low book sales

Low Book Sales? Top 10 Tips on How to Sell More Books

Low book sales? Never fear, we can teach you how to sell more books. Or rather, we can teach you to set yourself up for the maximal level of book sales that your published work can achieve.

All too commonly, self-published authors step into the fray expecting meteoric book sales upon launch. Even with modest expectations and a great work of literature, an author may still feel that they’ve got low book sales for what they’ve put into it.

How to Sell More Books

If you need to know how to sell more books, you need to be paying attention to the key steps of success early on in the process of publishing your book. It’s all a matter of having the right system in place.

Writing and publishing the book can be such a challenging part of the process for authors that they often end up forgetting about having a marketing strategy to get as many eyes on the book as possible.

That’s where we come in. Made for Success has experience in working with authors of all levels of experience. We specialize in creating book marketing strategies, helping authors publish amazing works, and optimizing your book listing on Amazon for maximum results and exposure.

With our expertise, we can help you reverse your low book sales figures into the optimum bottom line that you’re looking for.

Here are our top 12 tips to help you sell more books.

  1. Make sure your book has a specific audience

Taking a “there’s something for everyone” approach to publishing a book doesn’t necessarily help with generating more book sales.

Just because you perceive your audience as being “wider” doesn’t mean that the audience will feel the same way about your content. 

Narrowing your audience down early on and determining who the subject matter is aimed at is the key to helping you blueprint your book marketing strategy.

  1. Optimize your Amazon book description

Amazon is where the magic for book sales can really happen. Well-optimized Amazon listings are the difference between books that post a 200% ROI and the ones that skyrocket to 20,000% ROI and beyond.

Amazon’s listings behave like their own search engine results page (SERP), and they require you to do some keyword research to understand what will get your book listing to show up in the results.

Made for Success has crafted the ultimate package for creating a perfect Amazon book launch. If you need help with this part of the process, give us a holler.

  1. Beautiful cover artwork

Okay, maybe “beautiful” isn’t a universal adjective for how your book’s cover should look. But even though we’ve all been told “not to judge a book by its cover,” we have seen time and time again in our research that people will judge your book by its cover.

Hire a cheap artist, get a cheap result. 

Work with a talented cover artist or illustrator for your book, and expect that you’ll see better clickthrough on your book. 

  1. Set up a review campaign

Having reviews on your book is essential to getting better visibility on Amazon and other vendors.

Some simple techniques you can try are…

  • Use email automation like MailChimp, HubSpot, or PipeDrive to ask for a review from anybody who has purchased the book
  • Reach out to your buyers one by one and ask for their honest reviews
  • Provide a free copy of your book in exchange for an HONEST review (this is important: you cannot request 5-star reviews, but you can provide a copy in exchange for honest feedback)
  1. Land a book endorsement

Leveraging the reputation power of a third-party in your space can be a powerful trust signal to readers who are considering purchasing your book.

If you can secure a review from somebody well-known in your space, it can be a key driver for people to pick up a copy of your book. Consider who you know that you may be able to secure a review or endorsement from.

  1. Have an influential person write your Foreword

If you have low book sales, it may not be due to the content of your book itself, but rather the fact that you’re a relatively unknown author.

Ahead of publishing, consider who you might be able to have write your Foreword. You’d be surprised at how many folks are willing to contribute to your work. Choose somebody that will resonate with your target audience so you can leverage their reputational power.

  1. Get more media time and interviews

Every good book marketing strategy needs to involve some level of PR and appearances in various news outlets.

Unfortunately, many self-published authors don’t have these types of connections from the get-go and often end up being lost as to where to get their book recognized.

Made for Success has spent close to two decades building up a network of high-level influencers and media outlets, and can help you get your book the exposure it needs for higher sales volume.

  1. Leverage your social media channels

Authors who have an audience on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or any other social media are often the ones that sell the most books.

If you’re trying to figure out how to sell more books and haven’t spent any time cultivating your social media presence, you may want to consider where you can shore up your social media accounts.

  1. Understand that marketing your book is an ongoing effort

The party doesn’t stop once you hit “publish.” You’ll need to be considering how to incentivize buyers to pick up a copy of your book ongoing.

It helps to have thought about many of these aspects in advance, and can be useful to write out a promotional calendar to organize your book marketing efforts.

  1. Be consistent in your work

A great marketing strategy is ultimately determined not only by its research, but by how consistently it’s executed.

Too often, people look for big batch solutions… like emailing a massive list of people to market their book to, and hoping that it can be a “one and done” type of solution.

The reality is that you’ll do better ongoing with small actions, consistently, over a longer period of time.

Be patient, persistent, and enjoy the process!

Sell More Books

To sell more books, ultimately, is to have a more robust and well-architected book marketing strategy. One easy solution is to create your own marketing strategy using #1 Best Seller: Book Marketing Reinvented, written by the founder of Made for Success.

The content of the book is vital, yes. If you have a bad book, you’re going to have a hard time getting favorable reviews.

However, even a book of moderate merits can experience exceptional success through a strategic book marketing plan.

The good news is, it doesn’t matter if your book has yet to be published, or if it’s been released for over a year! We have solutions for authors in any situation.

Click here to talk with us if you’re looking to bolster your low book sales and want to know how to sell more books.