Over the next few days, I’m going to attempt to answer some of the questions authors ask in regards to book sales (specifically selling more of their books) at Amazon.
If there’s anything you’re wondering about that’s related to this topic, leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer it. (Just don’t ask me how to sell a thousand books a day or make it into the Top 100 overall. The best sales rank I’ve managed in the Kindle Store is 2,300 or so.)
Let’s start out with the biggie, the one people actually email me about…
Why aren’t I selling more books?
I’m going to assume you have an exciting (typo free!) blurb, professional-looking cover art, and at least a couple of positive book reviews (if not, address those potential pitfalls first).
The short answer is: people don’t know your book exists.
There are millions of books in the Amazon store (hundreds of thousands of ebooks in the Kindle store), so it’s hard to get noticed.
In the beginning, you have to drive readers to your Amazon book page. This can be via advertising, social media, your blog, guest posts on other blogs, forums, etc.
If you can get an ebook listed for free, there’s less competition (for now) in that arena, so odds are better of people finding your work. If your freebie turns readers into fans, they might check out your non-free offerings.
If you sell enough books, you will reach a point where sales occur whether you’re driving traffic to Amazon or not. This is because people are finding your book through the internal Amazon search engine, by browsing the Top 100 lists, by checking other books’ “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section, and via Amazon’s recommendations (which are personalized based on reader purchases).
In essence, the more you sell, the more Amazon rewards you. They want to push books that people are buying since that presumes an inherent saleability in the title. AKA they know they’ll make more money this way.
How many books do you have to sell to reach this point?
It’s more of a gradual process than a switch being flipped, but I’d probably hit about 750-1,000 total sales of The Emperor’s Edge when I noticed it was selling itself on Amazon whether I did any type of promotion that week or not. My guess is that most people find the book via the “Customers Who Bought…” feature, as it doesn’t fall into any of the fantasy sub-categories (it’s not a good match for the Top 100 lists it shows up in). I don’t have any way of knowing if Amazon recommends it to folks or not, though I’d be curious to find out!
Now that I’ve rambled on here, let me summarize the answer to the original question (how do you sell more books at Amazon?): work your book-promotion buns off to sell that first 1,000 books.
The next post will be on tags. Stay tuned (or subscribed via your RSS reader!).
Linsey,
Pleaze tell me how to sell 1000 books aday on Amason. I write really good books. NOt like the other crap thats out there. I should sell more. Pleas help. Thanx.
It makes sense that the first thousand would be the hardest to sell. Do you think it matters if it takes a year or more to sell them?
Patience is a key. Yes? Something I often lack. lol
The free reads is a good test run.
Good advice, and a number goal to aim for!
I’m waiting to get two or three books up before I work really hard on promotions. I’ve got one up now. Another will follow in two weeks. Then another six weeks after that, if all goes as planned.
I figure if I have multiple books that will multiply my results. That, and I’m really busy getting those books up.
According to official APP figures most (80%-90%) paper-printed books fail to sell 1000 copies. The books sit in stores, spine out on badly lit shelves, and three months later are returned unsold, to be pulped or remaindered.
That’s professionally produced books by major publishers with huge teams of editors, proof-readers, design teams, blurb writers, sales teams, nation-wide distribution, etc behind them. Failing big time.
Bear that in mind when you haven’t sold your first thousand three months down the line. You’re in good company.
Then look on the bright side.
At the end of three months you just step up the promotion and you may sell several thousand in the NEXT three months. For the poor suckers who fell for the paper dream it’s game over. Their books aren’t available in month four.
If you’re still on the fence about self-publishing, forget querying agents like it’s 2010. The world has changed.
If your book’s good enough to send to an agent it’s good enough to self-publish (if not, why were you sending it to an agent in the first place?).
If it sells well the agents will soon be querying you. And what a joy it is to send THEM rejection letters!
You want to sell more books? Self-publish on Amazon (and elsewhere) and make sure readers know it exists.
The reason all those professionally produced books fail to sell is because no-one knows they exist. The same reason e-books on Amazon fail to sell.
Lindsay,
Have you seen huge sales spikes or drops when you messed with the price? By the logic of this post, it sounds like it would be good to start off on the low end ($0.99), and then jack up the price (say $2.99) once you hit a 1,000 in sales. Any experience with this? Many thanks.
@Loren I imagine the rewards are greater to those who sell more per month, but then I’ve seen at least one person come out promoting like crazy, sell a thousand in a month, and then disappear from the scene (which caused the book to eventually stop selling too). It’s hard to boil things down to a science beyond those who sell more will be rewarded by Amazon by being promoted on their site.
@Mary Yup, I’ve heard that patience thing is helpful. I’m not very good at it myself. 😉
@David It does help to have more books out there. My sales have tended to increase a little across all titles with each new release. Good luck!
