Hey everyone,
I find it interesting to go looking at sales numbers for my books every once in a while because no matter how much I think I can predict how something will do, there are always a few little surprises.
For instance, of all my books for writers, Shut Up and Write: The No-Nonsense, No B.S Guide to Getting Words on the Page is the highest seller. This isn’t a surprise. The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Content Marketing is a close second, and also not a surprise.
The third best seller, however, is not The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Making Six Figures or even The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Making More Money but The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Making $1,000 More a Month.
Hmm. This is definitely a surprise. (I almost didn’t write this book because I didn’t think anyone would read it.)
Further, the sales value of these three titles is more than the total of all the others put together, including the two on pitching.
Here’s what I’ve learned about selling books in the last few years:
- You can never predict with 100% certainty what will resonate and what will sell. Everyone’s guessing. Including publishers.
- Inspirational books remain incredibly popular, far more than books that teach strategy, in most cases.
- People pay me thousands of dollars to learn my pitching and marketing methods, but when it comes to a $4.99 book? They pick up the other ones. This makes complete sense, and I do the same.
- You cannot get insights in a vacuum or by publishing one book. If you really want to learn how publishing works, why books sell, and the psychology of buyer behavior, you have to publish more and you have to publish frequently. You need points of comparison.
- How one book sells (or doesn’t) is not an accurate reflection of how another one will. You have to bat, and often.
- Sales build with each additional book, especially in the same genre. I sell more copies of my previous books each time I release a new one because when someone buys a new title, they often go and check out the backlist as well. The more books you have on offer, the more money you will make over time.
How do you sell more books? Write the next one.
Turns out that classic publishing advice is actually true, if incomplete.
But this sort of analysis is only possible if you treat your author career like a business. You have to learn to write fast and publish faster.
I’ve been working on the first part of that equation for many years, and now that I have that piece sorted, I’m pushing ahead on the publishing side of things.
I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my career to just write that bad first book, second book, and third book as quickly as I could. Get them out of the way, make space for the new ones. I spent far too much time trying to figure out how to fix the first novel, and while it’s an excellent book that I’m incredibly proud of, I know I lost many years because I was stuck on trying to get this one story right instead of just practicing, practicing, practicing. With almost three novels and nine nonfiction books behind me, I now see the value of this practice.
The moment I stopped being precious about that one book and that one story, I opened the door to many more.
I got faster, the writing came easier, I started believing that I knew what I was doing, and I did it with much more confidence.
You need words on the page—a lot of them—to get to this point.
So I’ll give you the advice that no one gave me:
Get those bad words out early and get them out quick.
Don’t get attached to one project at the expense of your entire career.
Once you finish a draft, you can rewrite it.
But you can also explore new projects, new characters, and new ideas.
That practice is what will lead you to the publication, not obsession over one book.
I’ve talked about my desire to start experimenting with crowdfunding, Kindle Singles, Vella, and serialization, and I can’t do any of that or have any success with it if I don’t have the data to back it up, if I don’t have those points of comparison.
Whether you go traditional or indie or, like me, a mix of both, if you want to have a long-term and profitable career as an author, you need to learn two things:
– How to write
– How to sell
And the more you do of each of those things, the more opportunities you create for success.
We’ll talk about selling soon, I promise.
But you can’t sell if you don’t first create.
So let’s talk about that.
Are you creating?
Are you writing?
Are you finishing?
If yes, great, keep going, don’t stop, do more of it.
If not, I can help.
The Write 5K Every Day bundle is my newest offering and I’m super excited about getting this collection of eight of my best trainings into your hands.
Write 5K Every Day is special to me.
The videos are intimate.
The tools are solid.
You get to release the struggle and embrace the flow.
I don’t just care about the words you write. I care about the emotions you feel when you write them.
If writing isn’t making you happy, you need to fix that.
Write 5K Every Day will guide you through the process of letting go of the struggle and moving into a place where showing up for your writing is easy, fun, and something you want to do all day, every day, day after day.
If this feels like something that would elevate your productivity, your confidence, and your word count, jump in now.
Check out the details + pricing + breakdown of the trainings here.
Can’t wait to see you there!
Cheers,
Natasha