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How long did it take for your book to sell?
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Dave
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Mar 30, 2020 10:03AM
Hello. My book, Sineria: The Great Kingdom, has been published for quite some time in different editions. My most recent edition, published on kdp on January 15, 2020, hasn't made a dime. I'd expect that since it's recent, but this book has been published in other forms since 2018 before I finally went with the recent edition, and yet, no sales. I find it hard to believe that in that time, not at least one person was interested or bored enough to give it a try. I'm not expecting people to just support me, all indie authors go through this. I just find it strange that nothing like that hasn't happened at least once, especially with all the marketing and comments on how good the cover looked a few times. Anyways, for you more successful authors, indie or traditional, how long did it take you to start making sales and get readers, not just reviewers?
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Not one single sale? That’s very frustrating I’m sure. What kind of marketing/self-promotion do you do?
They're supposed to actually sell?The ones I've published had a spurt of sales that started almost immediately and lasted a few months … but it was still never enough to pay for the cover art I had done for them. So I'm still in the red in total.
Peter wrote: "Not one single sale? That’s very frustrating I’m sure. What kind of marketing/self-promotion do you do?"I occasionally promote future works with snippets of the cover, but for my current book, I may post a screenshot of it or a nice picture of someone reading it, always a friend, or even its reviews. My book has been featured on a few blogs and on other Bookstagrammer's page. I don't say, "Hey, but my book." I say something more like "what lies beyond the cover is an adventure like no other" or anything to make it sound adventurous and mysterious to intrigue the reader. Those don't seem to work other than getting some likes.
In my limited indie experience, readers are only going to discover your work if you are running some sort of promotional giveaway and/or markdown off the original price. And even then, you have to do some of your own marketing to get the ball rolling, usually through free or paid book sites that advertise your book during said KDP promotion. Hopefully that generates enough buzz that it results in continuing sales after the promotion is over. Then, rinse and repeat.
Dave, I looked at the story. You didn't ask for opinions on the story or writing, as it may relate to sales problems, so I won't comment on it other than to say that it's not a matter of the cover quality costing you sales.If a reader comes to a novel's Amazon page they will almost always look at the excerpt before they buy. We have to assume that your promotional efforts, plus people searching by genre and tags, have brought prospective customers to your page. And once there neither the cover nor the blurb will sell it. Nor will reviews that don't say "Verified Purchase," and which came from a pay-for-reviews site.
What sells the work is how a given reader reacts to your words. In general, a reader arrives with mild interest, which fades, word by word, unless your prose replaces curiosity with active interest in a page or three.
As a suggestion, you might want to dig out the books on fiction-writing technique you've studied, do a refresher read, then sharpen up the prose a bit.
I hate to break this to you, but publishing a book anywhere doesn't mean you are going to ever sell any books. There are over a 1000 book put up on Amazon daily. There are millions of books available, so what makes you think that someone will find your book on page 30,000?If you want to sell books you need to:
1. Make sure that cover will stand out yet fit the genre. If you put a fantasy cover with a unicorn on it in the Thriller category, it will stand out, but thriller readers won't buy it. It doesn't fit their concept of a thriller.
A thing about genre, niche down that genre into as small a niche as you can. A new author in Thrillers won't get noticed but if you write time travel thrillers with aliens, put it in that category and you'll have a better chance of being seen because there are fewer books there.
2. The title. The tile must be eye catching and make the reader want to read the book. It should fit in the genre yet make a reader stop to find out what the book is about.
3. The blurb. It must be SEO optimized yet pull the reader into the book. All blurbs should contain the protagonist, the antagonist and the problem that is central to the story in a way that hooks the reader. Also use a call to action which encourages the reader to buy that book. If this blurb doesn't take them to beyond that 'more' line in the description, you have lost that potential buyer. The first sentence needs to pull them into the rest of the description.
Your description of the book may be the back cover blurb or it may be longer, but that may not mean better. You give just enough information to pull the reader into the story without writing a synopsis of the book. Look at the best sellers in your genre for the back cover blurb vs the sales descriptions. It does take a lot of practice to write blurbs and descriptions. We do creative writing, not copy writing. Those are two very different things and takes two different mindsets to do them.
4. Your first 5 pages need to keep the reader reading. If you can't hook them there, no matter how good your book is, they won't read it. After those 5 pages, you must fulfill the promise of a good story or you will end up with negative reviews. Make sure that book is as free of errors as you can make it, nicely formatted and is something that you would pay money for to read. It also needs to have a satisfying ending with all the loose ends tied up unless it's a series where the books are connected. Make sure the reader is aware if it isn't a stand alone book.
