Want to see consistent book sales?
Sales trickling in...or dried up? After you release your book, it can feel daunting to try and keep book sales going continually. While sleeper sales (aka sales while you sleep) are loads of fun, getting active sales works too. Here are tips I used to sell 1k books in 5 months.
Here's how I sold 1k books in 5 months after learning how to sell 1k books in a year. Let's go!
The book is just the beginning. Use your book to leverage other opportunities. Your book is like a business card that opens doors to communities you wouldn't have known about before. Leverage your book to secure podcast episodes, speaking gigs, and more! In January, I did 6 speaking gigs and 1 account take over netting in $1100 for my time plus books ordered. Book sales are good, but checks for speaking are great! Sometimes we as authors get caught up in the number of books we've sold that we forget about all the other things afforded to us that we could also release/participate in on top of our book. Ex. journaling kits, plush toys, speaking gigs, courses, etc.) The book is just the beginning.
Relaunch/Revive. Maybe it's time to throw a little razzle-dazzle on your book by reviving or relaunching. There are 323942 made-up holidays throughout the year that can easily be used as a reason to revive your audience and encourage them to take a look at your book or leave a review (which also increases sales).
Find partnerships. For both this business and my food biz @ChefAshleyShep, partnerships with other brands and organizations have freely and efficiently introduced me to audiences of "my people". These are folks who are already interested in the topics you'd talk about because they share a common goal with the brand. Ex. If you're a children's book author, partnering with schools, child care centers, home school organizations, etc. are all great ways to get the word out about your book.
Try Paid Ads. Now, this isn't something I suggest straight out the gate for a few reasons, but ads do work if you work them. I didn't start using ads on my Daniel Fast book until January 2022 and saw about 150 direct sales from it. Amazon Ads can also help other non-paid traffic (aka people) see your book as well. Overall it was about 20% of the books sold that month came from ads. Now ads take tweaking and I suggest you connect with an expert, but they can be a great way to get extra eyes on your book. But keep this in mind: ads make it so people find you. Your description, cover, and contents make them buy.
