Book Marketing Risks and Rewards

On the one hand, being a self-published author can be one of the most rewarding experiences. Seeing your work enjoyed by potentially millions of people, spreading a message that is important to you, and getting paid for doing what you love is a dream come true for many. On the other hand, it can be frustrating as hell. You can struggle for years writing what you believe is a masterpiece, dump tons of money into marketing, only to find that very few people will read or buy your book. This is the reality of the publishing business.

As a self-published author myself and someone who has been running this business for over 15 years, I see authors’ expectations unreasonably inflated by "book bros" on social media, showing "screen captures" of their books selling millions—and explaining how you can do it too! Think about it for a moment. If this really were something they could duplicate (assuming they really did it the first time), why would they waste their time telling others how to do it—especially when more competition means less chance of their succeeding in the future? Book marketing is a zero-sum game, meaning there are only so many readers out there with limited resources. The reality is, most "book bros" on social media are simply full of crap.

I have written and published 13 books in the last 20 years (long before AI). Out of those books, one is a regular best-seller (Logically Fallacious), a few more do reasonably well (I sell a few hundred copies of each per year), and the rest I am lucky if I sell a single copy a month. You never know how the market will respond. I do believe that all my books are extremely well written, but the problem is that some are simply not marketable—meaning, there isn’t a large enough market for them, or the market is too saturated for my book to stand out. Again, this is the reality of the business.

The hard fact is, I would guess that maybe 5% of books "do well," and to have a real "winner" like my book, Logically Fallacious, is perhaps a 1-in-1000 occurrence. This means that, all things being equal, your book has a 95% chance of not doing well. Ouch.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I am not going to promise you fame and fortune, but I will promise that you can drastically increase your odds of success. In addition, I can give you a smart publishing strategy that will save you money by identifying sooner rather than later if you have one of those books that just won’t sell. Let me also be clear that I am speaking in the realm of statistics and probability (I tend to do that as a research scientist). This means that while it is possible your book could skyrocket to a best-seller despite doing everything "wrong," or get into the hands of the right person who brings you international fame and fortune, I don’t count on it, and I suggest you don’t either.

Improving Your Odds of Success

Here’s how you can improve your odds even more (assuming you have already written your book):

1. Make sure your book has a captivating cover. See our Book Cover Design Service.
2. Make sure your book’s description is a masterclass in pitching a book to readers. Use our free Book Description Generator designed for exactly that.
3. Make sure your book has as few errors as possible. You can use our human-based editing and proofreading service.

Assuming you have a great cover, a convincing book description, and a well-edited manuscript, then it’s time to test the publishing waters.

Saving Money / Launching on a Budget

If money is not a major issue, or if you are fine with an increased risk in exchange for a swift release—flooding the market with your book—go ahead and publish in all formats (ebook, print, and audio) and launch the book with the maximum services using our premier marketing package. However, if money is a concern and/or you are not very confident that your book will do well, I suggest the following:

1. Start with just the ebook. Once you have a few months of sales history, you can determine whether it’s worth publishing in other formats. If nobody is buying the ebook, you might want to reconsider investing in print and audio, because those probably won’t sell either.
2. Price your ebook at $2.99 and run a Bargain Booksy promotion. This is typically around $100 and will give you a decent sense of how well your book will do when promoted vs. not promoted. While there are no hard numbers here, if you are pleased with the results and would like similar returns per $1 of investment with larger promotions, consider purchasing more promotions.
3. Collect and pay attention to unbiased feedback. I am sure your family and friends think your book is the greatest ever written, but you can ignore those. Really pay attention to the feedback of people you don’t know. If you find your book averaging less than 4 stars, you might consider either a rewrite or simply writing the book off as one that is not marketable. The exception here is highly controversial books, where ratings typically reflect the author’s views rather than the quality of the writing.

I hope this candid look at the business has helped you. Trust me, I would love your business, but besides being just a wonderful guy who doesn’t lie and wants to do the right thing by his clients, I also know that we make more money from long-term clients who do well. I believe that being honest and upfront with expectations is best for everyone. I hope you agree.

Bo Bennett, PhD
Founder/Owner
BookMarketing.pro (formerly eBookIt.com)