5. Reviews. Yep, to get found, you need some decent reviews. After the "The End" put in a sentence encouraging your readers to leave a review so others may find the book. Ask your email list to buy the book on sale and leave reviews. (remember, if Amazon thinks you are friends with them or related, they will pull the reviews.)
6. You need to promote that book. That doesn't mean offering it for free for a week and then forgetting it. Use your email list, FB, Booksagram, Pinterest, local bookstores. ads, promotional websites, joint promotions, etc. Remember, no one likes to be spammed so don't go into rooms on FB and post "buy my book" every day when you haven't been there before. I do use my regular FB page to advertise my books, but I don't go into my motorcycle group and advertise it....that isn't a place to promote my book unless it was on motorcycle riding. There are a lot of free things you can do for book promotions. Get inventive.
7. This is a full time thing, You need to keep advertising your book until you bring out the next book. A backlist of other books you have written is a good thing. One book doesn't get it. I fact, that first book probably isn't all that good and should be seen as trial run. The more your write, the better you get (hopefully) as you learn the craft of writing. So, put that first book out and move on to the next one. That not so good book can be revised and used as a free giveaway later.
Hint: If you are doing a series, make sure your readers don't have to wait a year or longer to get the next one. You might want to write them all, and have them ready to publish over a year or shorter.
8. If you don't care about sales, ignore everything above and publish the book, forget about it and go on to the next one.
I didn't advertise any of my books until I had my third book out. That is when I started an email list and working on getting known as an author. Remember you are the product. Your readers want to connect to you as much as your books, so promote you and your books.
Good luck.
B.A. - very, very good advice and suggestions!
Just thinking exactly the same as Gail. In fact I've made a note of B.A.s points as a reminder for myself.
It's hard especially when you only have one book out. You need a great cover, compelling book description, beginning that grabs attention when the reader "looks inside." You need a low price to get those first buyers, you need reviews from verified purchases, you need to advertise and do sales. You need to choose the right subcategories and keywords as well. Just get the book out there as much as possible until it gets some traction. Marketing is a skill in itself.
Could take years! I self-published two novels in late 90s and only in 2018 did I financially break even! My three-books-in-one trilogy published by Lulu is selling (print and e-book on various platforms such as Amazon, etc.), but not in huge numbers. Have a website to promote your book? Believe me that helps, plus the final trilogy book is available on the site for free download. I didn't get into this for the money of fame, but to send out a spiritual and real message. So, keep at it and good things will happen. Don't give up, sales will happen.
Have you used other plateforms? I personally have more luck on Smashwords. I find that offering free promotions helps.
Alyson wrote: "Have you used other plateforms? I personally have more luck on Smashwords. I find that offering free promotions helps."I've done an Amazon 99 cent promo, though it wasn't that long, only about three days. I promoted the sale way before the first discount day, yet nothing came of it.
Deborah said it but not quiet correctly...it WILL take years. Dan Brown was writing for 15 years before the DaVinci Code became a hit. JK Rowqling 6 years. Stephen King 10 years, James Pattererson 5 years, John Grisham, around 5 years,....notice the numbers. It would be a rare person who makes it big with their first book...or even the second or third. The average writer takes 5 years to make a profit. With that, they wrote that million plus words and revised every one of them more than once. Writing is a craft that takes time to learn and develop for your style and voice. Abysmal writing is expected to begin with. With that said, if you only have one book out and it's not selling well, don't worry about it. Work on making the next book better. Keep learning. That means learning from the masters. Read and put into practice those books by James Scott Bell, or Randy Ingermanson, Experiment with them and see what works for you. The more you write, hopefully the better you will get. And above all....READ. Read a lot of books in the genre you are writing in. Figure out what makes them work or not work. Break them down....look at the plot structure and are they using a 3 act structure. Where are the turning points? How is the dialogue? How much telling and how much showing? Soon certain things will stand out. Join a critique group and learn what is good and what isn't good writing. Practice, practice, practice.
Bottom line, first book, don't worry about sales. Write that next book, get it published and repeat. Begin marketing when you have 3 books so you can give way one for free and have a back list for them to buy. Repeat frequently until you can't write any more and stop. Each book that you write should be better than the last one until you hit a groove where you are writing good to great books each time. If you go back and read one of Nora Roberts first books, you can see how much she has grown as an author. (The first one wasn't that great....trust me on that one.)
