The Evolution & Devolution of Sales: Why Your Books Aren’t Selling

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Sales can be one of the most terrifying words in the English language. If one happens to be a creative professional, let’s just multiply that fear level by ten…or a thousand.

In fact, many writers long to sign with legacy publishers for the sole reason they believe a major publisher will tend to all that vulgar sales business for them so they can simply write and create!

*clutches sides laughing*

It’s cool. I once thought the same. We’re all friends and philistines here.

The hard truth is that, even if we are fortunate enough to score a contract with NYC, if our book doesn’t sell, the publisher will eventually have to cut their losses (‘losses’ being code for ‘writers who fail to sell enough books’).

Publishing houses are businesses not charities, and throwing good money after bad is better left to Hollywood. This said, the idea of having to ‘do sales’ is still enough to make many creatives break out in hives.

Deep Breaths

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

We writers have a nasty habit of black-and-white thinking in regards to sales. In our minds, there are only TWO approaches to selling.

One approach is to be on every single social site running marketing blitzes, promotional campaigns, holding contests, and blasting people with emails/newsletters until they buy a book…or file for a restraining order.

The other option is we never tell anyone we’re an author or—GASP—that we have a book(s) for sale. Short of applying for WITSEC, we do everything and anything to hide that we’re a writer, including our NAME (refer to The Problem with Pen Names).

In an effort to avoid ‘sales’ we pretty much guarantee we’ll never sell any books…thus fulfilling the societal assumption that writers are all broke losers.

***We’ll tackle that bugaboo later.

I believe most writers are afraid of sales because they don’t understand what sales actually IS. Remember, we writers are in the entertainment business. Notice half that word is business and I dare you to name any business that will last very long without any sales.

And before y’all have a panic attack, what’s the title we authors covet most? New York Times Best Selling Author. Notice the title isn’t New York Times Best Writing Author. 

Even though it should be *grumbles*.

Evolution is Real

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Before we tackle misconceptions about sales, I want to point out that we’re no longer in the 20th century. I know, time flies, right? The audience (customer base) of 2018 has evolved and what worked in the 90s no longer works today. Doing MORE of what doesn’t work is…well, stupid.

Alas, I cannot count how many sales books, training programs, etc. still push tactics that are almost twenty years out of date.

Our customers have evolved, which means sales, promotion, marketing, branding, etc. must evolve as well or it will be virtually impossible to create meaningful connections that yield results.

Think of the English language. Have you ever tried to read the original Beowulf in Old English? To spare your eyes and WordPress from a cascading font meltdown, just listen to this for 15 seconds.

Or five.

YES, THIS IS ENGLISH! Brought to us courtesy of Realm of History who apparently got someone drunk enough to be able to pronounce the words properly (as if anyone other than Cait would correct them *rolling eyes*)…

Can you imagine if we tried to hold a conversation speaking this way? Good luck getting a date, a job, or ordering a hamburger.

If the world has evolved, we’re wise to keep pace.

Sales Has NOT Evolved…Much

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

This profession is as old as time. In fact, sales has been around since Og first realized others wanted the pointy sticks he’d become rather adept at crafting. #TrueStoryIJustMadeUp

Once Og grasped that others were willing to give him berries, nuts, and shiny rocks in exchange for one of his pointy sticks, the concept of business/trade emerged and an entrepreneur was born!

Og, being the clever Homo ergaster he was, eventually realized a fellow tribe member might even offer a couple of hot daughters in exchange for a large order of extra-pointy sticks. So, he recruited his drinking buddies Ag and Ug to help.

In doing this, Og unwittingly discovered scalability.

Og understood that, the more pointy sticks he could fashion and the pointier the pointy stick, the better. This meant he also needed to find ways to let others know about his pointy sticks. Maybe even demonstrate some advantages of owning a pointy stick on say a fish, a squirrel, or an annoying neighbor.

Welcome to SALES!

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Once we appreciate sales has been around since the dawn of time and is vital and necessary, we can relax a little. While sales in and of itself is a permanent societal fixture, tactics have to evolve. Don’t believe me? Try stabbing an annoying neighbor to demonstrate that knife you’re trying to sell and…point made.

*Bada bump snare*

Now that we’ve settled that sales is a good thing that’s here to stay, let’s do some myth-busting. I feel once we separate facts from fiction, it will be far easier to face our fears.

***Bonus points there for alliteration 😛 .

Myth #1: The high-pressure, fast-talking, aggressive personality is necessary to be good at sales.

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

AHHHHHHH!

Wrong.

There seems to be this cultural idea of what ‘personality’ is required in order to be successful in sales. Usually this is the fast-talking, Type A ‘extrovert’ willing to pummel any prospect into a purchase.

This is total bull sprinkles.

Yes, this type of salesperson exists and, odds are, we’ve all run into one…then run away from one. Good news is we’re now in the digital age.

The high-pressure, fast-talking, aggressive salesperson is a relic best left in the 90s with shoulder pads, fanny packs, the McPizza…and these things.

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

In the old days, badgering had no consequences. Now? We now can unfriend, unfollow, block, and unsubscribe. Or, if nothing else works, we can post on social media that this business or product is to be avoided more than The Black Death pandering a litter of rabid kittens in need of a loving home.

Myth #2: Salespeople Sell Stuff & Good Salespeople Sell A LOT of Stuff

Yeah, no. Not exactly.

Salespeople solve problems. Good salespeople solve a lot of problems or solve bigger problems.

That’s it.

The better a person solves problems, the more money they make. Why? Because happy customers LOVE to share a win because it makes us feel super smart, and we like to brag. Also, humans dig being helpful.

