Monday 1 December 2008

Bumping Up Your Sales

Suppose you’ve done everything right for your self-published book but your sales have fallen flat. How can you spark things off again and rejuvenate your order-book?

You could get yourself a mainstream publishing contract—although you’re unlikely to manage this unless you’ve sold a high number of copies already, in which case you’re not likely to need one.

You could marry George Clooney.

Or you could send out a press release, or another appropriate pitch, whenever you see an opportunity. You could offer to give talks, write articles, or run workshops; and news stories which bear some relation to your book provide all sorts of promotional opportunities. You can try just about anything, so long as you’re qualified, able and confident.

It’s unlikely that anyone would self-publish if they had a mainstream publishing contract on offer, and Miss Snark has assumed first dibs on Mr Clooney: but the third option is something that anyone could do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that info- phew! I thought for a moment there I was going to have to marry George Clooney...

Jane Smith said...

Good luck with that, Allan...!

Anonymous said...

I was just wondering about this notion- rare though it must be- of mainstream publishers picking up on self-published authors who have sold 5000 or so books. How does this happen- do they 'talent scout' or are they approached by the author or publisher with the information?