5 Ways to (Still) Sell More Books in 2019

by | Nov 20, 2019 | Bestseller Essentials, Book Marketing Basics

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Yes, 2020 is rapidly approaching but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on what might help you sell more books in 2019!

There are a handful of strategies that are really effective for getting in front of a lot of the right people, with a short turnaround time for creating buzz.

Get Personal and Sell More Books with Videos

Let’s face it, video is big and only going to get bigger. Video also gives you content that is entirely unique – because it’s you!

Revisit the list of what you already plan to post leading up to the holidays and see if you can do any of that content in video.

And don’t worry, 30 seconds is really sufficient, so use that time to announce a discount promotion, a new release, your plans for next year, even share your favorite holiday traditions or give them a lovely video of your decorated living room as Christmas gets closer.

Gift recommendations are also great because it lets you include a shameless plug for your work as well!

Remember, video is next level when it comes to converting casual readers to fans that come back and buy again. The Resources section has some book promotion ideas for using video to sell more books!

Give Away a Portion of Your Book

A great way to turn a shopper into a buyer is by giving out samples. Yes Costco members, I see you and you’re my people.

Consider giving away the first 3 chapters. I know it might sound like a lot but you really need to give them enough to hook them, so if that’s a different number of chapters for your book that’s fine, but don’t be cheap about this and assume the first couple pages will make them buy – be realistic.

Bookfunnel is a platform I’ve used before to give away books and book excerpts, if you want to get serious about it, plus you’ll find ways to use it in future promos.

Otherwise you can also push people to your website’s contact page to request the free excerpt!

And of course, you can’t sell more books without promotion so plan to post the opportunity on social, send a special announcement to your newsletter, share in your Goodreads groups, etc.

This is an especially key strategy for authors of multiple titles who may have one or two that haven’t gotten as much love!

Network with Other Authors

This is always, always a solid book promotion idea to sell more books.

If you network with other authors in your genre (even virtually), now is a perfect time to join forces and push holiday sales with an emphasis on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Let the authors know what you’re planning, such as a string of promotions or BOGOs around the holidays, and find out what they’re doing.

They might be interested in combining forces by sharing your stuff if you share theirs!

Get Involved with Your Local Library

We often talk about bookstore events and while those are great, libraries are often big, missed opportunities.

Getting involved at your local library will help you connect with really serious readers – because we all know that libraries pull in lots and lots of new readers every month.

So see what they have going on for the rest of the year, stop by and introduce yourself to the head librarian if you haven’t already, and see what you can do to get involved or volunteer for upcoming events in order to earn that extremely valuable face time with potential fans.

Do a Discount eBook Promotion

Most authors don’t do enough of these. Now I don’t mean that you need to do freebies all the time, you can also just discount a book – even $1 off can make a huge difference.

People love discounts, and discounts are the perfect reason to brag about your book all over the place!

So if you’re able to drop your price sometime before the end of the year, do it, and promote the heck out of it everywhere you’re able. Check out my Resources section for more ideas on how to maximize on a discount,

Last but not least, I wrote a book specifically to help authors sell more books for the holiday season, with tips for taking advantage of holiday sales opportunities throughout the year, across many celebrations and seasons, so check it out on Amazon today!

Resources and Downloads

10 Unique Book Promotion Ideas for Using Video

How to Discount Your Book into Higher Revenue

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Please use the social share buttons below if you learned something from this post – your shares really help educate other authors, which raises the bar for publishing and gets more books in readers hands!

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