By Books Author Denise Turney

Before Amazon, self-publishing and eBooks took off, sending the popularity of indie books up-up-up, authors I knew wrote and published one to two books a year. Back then, you had to hustle (and I do mean hustle) to sell more indie books. Why was it such a challenge?

Here’s a True Story – You can Sell More Indie Books

Book reviewers, magazine writers, newspaper freelancers and bookstore buyers didn’t want to touch a self-published book. It didn’t matter how well written and edited the book was. An author I knew put her entire life savings into her first book, a story she paid to print herself.

As she told her 12-year-old daughter, she had no choice but to hustle and sell the book. There was nothing to fall back on financially. Not only did she post flyers around the city in good weather as well as in rain and snow, she repeatedly visited a local major bookseller, telling them about her book, asking them to carry her book.

At one point, a clerk at the bookstore asked her not to return. She didn’t listen (good for her). Tenacity, persistence and belief in her novel paid off. Did it ever! After several weeks, the book started to sell – really sell. That bookstore that told her not to come back ended up asking her what they needed to do to carry her novel.

Making the New York Times Bestseller List

That indie book landed on the New York Times bestseller list. And this leads to the first proven way to sell more indie books.

Develop a book selling strategy and stick to it. This doesn’t mean that you never change prospects or influencers to help you connect with book buyers. Instead, it means that you actually sit down and write out a marketing strategy. This is not the time for wishing, hoping and engaging in guesswork.

Research your book’s target audience, where these readers shop, seek entertainment, dine and explore. Examples of this include fashion stores, sporting events, local restaurants, nearby colleges and area museums. Use this information to determine the best places to put your indie books. After you gain the facility owner’s permission, hang flyers, leave bookmarks, free book excerpts and postcards in these places.

Also, research competitive prices for the type of book you wrote and will publish. Whether you publish your book through Barnes & Noble, Ingram Spark, Lulu, Amazon, etc., you can raise or lower the price of your book after you publish it. But it’s important that you study the market and set an effective initial price on your book to attract book buyers.

Find Out About Your Book’s Target Audience

Identifying the right target audience and setting the best price on your indie books can pay off hugely. More parts of your book selling strategy could include:

• Days of the week when you’ll write and distribute press releases. No worries if you’re not an experienced press release writer. Not only can you learn to write effective releases, you could hire someone to write your press releases at places like Fiverr, Upwork and Freelancer.
• Specific book fairs and trade shows you’ll attend. Register to attend these events, budgeting for travel and registration fees as part of your book marketing budget.
• Select three to four social media platforms to share details about your book on. Details that you could share include images of your book cover, facts about your book’s characters, great book reviews your story has received, etc. Post about your book on these social media platforms one to two times a day. Diversify what you post, covering images, videos and purchase links.

Actions that you could add to your strategy can grow. The more you learn about the book industry, the more actions you’ll likely incorporate into your strategy.

Foundational Book Marketing Actions

Just remember to stick to the foundational actions that are part of your book marketing strategy. Furthermore, measure the results of your efforts. As an example, use a spreadsheet to track how many books you sell after you distribute a press release or post a video of your indie books on social media.

What you see on this spreadsheet can help you know which days and times are best to distribute press releases, post to social media, send literary newsletters, etc. For this reason, pay attention to the data that you collect.

Who knows? One day, you could use data to decide whether to start your own book marketing business, potentially increasing the income that you generate while working in the book business.

Data is a must while implementing the second way to sell more indie books. It’s a must because, absent the right data, you could spend more money than you might recoup. And what is the second way to sell more indie books?

About Advertising Your Indie Books for Sells

Advertise your indie books. However, don’t simply take out ads, invest in ads that reach your target audience. Another thing – before you take out ads, learn about the ad platform. Learn how the ads work. For instance, are the ads pay-per-click or are you paying for a certain number of impressions. If you pay for impressions, you’re paying to show your book cover to readers.

With pay-per-click ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Definitely run ads when your indie books are released. Consider starting with low-cost ads. Even if you take out Amazon ads, start slow. Some ads may take days to produce sells.

To avoid overspending, create a book marketing budget. Stick to this budget. Ad money can spend as quickly as money spent shopping for clothes. Be smart. Start slow, continue to learn about book ad platforms and how to get the most out of the platforms. Also, try new ad platforms, again moving ahead slowly and smartly. Additionally, don’t get emotionally or psychologically attached to ads. Stop ads that aren’t working. Reduce and increase ads as needed.

More Book Sales Efforts

Set a clear goal. This is important. Rather than hoping that you sell a lot of books, determine how many books you’re going to sell each week or each month. This is something that I learned after years of writing and selling books. Hopefully, this tip saves you decades of learning and loads of money.

When you set a clear goal, you take actions that move you closer to fulfilling that goal. The pursuit is no longer vague. You know exactly what you want. Because of this, you pay attention to what you’re doing that’s working. And it becomes easier to alter or stop doing what’s not working.

Depending on how your brain works, you might find it beneficial to write your goal down and leave it close to your computer. I leave my goal on the edge of my computer and on my refrigerator. Continue to hit your goal and you might be surprised to see how easily you start selling more books. There really is something to be said for having a clear goal and working to achieve this goal. A goal is a great and effective target.

You Can Sell More Indie Books

We’re going above three ways to sell more indie books, but here goes. To sell more indie books, carry your books with you. Keep a copy in your purse, bookbag, vehicle, etc. Regarding keeping books in a vehicle, here’s a valuable tip. Store your books in a waterproof container. Do this whether you keep your books in the trunk of your vehicle, your garage, basement or in a closet.

These are a few ways to sell more indie books. Actions you could take to increase your book sales are varied and long. One of the best ways to sell more books is to keep improving as an author. Strengthen your writing, get your books professionally edited, have an attention-grabbing book cover created and write an effective book description. Keep at it. As you do, you’ll discover more ways to market and sell books.