This is called ‘word-of-mouth.’

Simple.

Why so many ‘sales tactics’ fail is the seller fixates on selling the product (their needs) instead of focusing on the best way to solve problems (the consumer’s needs).

I get that newsletters, automation, and email marketing are all the rage. Somewhere, somehow my business email was rufied and taken hostage. I’m relentlessly bombarded with emails from authors (or ‘PR firms’ representing authors) all wanting something FROM ME.

Read MY FREE book. Review MY FREE novel. Share MY FREE series with YOUR friends!

This is NOT SALES.

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Sales is when someone solves my problems, not when some stranger ambushes me to solve a long@$$ list of their problems.

Some random writer’s lackluster sales are NOT my problem. When the author (or their ‘PR firm’) craps up my email with fresh lists of demands guised as doing me some kind of a favor (I.e. Offering ME a chance to interview THEM about THEIR BOOK…on MY BLOG?)…

*deep cleansing breaths* ….they’re not a solution to ANY of my problems.

They’re an additional problem.

Because when I get an average of twelve of these kinds of emails a day, it makes it a bugger to find messages salient to doing my job. This doesn’t make me want to buy their books.

It makes me want to save that money to fund anyone willing to develop technology that delivers a non-lethal but painful electrical shock to anyone who spams me.

Myth #3: More is MORE

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

I mentioned earlier that we were no longer in the 20th century, but many marketers and promoters simply don’t grasp this. Or they don’t care to because being lazy and uncreative is easier.

See, it wasn’t until the late 90s and early aughts that computers and laser printers lowered the barrier to entry for businesses who wanted to use printed material for advertising.

This might seem like no big deal, but Kinko’s (and their ilk) started a small trend that’s turned into an unrelenting MONSTER—direct marketing.

Y’all have to understand that, before roughly 1998, printing was ridiculously expensive. Only big companies with massive budgets could afford to print anything on a large scale.

***This is why business cards used to actually impress people. Also, if you lost your cat, you only put up fliers if you liked (or feared) that cat…a lot.

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Anyway, cheap printing breathed life into the golem we know as direct marketing (a.k.a. junk mail). Then, once more people owned computers and used email, direct marketing simply migrated to another place to bug the $#@! out of us.

Now? Social media is experiencing this same devolution. Too many authors (mistakenly) believe they need to be on all sites all the time to sell, sell, sell which is why there’s so much automation.

But riddle me this.

If we didn’t want the spam served as paper in our mailbox, and we didn’t want it served virtually in our email, why would it magically become appealing when plastered on our Facebook wall?

Hint: It doesn’t.

Capitalism 101

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

We live in an age with countless choices, unlimited options, lower and lower prices, and in every color we could want. Even with SPARKLES! Cheap and FREE are invasive species glomming up the business ecosystem and making us all sick.

To succeed in any business, the goal is not to replicate what’s already abundant, but rather to take time and zero in on what is scarce.

So what’s scarce? For the sake of brevity I’ll name a biggie.

Trust

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

I’m just watching you. Honest!

All brands, businesses, services and products must earn the customer’s trust. The reason spamming ‘readers’ with free books is so ineffective is that FREE alone is insufficient to close the trust gap, especially in areas the customer stands to lose more than they gain.

There are many instances where FREE has zero impact and perhaps a negative impact on the purchase decision.

For example, would you hire a nanny to watch your children while you went to work because she offered her first week on the job FREE? A new skydiving business opens and first jump from 16,000 feet is FREE! New tattoo artist, and first tattoo is FREE!

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Granted, my examples sound crazy but why is FREE not super valuable in these instances? Because whoever is offering the FREE product or service is a stranger we don’t know or trust. We (customers) also stand to lose more than we gain. This is the important difference when considering FREE as a sales strategy.

The COST of FREE

If I’m in the store and a smiling rep offers me FREE a sample of sparkling juice, cool! Costs me nothing and the worst case is I dislike the taste. But, when an author who’s never so much as said hello to me offers me a FREE book, this costs my most valuable resource and the one that’s nonrenewable.

TIME.

And, since the book is being handed out to total strangers FREE, this makes me question why. If the book was actually good, why are they giving it away for nothing? This is when I deduce that FREE will cost me and I decline.

My decision might have been different had the author done something ahead of time to close the trust gap between us. This is why the social media platform and brand is essential if we hope to sell books.

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

Social media isn’t a new and improved way to spam people and push ads.

Used properly, social media is one of the most powerful ways to close the trust gap between unknown author and potential readers by establishing then growing relationships.

Too many writers are using social media ‘for business’ and then hang out with their ‘real friends’ elsewhere. They’re mystified why their books aren’t selling yet they’re failing to recognize they’ve skipped a crucial step.

In their rush to promote, they never created rapport with their potential audience and thus remain an unknown. The harder they market and the more they promote, the more they widen the trust gap into a trust chasm.

What is Our BUSINESS?

sales, book sales, how to improve book sales, book marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for writers, how to promote your book, Kristen Lamb

We writers are in the business of storytelling. Great stories are our business, our product and our single greatest selling tool. Outstanding books solve a lot of life’s problems.

Just ask anyone stuck in an airport with no wifi.

The best ‘sales strategy’ for selling a lot of books is to take the time, effort and money one might be tempted to pour into a steady stream of ‘promotional campaigns’ and write excellent stories instead. LOTS OF THEM. Write books people enjoy so much they can’t wait to share their experiences.

Delighted readers are the best salesforce of all…and they not for sale 😉 .

What Are Your Thoughts?

