These two pieces are very generous in their advice. After two critical best-sellers with low sales in nonfiction, I can’t disagree with much of it. But the phrase, doesn’t sell books, runs deep here. Still not clear what does sell books. Being a great read, and word of mouth, won’t be enough. Thanks!
As a 25+ year book publicist, my professional opinion is yes, yes, YESSITY YES to all of this. And, the LA Times Festival of Book Greenroom is my favorite place in the world. Meeting amazing authors and celebrities is like shooting fish in a barrel! I've send many authors to the National Book Festival but haven't gone myself. The festival-eve party at the Library of Congress is in the top 5 on my bucket list!
Thanks for the great posts! Agree about the reviews / contributed content / podcast appearances not doing much for selling copies...Any specific advice for small press authors? My publisher recommended doing as many events as possible - book launches (in my current city and in my hometown), book salon evenings at the home of friends in different cities, when possible doing an "in conversation with" type of event...
Question: When one doesn't have an agent or publicist or huge marketing budget, why is it bad form for authors to approach book clubs on their own, or what would you recommend? In my case, I did a lot of research into book clubs in my niche (my novel has a lot of Jewish content so I looked for synagogue book clubs), created a not-so-pushy pitch and tried to connect with book clubs that way. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't...
From an indie point of view, Facebook ads can be very effective. Along with Amazon ads, they are a mainstay, and a lot of people make a lot of money from them. But, you really need to test, because there is no way to tell what will work, and something you think is perfect will do squat, and what you think is junk can rock. It is difficult to make money from a single book at indie prices, and it really only works with series, with good read through. Not sure what the margins are on trad books, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same. But, they do work for most kinds of genre fiction.
On a reader who frequents “booktube,” the main reason selling books can be effective or blogger recommendations is if I already know their interests. Meaning I would have to invest many hours watching their content to learn their identity/form a bond.
Agree with everything you mentioned. I write YA. My sales generally come from Bookstagrammers on IG and the personal contacts I have with various writing groups that led to SCBWI presentations, bookstore appearances or a teacher/librarian recommendation. I do very little promo on X or FB because it’s not my demographic of readers. Next I’m going to tackle TikTok & YouTube shorts by recycling my IG reels. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thank you for this post and the preceding one. I have a TEDTalk coming out in October and I have been trying to calibrate my expectations. Do you think something like that will actually move the needle and sell my book?
I think it depends on the topic of your talk & book. I’ve purchased books after watching Ted Talks because the speaker was dynamic & the topic was of interest. You also have to make sure you post the talk everywhere and use it as a marketing & publicity tool. It’s a big deal that you’re doing a Ted Talk!
Fingers crossed it works out that way! What you say about sharing reinforces what a fellow speaker told me, that you have to treat the launch of your talk like you would a book launch. Frankly, that sounds exhausting. But I’ll try.
Thanks for a comprehensive, forthright post. Wringing one's hands and rolling the eyes is not a good book promotion strategy. Believe me, I've tried it.
Oh, what about book blurbs? I get the impression that are two kinds: the general desperate quid pro quo logrolling of creatives and their agents trying to hustle, and then the kind where the really good shit generates actual buzz among the pros, and that stuff gets passed to actual famous writers who then read and plug it.
I’m firmly in the camp of book blurbs being pretty useless. Consumers don’t care about them, and they don’t sway reviewers. Sometimes I’ll come across a book with blurbs & have no idea who the author blurbing is. I find them to be insular: editors and agents are very into them, but they don’t cause retailers to order more copies. If you’re lucky, a big time author will love your book & plug it, but that’s rare.
I spent $1,500 on about ten DIY Amazon campaigns in 2021 for my bestselling business book...sells every day organically...all I discovered after tons of keyword and ASIn targeting is that I could absolutely lift sales and lose all my royalties in the process...I discovered no way to reduce ACOS down to a level where I made money still on each sale...I have heard similar stories...and I suspect th see ads are profitable yet again for the Top 100-200 authors with massive awareness levels.
I eagerly await this newsletter each week! Thank you! Does any of this differ when we talk about YA/MG? Wondering if there are any other things to keep in mind for reaching those audiences.
Thanks for your kind words! YA and Middle grade are even more challenging, but the same basic advice applies. I think those books need a lot of marketing muscle behind them.
These two pieces are very generous in their advice. After two critical best-sellers with low sales in nonfiction, I can’t disagree with much of it. But the phrase, doesn’t sell books, runs deep here. Still not clear what does sell books. Being a great read, and word of mouth, won’t be enough. Thanks!
