the ebook and Kindle version out. Then, get authors to push the hell out of raising their rankings on Amazon. People are going to buy books on-line and that is the future-this includes both print and ebooks. I find it sad that authors sometimes feel that once on Amazon, their job is done. Far from it! It is then that you need to people to post their reviews and rate the book. The author can start discussions on Amazon, have blog tours, create links, buy now buttons and certainly have a web site that is up to date and and filled with comments and new book info. There is a lot more, but the point is, if your sales are down, have you done enough to push, promote, push and promote? If you want sales you must be 'out there' in terms of internet exposure.

Jose, her pen name is Adele Loudan. She's on facebook under that name, and several other sites.
Stephen, If you can't do it yourself, the only alternative is to hire it done. It doesn't come cheap, you'd have to sell a hell of a lot of books to make it worth it. If you can target your audience precisely, like at the pro shops or motorcycle shops, or whatever, then some simple sales letters offering them the usual cut could do the job. In fact, since I'm just getting started in that business, email me a copy of the book at tootall1121@yahoo.com, I'll see if I can find you a target market and write the sales letter for you, for free this time. The only cost to you will be getting it mailed (or emailed) out to whatever market we can find. If we're successful, you'll have to write a glowing recommendation, if we're not, Shhhhh.


As to everyone else's comments. Do you know that Ingrams and Amazon are trying to corner the POD market? They should be sued for their business practices actually, they have been but even losing the case didn't really change anything.

Do you understand how the POD printer was supposed to work? The machine was designed to be installed in a new kind of book store. The place would carry things on computer displays, then if you want an actual book, or a CD, you pay the fee, the machine whirs, out comes your newly printed book. No inventory to stock other than the ink and paper for the machine. Of course, the high cost the machine wound up being negated that original idea. Maybe at some point, the current brick and mortar stores will invest in doing it that way, who knows, if they don't do something, they won't be around long.

Interesting the comments and questions above on Kindle. I've had close to 20 books published by major publishers. Right now, however, one of my new "paperbacks" (The Enemy Within) is doing conspicuously well on the Kindle/Amazon edition. It keeps staying in the top 100 "political thrillers" and is often among the top 50. My point here is that it is doing much better and for much longer than its own paperback, which isn't doing poorly, either. My guess is that people are bundling what used to be good airport escape books. Who knows?

Jose, I am glad it is working for you. My first time being published was poetry by the UNC. Nothing harder to sell, nothing better to write.

Dave, Thank you for the kind offer. That was very nice of you.

Steve

Noel, established authors do better on such mediums than us unknowns. The big problem for us unknown names is to get noticed and read. Word of mouth only works if there is a base to start with. Known authors can put their books just about anywhere in any format and sell fairly well.

Does anyone here have an agent? Did that work out?

Steve

Steve, I have an agent. But we need to be sure we are defining our terms. An agent's role is to help you to get published. I also have had (do not currently) a publicists. The publicists role is to get you publicity. What I found with a publiscist is that the author can do most of that work him/herself. I am now doing my own contact with radio stations for a radio tour geared around the 40 days from MLK to the end of Black History Month as my latest book, Beyond the Suffering, is on heroes of Black Church History.

My book What Mother Teresa Taught Me published by St. Anthony Messenger Press was just translated into Arabic. I was so surprised when the Arabic version arrived.
I sell my book in High Fashion Clothing Stores, book parties in people's houses,
from my web, authorsden.com/maryanneraphael
and on planes and trains. Maryanne Raphael

My book What Mother Teresa Taught Me published by St. Anthony Messenger Press was just translated into Arabic

That is very cool.

Robert. I agree. At least at my level you do not need a publicist. I asked about the agent because I never could get one.

I have a wonderful agent who specializes in Christian books. She sold my Mother Teresa book and now she is selling Saints of Molokai.
Maryanne

Maryanne. I have a book that might be something your agent would be interested in. It's Christian fiction, not a non-fiction book. Would he or she be interested in a Christian themed book with a Christian romance and a bit of a mystery... it's a difficult book to describe in some ways. It's more of a book that shows how a person with Christian values can have a interesting life.

Actually, my online sales have been virtually non-existent, as have bookstore sales. I have done best with signings and book fairs, but I have not had much time for these sort of events, between my (mixed blessing) going on fifteenth month on a nine month programming contract.

That is, I do best when I am not really selling but that is a given when you are the World's Worst Salesman, as I have been since my youth.

C.P. Klapper

I've been looking at my Amazon records, and I'm surprised to say that I'm doing better in the UK. My UK sales are better than I'd expected, as it's a book for such a small market. It's my US sales that seem to be crawling along at a snail pace. I thought it would be the other way around... with the UK being tiny and the US being huge in comparison. The faster rate that your rank goes down on the UK site implies that more books are selling there in general than on Amazon.com.

Is anyone else finding that their UK sales are normal or maybe even better than expected?

Utamaro Revealed

I saw in a book publishing site that Amazon.com sells only 2% of all books sold. So while Amazon might indicate a little about trends, it leaves out 98%. It think that is especially true for niche book marketers like many of us who sell more when we speak at seminars or from our own websites, than we ever might on Amazon.

I like Amazon because it gives me an indication of what is going on. For me, it accounts for almost half my insignificant sales. It is also the future. I do not think Borders will survive another year. Small bookstores have been gone in my area for a number of years. Also, sales determine if I am going to be published again.

For me: Cyber Monday was a bust. Not bad. Awful.

How do you go about finding an agent? Do you have some sage advice?

Liz