book sales

In case all of the Christmas music, blinking lights, gingerbread-spiced coffee, and secret Santa exchanges didn’t alert you, the holiday season is upon us. Marketing your book might sound like just an additional stressor in an already stressful season, but December can be a great time to build sales if you use the holidays to your advantage. Though the market can be crowded this time of year, the easy holiday marketing tips below will help you jingle all the way to the bank.

Focus on ebooks.

Sales of Kindle products on Black Friday increased by a whopping 400 percent from last year, reports the Financial Post, and Amazon is predicted to sell twelve million Kindle Fires by the end of the year. If you haven’t converted your book to a digital format yet, now is the time to do so (check out our blog post on digital conversion). Not only will an ebook be easier to market, they also offer more flexibility in terms of pricing and content tweaks.

Offer limited-time sales.

Although many believe that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the best times to drop prices to encourage sales, people will be buying books as gifts throughout December. Market your sale as a “last-minute deal,” and offer special coupons to followers of your Twitter, Facebook, newsletter, and blog. Marking down prices on December 26 is also a good idea, as people around the world will be logging on to populate their new ereaders.

Make nice with Amazon.

Booksellers and self-published authors (understandably) spend a lot of time thinking of ways to drive consumers to their personal websites to purchase books, but now may not be the time to completely boycott the Internet’s biggest “etailer.” Carolyn McCray at Digital Book World makes the point that many customers will be buying other gifts on Amazon, and buyers will be more likely to add your book to their already stuffed cart than to buy directly from your site. “This is a sales platform they’re familiar with,” says McCray. “It’s just one click for them to buy your book.” Link your ads to your book’s Amazon page for the next few weeks, and make sure to optimize your account for the best search ranking possible.

Offer freebies to build trust and drive sales.

It may seem counterintuitive to offer your highly valuable content for free, but ’tis the season of giving! Plus, free content can be an excellent way to build backlist sales and name recognition. If you’re a nonfiction author, offer a shortened, teaser version of your ebook for free. Fiction authors can offer a free short story or a preview of their latest novel. Not willing to give away part of your book free of charge? Ramp up your blog posting and seek blog swaps over the next few weeks. Writing articles for online magazines can also be a good way to get your name and your holiday sale out there. All these tactics will familiarize consumers with your name, your message, and your expertise—and ultimately prove to them why they should buy your book.

Engage with consumers.

Showing others that you’ve got the holiday spirit is a great way to differentiate yourself from other sellers hoping that their products will make the gift list. Be sure to tweet, Facebook post, and blog about the holiday season with occasional links to your sale. Ask your fans questions, and respond to any comments quickly. Community-driven engagement is also a fun way to gain some sales. Author Miranda Parker suggests reaching out to local businesses to be included in their gift baskets, hosting a holiday children’s book drive at your local library, or sponsoring a float in your community parade.

Book marketing is a time-consuming and detailed task the whole year round, but it can be made especially tricky in the cluttered holiday market. Differentiating yourself with discounted prices, free content, superior engagement, and a personalized experience can help put your book under the tree. If all else fails, you can always bake amazing Christmas cookies and give them away to customers.

Today's post is by Lynne Klippel, a best-selling author, publisher, and book shepherd. Since 2004, she's been working with coaches, speakers, and entrepreneurs who want to write a nonfiction book to showcase their expertise and build their business.  Her business, Business Building Books, focuses on the marriage of internet marketing and publishing and has helped clients from 6 of the 7 continents. An avid reader, Lynne used to get in loads of trouble as a kid for reading books instead of doing her chores.  Lynne lives in Missouri with her husband, three sons, a bunch of pets and tons of books.

One of the first questions you’ll hear from a publisher, writing coach, or interviewer is “Who should read your book?”

Most of us want to say, “Everyone!”

While you probably do have information in your book that will help many people, it is highly unlikely that everyone in the world will need to read it. Drat!

When you take time to get very clear on the characteristics, needs, and desires of a specific group of readers, you’ll be able to write your book faster and more effectively. Plus, you’ll be much more successful in your book marketing efforts.

Let’s start with a few examples of clear descriptions of perfect readers:

• Women aged 40 to 60 who have children and aging parents
• Divorced fathers who share custody of their children
• High school students who want to get into an Ivy League university
• Young adults aged 20 to 30 who left organized religion but still seek spiritual connection
• Corporate presidents or vice presidents who plan to retire in the next five years
• Women in their twenties with an eating disorder
• Parents whose grade school children act out in school

Each description brings a specific person to your mind, right? You may have pictured a friend, relative, or acquaintance who fit that description perfectly.

Now, it’s your turn to describe your perfect reader. Consider these key areas:

• Demographics: age, gender, marital status, profession, and socioeconomic status
• Challenges and stressors your reader faces that cause her to worry or look for help in a book
• Hopes, dreams, and goals
• Personality style—does he like facts and statistics or stories and humor?
• Time management—is she too busy to read long chapters?
• Current information-gathering practices—does he read, look online, go to seminars, take classes, or depend on others for new information?
• Fears—this is one the most important area to look at. Your book must provide a solution to a fear or group of fears if it’s really going to help your readers thrive.

