Here are the most effective strategies for selling more books.

1. Most Effective Strategies
for High Book Sales
Compiled by Ezra Barany

2. The Respondents
To discover the most effective strategies for
self-published authors to sell more books, I
addressed my questions to the following:
•Representatives of Print-On-Demand (POD)
companies
•Representatives of self-publishing service providers
•Successful authors*
*To qualify as a successful author, the author had to have sold at least 1,000,000
books.

3. Top Complaint – Responder A

4. Top Complaint – Responder B

5. Top Complaint – Responder C

6. Top Complaint – Responder D

7. Top Complaint – Responder E

8. Top Complaint – Responder F

9. Top Complaint – Responder G

10. Top Complaint - Takeaway
Most self-published authors are often surprised at
how their books don’t sell well and they don’t
know how to sell their books.
The most effective ways to resolve the problem is
to make the books visible. Have them stand out,
whether by crafting prominent covers, by placing
the book in appropriate environments, creating
merchandise, promoting on blogs, etc.

11. Number of Book Sales
How many books can self-published authors expect to sell?
A
B
There’s no “typical” range. Some have
been monster hits (Amanda Hocking;
EL James; Hugh Howey; Barbara
Freethy; etc.) which sell millions; some
don’t sell any copies at all. Since we
work with so many independent
authors as well as publishers and
agents, the range will be all over the
map.
This is a hard question to answer because it
all depends on the self published author and
the amount of work they put behind their
book. Marketing dollars help but wont
guarantee sales. I have met authors that
have sold 100’s of copies per month and
others that struggle to get 10 sales. It all
depends on the book, the author, the story
behind the story, the attention the book is
receiving, etc. There have been some very
very successful self published authors, i.e.
Hugh Howey, who have sold a large amount
of copies.

12. Number of Book Sales
How many books can self-published authors expect to sell?
C
E
Average sales depends on the quality
of the book.
Since most sales of self-published books are
to people the author knows, the number of
sales depends on how many people the
author knows.
Responders D, F, and G were not asked this question.

13. Number of Book Sales - Takeaway
Any self-published author who manages to sell
10 books a month is doing better than most
self-published authors.

14. Resources for Self-Published Authors
What resources do you offer self-published authors?
B
C
Informed publishing. Our platform
provides every author with advanced
analytics of their campaign so they can
identify who exactly their audience is
and the best way to connect with
them.
We offer website development, book videos,
book tours, press releases, marketing
planning with a marketing expert, bookmarks
and business cards.
We provide them with marketing
techniques for successful
crowdfunding that can easily carry
over to book publishing. We try to
teach authors what they can do to
promote themselves and their book at
minimal cost.

15. Resources for Self-Published Authors
What resources do you offer self-published authors?
D
E
We offer post production marketing
support. We've worked with some
authors for years. We have a Facebook
page with a community of authors.
We design websites, book trailers, business
cards, and other promotional materials. We
have an online forum where the authors can
chat, and online customer service. We coach
authors how to leverage professional
reviews. We also offer press releases and
social media support.
Responders A, F, and G were not asked this question.

16. Resources - Takeaway
Educating the authors is key to help them
increase their sales. Provide them with their
options and let them discover which
marketing and sales strategies they feel most
comfortable practicing. So many resources are
available, it may be wise to prioritize which
marketing and sales strategies tend to work
best. That can give the author the ability to
focus on effective marketing, and allow them
to still have time for writing.

17. SEO Title Analysis
I help my clients by applying search engine optimization (SEO) to their titles so that
targeted readers will stumble upon their books easily. In your opinion, is that a
worthwhile strategy or am I barking up the wrong tree?
A
B
C
Yes. This can help,
either with metadata,
and title keyword
optimization on Google
and sites like Amazon.
Also, cover design really
matters in sales, and we
can help with this as
well.
I believe a majority of book
sales do not come from
someone “stumbling upon”
a book, but rather through
word-of-mouth. So,
although I’m sure this
strategy may work at times,
finding a way to create a
buzz around a book is
probably more of a
worthwhile venture.
Yes, SEO for the title is a
good strategy. SEO in posts,
as well.

18. SEO Title Analysis
I help my clients by applying search engine optimization (SEO) to their titles so that
targeted readers will stumble upon their books easily. In your opinion, is that a
worthwhile strategy or am I barking up the wrong tree?
D
E
G
Yes. Title analysis using
SEO sounds like a good
idea.
Yes. A good title is vital.
I've never used SEO to
determine my book's title,
however, I do check on
Amazon if there are other
books out there with the
same title, and if yes, I
generally change my title
since I prefer to have a more
unique, less used title.
Responder F was not asked this question.

19. SEO Title Analysis - Takeaway
Since most book sales are via word-of-mouth,
using SEO title analysis to help browsing
readers stumble upon a book will not do much
to improve sales. However, it can help with
providing the traffic to the sales page, getting
those initial readers to discover the book.
Once the book is discovered by those few
readers, word-of-mouth sales can follow.

20. Effective Strategies and Advice
What effective strategies would you suggest or advice would you give to authors?
A
B
Writers workshops, and keeping writing.
There’s no “magic bullet” for authors to get
more sales, and there are many predatory
companies which prey on the hopes and
dreams of authors and sell them on
marketing/PR packages costing thousands
(or tens of thousands) of dollars, when
either the author isn’t ready, or the title
has too limited of a genre-audience. Best
advice I can give is for authors to focus on
the writing, improve and get feedback,
create more content, network and promote
within their chosen genre, and study
success stories of similar authors.
Authors, whether traditionally or selfpublished, are their own biggest
advocates. It’s up to the authors to build
their platform, market themselves, and
build a buzz around their book. The
biggest resource for authors is their own
network and learning how to build,
maintain and rally that network.

21. Effective Strategies and Advice
What effective strategies would you suggest or advice would you give to authors?
E
F
Know your audience. Target to a
specific niche, fill a need, and be one
of the only books on the market to fill
that need. It's best if you are a part of
that market. Know where your
audience shops. Keep publishing, and
expect to see success after the tenth
book is out. If writing is the author's
best skill, they need to stick to that.
Most of our successful authors spend
under 5 hours a week marketing.
Write books that people want to buy, not
necessarily books that people want to read.

22. Effective Strategies and Advice
What effective strategies would you suggest or advice would you give to authors?
G
Make the first book in a series free. Offer giveaways of the book in exchange for
posting the book's information on Facebook. Offer giveaways to get people to sign up
for your newsletter (and then use that list to announce your new releases). Paid ads
haven't been useful for me at all. Facebook and Google ads didn't seem to work.
Be patient. It’s a long road to success. You’ll probably not make it on the first book.
You might need five before you succeed. You might not make it in the market you’re
targeting. A book might not sell very well in the US, but might take off in another
country. For example, a contemporary romance I published in English in the US did ok,
but didn’t sell hugely. I translated it into German and sold boatloads of copies! You
just never know where and when you’ll hit it. Just stick with it.
Responders C and D were not asked this question.

23. Effective Strategies
and Advice - Takeaway
To make more book sales:
• Discover what your readers desire,
• Fill a need that has not yet been filled,
• Write a series of books for that specific niche,
• Make the first book free,
• Offer the book series where your market shops,
• And be sure the series stands out.
The sweet spot seems to be a minimum of ten books in
the series. In conclusion, spend less time marketing,
and more time publishing books people want.

24. Final Thoughts
Since word-of-mouth is the major factor of sales, a
good investment can be to find authors who plan to
self-publish, and educate them on how to stimulate
word-of-mouth sales. I help my clients become
bestseller by teaching them the four aspects of a book
that can generate word-of-mouth sales:
1.Controversy (The Da Vinci Code)
2.A major plot twist (The Sixth Sense)
3.Insight into celebrities and careers (JFK)
4.Inspiration (Life of Pi)

25. About Ezra Barany
Ezra Barany is a book
mentor in Oakland, CA, and
is the award-winning author
of the bestselling thriller The
Torah Codes. He has
published a total of three
novels and six short stories,
many of which are published
under a pen name and are
also bestsellers. He is now
seeking to work at a
publishing company to help
authors on a larger scale.