Will You Sell More Than 200 Copies Of Your Book?

 

The average book in the United States sells fewer than 200 copies annually.   

That is a statistic stated by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. For some, it is not shocking. For others, it’s a wake-up call to do more to promote and market their books. With 5,000 new books published daily in America, there’s a lot of competition for book buyers and authors, and publishers fully know that unless there are pro-active steps being taken on a consistent and continuous basis, individual book title sales will languish.  

If you sold four books per week, you’d average a little over 200 sold for the year. That’s pathetic.  

So, what can you do to sell more than 200 copies of your book this year?  

Authors simply have to look at what moves a book to sell and determine if they have the time, resources, and network to make books sell. No one thing sells tons of books on a consistent basis. Everyone needs to find what singular thing or combination of things that work for them. The brand areas that authors need to look at are the following: 

 

• News media coverage
• Social media posts
• Speaking at events
• Advertising 
• Networking
• Book awards
• Bundling with other books, products, or services
• Give-aways
• Bulk sales
• Referrals & affiliates
• Discounts
• Paid reviews & influencers   

Each of these areas are important. The less you do in one pf them, the more you’ll need to do in another. It’s okay if speaking is not for you or you don’t like using Twitter, but you can’t be weak in too many areas or burden to succeed in just a few areas becomes high.   

If a book is really good, it will get word-of-mouth buzz from those who read it. However, you can’t get that until you seed the marketplace with enough readers who read and like your book. So, getting the book into the hands of hundreds and thousands of people-the discovery process can only happen when authors and publishers force the issue. They need to not sit back. They have to go out and hustle and convince/inform enough people that the book exists and is worth investing their time and money into.   

Will you sell more than 200 books this year? It doesn’t depend on how good your book is. It comes down to what you are willing and able to do to market your book. Stay in front of those you believe to be your targeted reader and share an interesting message that they simply can’t ignore. There, that’s the secret formula!  

6 Interesting Book World Facts

 

1. In 2021, total books sold crossed the one-billion copy threshold for the first time ever in the United States.  

2. The U.S book industry took in $26 billion in revenue in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.   

3. In America, some 1,700 indie bookselling companies operate some 4,000 stores.   

4. The U.S book market is dominated by print book sales. E-books and audiobooks only make up about 20% of the market in total.  

5. Audio books are growing wildly. In 2020, 71,000 audiobooks were published, an increase of 39% from 2019. The U.S audiobook revenue reached $1.3 billion in 2020, an increase of 12% from the year prior, and the ninth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth.   

 

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.