***Sorry to be away so long. Got summoned for jury duty and NO they didn’t pick me *shock face*.

Does this post make you feel a little bit better about sales? Clearer about what to DO on social media? Yes, it is OKAY to have fun and YES, post the kitten videos. It is also perfectly okay to advertise, promote and market…eventually.

Just that whole horse ahead of the cart thing.

Are you afraid of your email, too? I have three that I finally let go feral. There has to be a name for ‘fear of email.’ Do y’all have a theory why I wasn’t picked for jury duty? Bonus points for creativity 😀 . Let’s have some FUN!

I love hearing from you!

What do you WIN? For the month of JUNE, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

NEW CLASSES!

steampunk, writingClass Title: Building a Believable Steampunk World

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $50.00 USD Standard

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: FRIDAY, July 20, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Who doesn’t love some steampunk cosplay? Corsets, goggles, awesome hats…

Steampunk has become one of the hottest genres today, crossing the lines of YA, NA, and adult fiction. It seems like it’s fun to write because it’s fun to read.

However, there’s a world of difference between the amateur steampunk writer and the professional steampunk author, and the difference lies in the world they create.

Is your steampunk world historically-accurate enough not to jar the reader out of the narrative with anachronisms? Does your world include paranormal as well as steampunk? Are the gadgets and level of sophistication in keeping with the technologies available at the time?

Steampunk is not an excuse to take short-cuts with history. Good writing in this genre requires a solid grasp of Victorian culture and history, including the history of science, medicine, and industry.

This shouldn’t scare you off from writing steampunk, but it should encourage you to take this class and learn how to create a world that is accurate, consistent and immersive.

This class will cover a broad range of topics including:

  • Not-So-Polite Society: Just how prim and Victorian do you want to get?
  • Grime and Gears: How to research Victoriantechnology, science, medicine, and industry without dying of boredom?
  • Putting the ‘Steamy’ in Steampunk: How to obey (and more importantly, break) Victorian rules of romance;
  • Keeping it Real…ish: How to drop in historical details without info-dumping, and how to describe and explain your steampunk innovations without confusing.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.


Class Title: World-Building for Dystopian Fiction

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $50.00 USD Standard

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Friday, July 27, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

There’s no greater fear than fearing what dwells deep in the dark corners of human nature. Dystopian literature, for all its bells and zombie whistles, shines an unforgiving light on all those shadows.

Can’t think of any dystopian-genre books off the top of your head? How about:

Farenheit 451, The Hunger Games, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, The Lorax, The Stand, Neuromancer, Ender’s Game, Divergent, World War Z, Underground Airlines, Brave New World, Ready Player One, A Clockwork Orange, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (just to name a few…)

Still, it’s a challenging genre to write. Done badly, dystopian fiction is the equivalent of that emo kid down the hall in your dorm who drinks way too much coffee and just won’t quit playing The Cure.

Done well? We get the dangerous thrill of skidding close to the edge of moral insanity, looking through a mirror darkly and seeing ourselves and our neighbors, and a hyper-creative outlet that combines the dubious fun of post-apocalyptic totalitarianism (zombies optional) with chilling truths about human nature.

Topics covered in this class include:

  • Having fun with things you shouldn’t: why destroying society is just so much fun!
  • ‘First Fright’ vs. ‘True Fright’: sure, we’re afraid of enforced barcode tattoos because totalitarianism!…but maybe we’re really afraid because it really sounds so seductively convenient;
  • Picking and choosing ‘normal’: how to balance having enough familiarities with society today with creating shocking changes that go right to the heart of our fears;
  • Fear leads to the dark side (unless you’re already there): creating dystopian characters that invite both shock and sympathy;
  • To apocalypse or not to apocalypse: do we really need nuclear fallout or an alien invasion…or can we do it all ourselves?
  • Playing with your food: how to put a new and unique spin on zombies, aliens, and food shortages (i.e. asking critical questions like whether Soylent Green is gluten-free).

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

About the Instructor

Cait Reynolds is a USA Today Bestselling Author and lives in Boston area with her husband and neurotic dog. She discovered her passion for writing early and has bugged her family and friends with it ever since. She likes history, science, Jack Daniels, jewelry, pasta, and solitude. Not all at the same time. When she isn’t enjoying the rooftop deck that brings her closer to the stars, she writes.

 

AUGUST CLASSES

 

Kristen Lamb, W.A.N.A. International, business for authors, selling for writers, sales for writers, how to sell more books

SALES…for those who’d rather be stabbed in the face.

Instructor: Kristen Lamb

Price: $50.00 USD Standard

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Thursday August 9th, 2018 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Writers are in the entertainment business. Notice the second half of our job title is business. The lifeblood of all business is sales.

But, to be blunt, most creative professionals would rather be stabbed in the face than ‘do sales.’ Yet, if we don’t sell books, our career is doomed (regardless of how we publish).

One of the MAJOR reasons so many people are afraid of sales is because what’s being taught as ‘sales’ is actually ‘direct marketing.’

Direct marketing is NOT sales. It IS, however, pushy, icky, and hasn’t been effective since The Spice Girls were cool.

Sales can be fun. In fact, believe it or not, humans are wired for sales. It’s part of our biology. Problem is, humans are also wired to overcomplicate things…which is why so many of us freak out over sales.

This class is to remove the fear factor and clarify what selling entails for the professional author. Not all products are sold the same way…which is why there are no late-night infomercials hawking Hadron Colliders or F-16 fighter jets. Our sales approach must align with the product we’re selling, or we’re doomed before we begin.