That's a very encouraging post for a new writer, B.A.The first book I published fell quiet about 2 years later and I worried. Then it revived and made it to #1 in its genre. So you mustn't write a book off! Just keep going if you enjoy it. But we have to remember not to give up the day job.
Good points BA and Anna. Thank you. I find this heartening and encouraging. Thank you!
It takes 5/10/20 years to become an overnight success. Each of those years will flip between great confidence that success is inevitably and self-pity where you mock your own creations. Hopefully there are more of the former.
Great advice, B.A.It wasn't until I started writing that I started deconstructing sentences in books from my favorite authors. Especially the first sentence or two of a new chapter. Does it hook you in? Does it set a mood? How many adverbs are in it (ideally none)? How many adjectives?
It's actually made me more critical of my own writing and books that I read. It also made me appreciate some of my favorite authors more...but some of them less. I'm more observant of the flaws.
B.A. Thank you for the excellent advice. I just indy published my first book on Amazon last month. It sold over 50 copies in the first month. (I know, not amazing numbers, but I am not doing this to get rich. I just want to write and hope someone gets something from my work.) So far, Facebook has been a good source to get the word out, and now that some people have read it, they tell me they are recommending the book to their friends and family. A fellow author and friend did a blog interview of me that will come out soon, so that will draw some more attention to it. No book signings allowed, of course, but maybe someday. I am working on a sequel.
Judy wrote: "B.A. Thank you for the excellent advice. I just indy published my first book on Amazon last month. It sold over 50 copies in the first month. (I know, not amazing numbers, but I am not doing this t..."How did you make sales in its first month? My book hasn't made any sales.
KDP Promotions are a good way to draw those first readers to your book.
G.R. wrote: "KDP Promotions are a good way to draw those first readers to your book."I agree, G.R. I did a KDP with my first book a while back. Gave away about a 100 copies. Hopefully at some point they will have feedback and reviews I can learn, grow from, and use.
Dave J., Friends, former colleagues, and family members who saw my announcement of the publication of my book on Facebook bought it first, then they started commenting positively about it on social media and also recommended it by word of mouth to others. (Without any urging from me.) The day I announced the book was available on Amazon, I sold 18 books. I am a retired high school teacher and adjunct college professor, so I also had some former students buy it.
The more I write, the more I realize, hard work and time are the only ways to do this thing. No CEO, actor, military officer, musician, or star athlete made it to those levels without going hard every single day. Chase the dream, not the money...
How long indeed. I have 4 published, and none of them have made back the total spent for publishing (cover, editor, promotion). Online sales have been dismal because I haven't done any online promotion in a while.That said, I've found that the most I've ever made in sales was always in person, at some sort of fair or convention. Physical sales have far outweighed online purchases. My advice is to shoot for things where there's lots of high foot traffic and people looking to spend money if you want to get decent sales (after the covid pandemic, that is).
Do you have copies of the book with you wherever you go? People often buy the book because they know the author. I gave free copies to my family but went on local radio and gave promotional material to local magazines to get noticed. If folk don't know who you are they won't buy your book. Of course nothing will happen while this virus is about so the advice to write the next book is probably the best.
Some great feedback in this discussion, I have recently released my first book but I never had any expectations. I always expected it to take time find readers and an audience that appreciates my stories. I take solace in the fact that some of the most successful authors like JK Rowling went to different agents and publishers which had no interest in her writing but now their stories are loved by so many.
Lawrence Lockett - What a perfect name! My grandmother's maiden name was Lockett. I read that Stephen King's book Carrie was rejected 30 times. He rejected it himself first by throwing it in the trash, and his wife rescued it.
We threw a launch party and got our friends and family to buy a few copies, thus boosting it up on the sales chart. From there, we've done Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Days. Saw a huge boost in Kindle Unlimited reads following the Free Days. We gave away about 600 copies. I'd recommend giving the promotions a shot, as well as maybe looking into sites like AwesomeGang and Bookgoodies (they'll post an ad for you for Free).
Good luck!
Hi everyone. I am also a new author who just published a climate fiction book very recently called "One Last Breath: A Look Back at 200 Years of Global Warming." I just want to say that I've been following this thread and I appreciate all of the advice you all have been providing for new authors. It's very helpful! Thanks!
Judy wrote: "Lawrence Lockett - What a perfect name! My grandmother's maiden name was Lockett. I read that Stephen King's book Carrie was rejected 30 times. He rejected it himself first by throwing it in the tr..."Maybe we share a common ancestry. I remember reading the same about Carrie, makes me smile. One of Stephen Kings most popular stories and it needed to be rescued from the trash.
