It takes a lot of courage to write a book. Deciding to tell your story in public can feel incredibly vulnerable. Many first-time authors battle through a lot of nerves during the writing process. They wonder how readers will react. Will they judge you? What will your family and friends say?
And then comes the scariest question of all. Will my book sell?
In a way, the thought can be comforting. Maybe you just want your story out there, and you’d be just fine if your book only reached a small, niche audience.
But for others, book sales are the thing. The thing that will validate their struggles. The thing that will reassure them that their story is valid. The thing that will justify all the challenges involved in the writing and publishing process.
I hope you’ll reframe your thinking on this issue—your story is valid. You don’t need to sell a single copy of your book to prove that. It doesn’t need to be proven. You lived your experiences. They taught you important lessons. You messed up sometimes. Others, you nailed it. That’s life, and your life matters, whether or not others read about it.
But there are good reasons to wonder about book sales. Read on to get a better sense of how book industry professionals think about the marketplace of stories.
Will My Book Sell?
The answer is simple: only if you sell it.
Nonfiction books live and die on their authors’ visibility. If you think about it, this is actually a very good thing. You’re telling your story to give readers a peek into your experiences. When they read the book, they’re getting to know you. So, of course, the more visible you are, the better they’ll understand you and your story.
Would you take advice from somebody who wasn’t willing to stand up and shout it from the rooftops?
Maybe. But the average nonfiction reader—who has literally millions of books to choose from—wants to associate a friendly (or serious or outraged or warm) human with the book they’re about to read. They’re investing money and time in you, after all!
I can almost hear the protests from the back of the room. “But what about people with big book deals?! Don’t their publishers promote their books for them?!”
Great question! Let’s talk about it.
Do Publishers Market Books for Authors?
Yes. Of course they do.
But the answer is a little more complicated than that.
First of all, publishers are limited in the things they can do for authors. They promote books to booksellers and libraries. They run ads on social media, including GoodReads and similar sites. They advertise in trade publications like Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Weekly. When appropriate, they may affiliate with display marketers—they may place a vegan cookbook in a Whole Foods, for example. If it makes sense, they’ll submit your book for awards.
Publishers can do all of those things for an author.
They might even work to place an author in talk show interviews. But here’s where things get messy. They can place you in an interview…but you’ve still gotta do the interview.
“Your story is valid. You don’t need to sell a single copy of your book to prove that. It doesn’t need to be proven.”
If you’ve never been interviewed before…well, that could be a very, very bad situation.
Media exposure takes practice and preparation. Publishers don’t have the time or resources to prep their authors to take the stage. Remember what I said earlier in this article? About readers wanting to know you? That’s not going to happen through a Publisher’s Weekly cover feature.
And while, yes, books themselves can nurture that kind of relationship, the reader still has to pick up your book in the first place. That’s much more likely if people hear your voice on the radio, see your face on a webinar, or watch you speak at a conference.
That brings me to my second point: most publishers won’t offer you a deal until they see you selling your book.
I get it. This is difficult to wrap your head around. You’re supposed to sell your book to get a contract to sell your book?! Well, yes. Unfortunately.
Publishers (and agents!) only get paid if your book sells. They see tons of submissions every single day (literally hundreds a day in many cases), and they have to make an educated guess about which ones will sell. Doesn’t it make sense to choose books that are already gaining momentum?
I know that’s a disappointing answer. If you’ve already crawled through the hell that writing your first book can be, you’re probably pretty exhausted. You’ve tackled a million new skills. Marketing your book (and yourself) is just one more thing to worry about.
But fear not! You can do this. I promise.
How To Make Your Book Sell
I’ve got two pieces of good news:
First, you don’t have to do all the things. You can just pick one and see how it feels. Maybe you’ll actually like it!
Second, marketing your story gets easier the more you do it.
Here are some beginner’s options to get you started. Note that some of them won’t be possible before you publish.
If you decide to self-publish, keep them in your back pocket for your launch lead-up.
If you’re querying agents and/or publishers, you’ll need a proposal with a “Promotion Plan” section—any of these can be fleshed out in that section to give a sense of how you’ll help sell the book.
In either case, start building momentum as soon as you have a solid, cohesive concept and a proven plan for getting it on paper.
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Engage with potential readers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Don’t try to sell them a book. At least not at first. Instead, build relationships with them. Comment on their posts. Send them a DM if something they post connects with you. Grow your community by supporting others. When your book comes out, you can ask them to support you in return.
