Why No One Is Buying Your Book and What To Do About it.

Have you stared at your book ranking and sales data and wondered why no one is reading your work? 

Are you disappointed that your story hasn’t caught fire or hit USA Today’s front page? If you answered yes, I want to share a secret with you. I want to tell you something, and it might hurt your feelings. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I have to be honest.

No one has ever heard of you.

Readers do not know you exist.

That can change, but for now, you have to know the truth. You have to face the stark reality that you’re not famous, you don’t have a cult following, and you’re not a New York Times bestseller—yet.

One of the biggest obstacles for indie and small-press authors to overcome is finding readers. You may have a great book cover and your prose may be razor sharp, but let’s face it, you are one in a million. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year, and as a new author, it’s not likely that readers will search your name or your book’s title.

Sigh.

Depressing, isn’t it? Well, it can be if you’re subject to resignation. But if you are the type of person who sees an obstacle as an opportunity, you may have what it takes to climb out of the literary abyss and into the public arena.

The problem with publishing is that unless you have a platform or a method to reach out to readers, you are like a grain of sand on the beach. People will walk on you all day long but never know you’re under their feet. If you publish on Amazon, your book is thrown into the ocean of e-books and will splash around until readers start buying. When they purchase your book, it’ll stay close to shore, where other readers can see it. But if you don’t plan for a beach party upon publication, your book will drift off to sea, and eventually end up in the South Pacific, stranded on a lifeless island. If your ebook is ranked in the 300,000+ zone, this is you.

If you publish on Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!, iTunes, or Smashwords, it’s even harder to get noticed, because the sheer weight of new books will push you deeper into the water.

So what can you do? What does it take to lift your book above the crowd and get the notoriety you deserve?

Good question. When I have the secret formula, I’ll bottle it and sell it to you for a thousand dollars per ounce. Until then, it helps to know that you are not being flat out rejected by the world, but you are, rather, unseen. Understand that, and embrace it. Knowledge goes a long way when you are problem-solving. Don’t take it personally. Accept your reality and work to improve your position in the crowd.

Of course there could be a few details like cover design, price, blurb, and editing that need fixed. But I'm talking about those today.

You need to figure out how you’re going to be an author that readers recognize. You have to build a platform. You have to brand yourself. You have to go into the big world, put on a pair of stilts, and start shouting “Hey, everyone, look over here! I write suspense novels with jaw-dropping twists. Anyone interested?” When you do that, someone will turn around and say yes. If you wrote a good book, they might recommend it to someone else. They could also write a review and encourage others to buy it. But don’t stop there. You have to keep walking clumsily through the crowd, hand-selling your work to readers, bloggers, and reviewers everywhere.

If you’re no good with stilts, try the trapeze. If that doesn’t work, hop on a unicycle or put on a clown suit. You may not get it right the first time around, but with a little trial and error, you’ll discover what works and what doesn’t. Just remember, what works for me may not work for you. I’m a lion tamer, and that’s somewhat daunting to the vast majority, so I wouldn’t recommend it. Besides, you could lose your head.

Getting noticed, especially when you only have one book published, can be a slow process, more so if you are not actively building your platform. The truth is, there is no quick answer to growing an audience. Building an author brand and platform takes time, maybe months, maybe years, and it takes multiple books and creativity.

Amazon’s KDP Select program is one tool that can boost an unknown author’s visibility tremendously. However, until your book appears on other book pages and gets serious traction, it will float away from shore until it manages to hit another spike via your marketing efforts or an unknown cause.

If you look at the top right-hand side of my blog, you’ll notice that I've almost hit five hundred followers. I’m excited about that because several months ago I didn’t think I’d reach one hundred. Five hundred looks like a lot, but there are other blogs with a whole lot more subscribers than I have. There is always a bigger duck in the pond.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Take an honest assessment of where you are and chart a realistic course that will keep the wind to your back, blowing you toward shore, where the readers are. You might hit a sandbar on occasion, but that’s okay; authors wearing clown suits and splashing around in the ocean are likely to get a little attention.

This Post is an excerpt from my way cool book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. Read my latest review where an author claims I helped boost his failing book to #16 in the free store.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. 

 

Indie Author Contest Starts April 1st ~ And That's No Joke!

When I started blogging a couple of years ago, all I could think about is how I could benefit. Sometimes I still do, but not always. 

Now I'm on a more important mission. 

Today, I not only want to sell more of my books, but I want the indie author movement to grow and gain credibility. I want to prove to the world that independent authors are writing excellent books, and worthy of recognition. I want readers to begin taking a chance, not only on my books, but on yours, too. Why? Because many of you write excellent novels, and if you can prove to even one staunch "trad pub reader" that your work is top notch, then maybe they will read another indie book, and then another, until finally they read mine.

This is the crux of cross promotion. We must look at the big picture, and understand that we are all in this together. This is why I established The Kindle Book Review.

Well guess what? The Kindle Book Review is hosting what is sure to become the BIGGEST grassroots Indie Author Awards ever! We are giving away cash prizes, free publicity packages, free ebooks to readers, and a Kindle Fire. Not only can authors win cash, but they can win credibility, and bragging rights, two very important elements to an author's marketing efforts.

