How Authors Increase Their Chances of Gaining Consistent Book Sales

Although there is no guaranteed method that works for everyone, there are ways to increase your chances of gaining a sale

Book sales — one of the most sought-after things for an author.

Let's be honest, when we publish our first book, it’s a letdown when the sales don’t come knocking down our doors.

However, many authors become deterred by this and choose to give up. Even authors with two books fall into the same rut, wondering where they went wrong. So now the question is, what do we do to change this and make it all worth it to keep going?

Here are some things to do to increase your chances of gaining a book sale:

Create a strong platform:

This is perhaps one of the most overlooked tools that authors have.

Having a website and utilizing social media are the best ways to grab the attention of readers. Why? Because they know you are serious, evident by the work you put in to maintain this platform.

Despite how often you need to post on social media to gain traction, if you keep going, you can really connect with readers there.

For more about social media, check out How to reach your audience through social media as a writer.

Keep creating content:

I cannot say this enough — it takes 3 to 5 books before authors begin to build a following.

Why is this? Because once you have a few books under your name, it is easier for readers to jump into another one of your books. They are already there and ready for them to find, which cuts out the process of trying to find you again later.

As you build your portfolio of books, you want to create a list of your works to display in the back of your books.

Better yet, in the ebook version of your book, you should make these links clickable so that readers can click on them and it leads them directly to where to purchase them. And as this list grows, you will need to update it so readers can keep finding your work.

For more about building a portfolio, see The Return Authors See When More Content is Available to Readers.

Call to action:

Many authors don’t place this in their books and they should.

It is crazy how many readers finish a book and don’t review them afterward. So, one of the best things you can do is place a call to action in the back of your book. I personally place one directly after the last chapter, before my author section and other works page.

here is mine

I’m not saying it guarantees a review, however, it increases the chance that this small reminder works.

Find bloggers and book reviewers:

These people typically review enough books to gain the trust and a following from dedicated readers.

These are also people who are looking for books like a needle in a haystack. Help them find your book by doing your research. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, and sometimes Twitter.

Be sure to vet them to see:

1. They accept unsolicited submissions

2. They accept your genre

3. Their submission box is currently open

4. What form of the book do they accept (shipping paperbacks can get expensive)

If you take the time to research and find these people, you can truly gain great reviews and even some of their followers in the process.

For more on finding bloggers and reviewers, see Tips and Tricks to Know When Submitting a Review Request to Book Bloggers and Changing My Tactics Scored Me Book Reviews.

Creating promotional content:

Dedicate a day a week to creating promotional content and you will be surprised by the results.

These can be used for social media when you are telling followers about an upcoming sale or an upcoming book release. And better yet, you can even partner with the book reviewers you found and give them promotional images for when they release their reviews of your book.

There are many places you can use to create promotional content, one of the most popular ones being Canva.com.

Here is one of mine

And another

Create universal links for your books:

Your books aren’t always available in every marketplace.

This severely limits your reach as an author in many ways. For example, if you promote your book as free on Amazon through Twitter and someone from another country goes to download it, it will tell them it’s not available to them. So make it available!

It's easy to do and there are lots of resources to help you do so.

Here is how to do so on Booklinker: Why is a Universal Link your secret author tool?

Do not give up if your book doesn’t sell thousands of copies right off the bat.

The cold, hard truth is that this whole thing takes time.

If you put in the work, it may take some time, but you will see progress begin to take place. And before you know it, you will be seeing more consistent sales and hopefully see that it was all worth it in the end.