I’ve written seven books that have been published thus far. My most recent book, The God Conclusion, just became available on July 7th. For the first decade of my writing career, the focus has been on putting more books on my virtual bookshelf instead of promoting my work, operating on the theory that people will look at a single book and think, “well, anybody can write a book.” But how many people can write and publish six books? The answer to that question alone should limit my competition.
Marketing was mostly limited to announcing a new book to my friends on social media in the hopes of selling a few copies. I sold a few books and wrote books that won a few awards while biding my time and waiting for the perfect moment to take the literary world by storm. I’ve decided that moment has come with the publication of this latest book. We’ve shifted our thinking from “future” to “current”, which means actively trying to sell books. And now that I’ve decided to market my work to the general public, I see a potential flaw in my plan–I haven’t got the slightest clue about what it takes to sell a book, so I’m going to have to wing it. On the other hand, advertising means spending money, and I’m reticent to spend money when I don’t know what I’m doing, so I decided I needed help.
Therefore, I hired a marketing consultant. My consultant says we’re in that phase of the marketing campaign for The God Conclusion where we’re still trying to increase awareness through social media. We want to generate positive connections with potential readers as we work to persuade people to buy one of the books I’ve written. From what the consultant says, that part of my campaign has been going gangbusters. In only the last twenty-seven days, the Facebook page for The God Conclusion has reached 297,803 new people. Of that number, 101,861 people “engaged” with one of my posts, whether they laughed at it, liked it, loved it, or commented.
There have been 6,510 new Page likes in that same timeframe. By the end of August, I hope that more than 10,000 people will like the Facebook page. I’m currently inviting about a thousand new visitors every day to like the page and my audience continues to grow. However, popularity doesn’t always translate to book sales. More than a few people who have visited the page don’t even realize I’ve written a book. Even though my cost-per-click is ridiculously low (a nickel for most of my ad campaigns, and as low as a penny-per-click on some) all these page visits and likes haven’t turned into sales.
So, what’s the problem?
The consultant tells me that I need more book reviews, but the only way I’m going to get them any faster would be if I wrote them myself. I would never stoop to that level just to sell a book. I don’t need to sell a book so badly that I’d cheat and lie to fool people. I only want honest opinions. It’s just not worth it. I have to be able to sleep at night, and look in the mirror the next morning. In addition to the books I’ve sold, I recently gave away twenty copies on social media in exchange for the promise of a truthful review posted to Amazon. We just need more time for more people to read.
More than six thousand people like The God Conclusion, but we haven’t even sold six hundred books yet. It too expensive? Six dollars for the ebook is pretty inexpensive, if you ask me — cheaper than lunch, unless you’re eating at McDonalds. In fact, we’re going to be raising the price of the ebook as of September 1st, after the initial discount period has ended. It’s best to buy now, while the sales price is discounted. (This is a sly marketing trick, just for the record. Create a sense of urgency in the mind of the buyer. But in this case, it’s true. We are going to be raising the price of the ebook.)
Writing this book took a lot of hard work — more than a decade of my life and tens of thousands of hours of research went into The God Conclusion. Why have book sales lagged so far behind the popularity of the Facebook page? I have a theory. Most of the memes (ironically, a word invented by Richard Dawkins) used by my advertising campaign are images that I found humorous or insightful. They reflect my personality and my sense of humor. When people like my posts, they are saying they like something about me but not necessarily something about my book.
When I write an article like this I can include an image of the book cover, but with a meme there’s a picture already there. I can’t include an image of my book cover because there isn’t any place to put it.
One thing I can start doing is to include a link to my website with a suggestion to buy a book with every meme I post. That’s my next big move. From today forward, virtually everything I post will include a simple text line suggesting you should buy a book, along with the website address for my online bookstore, www.leonardbooks.net. I started doing. this yesterday.
So far, the new “call to action” seems to be working. Yesterday, shortly after I started, The God Conclusion was ranked in the top fifteen books on Amazon in the Religious Studies: Science and Religion category, and was ranked the top new release. Interestingly, roughly half of total sales are print copies, which seems to support the idea of selling the ebook at a higher price. I’m thinking we go from $5.99 to $7.99 as of September 1st.
I know how to write a book that’s worth reading. We’ve figured out how to get that book professionally edited and with an appropriate cover, then published as an ebook in all formats as well as print. The next and final step in the process will be convincing people to buy it and read it. I still believe the most effective sales pitch will come from another satisfied reader, and I’m confident enough about the book to believe most people who read it will say they liked it and thought it was well written, even if they disagreed with some parts of it. Even my “negative” review wasn’t all that terrible, especially considering the source.
So, I need to be patient and give the people who received a free copy time to read the book and write their reviews. That’s what I need to do. What I want to do is something different. Patience is a virtue — but unfortunately, it’s not one of my virtues. I want the people to whom I’ve given a free copy to quit commenting so much on the Facebook page and focus their attention on my book long enough to fulfill their obligation to read it. I want the people who’ve bought the book to write an Amazon review and rate the book. You don’t need to say much, but say something and rate the book.
If you’ve got any ideas or suggestions for what I should be doing in order to sell you a book, please leave a comment here or on the Facebook page for The God Conclusion and trust that I will take your comment to heart. If your idea is legal and makes sense, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll give it a shot.
I just want to sell books.
Speak Your Mind