This class will cover:

  • Why direct marketing doesn’t sell books;
  • Tame wasters versus time savers;
  • How to be paid what we are worth;
  • Ways we can make ads, promotions and marketing far more effective;
  • The unique way books must be sold;
  • How to set goals and create a scalable strategy;
  • Explore the S.W.O.T. analysis and why we need one;
  • How to differentiate our brand and product in an over-saturated marketplace;
  • AND MORE!

***A FREE recording is included with class purchase.

About the Instructor

Kristen LambKristen Lamb is the author of the definitive guide to social media and branding for authors, Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World. She’s also the author of #1 best-selling books We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer. She’s just released her highly acclaimed debut mystery-thriller The Devil’s Dance.

Kristen has written over twelve hundred blogs and her site was recognized by Writer’s Digest Magazine as one of the Top 101 Websites for Writers. Her branding methods are responsible for selling millions of books and used by authors of every level, from emerging writers to mega authors.


steampunk, writing

CLOCKWORK & CORSETS: BUILDING A BELIEVABLE STEAMPUNK WORLD

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $50.00 USD Standard

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: FRIDAY, August 3, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Who doesn’t love some steampunk cosplay? Corsets, goggles, awesome hats…

Steampunk has become one of the hottest genres today, crossing the lines of YA, NA, and adult fiction. It seems like it’s fun to write because it’s fun to read.

However, there’s a world of difference between the amateur steampunk writer and the professional steampunk author, and the difference lies in the world they create.

Is your steampunk world historically-accurate enough not to jar the reader out of the narrative with anachronisms? Does your world include paranormal as well as steampunk? Are the gadgets and level of sophistication in keeping with the technologies available at the time?

Steampunk is not an excuse to take short-cuts with history. Good writing in this genre requires a solid grasp of Victorian culture and history, including the history of science, medicine, and industry.

This shouldn’t scare you off from writing steampunk, but it should encourage you to take this class and learn how to create a world that is accurate, consistent and immersive.

This class will cover a broad range of topics including:

  • Not-So-Polite Society: Just how prim and Victorian do you want to get?
  • Grime and Gears: How to research Victoriantechnology, science, medicine, and industry without dying of boredom?
  • Putting the ‘Steamy’ in Steampunk: How to obey (and more importantly, break) Victorian rules of romance;
  • Keeping it Real…ish: How to drop in historical details without info-dumping, and how to describe and explain your steampunk innovations without confusing.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

About the Instructor

Cait Reynolds is a USA Today Bestselling Author and lives in Boston area with her husband and neurotic dog. She discovered her passion for writing early and has bugged her family and friends with it ever since. She likes history, science, Jack Daniels, jewelry, pasta, and solitude. Not all at the same time. When she isn’t enjoying the rooftop deck that brings her closer to the stars, she writes.

 


When Your Name Alone Can Sell

Instructor: Kristen Lamb

Price: General Admission $55.00 USD/ GOLD Level $175

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Thursday, August 16th, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

LEARN TO BE A BRAND BOSS!

All authors need a brand, so this class teaches how to locate and cultivate your audience into passionate fans who BUY YOUR BOOKS!

How can you grow your platform and turn your name alone into a bankable asset? Not as hard as you might have been led to believe.

You DO NOT need to be a tech guru/mega-high-pressure-sales person to excel at this. In fact, best you aren’t.

Yet, the reality is that in the digital age of commerce, consumers rely on brands more than ever in human history. They’re overwhelmed and we can help them out….by finding US.

Consumers (which is code for readers) buy from who they know, like and trust. In a sea of infinite choices a powerful NAME is a tremendous asset.

Can you say “James Patterson”?

The single largest challenge all writers face in the digital age is discoverability and connecting with our audience is a challenge but nothing we can’t handle.

This class will address:

  • What is a brand? How to make one uniquely your own.
  • How to BE YOU! You’re a writer, not an insurance salesman!
  • Harness your imagination & creativity for better results (No one likes SPAM, so don’t serve it!).
  • How to use this information to locate, engage and cultivate an audience.
  • Myths about exposure.
  • Common scams that will wreck your brand and earning ability.
  • Why most promotion is a waste of money.
  • A list of expensive and not-so-bright ideas for reaching readers.
  • Knowing when and HOW to promote.

Overall this class is about working smarter not harder. This class is to teach you to think strategically so all energy is focused. Sure, we have to hustle, but why not hustle and there be an AUTHENTIC PAYDAY for all that hard work?

GOLD LEVEL AVAILABLE: This is you working with me (Kristen Lamb) for 90 minutes building, defining, refining your brand and putting together a PLAN! Time is money and professional consulting saves BOTH.

****A FREE recording is included with purchase of this class.

About the Instructor

Kristen LambKristen Lamb is the author of the definitive guide to social media and branding for authors, Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World. She’s also the author of #1 best-selling books We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer. She’s just released her highly acclaimed debut mystery-thriller The Devil’s Dance.

Kristen has written over twelve hundred blogs and her site was recognized by Writer’s Digest Magazine as one of the Top 101 Websites for Writers. Her branding methods are responsible for selling millions of books and used by authors of every level, from emerging writers to mega authors.

 

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  1. OMG yes. I had a crazy amount of emails offering to send me a free book back when I was hosting Book Lights for Circle of Seven and Readers Entertainment.
    Note to all authors and PR companies – No, the radio host does not have time to read your free book. Please trust that the radio host knows their business and is perfectly capable of creating a script which will highlight both book and author based on the bio and book blurb you have presented. How about you focus on polishing those?

