Luck won’t sell books … this will

We've all heard success stories of an author who sold hundreds of thousands, even millions of copies of their book, leaving most authors to feel like utter failures due to selling only a handful of copies.

According to some sources, most self-published books sell less than 100 copies in the life of the book. Other sources say it's as much as 250 copies. Regardless of 100 or 250, you can't make a living as an author with sales of even 250 copies.

Authors like Mel Robbins (Five Second Rule), Lisa Nichols (Abundance Now), James Clear (Atomic Habits), Hal Elrod (The Miracle Morning) and Robin Sharma (The 5 a.m. Club) appear to have the “Lucky Author Star” shine on them.

Many of these mega-successful authors seem to have come out of nowhere and are often referred to as overnight successes. Yet, when you pull back the curtain you see that each and every one of these men and women worked long and hard to get to where they are at. They persisted against all odds.

They All Struggled

None of these authors hide the fact they had ups and downs, good times and bad, occasions where they wondered if they would ever “make it” but against the odds, kept at it.

Yet, for whatever reason, there are plenty of authors who claim they want to be massively successful but ignore the fact they have to have a plan to raise visibility for themselves and their book(s). They erroneously believe the mega famous authors were somehow lucky by being in the right place at the right time.

A great many authors believe all they need to do is write the book, publish it and the sales “flood gates” open up. What these men and women fail to realize is that the authors who make their fame and fortune from books worked hard for what they've achieved. Yet, to them, it was not work but more of a mission driven life purpose.

One and Done Doesn't Work

A lot of self-published authors, meanwhile, go for the “one and done” process of doing a lukewarm book launch with the sole purpose of getting their book to #1 in an obscure Amazon.com category, calling themselves a bestseller, when in fact they may have sold 20 books to reach that number, and think they've accomplished something miraculous.

Truth be told, it takes a lot more than a one day launch to become a successful author. Yet, when part of an integrated book marketing strategy, an Amazon launch can be instrumental in creating the momentum needed to open up lots of opportunity for an author.

An Amazon launch can create hot leads for other products and services, it can lead to a virtual (and hopefully soon) live event, it can create consulting contracts, speaking engagements and a community of raving fans. Fans who want to buy your next book and the next and the next.

A marketing strategy isn’t something you simply think about or set up a one-shot tactic to make happen. It's something that takes time, effort, consistency and being in it for the long-haul.

You Can't “Push Button” Your Success

In our “get everything done as quickly as possible, push button world” many people are not willing to go the distance. In addition to push button book success, they want overall success at the push of a button. They want to hit the jackpot with very little effort.

Do some people have overnight success? Sure they do. For example, a TikTok video goes viral for a first time video publisher and all of a sudden an unknown kid from the Midwest becomes an Internet sensation. Within a short period of time, the overnight sensation falls by the wayside and the next flash in the pan success story is top of people's threads until the next and the next and the next comes along. This type of success is not sustainable although many people crave the notoriety.

There's much more that goes into sustainable success for an author than a two minute video.

For any author to reach a level of success 99% won't achieve, they must be willing to do what 99% of authors are not willing to do.

Successful authors build a platform that allows them to interact with their readers. Depending on the genre of the book and age of the reader, determines where the author should spend time.

Social media is a great way to grow your market reach, but not all social networks are equally valuable to every author. Again, you must know where your reader hangs out and show up there.

Once you figure this out, you must continually provide value on the platform by way of content marketing. It might be with video shorts, Facebook Lives, articles, memes, blog posts, threads and/or podcast interviews.

Here's the reality… when you consider how much time it takes to write the book, the cost of cover design, editing, formatting, and any support you contract to get the book to market, you will likely lose money on every book you write.

That is, unless you have a rock solid marketing and revenue generating plan. As well, you must be willing to do something every single day to achieve the best result. This doesn't mean “something every day” has to take a lot of time, but it does mean you have to stay focused on gaining visibility for you and your book(s).

Do something every day

Not a day goes by that I don’t do something to increase my visibility in front of my ideal readers. It might be a blog post, article, video short, training video, podcast interview, social media marketing, hosting a podcast episode, getting on stage on Clubhouse, or hosting a Facebook Live.

This is an ongoing process and requires daily action. It also requires testing, analyzing and adjusting as needed.

Beyond posting memes and quotes for your family and friends on Facebook, what are you doing to gain visibility? Are you clear on what social network is the best fit to reach potential readers and build a community of raving fans?

If not, put time into understanding the various networks based on the genre of your book, the type of people you want to reach and who would be interested in what you have to say.

Interviews

Over the years, I’ve been interviewed hundreds of times on podcast and radio shows. Many of the hosts have invited me back more than once. This is something agents and publishers look for in an author.

Don’t overlook the power of podcast and radio interviews to rapidly grow your platform. Rather than taking a “throw a bunch of mud on the wall” approach, be very clear on which shows are a great fit for your message.

#1 Position Creates Opportunity

Even though Hitting #1 in and of itself won't create the success you likely want, it will create opportunity to lead you there faster and more efficiently… when you know what to do before, during and after your launch.

Many authors have been misled to believe all they need do is get to #1. Don't let that happen to you. Otherwise you can lose a lot of money and not achieve the result you are looking for.

To alleviate this problem, I've created the Get Your Book to #1 Masterclass for $7. I did this because I know what it's like to not know how to sell books. I also know what it's like to utilize and implement a finely planned and executed marketing plan that generates book sales, revenues, leads and influence.

Join me on June 17th for this content-filled training. After all, for the low investment, you'll learn exactly what you need to do to get your book visible and in the hands of readers. CLICK HERE