Novelists, 3 Success Tips to Market & Sell Your Book

Many authors think that marketing their novels is hard. Marketing nonfiction seems like such a slam dunk compared to marketing a novel. I’m mean, really!

I get it. I really do. I’ve been marketing nonfiction and my services as coach and a consultant for years. It does seem easier than marketing fiction.

The Torah Codes by Ezra Barany

But then, one day, while talking to my business coach, I realized that the difference between the two was that in fiction we’re explicitly selling an experience, a particular experience our audience is searching for. In nonfiction people usually want some kind of result explicitly, the experience they desire is usually hidden. When we read fiction, we want to to feel something.

If you just put your attention on that experience and learn to convey that feeling —  through your cover, book blurb, and what you blog/post/tweet about, then you’ll attract the right readers for your books.

And here’s the thing. You got to try stuff and see what works.

My husband and I are at the hotel lobby yesterday checking in for my Tech Talk on Social Media for Authors at the California Writer’s Club, Redwood Writers in Santa Rosa, CA, and he shows the clerk my book, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, with my name Beth Barany on the cover. The clerk smiles. Then I say, “Ezra, show him yours.” Ezra holds up his book The Torah Codes and says, “It’s the Jewish version of the Da Vinci Code.” The clerk grins and lunges for the book. Okay, a little exagerration. He does reach for it, though.

The clerk was already primed to reach for a suspense story, for whatever reason, and not for a fantasy novel, with a sexy young woman on the cover. (Darn! But okay. That’s what the guy liked!)

I met authors who say, “My book isn’t selling.” And they’re sad about that. I totally understand. And there are some definite ways to turn that frown upside down.

So here we go. Success Tip #1 : Sales is the discovery of a match.

How can you find people who just light up when they see your book?

Think of the one ideal reader you know who would love your book and then think about how to reach them.

I wanted to reach teen girls to get honest reviews, so I talked to my friends who are moms and aunts and got over 20 teens to say Yes to getting a free copy and reviewing it.

Check out what one teen said!

What one teen said about Henrietta The Dragon Slayer

Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany

Success Tip #2: People love to buy.

You know what I mean, right?

“I gotta have it.” Impulse buying. One-click. Are you drooling already?

So get them curious to check out your book, so they can do the one-click thing. Get them curious first so they can and will buy.

Our job as authors is to generate curiosity by writing a good book blurb. A short one. And by being clear about what we stand for. (See my post on Clear Message for how to do the later.)

And lastly, Success Tip #3: Your book is a gift to the world.

By that I mean Be proud to share your book.

I don’t know about you but I feel like my novels are never really done. I just have to let them go, and let them find their place in the world.

And people like my novel! Wow!

Of course, some people don’t. But then again I don’t like mayonnaise, so don’t buy it. I love kale, though, buy lots of it and eat it almost every day.

Let the people who will love your story find you. Let them appreciate you. Let us enjoy your gift.

What if you stepped out of the shadows and let your light shine?

So if you just try on these three success beliefs of highly successful people, then you’ll find that marketing and selling your book can be a fun pleasurable and rewarding experience.

If you’re curious about getting into action to build your successful author career today, adopting these success tips, and learning more about what it’s like to work with Beth Barany and her team, you can go here. Thanks!

PS. Thanks to Bryan Franklin and JeffandKane.com for these three awesome tips, that I adapted for writers, that have changed my life for the better.