    And yes to this entire post about sales. Merchandising 101 from my vocational school days said – find a need a endeavor to meet it.
    That’s the basis of any sales.
    Such a good post Kristen. Thank you for this one.

    1. I know it was a bit long, but so help me I think my email might one day make me snap *left eye twitches*. Thrilled you enjoyed it and thanks for taking time to comment!

  2. The whole marketing and promotion thing seems like a black box to me.

    I have done some research, read several books on marketing, taken a few classes, and it’s still a black box.

    Most of that research confirms what you’ve said. Before marketing really starts to work, you need to have 4 books or so out. And they have to be decent books that will sell your next.

    Back list is still the way to go, and there’s a slog to get a back list before you can get some traction.

  3. Kristen, come on. Smart, funny, clever, beautiful people NEVER get selected for juries.

    1. You forgot that I am also NUMBER ONE at Humble 😛 , LOL. Thanks :D.

  4. Let me take a stab at this…

    You came in, bloody and limping. The first thing they notice is not the blood, not the limping, but the fact you’re a blonde.

    Oh yes, she will be easy to sway, easy to get the verdict I want. I think I will…is that blood? Why is she bleeding? That looks like, cat scratches? I think it’s going to bruise.

    What? Yes your honor, I will continue to interview prospective jurors. So, number 12, what is it you do for a living?

    I’m an author.

    Author. What do you write?

    A mixture of non-fiction pieces helping other authors get their books into the hands of readers and nice murder mysteries that are part bloody and part fun friend craziness. You see, there’s this woman who lives in Texas, in a small town, you know the type, and she’s blonde. But she’s got this problem with the FBI and the local constabulary and…

    Your honor, I wish to keep this jurist.

    Your honor, I object, she’s much too….smart….to sit on the jury that will be chosen to convict this man of murder of his blonde girlfriend.

    Can you guys go settle this?

    We can’t, I want her, he doesn’t. We are at an impasse.

    Ok, we don’t need to keep her bleeding on my courtroom carpet any longer. Number 12, you’re dismissed, thank you for your time.

    Thank you, your honor.

    As you slowly limp out, the people in the courtroom hear “damn, I really wanted to be on that one, I need some new material.”
    – – – – – – – – –

    And, about the column, I agree. This is why I not only talk vampires, but I take a little werewolf baby doll with me. We get to bond over this creepy but infinitely adorable little thing and then we can discuss why you need my vampires and angels in your life. And a vampire cat.

  5. Thank you for this. As I read through your commentary, I asked myself the question I always ask before I read a blog. “Is this going to make me feel better, or worse?” You made me feel better! I have always felt that “free” translates to “this isn’t worth anything.” Ninety-nine cents might be a bargain to try out an author who has captured your imagination, but “free” sits on the sidewalk and begs for passersby to relieve the owner of a burden.

  6. My favorite part of your post was what you wrote about “Og” and his drinking buddies “Ag” and “Ug.” I had a good laugh, thank you, and it resonated because (and I’m not making this up) in my first novel my BBB (big bad boss) was a prehistoric savage named “Ur” and his two henchman I named “Muh” and “Dk.” Nostalgic — that was published in 2012.

    As for feeling better about sales now, sadly no, sorry. I actually feel worse while agreeing with you 100% about everything you said. You said spamming social media and giving away free books won’t work and I agree. I always suspected free was a bad idea but I did it because my publisher tells me it’s a great way to introduce readers to a series. You make good points debunking this myth. I never did think spamming social media was a great idea and I’ve never done it. I think it just pisses people off because social media is almost nothing but spam today.

    So your bottom line is like Field of Dreams — make it and they will come. Oh really? Why will they pick one new author’s book out of millions of new books written by often-talented new author’s? Your answer is write a good book and word of mouth will sell it. I’m having trouble believing that and it’s not because no one is buying my books. They are well written, get good reviews, and are professionally edited. I have modest sales. I just have dim hope of ever making the best-seller list based on word of mouth alone. I think I’ll die of old age before that happens.

    Any other suggestions?

    1. Actually I am not saying ‘Write it and they will come’ AT ALL, though I do believe too many writers have sacrificed quality writing because they’re strung out doing ineffective ‘marketing.’ The books are still the most important for sales because they are the product. The better the product and the more options (titles) the better. But, if no one knows you exist? You get the 93% failure rate writers had before social media came along.

      We need a brand and to engage on social media…as HUMAN BEINGS. Talking to people, posting content that makes them laugh or smile or want to join a conversation matters. It makes us dimensional. When we are PRESENT on whatever platform, others are grateful. We are tired of spam and bots and meeting a LIVE person on-line is a real treat (and a rare one).

      Why so much of the common marketing methods aren’t working is those vying for my money never earned permission for my TIME. They gave nothing and now feel entitled to take. Why they’re failing is because they take shortcuts. Learning people’s names, liking their posts, commenting, sharing, all takes time. It can’t be automated, outsourced, or measured by metrics. It can’t be measured, controlled and delegated to a machine.

      To properly engage on social media requires time, patience, work, vulnerability and investing emotional capital. Most want to skip that part. Often, they dehumanize anyone online.

      I once had an author unfriend me on my regular page and ask I go Like his fan page because he wanted to keep his regular page for real friends and the fan page was for business. So basically I wasn’t…REAL? I wasn’t a friend? Was news to me and oddly it hurt being treated that way.

      Essentially he was telling me I was only useful if I knew my place, which was to buy his books or feed his ego. I was only valuable for my money. How far will we get treating people this way? Does it make us want to BUY?

