- We've all been there before, and it's not a good feeling.
You published your book, and you worked so hard on it,
but for some reason, you're getting low to no sales.
So, in today's video, we're gonna address
why are my books not selling on Amazon KDP?
Stay tuned.
(heavy guitar music)
This is Self Publishing with Dale,
where you'll learn to publish books that sell
and build an unstoppable author brand,
and I'd like to know, why do you think
most indie authors struggle for sales anyway?
Leave your honest comments down below.
Also, if you stick around to the end,
I'll give you a full action plan
that's sure to set your next book launch on fire.
So your book isn't selling much, if any at all,
so what gives?
Are there certain things you can do,
or certain things you can avoid,
that way you can start to see more book sales?
Well, I've got news for you.
There is actually a few indicators
that we can focus on first and foremost,
and I'm gonna give you those five common issues
of why your book isn't selling.
The ad copy, regardless of the price point,
your book should definitely be selling,
and one of the main reasons
holding back the success of your book
could be your book description,
otherwise known as the ad copy.
We can always show,
and we can always tell the customers
what they can find within the pages of the book,
but if we don't give a compelling reason
for people to part ways with their hard-earned dollars
to purchase our work, quite frankly,
they're just gonna go to another book that will compel them.
But how exactly do you dial in the ad copy
so that way people are more than willing
to part ways with their money?
I recommend you check out these two books
from independent authors, Brian Meeks,
Mastering Amazon Decriptions,
or Bryan Cohen's How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis.
These two paint a really good picture,
and give you a better idea of what you're looking for,
so that way, it doesn't matter the price point,
people are going to purchase your book.
Price point, I know this seems kind of in contradiction
to the very first point, but quite frankly,
here's the thing, is we all are trying to craft
a better ad copy, but in the interim,
what we need to be is realistic about our value proposition.
That value proposition is gonna come in the way
of the book description, and if it does not line up
with that price point, well quite frankly,
people are going to say, deuces, I'm outta here,
I'm gonna go check out another book,
so be real with what you have to offer
within your book description.
If for some reason, it's not dialed in,
you may have to adjust that price point accordingly,
because that unique value proposition
that you paint within the book description
is going to have an effect
on what people are willing to spend.
Now, by no means am I telling you
to drop your books down to bargain basement prices,
so that way you can really boost your best seller ranking
within the Amazon Kindle bookstore,
or a bookstore in general,
but you may want to take a step back and think about
where your price point should be according to what you have
to offer within the context of the book description
that you currently have.
Book cover, oh my goodness,
so many indie authors have approached me and said,
hey, I don't understand this,
why are my books not selling,
and then they send me on over to their product page,
and I'm horrified to see their cover.
Here's the deal, folks.
People do judge books by their covers,
and quite frankly, they're not willing to spend time,
much less their money, on a book
that does not have a good cover on it,
and let's face the facts, you might be a great writer.
You could even dial in your price point just perfectly,
and your ad copy is on the money,
but if your book cover is hit,
or it looks completely JOJO, quite frankly,
people are going to pass, and here's the thing,
if you are a writer, stick to writing.
Find a good, professional book cover designer
who knows precisely what your market's looking for,
and what they are willing to spend money on.
I get it, you wanna do it all yourself,
and I've been there too.
But here's the thing, DIY-style book covers
aren't going to get your book sales going
like you think they should,
and you may be able to say your writing's great,
and that's fantastic,
and maybe some of your readers say your content is awesome,
but let's be real here for just a second.
If your book sales are not very good, if any at all,
then you may wanna look at that book cover again
and consider investing in a good book designer
to take care of the heavy lifting for you.
The competition, there are so many
super competitive niches out there,
including spaces like children's books, self-help,
fitness, among many others.
If you're positioning yourself
within a hyper-competitive niche,
and publishing and praying, and hoping for the best,
well quite frankly, you are setting yourself up for failure.
What I would recommend
is if you do get into a competitive niche,
be prepared to put in the work.
It took me quite a bit of time
before I could actually be heard above the noise
within the fitness space, but to be honest with you,
some of my footings kind of fell a little bit
since I've been doing a lot more video content creation.
I'm not focusing on that fitness brand.
I'm okay with that, but one thing I would say
is I at least have a bit of an advantage
over other people that just publish one-and-done.
What is that edge?
Well, it's a brand,
and an author brand is a bit of a promise to the readers,
a bit of an expectation, if you will.
What can your readers come to expect
when they're coming back to you for other iterations
or different versions of your book, or future publications?
Far too often, I see some authors out there
that believe that a brand is just simply your name
and your pretty face.
Well, your brand also includes a little bit of that promise
of what readers can come to expect, so if you're finding
that sales are not quite where they should be,
but you've published numerous books,
what you need to do is go back
and review your current catalog.
If you've got a were-bear shapeshifter romance book,
and then your next book is a home workout plan for seniors,
and then your next book is a poetry book,
and it's all underneath the same author brand,
well then the issue is you're not really dialing in
precisely what your readers can come to expect of you,
and don't make the mistake of comparing yourself
to someone like a Stephen King.
Yeah, Stephen King can get away with something like that,
because he's a fairly prolific author
who actually has quite an immense following,
but for you, I would just really recommend
that you get clear on who your audience is,
how you're serving them,
and how you can continue to serve them
to build that larger author brand.
Once, when you get to a very wide reach,
then you can pivot to other things
that you wanna experiment in.
Marketing and promotion, gone are the days of publishing
and praying for the best.
We used to could just go and find a niche
that was low competition, and it was real easy,
we could just publish one book,
and then make money hand and fist.
Well, those days are gone, folks.
I'm gonna be very real here with you.
You need to get honest,
and you need to build some self-awareness
about what your books are going to deliver to the world,
and now you have to get out to the world
and tell them about it.
That's where good marketing and promotion come into play.
If you can get out on a consistent basis,
and advertise that book, be it through paid advertising
or various other marketing and promotion strategies,
and speaking of marketing and promotion
for self-published books,
I actually have a full video series on that.
We'll give you a couple unorthodox ideas
as well as some of the traditional ones
that have worked for me and other indie authors, too,
so without any further ado,
I'll see you over in the next video.
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