It sold, thanks to my social media presence and even reached bestseller ranks within two months, however i got busy with my next book and the sales started coming down. Even now, it's selling because people who have read it, are spreading the word, but it is a bit slow. I think it should pick up with some good advertising.
It has been repeated by others, "promoting," in every possible way keeping in mind a budget for doing so. I have published one book, made sales in the first four months having informed friends, family, colleagues about the book. A steady, continuous flow was not the norm, neither did I expect it. Promoting could involve taking in writers' conferences and purchasing a table to advertise your book, using Face-Book, making a video of yourself with the book, and announcing any signing you might have scheduled. Brain storm in as many ways you could think of.
Thank you so much. Very informative. Feels good to see a lot of us in same boat. I published my first book, promoted it to friends and family and then forgot all about promotions. Within 6 months even my friends had forgotten about it! Looking at the posts above marketing seems to be a full time job.
I paid Kirkus $500 to review my first and only 500 page book which I published in 2014 and republished in 2016. I also went on Goodreads with several giveaway promotions and obtained over 40 reviews from its readers with an average rating of 3.7 out of 5.0. I am told that if you get a 4.0+ rating then publishers may be likely to contact you and put some effort into getting your book into libraries and retail shops and the literary magazines. Otherwise do not bother with publishers as they all have different formats they want you to fill out of different page lengths and rarelu get back to you. Much the same with agents - they are all a rude bunch and tend to only like books they can intellectualize about among themselves such as Wolf Hall. The biggest selling book of the last decade was 50 Shades of Grey which is no more than a piece of cheap erotic titilation for bored housewives. Whatever might be claimed otherwise the market for books that sell today is 95% women looking for a quick sexual or emotional thrill. I would recommend Kindle and Goodreads (also owned by Amazon) as best bets for a good book. Smashwords has done nothing at all for my book as Smashwords and its like are aimed at those who won't spend more than $2 on a book. Trying to promote a book in magazines or elsewhere is prohibitive. The only ones that do well are those associated with a "celeb" name as that is all that counts nowadays with most.Perhaps I am luckier than most as my book is a history mystery "faction" thilller in a Dan Brown short chapter style but I have managed to sell several hundred over the past three years and every month I get a small cheque enough to buy a few drinks with!
Anita and John, a first book very seldom makes it to best seller status. Forget friends and family. Not only are they not allowed to review it on Amazon, but they aren't your target audience. To get readers, you need to decide who your book's target audience is and market to them. Those are the ones who will be buying your books. John, getting 40 reviews is fantastic. Look at what they said and why they gave you the rating they did. Feedback from readers is what helps you to make your next book better, especially if they are all saying similar things.
As to agents and publishers, they go by trends. What ever is big at the moment. As to 50 Shades of Grey, that was a popular book due to the subject matter. It wasn't that well written, but the story was good and had a lot of organic sales due to word of mouth from those who liked the book. I, personally haven't read it and it isn't at the top of my reading list.
Here's the bottom line, no matter what genre you write in, you must have engaging characters, a good story, a plot that follows the genre expectations, and it must be well written. That takes time to learn. And yes, women and men want to be emotionally attached to the characters. There is a reason people read Lee Childs books and Dan Brown, or James Patterson, Nora Roberts, and Tolkien.
Read books in your genre to discover why they are popular. Learn to break down the plot, the points that make a character engaging, what techniques the writer used to keep the reader reading, what genre conventions did they follow or break, etc. There are a lot of authors out there who are popular and have a lot of good reasons why they are best sellers. They give the reader what they want. That means characters that are memorable and a story that makes you want to keep reading or that you don't forget right away.
Yes, the 50 Shades of Grey books were big sellers, but so where The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, The Help, Gone Girl, Where the Crawdads Sing....All of those gave the readers what they wanted...an escape from the real world into another world.
If your book is still selling, write another one and put it wide (not just Amazon) since Kobo and B&N do sell a lot of books. Advertise. It doesn't have to cost a small fortune but those few dollars will add to your sales. Look to where you can get your book into libraries. They will help add to your income. Promoting on Book Bub, even in the lower echelons helps in sales. Build a following be it on Amazon, Book Bub., Facebook, or an email list that you send out updates to and engage with over time.
It isn't the Celeb names that get you into the best seller ranks. It is all about your story, characters and how well you pull the reader into that world and keep them there. To do that, you need to learn how to write like the big name writers. What do and how do they do it to keep their readers reading their books? Don't blame the agents, publishers and the platforms if they pass over your book. They get 1000s of books a month so yours has to stand out in a good way. Self publishing is a way of by passing the slush pile, but, again, if your book doesn't stand out, it will go the the bottom of the slush pile for readers and not be seen.
