Technology has changed the game for authors who want to sell books. No longer can you sit for hours at a table in a bookstore and wait for the crowd to find you. It’s a comfortable position, but it just isn’t happening anymore, unless you are a celebrity or sensationalist.

Your book is a separate entity that has a (shelf) life of its own. Two things have to happen if you want to sell your book: supply and demand. You have to have a publishing process that makes books easily available to customers and you must market that book to create a demand in the marketplace.

There are numerous voices out there in the literary marketplace that profess to have the latest and greatest methods for you to do that. But before you make an investment in a program, product, or professional, I suggest that you do the following.

• Research, research, research! Do your homework. Look beyond the glossy ads and favorable testimonials and find out if that product, person, or thing can take you where you want to go in regards to book sales.
• How many gadgets have you bought that currently have a permanent residence in a dark, deep, damp closet somewhere in your humble abode? Consider that when you are positioning your book for sales. If a person  promises that you will sell 1000 books in 10 days if you buy their program, how realistic is this claim?. Just take a trip down to that closet and your “get rich quick or lose 20 lbs. by tomorrow” scheme will suddenly shake you back to reality.
• Also selling your book to “everyone” is not cost effective, nor is it reasonable. Remember your first book is an invitation to a potential reader to become a loyal customer for the many other books that are floating around in your creative space.
• Always keep your book’s vision and mission statement before you so that any decision you may make will properly align itself with your overall goals for book sales.
• Develop a marketing strategy. Implement it. Stick with it and evaluate your progress. That way you will know when something isn’t working and you can find something else that will.

Remember, selling books is easy when you get them into the hands of the right people. A satisfied customer will continue to come back for more if your book is packaged, positioned, and promoted properly. They may even tell their family and friends about it. Now, that is really selling books when you can generate “word-of-mouth” advertising. You get “two for the price of one.” Happy Selling!

I hope you learn solid principles to help you on your journey to success—whatever success means to you.

Change something today to make your tomorrow better.

Tom Blubaugh
Literary Strategist, LLC
TomBlubaugh.net
tom@tomblubaugh.net
417-812-6110

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