HOW TO SELL A MILLION BOOKS!
I'm guessing the title of this blog post caught your attention? Are you ready to hear the secret? Lean in close now! Aaaaaannnnnnd....
There is no secret.
I'm sure that's probably not what you wanted to read. Everyone is looking for the incredible secret of how to sell a million books. Well, a good start would be hard work. Yes, you've already poured your heart and soul into writing a book taking months, maybe even years to get your story down on paper. (Actually, I know a few people who write what they call a book in about a week. I call someone like that a "puppy mill author". Quantity is not a substitute for quality. people!) Okay, where was I? ... ... Oh yes, you've already written your best seller, and maybe even found a publisher, so what comes next? How do you get copies of your masterpiece to fly off the shelves? I'll help you out and give you a few ways to get started:
1. People won't buy your book if the don't know about it, so you've got to figure out ways to let people know all about your wonderful book and where they can get it. If you're like me, you're broke and really need to find ways to get the word out for free. Luckily there are ways to do that!
A. Start your own blog. And don't start whining with the excuse, "but I don't know how to do that!". If you've written a book, then you know how to write. Find a nice website like blogger.com and follow a few directions. If you're still confused, look up blogging on youtube.com. Trust me, you can find an explanation to just about anything there!
B. Use facebook.com and maybe create a fan page. This is a simple thing. If you're confused about how to get going with this, find and talk to another author who has a fan page. Hell, email me at lvyoyo@aol.com and ask me to walk you through it. I'm always happy to help! (And help out other authors if they ask you, because you never know when you might need help yourself!) Here's a big tip for when you do this: Create it as an "Author" fan page and promote yourself as a writer. Then when you write more stuff you can promote it using the fan page. And don't just push the book, people don't want to look at a fan page that's constantly posting "YOU SHOULD BUY MY NEW BOOK, HERE'S THE LINK!". Post pictures of yourself at your computer, write something about your day, show off a picture of the stuff you dug out of a dumpster to eat because you have no money for food because no one buys your books! ... ... Okay yes, that last one was a joke.
C. Get yourself on YouTube. Create your own YouTube channel, or find someone who already has one and ask them nicely if they will post a video of you, or maybe something about your books. I have my own channel and have posted a few videos about books recently, and I'm usually happy to help anyone who wants a promotional hand. I'm quickly learning to work with a green screen background and am actually getting pretty good at it! Example:
Bob's Books: Footworks, A Bus Driver's Journal
I happened to see a post on Twitter by this author and offered to make a
video for him.He was thrilled! which brings me to the next tip.
I happened to see a post on Twitter by this author and offered to make a
video for him.He was thrilled! which brings me to the next tip.
D. Get on Twitter. I don't post on twitter.com as much as I should. Learn what you can about hashtags (that would be one of these things #) and use them. And don't just tweet every month or so when you remember, get in the habit of tweeting all the time. If you get enough followers and tweet enough things, people will notice! (I'm one of the idiots who tweets every month or so... maybe. *chuckle*
E. Become a review hunter. I've written a number of book and product reviews on amazon.com and ever once in a while I get a friendly email from someone asking if I would mind reviewing their book. They're usually very nice and offer to send me a free digital copy of their book if I want one. (To be honest, don't ask me to review your book at the moment. I'm up to my ass with college classes trying to learn all about Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point and computer repair. I don't have the time to read and review right now. When I have time things may change, though.) Look up books on Amazon that are int he same genre as your book and then email someone who did a review for the books you find and ask politely if they would mind reviewing your book. Sometimes this may backfire because the person won't like your book and will slam you with a one star review. Be prepared for that. Hustle reviews from friends and family. Try because that always looks pretty crooked. *chuckle* The more reviews a book has, the more likely people are to buy it for some reason. Out of all the books I've written, the one that still sells the best (more than all of the other books I've written to date as a matter of fact!) has 13 one star reviews. Of course it also has 9 five star reviews to go along with that. for whatever reason I still sell a total of about 40 copies a month without much promotion at all.
So there you have it, ways to get your book selling. Use combinations of the things I just told you about. If there is a YouTube video about your book, or you as an author, post it on your Facebook page AND tweet the link to the video. Post the links to your Twitter account and Facebook page on your blog. Blog about how confused you were trying to use Twitter to promote your book. Make a video about how confused you are about blogging. *chuckle* Okay, I'm getting out of control now. Basically, use the digital world to get yourself noticed. That's the real secret to selling a million books, you get a million people to notice your work.
And so my guest post ends here. I'll be a good boy and post my info and a few book buy links in case anyone is interested. I don't have an author page, I'm a lazy author. *chuckle* and if you have any questions feel free to email me and ask away. Many thanks to Gretchen for allowing me this time to type out a blog post while standing on a soapbox. (It was really tough to reach the keyboard!)
Books I've written:
Kiss The Darkness A story about an Air Force Sergeant who is blinded in Afghanistan and falls in love with a nurse at the rehab hospital. Extreme themes here.
https://www.facebook.com/robert.wacaster
And finally, if you have any questions or think I can help you out with something, feel free to send me email at lvyoyo@aol.com and yes I know I need to iron my "green screen" sheet. *chuckle*
Thanks for having me, Gretchen. It was fun to write a post for you! And you know if you ever need any help, just give me a shout!
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