Thanks for this. I did cross genres in my book which I think was its main problem. A good experience though and your advice is timely once more for second try one day.
John, there is no time like the present to write another book. My first effort is still languishing on my computer in need of some severe editing but it was a good sage. 500K words long, much to long for one book. If you are still getting sales, that means you did a good job so dive back in and write another. Until you've written and edited that million words, you are still in learning mode. I've written that million words but the craft of writing isn't easy to learn. Like you, I mash up some genres. With that said, you can mix genres as long as you have the necessary scenes to make it fit the reader's expectations. I'll recommend looking at the Story Grid for editing. I'm finding that is one of the better editing styles so that the book has the meat and bones for a good book. As to style, if your first book is still selling, you have a decent style and voice. The more you write, the better you will get. I'll admit that writing is my retirement plan where I can have fun doing something that I enjoy. That means that it can be as cheap or as expensive as I want to make it but the main thing is learning how to turn out books that are the best they can be. To do that, I had to learn how to write while keeping my unique style and voice. That's the reason I said to go back and review those comments by readers, learn from them and repeat.
I will encourage you to jump in there and repeat the experience, enjoy it and write the things you want to read and to hell with what is popular. I believe you should start your own trend and go with it. Sounds like your first book was a good start.
Thanks BA all very encouraging. I do have the material for a second book and the subject of a global pandemic as plotted in my first book among other things is very topical right now. Today got two new reviews of my 2016 novel on Amazon which I am very happy with.
You may want to consider higher utilization of your Goodreads profile. When I clicked your name, it said your profile was set to private. This means that people can't navigate to your book through your profile. I searched your book and found it, then went to your author profile. There's nothing there. No reviews. No updates. Not even a profile picture. I'm not saying you should put your whole life story there, but readers like connecting with writers. This is doubly true for the sort of readers who like to read indie stories.
By posting reviews/ratings on your profile, you can give readers some content between books, give them a sense of the sort of books you like or don't like, and let them get a feel for you as a person.
The other benefit is that every time you post on a message board or leave a review on a book, you create a chance for someone to click on your profile and find your book. You can advertise passively, without ever trying to bully anyone into buying your book.
I'm not saying this will make you a bestselling author or anything like that. But it might help. Good luck!
many thanks for this. I am not very adept at keeping up with these sort of things. but I will have a go at it. thanks again.
What I have learned as a new author:Writing is the easy part.
Self-publishing is only the beginning. Promoting your book is where many indie authors drop the ball. I recommend "Let's Get Digital" by David Gaughran, who is an expert on self-publishing. It's free on Amazon. His blog is also a great source of info and you can sign up for his free course. I've learned so much from him. He's been in the game since about 2011 and he stays on top of all the new info.
Thank you, D. I already have an earlier version but your post has made me download the latest version.
Anna Faversham wrote: "Thank you, D. I already have an earlier version but your post has made me download the latest version."You're welcome! I read an earlier version as well but read the new one too. Worth it!
D. wrote: "Self-publishing is only the beginning. Promoting your book is where many indie authors drop the ball. I recommend "Let's Get Digital" by David Gaughran, who is an expert on self-publishing. It's fr...""Promoting your book is where many indie authors drop the ball." - So true.
Add - Went to David Gaughran's Amazon book immediately. Sadly, it's not available.
Leon wrote: "What I have learned as a new author:Writing is the easy part."
LOL. Again, an accurate statement. A very accurate one, I might add. Loaded with so many nuances understood only by those who went through the process. If only we didn't love writing so much...
Lawrence wrote: "Some great feedback in this discussion, I have recently released my first book but I never had any expectations. I always expected it to take time find readers and an audience that appreciates my s..."Independence or.... Nope, I really wouldn't say "death." Boredom probably.
They can throw brickbats, boulders, or the occasional nuclear missile at Amazon, but I am thankful some entity gave us the opportunity to publish without the purgatory of trad pub processes.
But that's only me talking. Opinions might differ
D. wrote: "Edmund wrote: "D. wrote: "Self-publishing is only the beginning. Promoting your book is where many indie authors drop the ball. I recommend "Let's Get Digital" by David Gaughran, who is an expert o..."Got it. Downloaded it! Thanks! I wonder what was that page which came up during my search. Anyway, I do hope the book helps.
There was an old version of the book that may have come up. There's also a free course on David Gaughran's site. I think you'll find him a fount of information.
