13 Secrets To Selling Books

So many things can trigger a book sale depending on the book, including circumstances, buyer’s needs, author’s status, timing, price, and competition. A book can sell like hot cakes or die a quiet death. What can authors do to sell their book?   

First, make an effort to influence sales. Whatever you do, do something. Luck, status quo, and neutrality don’t help much here. Authors must be visible and out there. Discovery doesn’t happen by accident; authors position things to get their book discovered.   

Second, let people know your book is available without making someone feel they are being sold to.  

Third, make people feel involved and invited into a conversation. Ask them a question. Engage their needs, desires, and curiosities. Make your book about them.  

Fourth, clearly state what the benefit of reading your book shall be. Will they laugh or cry? Will they feel something? Learn something? Will it put them in a state of mind that they will want to be in?  

Fifth, feel out a potential customer or audience for what their objections to your book might be. In other words, learn why people would not want your book. Don’t ask readers what they didn’t like about the book, ask them what they think they won’t enjoy before they read it.   

Sixth, see how can you disarm people to make them feel your book could be fun, exciting, or interesting.   

Seventh, identify and share your unique selling proposition: in a crowded marketplace of entertainment, information, and books. How can you stick out and be better, different, even unique?  

Eighth, learn how people like to be sold about what you have to offer. Know exactly what it is that you are offering.  

Ninth, promote your book in numerous ways: speak at an event; post on social media; and seek out news media coverage.  

Tenth, get third-party validation for your book: reviews from customers and professional reviews; win book awards; and seek out testimonials from experts and authors.  

Eleventh, advertise or pay for exposure, including paid book reviews or paying companies that do website SEO, blog tours, and best-seller campaigns.  

Twelfth, make the book available in numerous formats and numerous prices. Experiment on price. Formats can include hard cover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, e-book, and audiobook.  

Thirteenth, use your website as a key storefront and look to invite people to go to your site. Lure them in with a worthwhile free download. Do special sales. Hold free webinars. Get people to your site and build up a mailing list of who goes there. Your ads, social media, and fliers should lead people back to the site. If you get interviewed by the news media, you should encourage readers, listeners and viewers to get to the site. Once there, people will be sold based on how you present the book there.  

How do you sell a book? Show up and advocate for yourself every day in every way. Eventually, those who hear about it and buy it will become your word-of-mouth spreaders. If your book’s any good, it will catch on once enough people know it exists and is very good. 

Please Contact Me For Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres.

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This blog, with over 4,000 posts over the past decade, was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.