By Michelle Griep, @MichelleGriep
Sales numbers are the bane of every writer. When books sell like hotcakes, life is good (assuming of course that hotcakes are in demand). But when sales turn southward and those numbers are nonexistent, cue the death march. What causes a book to stumble around like a drunk about to pass out? And what can you ultimately do about it?
5 Reasons For & Ways to Fix Lagging Sales Numbers
- Readers don’t care about your story.
The number one reason a book doesn’t have good sales numbers is that readers aren’t buying it. This is known as the “duh” factor. But let’s look at the main reason why a reader wouldn’t cough up the cash for your book. It sucks. The writing is novice at best. Maybe the copy has typos. Or perhaps the plot has holes that seven Mack trucks driving abreast could plow through. No writer wants this to be the case, but honestly, sometimes it is.
How to fix it: Hone your craft or pay up front to hire some great editors.
- Your publisher doesn’t care about your story.
Publishers put money behind their titles, sure, but that doesn’t mean they spread the love around evenly. Some books get more marketing dollars than others. Maybe yours just happened to be the one that came out the same month as two others which were written by bigger-named authors, so they get the publicity and you get squat. No, that isn’t fair, but thanks for noticing.
How to fix it: Set aside some cash to hire your own publicity team (I suggest Celebrate Lit, which is uber affordable) or be prepared to spend a lot of time marketing.
- The competition beat you to the punch.
Just because you wrote an interstellar pirate murder western doesn’t mean another author didn’t have that same idea—and got their book on the market a few weeks before yours. Sometimes sales numbers are all about timing, and that timing is completely out of your hands, little lowly author.
How to fix it: The best cure for this is to simply get started on your next Great American Novel.
- The market is gorged like a fat pig.
Do you know how many books are on Amazon? Like a bajillion. Okay, so I was never good at math, but statistics other than mine show that a U.S. book sells less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over the lifetime of the book. Last here there were more than two million published. It’s not only easy to get lost in the shuffle, it’s the norm.
How to fix it: Write better and keep at it. I know. Easier said than done, eh? But the cream of the writerly crop does eventually rise to the top.
- Your cover looks like a third-grader designed it.
Readers do judge books by their cover. If yours doesn’t reach out and grab a reader by the throat in like half a second, then it’s guillotine time for you, author. Unfortunately, most traditionally published authors don’t have a say in their cover.
How to fix it: Hiring the best possible graphic designer for your book is essential. Just make sure that designer has expertise specifically in book cover design.
A lot of these reasons are super depressing. So, what’s an author to do besides quit and take up selling life insurance instead of writing? In the words of Elsa, let it go. Let. It. Go. Life’s too short to be stressing over numbers. Write the best possible book you can, launch it into the world, then turn right around and write an even better one.
A war-torn countryside is no place for a lady—but Mercy Lytton is a lady like none other. Raised amongst the Mohawks, she straddles two cultures, yet each are united in one cause . . . to defeat the French. Born with a rare gift of unusually keen eyesight, she is chosen as a scout to accompany a team of men on a dangerous mission. Yet it is not her life that is threatened. It is her heart.
Condemned as a traitor, Elias Dubois faces the gallows. At the last minute, he’s offered his freedom if he consents to accompany a stolen shipment of French gold to a nearby fort—but he’s the one they stole it from in the first place. It turns out that the real thief is the beguiling woman, Mercy Lytton, for she steals his every waking thought.
Can love survive divided loyalties in a backcountry wilderness?
Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is the author of historical romances: The Captured Bride, The Innkeeper’s Daughter, 12 Days at Bleakly Manor, The Captive Heart, Brentwood’s Ward, and A Heart Deceived, but also leaped the historical fence into the realm of contemporary with the zany romantic mystery Out of the Frying Pan. If you’d like to keep up with her escapades, find her at www.michellegriep.com or stalk her on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.