Why Doesn’t Book Marketing Pay Off For Some Authors?

 I speak to authors every single day who tell me their marketing efforts, which include spending lots of time and money, failed to yield strong book sales. Indeed, the results can be abysmal and mind-boggling. So, why are authors not getting more out of what they pour into this?  

Well, first let’s talk numbers and odds. There are sooooo many published books out there. Each one competes for readers. There are tens of millions of books available for sale, and each day another 7500 titles are born and thrust into a crowded marketplace for content. That marketplace includes competing creations, including free ones, each looking for one’s time and possibly their wallet.   

Your book competes not just with other books, but with seminars, conventions, webinars, podcasts, blogs, websites, social media, news media, plays, movies, television shows, concerts, video games, sporting events, and hobbies.   

Now, not all books or these other things get promoted equally, if at all. The differentiator as to what people consume comes down to your level of marketing, luck, and word-of-mouth.   

Here’s what can go south when it comes to your book marketing — and what you can do about it: 

1. Selected The Wrong Service

You may be eager to market your book, but you undertook activities that are not as fruitful as other ones. Before you start to promote your book, know of all of your options and rank which ones have a better chance of being executed successfully and that will lead to a pay-off.

2. Used The Wrong Service Provider

No matter which activity you outsource for a professional to do, make sure you choose the right vendor. Have they been doing this for a while? Are there online complaints about them? Did you see testimonials or question their references? Are they priced competitively? Do they seem honest, capable, passionate, experienced, knowledgeable, and responsive?

3. Bad Timing

Did you execute a good idea at the wrong time? There are things that need to happen many months before a book comes out.  Should the activity been scheduled in conjunction with other activities? Did current events, weather, or something else out of your control sabotage the timing of your campaign?

4. Did Not Stick With It

People quit something prematurely — diets, job searches, dating — because they get frustrated by failing to see positive results fast. Authors give up on their marketing too soon. Allow for failures and learn from them. Stay with your efforts for a little longer. Luck, the law of averages, and your learning curve all take longer to kick in than you think. if something is not working for you, try to change something. Work longer and harder. Or, try other things. But don’t just give up based on a brief, half-assed, misinformed effort.

5. Good Idea, Poor Execution

Many authors don’t know of all that can be done to market a book, but sometimes they have a good idea. But ideas are not enough. You need good execution of such ideas. Should it be outsourced? Do you need to learn more? Do you have access to the right resources? Was your timing bad? Was something not available or working at the time you tried to do something? 

6. You Needed To Outsource That

Don’t be a penny-pinching loser. Yeah, you heard me. If you believe in your book, suck it up and pay the toll of time, money, and stress. Nothing worthwhile comes easiky, quickly, or without risk and expense. Some parts of marketing are beyond your tool kit and ignoring your marketing is not an option. Conclusion? Get a book marketing wizard to do what you won’t, don’t know how to, or have no time for,

just as you would hire a talented handyman or a professional to fix that leaky roof, tend to your plumbing, paint the house, and redo the kitchen. 

7. You Failed To Implement Sound Advice

Either you got great advice and ignored it or you didn’t seek guidance out in the first place. Either scenario can hamper you from carrying out a smart, cost-effective, and timely campaign.

8. Your Book Is No Better Than Mediocre

One component to your marketing is to get word-of-mouth sales. If your book is no better than anyone else’s, few people will chirp up about your book. And, likely you will get unenthusiastic book reviews and fewer people will feel compelled to write one.

9. Marketing Portfolio Is Not Diverse

Just as with your wealth investments, you need to diversify your assets. Whereas one would not just invest in one class — ie stocks, bonds, commodities, crypto, real estate, art, etc. — one would not just focus on one marketing path, whether it is speaking, book reviews, giveaways, social media, awards, news media, advertisements, website, etc. You need to pick multiple ways to promote and apportion unequal time and money allocations to each of them.

10. Order Of Operations Is Wrong

Knowing what to do and when is important. For instance, you don’t set up a speaking engagement if your book is not yet available for sale, but you don’t wait for it to be published to reach out to professional book reviewers.  

11. Ran Into A Flood Of Competition & Distraction

It happens. Your book comes out and suddenly you are competing with a lot of great books that just came out as well. Or, other distractions arise that keep readers away from your book. Perhaps major sporting events, new plays, hit movies, extreme weather events, news cycle chaos, social media trends, politics, or any of a hundred things take people away from discovering your book or having the time to read it.  

12. Misread Whom You Are Targeting

You need to know who your potential reader or customer is — and only market to them. The vast majority of people simply won’t give a crap about your book. That’s ok. Find the ones who have a need or desire to read books in your genre and that can connect with the subject matter. Look at demographics such as gender, race, sexuality, age, religion, profession, location, hobbies, etc. Don’t believe for a minute that “everyone” will love your book. They won’t. 

Book marketing, when done well, can make a huge difference in generating book sales and building a strong author brand. It can also be an utter failure for many authors. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Market your book often, correctly, and better — and then you won’t have to keep scratching your head over the results.

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 4.7 million pageviews. With 5,400+ posts over the past 14 years, it 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 www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity 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, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

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. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum