Selling more books means standing out in 2019. How does one go about doing this? In 2018 I learned a lot about selling more books, what works for me and what doesn’t.

Standing Out in 2019: Advertise/Grow an email list/write more

Standing Out in 2019: Advertise

I’ve been actively selling ebooks since 2005. Many of the things that worked back in the day, don’t work now. There are thousands, possibly more, ebooks published every day. In order for an author to sell their book, they have to be noticed. That’s the big question. How does an author get noticed in today’s market? It’s a slow process that will involve an advertising budget. RPP has an advertising budget but keep in mind RPP has over 300 books to advertise and by the end of the year that total will be closer to 350 books.

If you want you book to stand out, I strongly suggest you, as an author, become proactive. Will this help RPP? Of course it will. Will this help you sell more books? Absolutely. What is good for RPP is good for you and what is good for you is also good for RPP.

There are sites where you can pay a fee to and they will promote your book. By my own experience and with my own books, I’ve only recently started making my money back and that is because I’ve a large backlist and sales of these books help make the profits.

Some sites:

Bargain Booksy: I use this site now because their price is reasonable. One doesn’t need a certain number of review or followers. While you purchase one day, they actually keep you book on the list for three days. Your book doesn’t need approval to become part of the promotion. I’ve found that a Friday promotion is the best, and they recommend if you want to advertise the same book, do so at least 3 months apart.

BookBub: FANTASTIC but you have to 1,000 followers. An incredibly hard task. I have used Authors Cross-Promotion (AXP) to help me grow my BookBub followers. I now have over 800 followers and hope to close in on 1,000 in the next couple of months. With BookBub your book needs to be approved in order for them to advertise. Although, when I submit a new release an advertisement goes out to all my followers. Bookbub is not something your publisher can do for you. I’ve tried to add books with several authors and was met with defeat. The author has to do it.

BookGorilla: This promotion site was cheaper but you need a specified number of reviews. My books did not sell as well here so I quit using it.

And there are more sites: If anyone knows of any let me know and I will check them out.

Grow Your Email list:

Yes, family friends and fans are a fantastic way to grow your list. Fans are the best but if no one except family and friends are reading your books then you don’t have fans and you won’t sell more books.

For RPP as well as my personal inventory, I buy email lists in the genres I write. For RPP, I buy email lists that include multiple genres.

Where do you buy Email lists: I use AXP and BookSweeps. I also have an author who uses Bookwrapt.

Using these new email lists since May of 2018 RPP has doubled it’s sails. Most of you have received emails that I am advertising your book using these emails, and I’m sure are disappointed that you’ve sold no books or only 2 or 3. However since the advent of this program in May, I’m beginning to see more 2-3 copies sold than no copies sold.

With my personal emails and when I send them out, I generally have around 10-30 copies sold simply because once they buy one book and if they like it, they generally buy another. This is what we want to see.

Most of the time I receive 300-1600 email addresses in a specific genre and yes, these sites are GDPR approved. Makes sure you have a way for the recipients of your emails to unsubscribe.

How do I use these email lists?

You have to be careful not to have them come back as spam. Most email providers will only allow so many to be sent out at a time. RPP uses Bluehost which allows groups of 50 names and 250 total emails to be sent our per hour. You need to find out how many names in each group you can have.

I offer the book for $0.99, post the cover of the book and the blurb as well as buying information.

If you have a website or blog, you can run contests where you give a free book if they leave a comment. RPP will help with the free ebook. Be creative. I’m running a contest soon where a random guest who leaves a comment will get their name in one of my books. This is generally a popular contest.

Write more books:

If you have a larger backlist, the readers who are enjoying your books will have more to buy.

Things I’ve found that don’t sell books:

Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook Ads, Google+, Blogs, Websites, Blog Tours.

Advertising budget:

Just like any business, you need to set your personal advertising budget. Don’t go over it. It’s what you can afford.