      I work very hard to treat everyone on social media as if they are the greatest gift to enter my day…because they are. They make me laugh, make me think, make me join in when I tend to be a hermit. But ‘experts’ will tell us all this goofing off isn’t doing business and that’s hog wash.

      Twenty years ago multi-million dollar deals were made over a game of golf or at a cocktail party and not in a boardroom with Power Point.

      Why we can relax about sales is that high-pressure crap doesn’t work. But having fun, making friends and connections DOES. It simply requires we invest some emotional capital.

      For instance, I pay attention to names of commenters here. If someone who was a regular commenter on my blog emailed me wanting help with something (which happens fairly often), most of the time I am happy to oblige…because I recognize the NAME. We’ve engaged. I took time to write a nifty and super long blog and YOU took your valuable time to comment and tell me you’re still scared silly and WOW here is a conversation!

      If people I KNOW from Facebook or these blog comments or anywhere else on-line email me, I am OPEN! Because that person isn’t a total stranger panhandling in my email.

      I’ll write more on this topic in the next post. This one was already long and I was pushing my luck was it was. The brief answer is write good books. In between go play on social media and make friends and have fun and trust the process. Simple.

      1. OMG! Thank you Kristen. HUGSSSS! I get it now and am not afraid of marketing anymore. You make it sound fun and now I see that times when I did make friends and had fun with them on social media, it did spike book sales a bit. So I’m going to go have more fun now and sell more books (without peddling them). Yay! You’re wonderful. I recommend your blog to all my writer buddies.

    • Renee on July 13, 2018 at 3:04 pm
    • Reply

    This is so good, Kristen. I miss you when you don’t post.

    Watched a PBS documentary on singer/composer John Denver, who at the height of his popularity, was still panned by the critics. No one wanted to claim him – folk singers, rock and roll bands, country and western – he didn’t fit neatly into any category and his music was often ridiculed by the cool kids, Rolling Stone magazine and the like.

    Denver’s manager, Jerry Weintraub, was interviewed for the documentary, and he observed that people simply loved his music. Then he said something like, (paraphrasing), “You can be very talented and put your music out there, and the public might not respond to it. You’ve got to have a product that people like. That’s how you become popular and how you sell.” I think Weintraub just kinda described word-of-mouth.

    Word-of-mouth always sells books.

    I also think that timing plays a hand in it. An art instructor told us in college, that art was a product of its time, that art reflects its culture. “Peyton Place” rocked the 1950’s. Would it have the same impact now? “Fifty Shades of Grey,” what made it so popular? Was it “Twilight,” the dark version, and had a built-in audience, girls who’d read “Twilight” as teenagers and had grown up, married, had children, still sought out fantasy? Is it a reflection of our culture in some way?

    Finally, I think we writers face greater odds. We console ourselves by saying: “well, we still read and belong to book clubs and our kids read.” That’s anecdotal, not statistical. Statistics point to a lower literacy rate. Newspapers and magazines have been dying out for years. Sure, an online platform for newspapers might make sense, news changes constantly. I remember buying a “Time” at the grocery stand – no more. It’s all “People” or “Us,” dense with photos, very little copy.

    People don’t reach for books like they used to, they binge watch Netflix, and there are hundreds of TV shows now. They obsess over their phones. I think technology has rewired (is rewiring) our brains and made it almost harder to read.

    The real money maker appears to be computer games. Even there, my husband, who loves “The Witcher” (soon to be a Netflix series, I think) – and story type games, remarked recently that there is less story on the newer games. Less narrative.

    Read on author Charles Martin’s site that 3 million self-published novels are released every year. That’s almost 58,000 self-pubbed novels coming out every week – 8,200+ every single day. Traditionally published books – what is that, 200,000 to 300,000 printed every year? Plus the 3 million self-pubbed books? Whoa. Martin recommends trying to find an agent to represent your work.

    Gotta get writing.

    FYI, John Denver documentary promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paFYyeAFNVc

    1. Eventually an agent is a good idea. As for the numbers, I defer to Mark Twain. “There are lies, damn lies and statistics.” I would venture to say easily 80% of what’s self-published is completely unreadable and thus not even viable competition.

      And we get all nostalgic that people used to read all the time. When? That’s BS. Before the 20th century most people were illiterate and too poor to even own a book. Then into the 20th century literacy improved and people started reading. Great! But I’m in my mid-40s and people didn’t read when I was growing up. I was made fun of for carrying around a book.

      Kids played Barbies and rode bikes and watched cartoons and played outside and set small fires (maybe just my group). I don’t think back to childhood and remember every kid around me with a nose in a book.

      Once I was a teen, I was still a nerd who read while other teens drank, went to sporting events, hung out to malls and arcades, talked nonstop on the phone about NOTHING. They watched MTV and listened to boom boxes and Walkmans and played Atari when not at an arcade. The adults watched gameshows, sports, and soap operas while drinking, cleaning and chain-smoking.

      I actually think people read more than ever in human history. They are still reading their favorite magazines, but on a device which saves trees and time. People still read a lot of news (probably too much) just not from a paper plunked on their doorsteps.

      It’s always been a small slice of the population that actually ENJOYED reading…which was why B. Dalton was perfectly fine even though it wasn’t the size of an aircraft hangar. But I think that slice is getting larger. ‘Twilight,’ ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy, the ‘Divergent’ series, *groans* ’50 Shades of Grey,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘The Help,’ ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Pretty Little Lies,’ ‘True Blood,’ the Harry Bosch books, the Rizzoli and Isles series, “Hannibal,’ and on and on and on.

