April Writer's Blog: Talking Book Sales

Greetings Again, Fellow Readers,

My how this year is already flying by as we enter the month of April. In today's blog, I wanted to discuss Sales. I recently heard an outlandish story of a person (who shall remain nameless) who took advertising space out on Facebook for close to $500 a month. After two months and $1000, they have ZERO sales as a result of their paid promotions.

I bring this up because I needed to contact my publisher to get my final sales numbers as I was preparing to finish my taxes. The results of my monthly sales from October through December were less than spectacular and frankly disappointing, and this was also despite some paid promotions. I can see the flip side to this as well, though. At the Atlantic City Horror Con, I attended in October, I was able to triple those sales in three days. In March of 2022, I was again able to triple those sales numbers at the PA Horror Con. I also know my book sales online in January picked up and improved.

So this leads me to a generic question, how many books can a typical author expect to sell of their first novel? According to a quick Google search, the results were ... 250 books. That 250 number is not in one weekend, not one week, not one month, and not in one year but during the book's entire lifetime.

What is an Author to do?

I could pack it in and say good try. After all, I write for myself, not to sell books. Packing it up and giving up is a glass-half-empty mentality. Working at writing is also half salesmanship and promotion (Is that 2/3's?). As I am writing this, I am reminded of the rapper E-40, who started out selling CDs from the trunk of his car. He later made over ten million dollars in sales because he stuck with it. I am sure it was not easy for him, and it won't be for me or anyone else either.

So, because April is the start of Spring, I have been trying to register for different events to sign and promote my book and exceed 250 books sold. As a result, I have added two more books signings in September and October and just found another in May, and I hope to add one more in August.

If what you are doing to sell your book isn't working, try something new.

We have all heard the Albert Einstein quotation, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result." While attending these more prominent events is fun, and I get to meet some very nice people. They have not been profitable. So, in my case, trying these smaller events where I can pay less for a table and maybe see an increase in foot traffic is where I hope to get my book out to more individuals.

As for the guy still buying Facebook ads for his business not generating any revenue, I would like to believe he will get off the hamster wheel and stop paying that large sum of money without any results. However, until I have further evidence, I don't believe he has yet to learn his lesson. By the way, for that person using Facebook advertising now, it's April, another $500 is due.

Christopher Michael Blake is the author of the horror novel Prey for Dawn. Available on Amazon and at Someday publishing.

https://www.amazon.com/Prey-Dawn-Christopher-Blake-ebook/dp/B09HSV35YH

Please see his list of upcoming book signing events.

Wine in the Pines, Waretown, NJ, May 14th and 15th
Realm Makers Conference, Atlantic City, NJ, July 21st through 23rd
South Jersey Apple Festival, Salem County Fairgrounds, NJ, September 10th and 11th
South Jersey Pumpkin Show, Salem County Fairgrounds, NJ, October 12th and 13th
Monster Mania, Oaks PA, November 11th through 13th