You will continue to refine the definition of your perfect reader as you write your book.  One of the best ways to do this is to teach some classes and see what kinds of people attend and resonate with your material. If you don’t enjoy teaching, notice the kinds of people who visit your website or comment on your blog. 

The more you study and learn about your ideal reader, the more targeted you can make your book. Real people read books. When you can capture the essence of the perfect reader for your book, you are one step closer to becoming a successful author!

If you are ready to become a successful author, capitalize on your strengths and build from there.  To identify your author strengths, complete the free Author Assessment at www.BusinessBuildingBooks.com.

Originally posted on March 31, 2009.

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One of the most common questions we hear from authors is "Why does Ingram return my books only to order more the next day?" And it’s true: Ingram, the biggest player in the book wholesaling game, will frequently send books back to a publisher’s doorstep only to turn around an place an order a few days later. Why on earth didn’t they just keep them?

All books that bookstores ship back to Ingram are sent to their Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, warehouse for processing and then are directly returned to publisher or distributor of the title. Unfortunately, Ingram does not restock returned inventory. (You can imagine that tracking, inspecting, and restocking undamged returns would be a time-consuming endeavor for an operation of that size.) At the same time, Ingram has to bring in new stock to cover ongoing demand.

Another scenario that creates returns followed by more orders is a shift in regional demand. Ingram has four warehouses serving the country by region (in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Indiana, and Tennessee). If your cookbook is overstocked in Seattle bookstores, but you just did a great local radio tour in the Chicago area, Ingram’s going send the Seattle books back to you while simultaneously asking you for more to cover the new demand in Chicago—no matter how inefficient that seems.

The best way to minimize returns is to balance supply with demand by trying to maintain supply at a level that will sell in less than three months. So, as we’ve told you before, avoid overstocking and subsequent returns by always communicating your marketing and publicity activities to your publisher or distributor.

Wherever you are in the process of writing or publishing your book, you’ve probably considered at some point how you’re going to get it out to all of your adoring fans. You might ask yourself: Once I’ve published my book, how will readers find and buy it? Wholesalers and distributors are the two main channels for getting your book into retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, and indie bookstores, as well as libraries and schools, but determining how these channels differ and which one is best for your book can be confusing.

Let’s start with wholesalers. Wholesalers like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Bookazine are the middlemen between you—the author or publisher—and most major book retailers. These retailers generally order books from wholesalers, which act as depots for your book. Retailers do this because it’s easier for them to order from a small number of trusted sources (wholesalers) rather than hundreds of individual authors and publishers (you). Thus, if you’re looking for national distribution to major retail channels, you generally have to be set up with a major wholesaler.

Although you may be listed with a wholesaler, it’s important to note that wholesalers generally do not market, pitch, sell, or push your book to retailers. Your title sits among thousands of other titles waiting for a retail buyer to take interest and order copies, and unless there is a compelling reason for the buyer do so, it’s unlikely that your book will be brought onto bookstore shelves.

This may be sufficient if you are not planning on marketing or publicizing your book. If, however, you are planning on aggressively marketing your book, you will want someone with connections to the national retail buyers to convince them that your title needs to be ordered from the wholesaler and put on bookstore shelves where consumers can see it, and hopefully buy it. That’s where distributors come in.
Distributors serve authors and publishers in two main functions:

1)    They set up titles with many wholesalers.

2)    They have an active sales force pitching and selling their exclusive line of titles directly to the retail buyers in the hopes of getting as many books as possible on shelves and in front of consumers.

“Why do I need a distributor to set me up with a wholesaler?” you might ask. Many wholesalers have an application process and require a minimum number of titles to be eligible. Ingram, for example, requires publishers or authors to have at least 10 titles before they will make their books available for order; if you have fewer than that, you need a distributor to get you set up in Ingram. You may also wonder, “What’s the benefit of having a someone pitch my book directly to the retailers?” As mentioned above, without someone actively and aggressively convincing buyers that your book needs to be on their shelves, in front of consumers, it will probably sit in a warehouse somewhere, never seeing the light of day. Distributors’ sales representatives often hold a certain amount of credibility in the buyers’ eyes as a trusted source of marketable, salable books. Good distributors and their sales reps are just as invested in selling your titles as you are, and their established relationships in the retail channel give you direct access to the desks of decision-makers at major retail chains.

So let’s recap: You want your book in Barnes & Noble, but you know you need to be listed with a wholesaler like Ingram before that can happen. Because you have fewer than 10 titles and are planning a publicity campaign around your book release, you realize you also need a distributor to get you into Ingram and pitch your book directly to Barnes & Noble. Your best course of action would be to hunt down a distributor who services Ingram and has a relationship with Barnes & Noble.

Clear as mud?

Understanding the fundamental differences between book wholesalers and distributors is important, but equally critical is establishing your distribution and sales goals for the book. If you’re not planning on doing any marketing to consumers and just want your book to be made available for your friends and family, a distributor probably isn’t necessary. If you’re planning on hiring a publicist and doing national media, you probably won’t get very far without one. Thinking carefully about your platform and marketing plans will help you determine realistic goals for your book’s distribution.