That can be particularly frustrating when you have put months or years into writing, editing, designing and publishing your book, only to see very few sales once the initial launch activity has faded.
The natural reaction is often to assume that you need more marketing.
Sometimes you do. But before spending money on advertising, changing the cover or trying another promotional tactic, find out where the problem actually is.
A book that is not selling may have a problem with its market, discoverability, presentation, pricing or the number of suitable readers being reached.
Those are different problems. They require different responses.
The simplest way to find the problem is to check five connected areas:
Market → Discovery → Conversion → Offer → Reach
Work through them in that order. A weakness near the beginning can undermine everything that follows.
Start with the most fundamental question:
Who is this book for, and why would they choose it?
This does not mean that every book needs a large commercial market. A specialist business book, local history, memoir or niche non-fiction title may have a relatively small potential readership and still be entirely worthwhile.
What matters is understanding the realistic audience.
For fiction, consider:
For non-fiction, consider:
If you cannot describe the intended reader clearly, marketing becomes difficult because almost every later decision depends on knowing who you are trying to reach.
Be realistic, too. Disappointing sales do not always mean that something is technically wrong. The potential market may simply be smaller than the author originally expected.
A good book cannot sell to someone who never sees it.
On Amazon, discovery can be influenced by:
Categories should accurately reflect where suitable readers would expect to find the book. Keywords should describe it in language those readers are likely to use when searching.
Discovery also extends beyond Amazon. Depending on the book, readers may encounter it through:
The useful question is not simply:
“Is my book visible?”
It is:
“Is it visible where the right readers are likely to encounter it?”
Thousands of views from the wrong readers are worth very little.
Discovery and conversion are different.
A reader may find your Amazon page and still decide not to buy. At that point, the problem is no longer simply visibility. Something is stopping interest turning into a sale.
Look at the book as an unfamiliar reader would.
Does it look professional?
More importantly, does it look appropriate for this type of book?
A technically attractive cover can still perform poorly if it sends the wrong genre or subject signals.
Do they make sense quickly?
For non-fiction, can the reader understand what the book is about and what they may gain from it?
Does it help the intended reader decide whether the book is for them?
A description does not need to explain everything. Its job is to create understanding and interest while accurately representing the book.
Do the available elements work together?
Depending on the book, these may include the description, author information, formats, reviews and A+ Content.
A+ Content can add images, text and comparison material to an Amazon detail page, but it should back up what the book offers, not just decorate the page.
Reviews reassure readers, especially when they don’t know the author.
However, a lack of reviews is not automatically the reason a book is failing. More reviews won’t fix a book aimed at the wrong readers or a confusing product page.
Ask:
“If an ideal reader arrived on this page today, would they quickly understand what the book is, who it is for and why they might want it?”
Sometimes a book is reaching appropriate readers and its presentation is reasonable, but the offer itself needs examining.
There is rarely one universally correct price.
Compare the book with credible alternatives in the same market and consider:
Do not assume that lowering the price will automatically create demand. A price reduction cannot solve poor discovery or unclear positioning.
Are readers being offered the formats they expect?
Depending on the market, that could include ebook, paperback, hardback or audiobook.
Not every book requires every format. The available formats should make sense for its intended readers.
Check that the book is available in the marketplaces and territories that matter.
For some authors, Amazon may be sufficient. Others may need wider distribution, library availability or access through bookshops.
The right route depends on the book and its readers, not on a general rule. If the route itself may be part of the problem, read Choosing Your Publishing Route.
Only after examining the previous four areas should you turn fully to marketing activity.
This is where authors often begin. It is usually better to arrive here after checking the foundations.
Possible routes include:
The right mix depends on the book.
A historical military novel needs a different approach from a business book, children’s title or local history.
More activity is not necessarily better. The aim is to reach more of the right readers, not to make more noise.
When sales disappoint, it is tempting to change the cover, rewrite the description, alter the price, replace the keywords and start advertising at the same time.
That creates another problem.
If sales improve, you do not know which change produced the improvement. If they get worse, you do not know what caused that either.
Where possible:
Make changes in a sensible order and test them individually where practical. That produces useful evidence rather than another round of guesswork.
A proper diagnosis doesn’t start by assuming everything needs changing.
Your cover may already be doing its job. Your categories may be appropriate. Your price may be reasonable. The problem may lie elsewhere.
And sometimes, spending more on a particular book is unlikely to earn it back.
That’s hard to hear, but it’s better than buying one service after another in the hope that the next one turns things round.
If your self-published book is not selling as well as you hoped, begin here:
Only when you know which area is causing the problem can you make a sensible decision about what to do next.
Casover’s Amazon Book Market Development service is for authors whose books are already published but are not performing as hoped.
It examines the book, its credible readers, comparable titles, live Amazon presentation, categories, keywords, pricing, discoverability and wider marketing. The purpose is to identify what is helping, what is holding the book back, what should be tested and what should be left alone.
The work does not begin with a promise of more sales or an assumption that you need more marketing. It starts by working out whether spending more is justified.