8 Tips to Help You Sell More Books

Have you recently published a book? Are you working on a book now? 

If so, I hope you find this post helpful.

In early January of this year I launched my first (and presently only) book: https://www.RaiseYourGameBook.com

I chose the traditional publishing route (Hachette), hired a co-author and set a very low budget for marketing/promotion.

Overall, I have enjoyed the entire process immensely. 

I’m often asked, ‘How are your book sales going?’ 

And my response is always the same, “Great!”

In full transparency, my response has nothing to do with sales. 

When it comes to sales, I mean what is ‘good’ anyway? Isn’t it a relative term? 

There are simply too many variables to determine ‘good.’ If I sold 100,000 books I would be ecstatic! If James Patterson sold 100,000 books he’d be looking for a window to jump out of.

That’s because when it comes to book sales, the only real way you can describe them as good or bad is to compare your book sales to another author or to use an external metric like best seller lists.

And I simply refuse to play the Comparison Game!

Have I outsold JK Rowling? Nope.

Did I make the NY Times Best Seller list? Nope.

Has Oprah featured me in her Book Club? Nope.

Am I writing this from a yacht in the Bahamas paid for entirely by my book royalties? You get the point…

So I choose to look internally and stay focused on my 3 reasons for writing my book in the first place:

#1) I’m a voracious reader and have so much respect for authors. Writing a book has always been on my professional bucket list. I wanted to write something that my target audience would find helpful, impactful and enjoyable. 

#2) I’m relatively new on the professional speaking circuit (in my 3rd year) and felt writing a book would help raise my credibility, brand awareness and land me bigger and better speaking gigs.

#3) The entire process of writing a book helped me organize my content and get clarity on my message (both of which helped me tremendously as a speaker).

With those 3 reasons in mind - I am very pleased with my results thus far. The feedback I’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive, I’ve already pulled in half a dozen full-fee speaking gigs (that came directly from the book) and my keynotes/workshops are much more organized.

So yes, I feel great about my book sales. And if any of the above happens (I make a best seller list or Oprah calls)… that will simply be a bonus.

But please know, as happy as I am with the way things are going - I am NOT content! I welcome the daily challenge of trying to get my book in the hands of my tribe and do everything in my power to expand the book’s reach and impact.

Here is a list of 8 things that worked well for me (I skipped over obvious stuff like ‘post on social media’):

#1) I was a guest on 50+ podcasts in the past 6 months. I was never concerned with how many listeners a show had… my only criterion was that the show’s listenership was aligned with my book’s message. I reached out to 100+ shows. Half of which didn’t respond or politely passed. Once the mics were hot, I did not directly pitch/promote my book during the interview. I simply shared my expertise and aimed to add value to the listeners. I let the host ‘plug the book.’

#2) I used https://www.Temi.com to transcribe every podcast I was on… and then paid a copywriter to convert those transcripts into blogs, LinkedIn articles and social posts. That way I was promoting my book and creating a never-ending stream of social content. 

#3) I created a text-to-email opt in that I shared at the end of every speaking engagement (you can try it now, text ‘bonus’ to 66866). Once opted in, users receive the Key Themes from my talk and a FREE preview of my book.

#4) I recruited a Street Team (I have 100+ members). To join, they had to buy 3 copies of my book (I encouraged them to keep one and give two to VIP friends/colleagues), leave an Amazon rating/review and help me amplify social posts. In return, they got access to a private FB Group and monthly group video calls. 

#5) I’ve encouraged as many people as I can to make time to leave an Amazon and/or Audible rating & review. In addition to my Street Team and email list, any time someone posted something about my book on social… I sent them the following message: “Thank you so much for supporting my book. What was your favorite story? Lesson? Which chapter did you find most helpful? Would you be kind enough to leave one of your answers as an online rating & review? I would be beyond grateful.” Most were happy to oblige!

#6) I used 800-CEO-READS to handle most of my bulk orders. For anyone that wanted a ‘team set’ for their entire organization, I was able to pre-sign each book and offer them a 40% discount off the retail price. I’ve sold more books through them than any other outlet.

#7) I hired a company to send DM’s to all of my 13K+ LinkedIn connections. I know plenty of people are opposed to mass messaging like this, but it worked really well for me. I pulled in individual sales, bulk sales and speaking engagements. This step had the highest ROI of any promotions that I spent money on. I am now investigating companies that can do the same with Facebook Messenger and for companies that can find the contact info for folks that left a favorable rating/review for comparable books. I will message them with something to the effect of, “I see you liked BOOK NAME and thought you might also enjoy MY BOOK.”

#8) A few members of my Street Team researched the name/address of every owner, GM and head coach in the NFL, MLB and NBA… along with AD’s and head coaches for the top college basketball/football programs. I am shipping each of them a signed book (along with info on my keynotes/workshops). While this will be a fairly substantial investment, I am confident it will pay for itself many times over in speaking gigs and book sales.

For those of you that have written a book...

What worked well for you?

What didn’t?

What do you plan to try in the future?

Please comment so we can all help each other!