How Do I Sell My Book on Amazon?
I see some version of this question all the time. You have published your book on Amazon and congratulations, but now what? You might have done a full-on book launch or recently uploaded your book to Amazon. What now? What do I do on day two? How do I continue to get sales? How do I market my book? Many authors believe that once their book is on Amazon, it will sell. In reality, nothing happens. Amazon is a sales platform, but it isn’t a marketing platform. It has marketing tools, but rarely markets your book unless it sells, and even then not very much. They don’t go out and sell your book, especially for new authors.
I have been writing and creating books for over 10 years and have had to figure out what to do to get sales. My first effort goes back to 1979 with a book called Dinosaurs’ Dance, written by Frank Fisler. I was the illustrator and drew all the drawings in my little studio apartment on Beacon Hill in Boston. We made that book the old fashion way. Using pen and ink drawings, typesetting the words, pasting it up, and print it at a local printer. We sold it bookstore by bookstore. Collecting receipts as we went. I had boxes of them for a long time. We knew nothing but still had fun. The reward for this book was the thank you from Frank for pulling it all together. Giving him his dream of having a children’s book.
Publishing your first book on Amazon is fun and exciting. But it doesn’t set you up for the long-term prospects of selling your book. I look at books as long-term investments. They are little businesses that can generate income for years and years if you can get the engine going. With some attention, you can keep them chugging along with regular sales.
In the beginning, I didn’t know what to do. I had no audience, no presence online. I didn’t have an author or a book website. I knew nothing about social media. But I experimented and learned. I knew that the web was huge and global. I always try to act locally, but think globally. There are so many platforms that are free and reach a vast audience. Platforms like Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook. Along with Twitter, email, blogs, Pinterest, and other websites, paid and free. If I could figure some of that out, I could spread the news about myself and sell some books.
So how do I do all these things? How do I get started? I have set this book up to highlight the different things you can do to promote and sell your books. The ideas expressed here are my own ideas developed over many years of publishing books. There is no guarantee that my results will work for you, but they give you a place to start.
Many of my ideas are on the concept of generating noise or awareness for your book in the marketplace. Making people aware that it even exists. Once they see it, you give them a clear path to buy. I have published a lot of books. Some have sold well and some not at all. Using the tools that are now available to us, we have the ability of getting attention and making sales. Often, I am surprised at what happens. Once something works, I do more of that.
The goal of How to Sell Your Book, the Inside Secrets, is to answer the question, what can I do to have sales?
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Excerpt from How to Sell Your Book, How I Made $322,650 and Sold 34,605 Books on Amazon, The Inside Secrets, by J. Bruce Jones. Bruce is the author of over 50 books on music, geography, children’s, coloring, and publishing. His latest book is available at Amazon and as a Downloadable PDF with bonus videos.
