Book Marketing Therapy for Stagnant Sales

by | Sep 8, 2017 | Book Marketing Basics

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I talk to a lot of indie authors, so I feel I have a pretty good sense for what the most common struggles are. And even though everyone wants to know how to sell more books, let me tell you it goes deeper than just needing more reviews, or sales, or better social media presence.

The biggest problem, the root of the problem, is not recognizing and accepting where you’re making mistakes.

99% of the time marketing and promotion do not have an immediate ROI.

The most common strategy, for authors who are putting in the effort, is to try a handful of things (or even lots of things!) and then assume they don’t work when sales don’t spike.

So what’s the solution? Try something, evaluate it, try again, re-evaluate, pivot as needed, keep going.

I listened to a panel of 6-figure authors recently and they all talked candidly about their paths to success. And each and every one talked about how many mistakes they made – and how they fixed them.

I want to help you fix some of your problems, consider it free author therapy. And who of us can’t use a little free therapy, right?

I’ve developed a short ‘yes’ or ‘no’ quiz, to help you narrow down areas where you may have problems, and then a worksheet, to help you brainstorm ways to fix them.

Book Marketing Therapy Quiz

The quiz is simple, just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and tally your responses:

  1. Are you posting on social media at least 5 times per week?
  2. Are you getting likes, comments and shares on the majority of your social media content?
  3. Do you use keyword strings (not single words) on the backend of Amazon?
  4. Have you researched Amazon trends and updated your keywords in the last 90 days?
  5. Do you have a subtitle?
  6. Does your subtitle allude to your genre or include a key sales hook?
  7. Do you have a newsletter?
  8. Do you do giveaways?
  9. Do you have more than 30 reviews per title?
  10. Do you have more than 100 reviews per title?

If you had at least 5 or more ‘no’ answers we definitely recommend downloading our worksheet. If you had fewer than 5 ‘no’ answers and just want to push yourself a little harder and likely sell a few more books – you’ll get a lot out of it too!

Putting our Book Marketing Therapy into action

Download our worksheet here: Book Marketing Therapy Worksheet

I chose key areas for the quiz and worksheet because A) they’re relevant to the majority of indie authors, and B) they’re really important things to perfect on your path to success.

And now that you’ve taken the quiz and will hopefully get started on the worksheet, you’re on the path to improving and shaking up your current book marketing and promotion!

One more thing though, don’t forget to give yourself a timeline or schedule for actually implementing your new ideas.

Even if it means focusing on fixing just one problem a week, it’s more than you were doing previously.

Create a habit of proactively working toward success!

I can assure you if you try something new in these areas, evaluate your efforts, stick to what’s working and then pivot as needed when you bomb, you will start to see improvement in your readership growth and in your sales.

So now that you’ve got the time and effort into identifying some areas where you can improve, are you ready for some personalized coaching? Let me know if you’re ready to start!

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