A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: How Does Content/Topic Affect Book Sales?

 


 

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic asks how content/topic affects book sales. Quite a bit, actually, is the answer. Consider the following:

  • The best-written, most award-winning book cannot become a NYT bestseller with a topic that is not of wide, general interest. Most memoirs fall into that category; so do books that are rather off the beaten path. 
  • If you are not hearing about your topic right now on all the talk shows, news outlets, and social media venues, chances are readers are not searching out your book; they are searching for a book about the latest hot topic. That is why books go through cycles of good and not-so-good and even no sales: life chances, politics change, cultures morph, topics come and go in terms of interest. 
  • A well written book on a topic that has an important message or a significant form of help for readers will have good sales – for a while and then later and then again later, but not always consistently. It helps to keep that in mind when good sales sour or when sales do not take off or pick up in spite of your best efforts. 
  • The above does not mean you should cease your efforts; more esoteric topics just do not gather in the sales that the topic du jour does – and giving up guarantees long-term failure. For writers, hope must spring eternal!

Bottom line: The "times" often dictate the success of your book more than the quality of the writing.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Keep the faith. Stay with your book. Expect to surf waves of success and failure. Keep your chin up: remember why you wrote the book in the first place. 





 Read more posts about publishing HERE.



The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

                             

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