@Mark Yes, it’s nice that ebooks need never go out of print. You have a lot longer to build up momentum than print-published authors who may only have their books out in stores for a few months. Too funny on sending agents rejection letters. 😉
@Paul I almost mentioned in the post that this is another reason why it’s worth giving the 99-cent price point a try. I’m keeping my first book at 99 cents, since it’s the lead-in for the series, but I’ve known quite a few indies who started out at 99 cents and then raised the price when they made it into some Top 20 lists. They usually find that their sales ranking drops (though they might be making more), but there are examples of some still doing well at the higher price.
@Mark and Lindsay: What are your thoughts of legacy-published writers and ebook sales? They’re generally on the Kindle too. While their paper books get pulled off the shelves, how do their ebook-selling experience differ from an indie? Other than not being as flexible with price. How long are the ebook rights usually with the publisher?
@Frida I’ve heard it’s in flux right now (I know of some nightmare stories of publishers trying to get ebook rights in perpetuity, but I don’t think that’s the norm), but maybe a traditionally publisher author will wander by with a better answer. Just from my own buying experience, I know it’s rare to stumble across even a physical book that’s out-of-print on Amazon. They don’t have the shelf limits of a physical bookstore, of course, so there’s no need to shuffle inventory to make room for new arrivals.
@Frida – The situation with legacy published ebooks is an interesting one. And mostly negative.
First and foremost the standard legacy royalties for an ebook work out at around 14.5% (see Konrath-Eisler discussion) compared to 35% or 70% for self-published.
Authors have no say over pricing and most legacy ebooks are over-priced – often as much or even more than the paperback – by stupid and greedy publishers who do not understand how ebuyers think.
Legacy published authors have NO IDEA how many ebooks they are selling. We’ve frequently been contacted by legacy authors with books near ours in the charts to get an idea of their own sales. When we tell them they are stunned. They’ve been led to belivee by publishers and agents that ebooks are a fad and there’s no money to be made.
Of course for the legacy author there isn’t. 14.5% of that 70% royalty from Amazon goes to the author. The publisher pockets the other 55.5%.
But it gets worse. Kris Rusch has warned many times – http://kriswrites.com/2011/04/20/the-business-rusch-royalty-statements-update/ – about how reputable publishers are actually giving authors false statements about e-sales, deliberately claiming many fewer sales than have actually been made. Why? Because once an author realises ebooks DO sell in big numbers, and then do the math, they are going to want to self-publish.
E-book rights depend on the contract. As Lindsay says, MANY very reputable agents and publishers are now introducing in perpetuity clauses which basically mean agent and publisher will have a percentage of the ebooks forever.
And when I say very reputable I mean VERY REPUTABLE. Don’t for one second assume a fancy New York address or a glitzy name means things are all above board. Agents are facing oblivion. In perpetuity clauses are their pension plan.
Anyone taking on an agent or publisher should get an IP lawyer to look at the contract.
The big question is, why would anyone bother unless there’s an incredible deal on the table?
Book-stores are going into a rapid downward spiral. The fewer paper books sell, the fewer will be published. the fewer published, then of course the fewer will sell. Just look at how the book-stores are giving over more and more shelf space to novelty products.
Christmas 2011 will see the tipping point as millions of new e-readers are fired up for the first time Christmas Day. How many of those readers will ever buy a paper book again?
The big draw of legacy publishing is worldwide access (beyond Amazon and the English speaking market). No question they still are useful, at this stage.
But foreign markets are by no means off-limits to indies. We’re currently in discussion with several non-English language publishers and agents. E-readers are gradually becoming more widely spread in the huge Spanish-speaking market, China and elsewhere.
Reasons to go with a legacy publisher are becoming fewer and fewer every day.
Just to add to the above re: decline in paper – this from Kris Rusch’s latest post:
Barnes & Noble issued an order from its corporate headquarters that it wants its stores to once again decrease the number of paper books the stores are going to carry.
“We were notified at our B&N location this week that in the next couple of weeks we will be receiving a ‘massive returns download.’ To coincide with this outflux of books we will be adding 3 more of the massive toys and games displays, as well as expanding gift and the digital presence.”
http://kriswrites.com/2011/07/20/the-business-rusch-third-quarter-blues/
Anyone just setting out on the publishing route would be crazy to even think about a legacy deal.
Great stuff from Mark Williams International…
“Anyone taking on an agent or publisher should get an IP lawyer to look at the contract.”
…but, remember, there are a lot of beginners here and not everyone speaks the jargon. An “IP lawyer” is an “Intellectual Property lawyer,” one who specializes in rights and contracts for writers, artists, etc. This has become a “must” for anyone talking serious money.