Amazon.com and Book Sales
Amazon.com is a huge store and it is an important place to get your book listed on. My book has been listed on Amazon.com for about 90 days, and I have noticed a few things now that In Search of The Lost Ones has been there for a while.
While it is great to have some sales, it is as important for a writer to continue to market their books, not only on their blogs, but also on Facebook and any other place that they might write on. The thing I learned about Amazon is that without some push towards getting people to buy and read your work, or more specifically to click on the link to your book, you stand little chance of generating sales.
It is also important to market your work to your family — for example, ask them to add a link to your book on their Facebook page. However, this is not as easy as most people sometimes think. You might find that people are too busy or don’t have five seconds, or simply won’t do that for you.
While writing a book is a team effort, improving your writing takes an editor for example, marketing that book is up to you. I have noticed that people were very excited for me and my book — until it was published and they had to spend money or even mention that they had read it or seen it. Amazon.com was a big help in keeping my hopes and dreams alive for In Search of The Lost Ones. So too were the readers of this blog.
The other thing I would like to mention is: Books Sales are books sales, but if you get some on a reasonably regular basis this adds up to less “bouncing” by the Amazon.com sales rank. I have focused on one format, my paperback, but at the same time, the more people see a book in any form, the more likely that they will buy that book.
I would also add another point: a book sale on Amazon is a positive thing, but you have to build on that. While I do not recommend coming out with a book the month after your last, I believe that having another book in the works that will be published in the next year also makes a difference.
Amazon.com does mean money, but if you want to continue making money you have to continue to market your book.
One Comment
Tara Anderton
Thanks for the advice. What you say makes alot of sense. I am in the process of publishing my first book and it is through a company in America that published my book and take the money for the first 100 sales as compensation and then percentages after that. However selling the first 100 is up too me and I found it interesting when you said everyone is happy and excited for you until it comes time to buy it or even do the simplest thing as linking to your book in a post on facebook. My book has officially been available for presale for 3 weeks and although I have a huge family and over 300 friends on facebook I have only managed to sell 19. I am doing everything I can to promote my book, and realise what a huge job it is to create hype and interest in my book. Hopefully I get the 100 sold, and then the publishing company add me to amazon and other internet based book sales companies as well as try and sell it to traditional book shops. Its a long road!