- I'm sorry to say, there's a chance your book won't sell.
I wish this wasn't true.
I wish there was a magic formula to solve the problem
of a good book not selling, but there's no such thing.
There are however,
some very common reasons a book doesn't sell.
So if you want to know what those are to set yourself up
for a better chance of success, then this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey, there I'm Julie The Book Broad,
founder of a fabulous professional,
self-publishing services team called Book Launchers.
Book success is not so much about
whether you could write a great book or not.
I'm sure you can think of a mediocre book
that topped the bestseller charts, right?
It's far more about your current platform,
the market conditions, and your position in that market
and the uniqueness of your story or solution
to appeal to a specific audience.
Your willingness, as the author, to hustle
and adapt to the market will matter a lot too.
The good news is
that non-fiction books are a popular category
in the world and they actually outsell fiction.
It's also an easier genre to build your audience around,
I think.
People have problems and non-fiction offers solutions,
but still many books won't sell.
So what are the reasons
a non-fiction book commonly doesn't sell?
Number one, lack of author platform.
When people ask me to predict
whether their book will be a bestseller,
the first thing I ask them is the size
of their current audience.
This is the single biggest predictor
of a book success, especially for launch.
It's why the major publishing houses look first
at the author's platform to determine
whether they will give a book a deal or not.
If you have a hundred thousand people reading
your newsletter or 1 million people
or more watching your videos on YouTube,
you've got an audience that will buy books
and probably a lot of them.
So what kind of a platform do you have?
If you say you don't have one,
it's really not reasonable to expect
that you're going to have an enormous launch.
There's nobody waiting right now to get your content.
Now, all is not lost if you don't have a platform
or it's not that big.
My first book, "More Than Cashflow" topped the charts
of Amazon, because other people
with platforms promoted the book to their audiences.
Many of our clients sell hundreds
of books to corporations in bulk deals.
They have one connection that can lead to hundreds of sales,
so there's still possibilities,
but lack of an email newsletter list
or social media following, or speaker platform,
or an audience anywhere does dramatically impact the sales
of your book, especially from launch.
Number two, the hook of your book was weak.
Let's say you've been helping people lose weight
for 20 years.
You have experience, but you're not a household name.
Why should someone buy your book?
What would you have to talk about
on a TV show or a podcast
that the other hundred experts they've already talked to
haven't already said?
Martha Tettenborn came to us with a book
on how she powered through cancer.
We talked about how she changed the angle
of her book to make it a stronger hook
to appeal to an ideal reader
in an author spotlight video that I'll link to
in the description below.
Her book was positioned to be all
about how you can use a Keto diet to be stronger
through chemotherapy treatments.
And if your body is stronger, it can do a better job
of fighting the cancer cells.
"Hacking Chemo" was born through this,
using a ketogenic diet, therapeutic fasting,
and a kick-ass attitude to power through cancer.
It's much easier to market her book
and get her interviews to build her brand
because we have a very distinct hook
and a clear audience to market her book to.
And she has the credentials to back this book up.
She's not just been through cancer herself
and used the Keto diet to kick chemo in the butt,
she's been a registered dietician for 32 years.
She's taking Keto diet specific training
and she's also a health coach.
She's got the goods to back this book up too,
which is point three.
Largely, people buy books from people they've heard of
or people they can trust and that trust comes
from their credentials.
We want to learn from people with decades of experience,
who've had the failures and successes
and are willing to give that to you to consume
in a few hours versus having to experience the pain
of learning the lessons yourself.
The average person's story can work,
but if you don't have an audience
and you're relying on others to promote you
and put you in front of their audience
that can be a challenge because people want to
promote something that is proven.
Being the author of the book
on the subject can take you a distance as far
as building credibility,
but you need credentials or experience.
And if you don't have strong credentials,
you can do things to develop them for your book.
You can partner up with someone
that will help you with that.
You can interview, you know, interview hundreds
of billionaires to share what they do that nobody else does
or you can do what Ryan Berman,
author of "Return On Courage" did.
He collected incredible stories of personal
and corporate courage in his book to bolster his position
as the expert on courage.
It's a great approach.
The only exception I have
on this is if you're writing a memoir.
You are the authority on your own life.
Your credential is you lived it.
You don't have to add to that.
That said, you still need a clear, engaging,
reader-focused hook.
What makes your story an exciting, interesting
and engaging experience for the reader?
Please, whatever you do, do not say
that your story is to inspire others.
Dig deeper.
What will they be inspired to do, say, believe
or become after they read your story?
Number four, your cover blends in
or your title doesn't sell your book
with a benefit for the reader.
These are really each their own problem,
but I'm lumping them together
because they're both things that happen
during the production process of your book
and we've already covered these topics extensively
on this channel.
The book cover is the packaging
and it must be designed to appeal to your reader.
Sure, I would love for you to be proud of your book cover,
but what matters the most
is your target reader immediately identifies the book
as something for them.
In a future video, I'm actually going to break
down the cover process for my book,
"Self-Publish & Succeed".
Fun fact for you, my least favorite color is yellow.
It would have been the last color I put on my book cover
if the process was focused on me and what I liked,
but we focused on the category we wanted the book
to compete in and what would make this pop out
for an ideal reader.
Subscribe to the channel and turn the notifications on
so you catch that video when it comes out next month
because it's a cool, inside look at how we develop covers
and decide on them.
The cover is vital,
but you can change your cover post-launch
without too much pain.
Your title is really hard to change
if you get it wrong.
Don't focus on what you like
or what your friends say is good.
Focus on what's going to be memorable,
easy to say, benefit-driven.
It sells your book to your ideal reader.
Number five, you think your target market is everyone,
which means it's nobody.
(groans)
I get it.
You want to imagine your book being read
by millions of people and for that to happen,
you think you have to be general and focus on a wide market,
but realistically, your book, if successful will be lucky
to sell 10,000 to 50,000 copies
and that's if it's really successful.
But let's focus on where you're going
to get your first 1,000 or even 10,000 readers, okay?
Your next book can be for a wider audience
if you think that that limited you.
Even then, when you go wide,
you'll still need a specific audience
with a specific problem because a book that is written
to interest everyone will read very flat
because it will not have a connection
to anyone.
You want the feeling of, "Oh my goodness,
did she read my mind?
I had that exact thought."
And that will only happen if you have reader clarity
and a compelling hook
that will help the reader create a better life
as a result of your book.
You have to get into the minds of your reader
and this video coming up right here will help you with that.
After you leave a comment on the other reasons
a book won't sell, head on over to this video
and start your reader research so this doesn't happen
to you.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll get entered to win some sweet #noboringbooks swag
like our mug and our oh so soft journal.
And if you're solid on your reader research,
this video on titles
and subtitles is the next one you really must see.
Let's sell a whole lot of books together, okay?
(energetic music)