So, like me, you’ve probably googled this question from time to time looking for what the secret sauce is to entice readers to hit “buy now” or to see what it is that’s stopping them.
Maybe you’ve read a bunch of blog posts of supposed indie authors saying you need to “build a platform” and really “hone” that email list. Then maybe they suggested you take their free course, or buy their “how to self-publish” book, or, of course, subscribe to their email list for the latest tricks.
It’s all obviously a scam to get you to buy whatever their products are. A lot of those supposed indie author helpers—or whatever they wanna call themselves—are really just taking advantage of people’s dreams, selling bad advice, and false promises.
So, I really wanted to make this post because I’ve found no good answer out there for why my personal books I publish aren’t selling like hot cakes. I know they’re written well, edited well, and some of them have premises that people apparently think are innovating (just see what this GUY SAID!). My point is, I work very hard to produce a quality product, and I’ve paid big money for good artwork (look at THIS cover and also THIS one) which is a lot of what people on Kboards might say you should focus on. They’ll also say you need to write faster and have more books out (which runs completely counter to the producing a quality product in my opinion, because if you’re focused on speed you’re going to lose out on quality).
My opinion is that the new gate keeper (the old gate keepers being the big five publishers), Amazon, picks favorites. I think they give the algorithm advantage to already established indie authors. Some of these supposed indie-author gurus (all scam artists in my opinion) will say they’ve cracked the Amazon algorithm code, but that’s bullshit. I started publishing in 2014, and back then Kindle Unlimited gave you a kickback (often greater than your sale price) if readers read 20% of the book. This then made you climb in the rankings, which increased your sales. More eyeballs, more sales. When they changed this, I basically disappeared on the face of Amazon. I’ve continued to publish books and short stories, but there’s been no runaway success (I’d just like to make some money off the hobby, I’m not even talking about anything supplemental at this point, even beer money would be nice). When I first published my first two books, I made enough money off the books to justify the artwork I’d bought. Every investment since then has not paid off.
So, really, maybe this post needs to turn more into honest advice from a guy who’s been doing this for six years (and, I’ve been pretty serious about it, only slowing my pace recently since my second child’s birth). So, here’s my advice:
Do it as cheaply as possible. Don’t listen to the gurus who say to pay big bucks for artwork. Pay as little as possible. Make it for free off Canva if you can. Read blogs about how to format your artwork if you want to do a paperback too.
Invest your money in software. You could ultimately do this for almost nothing, but I do recommend spending money on some decent software to make it a lot easier. I do like Scrivener, and if you’ve got the bucks, Vellum is nice too. I use Vellum now to make my ebook files and my paperback files. But, for the first five years I used Scrivener to do it all. There’s some really good videos out there on how to use Scrivener to do everything you’d need it to do. Vellum doesn’t take a video to figure out. It’s for the really lazy person who doesn’t want to waste time watching videos, and would rather just press “publish” sooner.
Spend your time writing and editing. Don’t bother marketing. Trust me. I’ve done free stuff. I’ve done paid marketing. None of it gives you a real or permanent boost. There’s never been a return on investment for me.
Make sure you’re REALLY editing. Get good at editing. Find a group of writers who will edit your stuff for free in exchange for you editing their work. That’s how I do it, and they do a better job of editing it then this guy I used to hire (and pay WAY too much money to). I’ve got a pretty lengthy process for how I edit now, as I want to catch all the typos and mistakes, as well as strengthen the text as much as possible before I publish.
Be okay with it being a hobby. You need to do this because you love it. Because you have a story eating away at you that you need to get out. You can’t do it because you want fame or fortune. There’s going to be nothing but heartache for you if you don’t go into this expecting nothing but the possibility that someone will read your work (and, someone will, but it could take awhile for that someone to show up…but it’s better than no one ever showing up).
So, that’s basically what I have to say on the whole book marketing and sales thing. But, I would like to reiterate that you need to really be okay with making little to no money off this. Because you will find a plethora of people around the internet selling cardboard advice on how to crack the code and sell more books, and it will always leave you disappointed and more frustrated than you already were. So, do yourself a favor and adjust your expectations. Those are within your control. The sales aren’t. That’s in Amazon’s hands. And if you’re random Joe off the street, they’re not going to do you any favors, and none of the secret sauce recipes the indie gurus want to sell you are going to change Amazon’s mind on how important your book is to their algorithms.
So, that’s it. Good luck. And also, make sure you’re enjoying yourself. Life’s short, man.