      These have all been HUGE hits with movies and TV series made from them. Humans LOVE a good story so we’ll always have an audience. But writers need to up their game when it comes to the writing. The audience is there, but we’re gonna have to hustle to get their attention and be heard above the noise. BUT…this has ALWAYS been true.

      Readers have always been outliers.

    2. Renee, I loved John Denver and think we lost a great talent when he died. Thanks for link to the documentary.

      1. HUGE John Denver fan here, too. One of the few celebrities whose death made me cry. He was a wonderful man and his music was a real gift.

  7. I’ve been following your blog for a while and respect your knowledge on marketing, but I also follow other marketers whom I respect as well who strongly advise that you make first book in a series permafree then give second book away to people who sign up for enewsletter as a way to build your email list. What are your thoughts on this?

    1. Never said anything was wrong with newsletters, email or free. I said we are unwise to lead with this without establishing rapport. Most of the emails that make me see red I didn’t sign up for. I probably left a book review somewhere and some intern went around writing a list of all people who took time to review a book and noted their emails.

      So THEN writers and ‘PR firms’ purchase lists of these emails and spam the bejeezus out of us.

      If an author has built an email list PERSONALLY (and not taken a shortcut of purchasing mailing lists of ‘readers’)…as in people of their OWN FREE WILL signed up for the newsletter, then they bridged that trust gap.

      Writers who buy lists of ‘reader emails’ plopped down cash and never earned permission to email me and ask me for stuff.

      Also, I never said FREE wasn’t a viable sales tactic. I said its a bad to lead with when the person doesn’t know us, never asked to hear from us and we’re invading their space for personal gain.

      You are reading this blog…for FREE 😀 . But this is the way I enjoy building rapport and community. Free works, but just not everywhere. Like most tools.

  8. Not sure if my comment went through, so trying again. Kristin, I have been following your blog for some time and respect your knowledge on marketing, however there are other marketers I follow whom I respect as well who insist way to go is to have first book in a series be perma-free and give second book to people who subscribe to your enewsletter in order to build up email list. I’ve recently done this. What are your thoughts?

    1. Weird. You got a duplicate but when I approved you yesterday only saw one. Did you see my response? I don’t have issue with a lot of the marketing tactics, simply the TIMING of them. It’s common sense.

      Say you move next door to me. You live there for a year and I never once even wave when you drive by. Then I show up randomly one day and ask if you can loan me $20 for gas. You might do it just to get me to leave, but you’d feel REALLY odd about the whole event and even if I paid the money back, you might avoid me in the future. Or, if I knocked again, you might not answer because you’d assume I wanted something (another $20?).

      Conversely, what if the first week you moved in, I came over with cookies and introduced myself, learned your name and the names of your family members? I told you to let me know if you needed anything because I work from home and feel free to come over (you never do because this day and age we tend to stay to ourselves).

      BUT, I wave when I see you, knock on your door to let you know your dog got out of the fence. One time, when I noticed you struggling to move a couch in your door on your own I rushed over and helped you. Oh and one time you saw me using the last of my lawn fertilizer on the part of YOUR yard that’s next to mine. When I see you, I greet you by name.

      None of these actions are a HUGE deal. We aren’t hanging out and braiding each other’s hair or going on road trips together. All of these ‘actions’ are small but personal.

      BUT NOW should I come over to ask for $20 it’s still a tad weird, just a LOT LESS WEIRD. You’ve had enough TIME to know I don’t go banging on doors asking for cash loans. Since I am familiar to you and have a history of reaching out in helpful and friendly ways and asking for nothing in return (just being a kind neighbor), we have rapport.

      It’s the same with marketing. If we build even loose connections, people don’t notice the marketing the same way. It feels far less invasive. People don’t fume over getting newsletters they signed up to get. They lose their $#!@ over the gazillion folks who purchased a list and invade their space asking for stuff over and over and over when they never earned the right or asked permission. They’ve given NOTHING, are only present to TAKE.

      And, we will talk more in depth about this, but while the blitzing tactic can work, usually it puts us in a position where we can only compete on PRICE. It’s a race to the bottom of who can give away the most stuff for free and cheap. MY GOAL is to help you guys be paid what you are WORTH.

      A lot of marketing and PR gurus teach direct marketing, which is why they love metrics. But direct marketing, advertising, promotion without establishing relationships has a DISMAL ROI. It relies on mass volume (much like telemarketing).

      This is what wears authors out.

      Without relationship, we are tethered to about a 6-9% open rate for emails. That is just the OPEN rate, not the how many click and buy. How many people will we have to email for 6% to be profitable? Especially if we only have A book for sale. 6% is 120 people.

      Say magically ALL 6% buy a book we make $5 off of. This is $600. But this is a ONE TIME transaction, because a book is a product not a service which people would pay a steady and recurring fee. This means that 2,000 is pretty much tapped out until we have another book…which takes months to write. Can we live off $1200 a year? No.

      This is why writers end up buying large lists. But still, basic math is against us. Because that 6-9% open rate in reality is only the open rate. The buy rate is much lower (1-3%). This explains why ALL of us have a relative we never knew we had who lived in Nigeria who recently passed away and he’s willed us money. Why SO many of us can share this laugh (story) is because it’s a perfect illustration of direct marketing without brand and relationship 😀 .

      Send out MILLIONS of the same message and some sucker will bite. BUT it requires VOLUME.

    2. Thanks, Kristin, I received your responses. Don’t know why they are not showing up here in the comments. Thanks for your clarifications.

      1. And now they are showing up! Oh, well…

  9. I got picked for a (non-fatal) stabbing trial jury once, despite taking my mother-in-law’s advice to “dress the way you usually do; they’ll never pick you.”
    Dare I suggest that you looked too much like a woman liable to want to ask questions? I think juries are picked to be passive recipients of information, not active inquirers into the truth.

