A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Self-Analyzing Your Lack of Sales in order to Develop a Sound Promotion & Marketing Plan

 

 

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. 

This week, we suggest that authors can do a rudimentary analysis of their lack of sales on their own. From that, they should be able to develop plans to approach marketing and promotion more effectively.

Book Reviews

This is a biggie. Book reviews, more than anything else, sell books. While it is difficult to come up with a number that will make a difference--depends on the genre, number of competing books--typically, books with fewer than 50 book reviews are not selling, and 75-100 is considered by some in the industry to be critical to springboarding to "bestseller" status. So,

• How many reviews does your book have? If a paltry number, put a book review campaign in your plan. Get them wherever you can: acquaintances of acquaintances, local media and book reviewers, book club members (make the book available free to one or more book clubs in exchange for reviews (if your sales are lagging, you need 20 reviews more than you need 20 book sales, just saying...). Check out book review services; there are all kinds. Just google: .
• How good are your reviews? Not all reviews have to be stellar, 5-star reviews. In fact, sometimes that makes a book look "too good," and some readers do back away from the "too good reviews" feeling (the thought being that perhaps the author seeded some of the reviews). However, if there are some bad reviews, you might consider how to handle them. That, too, should be part of your book promotion plan moving forward. We once had someone who pegged herself as a very staunch and happy atheist out to tilt at the windmill of religion review a conversion-to-Christianity book and tore it apart in unhealthy, unfair, and smug-sounding ways. That initially hurt some sales, and we had to remediate the situation in ways that you can, too. First, we contacted the places where she had placed her reviews, explained why we thought they were disingenuous and misleading, and asked for those places to take down the review; some did, and others labeled the review as questionable. We also pushed hard to get a number of other reviews (honest ones, not all five stars, but from individuals who understood the content better) online quickly to show a better overall picture. We also stopped using Library Thing as a source for book reviews--and they had been a good source for a long time for getting numbers of reviews--but this case made it clear that they were not in any way monitoring who got the free book copies to review. (Did it really make sense to have an atheist review a book intended for a Christan audience, one who, it appeared, actually seemed to be collecting a mass of Christian books on her bookshelf and trashing all of them?) (We also noticed that at one point LT followed up with those who received free book copies to ensure that they posted reviews; they seemed to stop doing that: near the end of our association with them, we were getting about one review for every 15 free books sent to their reviewers.) 
• Where do your reviews appear? Only on Amazon or on a wide variety of platforms and locations? If not widespread, you can include a plan to share your reviews with others and other locations -- as many as possible.

Ranking

The best-known ranking system is arguably Amazon's bestseller ranks. These rankings may different things than what you might imagine. These rankings are not absolute rankings but relative, so the rank order depends upon how many books in the same category (the more, the harder it is to get a better ranking even with more sales -- the competition is overwhelming) and how many have sold within the hour (so a bit of luck required here since the rankings on based on recency and not absolute numbers).

• Is your book in the Amazon Top 100 for its category? No? Then, what did you do before, during, and immediately after launch to get the book there. Initial sales are nearly always the best. If your book is not in the top 100, pick a limited period of time during the first week or two after the book's release and concentrate on getting sales from Amazon. Obviously (but not everyone reflects logically), if books are being purchased from multiple sources, including from you, now would be a good time to focus efforts on getting sales through Amazon, either through Amazon ads or by sending potential purchasers to your book's Amazon site. This short period of time is also the time to pull out all the plugs for a book launch.
• Has your book remained at a relatively good sales rank as time has gone on? No? Pick a period of time and concentrate on getting sales from Amazon in that time frame, just as you did for the Amazon top 100. Keep in mind that top 100 ranking will be difficult especially in big niches, but it is possible. When/if your book does reach the top 100/200/300, share that information in every way and form you can think of.
• It goes without saying: ditto for Barnes and Noble and other raking systems.
• Are you getting the same ranking as in the past? Has the book become dated? Time to look at whether the book should have the same appeal for your target audience. If not, can you put out a second edition? (That would give all the advantages of a first-time book launch.) Actually, you want to get a better ranking as a result of selling more books. Look for help from book clubs and Influencers, among other ways to accomplish this.

Sales Locations

Sales location can be very important. Are your books (not) selling to:

• Physical bookstores. Not to panic here. While it can be ego-rewarding to walk into a bookstore and see your book there, keep in mind that nowadays bookstore sales for books are only 5% of total sales. There are a number of reasons for this, and they are only likely to grow. So, perhaps a plan to storm bookstores to get your book in more of them may not be the best use of your time or resources as gratifying as it would be to see it there and given some advantages that do accrue to having potential buyers seeing it displayed there. ROI will not likely be there.
• Bookstores are closing.
• Younger readers prefer ebooks.
• Younger readers prefer to order online.
• Right of return policies are pushing some publishers, especially small publishers and micropublishers, away from offering books through bookstores.
• If you are self-published, a bookstore might not want to sell your book, especially if it cannot be ordered through a regular publisher.
• Only a fraction of books published each month can be displayed in a bookstore (shelf space is limited).
• Online booksellers. This is critical and the easiest problem to be remedied. These stores sell 71% of all book sales, by latest count. If your book is not online, get it there. If you do not have an Amazon author page, put one up immediately. If you do not have social presence, linking to online sellers, get it (website, blog, social media - whatever you can realistically manage timewise). 
• Author sales at webinars, to book clubs, at fairs and other creative locations. These sales won't affect your bestseller rank, but they will improve your sales, which is what you are after.

Discoverability

This is perhaps the most important of all. How do potential buyers know about your book -- or do they?

• Presence of book in advertising values. There is no limit to these opportunities (except the contents of your purse), but how many are you taking advantage of? How many could you take advantage of in the future? The more the better!
• Self-conducted seminars and webinars?
• Talks at coffee shops and elsewhere?
• Author interviews posted in various venues?
• Podcasts, radio and television programs, Youtube videos, book trailers?
• Catalogues: publisher catalogues, specialty catalogues for your genre, webstore (most likely your publisher's)?
• Book reviewers' and book advertisers' catalogues?
• Exhibits, conferences, congresses, meetings?
• SEO. Is your book easily discovered online? Type in some phrases or keywords into Google that should pull up your book. Do they? On page 1 or 31? The closer you are to page 1, the more discoverable your book. Key to getting the book seen is choosing the right key words. You can get some help with this -- your publisher will probably be all over this if you are traditionally published. You can experiment with finding the most key words, but the main guide would be the more the better.
• A variety of editions. The more formats the better for getting your book known. Is your book available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook? If not, what could you do to expand the editions?

Bottom line: These are not the only things to look at, but they are a good start. You will be

See more Publisher Conversations with Authors HERE.

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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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