by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Mar 1, 2017
The Top Ten Places to Sell More of Your Books
By Brian Jud
This is the second in a series of Top Ten lists about selling to special-sales (non-bookstore) buyers. The best way you can benefit from this opportunity is to divide the total market into two segments, and sell them according to their needs. The first is the retail segment where you reach buyers through distribution partners. The second is direct sales to non-retailer buyers (businesses, associations and schools) who use books as marketing tools to sell more of their products or help their employees, members or students. Here are the Top Ten Places to Sell More of Your Books (five retail and five non-retail).
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 21, 2017
Authors and publishers hear the word “No” frequently. It could be said by the media, distributors, buyers in retail stores or corporate buyers. However, that doesn’t have to be the final answer. People who say no to one thing may be more likely to say yes if asked again. Use that fact to your advantage in a sales situation. If your prospect says no, think, “I heard what you said but it’s not what you meant.” You can more easily get to yes when you recognize the top ten tips for getting to yes after you hear No.
1. Show how you can solve their problems. Begin with an attitude of how you can solve peoples’ problems instead of thinking about how many books you can sell. Producers want a good show for their audiences, retail buyers want products moving off the shelf and corporate buyers want to sell more of their products.
by Miral Sattar
Bowker | Wed Feb 15, 2017
Do you feel like your book is getting lost in the millions of titles currently for sale on Amazon? There’s a lot of competition for readers’ attention and that will only get more difficult as more authors embrace the freedom of self-publishing.
Did you know that you can laser focus your marketing efforts and sell thousands of books within a month of launch with virtually no email list, no Facebook friends, and no Twitter followers.
In our next LIVE ONLINE WEBINAR on Thursday, February 23rd at 12pm, Karen Dimmick will outline how she sold 1000 books and got 43 reviews within a month of launch, with an initial email list of just seven people. Karen Dimmick is co-founder of Bookthority, the host of The Book Marketing Summit, and the co-author of the international bestselling book 47 Mind Hacks for Writers. Here's what you’ll learn:
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Wed Feb 15, 2017
Regardless of the site you’re using to sell your books, book descriptions are more important to sales than most authors realize. Many times I’ll see blocks of text pulled from the back of the book and while, in theory, that’s not a bad idea, you’ll want to make sure that your book description is powerful, and keep an eye on formatting – things like spacing, bulleting, and bolding.
Since my largest focus is on Amazon, this article is going to focus on how to maximize your book description efforts specifically on that e-tailer, but you’ll likely find many of the ideas relate to other e-tailers as well.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Feb 8, 2017
The traditional path for selling books is changing. There are more books available to fewer readers every year. Bookstore shelves are crowded with undifferentiated books viewed as commodity items, and shoppers increasingly base their purchasing decisions on price. Yet prices are increasing, not because of greater value to the reader, but because of increased costs partially due to shorter print runs.
Unfortunately, publishers continue to produce more books to sell through bookstores even though competing in this environment is increasingly less profitable. However, there is a real opportunity to create new sales in uncontested market space among non-retail buyers in corporations, associations, schools and the military.
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Wed Feb 1, 2017
Since 2012, when it was acquired by Facebook, Instagram has grown by 400%! It may be relatively new to the social media game, but candidly, I barely remember a time when I didn’t have an account. Here’s why:
First, Instagram is easy to use. That’s a plus in anyone’s book! Also, since it’s not as ad-driven as Facebook (at least so far), it’s much more budget-friendly if your marketing budget is limited and you prefer to allocate those funds elsewhere. It’s much easier to capture someone’s attention on Instagram than on Facebook because it’s so visual. In fact, it drives 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more than Twitter. If you like statistics, you should really like these numbers!
10 Ways to Get Creative on Instagram
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Thu Jan 26, 2017
What is the single most significant thing you can do for building your book sales or business? If you answered, “Have a website,” then you are spot on. I am always amazed at how many people jump into building their website without any knowledge of what it involves. Especially when they know how important a great website is to their business or book sales. And although design is important, that’s not really what I’m talking about. Instead, I’m talking about the goals, the mission, and understanding the principles that go into creating something that isn’t about you. Yes, your website has information about you and your books, but it’s ultimately about your users. In the end, they are the single most important aspect of how you sell your books.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Dec 20, 2016
Non-bookstore marketing is identical to selling through bookstores, yet vastly different. How can that be? There are two pieces in the special-sales pie: retail and non-retail. In retail sales (airport stores, supermarkets and discount stores) books are sold off the shelf, each person buys one book, there is a formal discount structure, you work through a distribution partner and unsold books are returned. Non-retail sales (to corporations, schools, associations) are the opposite. You find the people who can use your content to solve a business problem and you sell directly to them. One buyer can purchase thousands of your books. Terms are negotiated and books are not returnable. This is the more profitable alternative.
by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Nov 29, 2016
Making a large-quantity sale (5,000 or more) of your books to corporate buyers typically entails a formal presentation describing how your content can help the company in some way. You can improve your chances of making the sale with an analogy to the game of baseball. In any one game there may be several different pitchers used, but the same catcher is always there.
How does this equate to selling books? There may be several publishers pitching their books to corporate buyers -- the people catching the pitches. The buyers have business issues they need to resolve, and the pitchers who demonstrate how their content eliminates those pain points get the win.
For example, let’s say you have a book with content that helps to motivate employees and you are making a presentation to a Human Resources (HR) manager. This person wants to reduce absenteeism and increase productivity for the company’s 10,000 employees.
by Frances Caballo
Bowker | Tue Nov 15, 2016
You published your book, celebrated your launch, and sold books to most of your friends, family members and colleagues. And you’re blogging.
But you may be wondering, “What can I do to reach even more readers?”
Reaching out to the press, contacting book clubs, and reading at bookstores are great ways to promote your book offline. To reach potential readers across the U.S. and around the world, you need to use social media.
The thought of creating an online presence can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. All you need are 30 minutes a day and these tips.
7 Social Media Tips Every Author Needs to Know