  10. I love this, and it’s really making me think about posting more to my personal Facebook profile (which I haven’t done much lately) and not try so hard to engage people on my blog FB page, which has followers but not many true friends.

    But I definitely do NOT want to treat people like their only worth is as paying customers. I’m not much of a salesperson, and I’d rather default to human than “salesman.”

    Thanks for always challenging me to rethink “conventional wisdom” or crowd-think, or what “everybody else is doing.”

    1. I do most of my interaction on the personal page. I advise people to make lots of friendships on the regular page then once you hit around a 1,000 (and have a book for sale) ever once in a while post on your regular page to follow your fan page. But even on my fan page I post mostly fun stuff just like my ‘normal’ page so that friends enjoy engaging.

      The fan page isn’t a place for us to just hustle sales. We can simply mention when we have a book out, a sale, a class, then go back to cutting up and having fun. The fan page is so you can exceed the 5K and also you won’t get in trouble selling. But you’ll never have to pay to promote if you post stuff people like, comment on or share.

      The more human you are on the fan page, the more it becomes a place people enjoy hanging out and if they enjoy being there, the algorithm will put you in their feed because they’ve engaged. This means when we DO post we have a book or something fans see it. Also, we love supporting people we KNOW and LIKE so it’s way less icky than just pressuring people and competing on price.

      My thinking is if everyone else is doing it, probably no longer effective. I teach brand and platform building that is evergreen. Tech changes, gimmicks work short-term, but humans don’t change.

      1. Thanks for this explanation Kristen on how to use fan pages compared to ‘normal’ pages on Facebook. This will come in handy for when I need to create a fan page.

        At the moment though, I’m struggling to have 100 friends on my ‘normal’ page, let alone 1,000. 😉 That’s because I need to spend more time on Facebook and feel uncomfortable about sending friend requests to people I don’t really know, even though we may have friends in common.

        I’m just wondering if you have less than 1,000 followers and have a book out, should you still create a fan page or just stick to making more friends on your ‘normal’ page until you have more books out?

    • Brenda on July 13, 2018 at 10:30 pm
    • Reply

    Sorry, can’t leave fanny packs in the 90’s. They’re every bit as useful and functional now as then. 😎

    Thanks for the post. Another way to phrase the trust issue–particularly when someone offers something for free is the instant thought that follows: “What’s the catch?”

    • S M Sierra on July 14, 2018 at 8:42 am
    • Reply

    I liked your take on the sales aspect, I like to read interesting blogs about the aspects of writing by writers, Authors. I do not spam people for them to read my book, as for giving free books I run free on Amazon once in a while and tell my friends on Facebook. I do not have a blog or Website. I wrote my first book because my mother was a huge Harry Potter fan and I had this idea in my head for years about a girl in a magical Realm, anyway I self published in order to get it on Kindle so my mom, who was paralyzed from the waist down and could not hold a book any longer, could read it on Kindle.I then wrote a sequel. I was in the process of the the third book (and still am) when unfortunately, she passed away two months ago, but I told her how the story would go and how it would end. Anyway I just wanted to say I wasn’t in it for sales but just to share a story that my mom loved.

  11. And now I’m humming John Denver tunes 🙂 Thank you so much for this post, Kristen, such a refreshing change to all the hard-sell tactics that we’re made to feel we have to do, which have never sat easy with me. Still feeling my way around Twitter, but enjoy it so much more than FB. Forget sometimes that the people I meet there might be ‘potential customers’, I’m too busy having fun! Right, off to listen to the much-missed Mr D on youtube.

  12. I actually wanted to stand up and cheer at the idea of having a New York Times Best WRITING list! Right on. I know, I know, I need to develop know and trust with readers, but I wish they’d hurry up and trust me so I could sell them my books for Pete’s sake. Love your crazy humor. Thanks for the post.
    JQ Rose

    • Deborah on July 15, 2018 at 5:55 am
    • Reply

    Excellent post, Kristen. Sales scared me until you cut the crap from the truth today. Everyone needs sales. Trust and problem-solving will be my new mantras from now on.

  13. Kristen,
    As always, your timing in my world is impeccable. Thank you for always shooting straight, making us laugh and teaching us in the process. I’m grateful!

  14. I reframed my thinking so that I’m not trying to sell books, I’m trying to entertain readers. If they forget about those unpaid parking tickets, that ridiculous queue in the post office, or the fact their team lost the World Cup, just for half an hour while they read my book, then I’ve done my job. It’s easier to put a slice of escapism in front of someone than it is to sell a book because the solution is immediately apparent, not what it’ll do for me. Oh, the altruism.

  15. Kristen Lamb was not only recently turned down for jury duty; she was also flagged as an unacceptable candidate for all future opportunities. Apparently someone at the local courthouse heard her muttering something about “knife wounds large and deep enough to cause bleedout within three minutes.”

    1. Probably, LOL.

  1. […] The Evolution & Devolution of Sales: Why Your Books Aren’t Selling […]

  2. […] Marketing takes on many different forms. Jami Gold discusses unique codes for ebook in-person giveaways, Nate Hoffelder guides us through author swag to sell or give away, Judith Briles has 12 tips for marketing on the web, Jodee Blanco shares speaking tips for authors, and Kristen Lamb decodes why your books aren’t selling. […]

  3. […] I’ve spent the last several posts working to make ‘sales’—which is pretty critical to success—far less icky. It doesn’t need to be icky at all, actually. […]

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