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Create a website with a great freebie (psst…we have our own free guide). What did you learn through your story? Did you learn how to do something? How to avoid something? What to watch out for? How things work? Create a free guide, checklist, or training and offer it in exchange for visitors’ email addresses. When your book drops, you’ll have an email list to market to.
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Reach out to local or regional organizations whose mission aligns with your book. Did you survive an abusive relationship? Reach out to women’s shelters to see if you can help them raise money by sharing your story. Did you escape a toxic work environment? Maybe your local Chamber of Commerce would be interested in hosting a talk. Did you coach a winning football team? Maybe the Rec Center needs help training new coaches. Using your story to help others is a great way to build relationships and demonstrate the you behind the book.
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Write an article related to your story and pitch it to online blogs in your niche. You don’t want to give away your book for free, but it’s always helpful to give potential readers a taste of what you’ll offer. Write a blog post with the key details of your story and reach out to bloggers who share an audience with your book. They need content. You need loyal followers. Maybe you can help each other out!
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Collect endorsements from thought leaders related to your book. If you end up with a traditional book contract, your press will usually reach out to industry leaders to get a blurb for the front or back cover—but they won’t be mad if you bring your own! Find leaders with a proven following who speak to audiences like yours and ask if they would be willing to give you feedback on your manuscript. If they love it, they’ll tell others!
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Do a “social media takeover” swap with another author in your niche. Look through the recently published books in your genre and see if any catch your eye. If you find another new author similar to you, DM them and pitch a trade. You talk to their audience (getting you new followers) and give them a chance to bring in some new blood from your feed.
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Network at conferences. Seek out conferences related to your book’s theme and attend. You can even reach out to ask if they need panelists or support staff. If the conference is small—very niche or regional—they may take you up on it. But your main goal here is to meet people with similar missions. The people who are already talking about your topic are best positioned to promote your book.
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Host a webinar. If you don’t have a big following, you may need to use paid advertising to get in front of your target readers (or start with any of the above suggestions to build your following first!). Once you have a handful of interested readers, host a brief webinar to talk about what you learned from your experiences. Be sure to make the presentation helpful for attendees so they want to hear more from you.
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Go live! If you’re good on video but not sure a webinar is right for you, create a series of short videos sharing tips and tricks related to your book. YouTube and TikTok are powerful sharing engines. Speak from the heart and give useful tips—then direct your listeners to your website freebie to add them to your email list (see #2).
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Pitch yourself for podcast interviews. This one becomes 10000% easier once your book is in the pre-launch phase. In the months before your book is set to release, go on a podcast tour. You can hire a publicist to help you do this or go the DIY route, but at a bare minimum you’ll need a media kit including 10-15 sample questions that relate to the podcast theme.
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Get a Small Business Administration (SBA) mentor. While, yes, it may feel weird to think of your story as a business, the book market is…well…a market! Authors who aren’t businesspeople may struggle to understand the marketing aspect of publishing. Your local or state SBA probably assigns free mentors to new business owners. In my experience, SBA mentors usually haven’t marketed books before, but they do know how to get a business launched. Usually they’re excited to help you figure things out—and, bonus, you’ll get the legal things in order so you’re ready when that book income starts coming in!
There are hundreds of other ways to promote your book. For authors I’ve worked with, these are some of the simplest, partly because they’re very common marketing strategies for all kinds of businesses—that means you can easily find help by Googling for tips and tricks.
Whichever you choose, remember that it’s gonna take time to build up a following. Give yourself a few months of trying before you decide marketing your story isn’t for you—everyone can find at least one strategy that really helps them feel connected and fulfilled. You’ve just gotta figure out which strategy works best for you!
Still Not Convinced?
Friends, I say this with complete and total honesty. It’s okay if your book doesn’t sell a million copies. Truly. I promise. And I’ll prove it.
Imagine you board a plane, train, or bus one day, and you see someone reading your book. You watch them, quietly, just observing. Their lower lip starts to quiver a little. Then, you see a single tear roll down their cheek. They wipe it away. After a few seconds, they put the book in their lap and gaze into space for a few seconds, obviously contemplating.
Hours later, the passengers depart. You muster up the courage to approach the mystery reader.
“Hi,” you say. “This is awkward, I know, but I noticed the book you were reading—”
“Oh my god,” they say. “Have you read it? It’s such a powerful story. I’ve been struggling with some of the same things the author overcame, and I finally feel like someone acknowledged me. I finally feel seen.”
What if that was the only copy you sold?
Wouldn’t that be okay?
