The Secret of Selling More Books

All writers want to sell more books, regardless of whether they have had their book published by a large publisher, or whether they have self-published. Selling more, in fact, is particularly important to the self-publisher because he is responsible for all sales. So how do we sell more books? I'm not sure there is a "secret", but there is, indeed, one thing above all that you have to do to sell more, and that is create curiosity. Why do people buy a book? They see its cover (and title) at a friends home, in a bookstore, or on Amazon.com and become curious. The important thing is that curiosity has been created, and once they are curious they will want to see what is inside. Your first job, then, is to create curiosity and, of course, to do this your book has to be seen. If nobody know it exists, you can't generate curiosity. and the only way it will be seen is through publicity -- the more, the better. They say, in fact, that people don't really become curious about a book until they have seen ads about it, or its cover, at least four times. And that tells you that repeated publicity is one of the keys.
Publicity can come in many forms and most of it is expensive. Large newspapers and TV can, in fact, be very expensive, and its unlikely you would recoup your expenses in sales. The best way around this is to try to get free publicity, in other words, get a reporter to write up a news article about your book. You can do this by sending a copy of your book to some of the reporters at the paper. And if you get one interested, remember that when she interviews you that your job is to create "curiosity" about the book. Tell her things about it that will pique reader's curiosity. Make them want to buy the book.
And, as I said earlier, the more publicity, the better. Try to get publicity in all forms, and if one form doesn't seem to give results -- go on to something else. The important thing is that you keep trying. A sure way to sell "few" books is to give up after a "few" tries. Selling takes work, and it's no place for the weak-hearted. You have to keep at it. Always be thinking of new ways to get publicity.
The internet is, of course, one of the great new places to get publicity. Use social media such as Facebook and Myspace, and if your book is in any way newsworthy, send out a press release. In fact, send out several, but make sure they are, indeed, newsworthy. You want someone to take them seriously. And finally, one of the best ways to sell books is through a website; make sure you set one up and use it.
Finally, one last "secret" for selling more books and it is to give as many books away as possible. Yes, I'll admit, books are costly, and you may not want to do this, but it can bring big dividends, The important thing, however, is to give them to the right people. Anyway, good luck, and this is a topic I'll be talking about much more in this blog. Don't forget to visit my website BarryParkerbooks.com