As a 25+ year book publicist, my professional opinion is yes, yes, YESSITY YES to all of this. And, the LA Times Festival of Book Greenroom is my favorite place in the world. Meeting amazing authors and celebrities is like shooting fish in a barrel! I've send many authors to the National Book Festival but haven't gone myself. The festival-eve party at the Library of Congress is in the top 5 on my bucket list!
So helpful, thanks. I hadn't considered BookTube, will be looking in to that asap!
Thoughts about Substack? Readers to subscribers to purchasers?
Thanks for the great posts! Agree about the reviews / contributed content / podcast appearances not doing much for selling copies...Any specific advice for small press authors? My publisher recommended doing as many events as possible - book launches (in my current city and in my hometown), book salon evenings at the home of friends in different cities, when possible doing an "in conversation with" type of event...
Question: When one doesn't have an agent or publicist or huge marketing budget, why is it bad form for authors to approach book clubs on their own, or what would you recommend? In my case, I did a lot of research into book clubs in my niche (my novel has a lot of Jewish content so I looked for synagogue book clubs), created a not-so-pushy pitch and tried to connect with book clubs that way. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't...
Loving these posts!
So helpful, Kathleen. This is quickly becoming one of my indispensable reads!
Thank you!
From an indie point of view, Facebook ads can be very effective. Along with Amazon ads, they are a mainstay, and a lot of people make a lot of money from them. But, you really need to test, because there is no way to tell what will work, and something you think is perfect will do squat, and what you think is junk can rock. It is difficult to make money from a single book at indie prices, and it really only works with series, with good read through. Not sure what the margins are on trad books, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same. But, they do work for most kinds of genre fiction.
On a reader who frequents “booktube,” the main reason selling books can be effective or blogger recommendations is if I already know their interests. Meaning I would have to invest many hours watching their content to learn their identity/form a bond.
Most people don't require that, but I understand what you're saying.
Agree with everything you mentioned. I write YA. My sales generally come from Bookstagrammers on IG and the personal contacts I have with various writing groups that led to SCBWI presentations, bookstore appearances or a teacher/librarian recommendation. I do very little promo on X or FB because it’s not my demographic of readers. Next I’m going to tackle TikTok & YouTube shorts by recycling my IG reels. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thank you for this post and the preceding one. I have a TEDTalk coming out in October and I have been trying to calibrate my expectations. Do you think something like that will actually move the needle and sell my book?
I think it depends on the topic of your talk & book. I’ve purchased books after watching Ted Talks because the speaker was dynamic & the topic was of interest. You also have to make sure you post the talk everywhere and use it as a marketing & publicity tool. It’s a big deal that you’re doing a Ted Talk!
Fingers crossed it works out that way! What you say about sharing reinforces what a fellow speaker told me, that you have to treat the launch of your talk like you would a book launch. Frankly, that sounds exhausting. But I’ll try.
Invaluable content! Thank you so much.
Thanks for a comprehensive, forthright post. Wringing one's hands and rolling the eyes is not a good book promotion strategy. Believe me, I've tried it.
Oh, what about book blurbs? I get the impression that are two kinds: the general desperate quid pro quo logrolling of creatives and their agents trying to hustle, and then the kind where the really good shit generates actual buzz among the pros, and that stuff gets passed to actual famous writers who then read and plug it.
I’m firmly in the camp of book blurbs being pretty useless. Consumers don’t care about them, and they don’t sway reviewers. Sometimes I’ll come across a book with blurbs & have no idea who the author blurbing is. I find them to be insular: editors and agents are very into them, but they don’t cause retailers to order more copies. If you’re lucky, a big time author will love your book & plug it, but that’s rare.
I spent $1,500 on about ten DIY Amazon campaigns in 2021 for my bestselling business book...sells every day organically...all I discovered after tons of keyword and ASIn targeting is that I could absolutely lift sales and lose all my royalties in the process...I discovered no way to reduce ACOS down to a level where I made money still on each sale...I have heard similar stories...and I suspect th see ads are profitable yet again for the Top 100-200 authors with massive awareness levels.
That’s why I wrote that it requires a hefty investment from publishers.
And they are least likely to throw away their royalty income this way vs. someone like me. If I only I wrote romance....
I eagerly await this newsletter each week! Thank you! Does any of this differ when we talk about YA/MG? Wondering if there are any other things to keep in mind for reaching those audiences.
Thanks for your kind words! YA and Middle grade are even more challenging, but the same basic advice applies. I think those books need a lot of marketing muscle behind them.
One of my favorite newsletters and one that I open as soon as it hits the inbox.