I've hosted two other contests at The Kindle Book Review. We had a good time, gave away some free books and prizes. Later, several of those authors became bestsellers: Robert Bidinotto, Richard Bard, Cheryl Kaye Tardiff and Monique D. Mensah, and others. They proved that indie authors can write excellent books and sell better than many traditionally published authors.

So are you up for the challenge? Are you ready to see how your work stacks up? GOOD! You should. We are planning for a really exciting event. Everyone gets a shot. Almost everyone will be recognized. No review requirements. No rating requirements.

We are simply looking for the very best of the best. And when we find them, we will tell as many readers as we can.

Interested? Click here for details and to register.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

What is Your Author Talent Class?

Okay. So it's 4:00 a.m in the morning and I'm attempting to write a blog post. This may turn out to be a stupid idea, but it's Monday and this is the best day to publish a blog post so here I go.

I've been looking forward to this post for a few days. The topic is dear to my heart and was first initiated after reading John Locke's book on how he sold a million books. What he said really struck me. He was one of the first authors I've heard admit that he may not be the best, nor will he ever be the best writer.

Amazing. I love the humility and the honesty.

I got to thinking about that in a guest post I wrote the other day and wanted to expand on this concept of author talent class. And yes, I'm referring to talent in the same way we refer to social classes in economics. It is my belief that there are three author classes and I wanted to open this up for discussion. I wanted to bring this up because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was important to understand in order for me to move up the social, or talent ladder.

Here's what I think. As the founder of The Kindle Book Review, I have found, and correct me or add if needed, that there are essentially three talent classes: upper, middle, poverty. Are there classes in between? Yes. But I believe that indie authors in particular need to examine where they fit in this scale because your placement can have a huge impact not only in sales, but also in the perception that readers have of the rest of us. (Having said that, remember that if you see any typos, it is 4:22 a.m. ~ grace accepted).

The first class is The Upper Class Author ~ I don't mean to make this class sound uppity or snobbish. I did want to align them with a higher crust because that's what they are; skilled, and trained literary artisans. They have or soon will get the recognition they deserve. They have spent years writing, working with editors, studying the craft, writing books that they never published and have now broke into the indie author field. They are true professionals who have honed their craft. Most of us are not in this category. If you are a newer author, do not deceive yourself. These authors are few and far between.

The second tier is The Middle Class Author ~ The middle class author is the up and coming author. They are the authors who have put out a couple of books, taken their lumps, are learning from their mistakes and putting out creative and entertaining reads. They are growing their platform and their audience. But, they are not true masters. They are good, but not great, I include myself in this crowd. We are by far the largest group in the indie author talent pool, and we are the masses who are beginning to turn the heads of readers. With such large numbers, readers can't help to notice that indie authors are a force to be reckoned with. What's really encouraging is, many of us will move into the upper class over time. Some will make deals and step into the trad pub zone, and some will quit because life happens. But we are many and we are good, maybe better than good in some cases.

The third tier is The Poverty Class ~ This group is the group of authors who think they know how to write. They think they know how to structure a novel length story. they think they know how to create lovable characters and develop them. They think they can self-edit their work and put out a quality product when in fact, they cannot. This class is talent deficient and doing readers as well as the rest of their indie author peers great harm. This class is either delusional or deceptive in regards to the quality of the product they are selling. Can they grow? Can they change and move up the ranks? Can this class pick themselves up from their bootstraps? Yes. Many of them can. Some just may not be creative enough or have the determination to continue, but I believe anyone can be taught to at least step up to the middle class.

Anyway, I wanted to throw that out there and gather some opinions. Maybe I'm being to harsh? Maybe you are thinking about this for the first time. If so, that's good. What do you think?

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Five Ways to Meet New Readers. #Supernatural #Ghosthunter

Want more readers? If you're a novelist, author, self-pubber or writing enthusiast in search of more readers, I'd like to suggest a few things that are making a huge dent in my newly acquired readership. And when I say newly acquired, I'm talking about the last few weeks. Here are some great ways to reach out to new readers.

• Tweet the things you write about. Lately I've been tweeting more about ghosts and supernatural events, like "Have you seen a ghost? I have. What was your experience?" I've even started collecting ghost and supernatural experiences from my readers and friends. This has made for some very interesting, and scary conversations.

• Freebies. This isn't new around here but giving your book away is another tool to grow your reader cult. There is a really simple way to do this… KDP Select. But there are other ways. Some use coupon codes. I like to hand sell, walking around facebook and twitter and calling readers in my genre. "Anyone want to read an edge of your seat supernatural thriller? FREE to the first 10 who respond." Try it. You just might get a few extra reviews and you don't have to use a KDP "free promo".

• Being nice. If you're on twitter, how about "Mentioning" and "Retweeting" bibliophiles, avid readers, and/or other writers in your genre. This is a form of cross promotion and general niceness. Helping readers and writers grow there twitter following will come back to you. 

• Hootsuite.com. For many of you, this is already part of your tool chest, but there are those of you who have never heard of Hootsuite. This tool allows you to schedule tweets and manage all of your social media sites (Twitter and Facebook) from one page. Very handy. Only costs $5 a month and the first month is free to try.

• Tweetadder.com. The number one thing that has helped me grow my audience in the last two weeks is Tweetadder. Tweetadder.com offers an amazing tool for anyone interested in growing their twitter base, targeting an exact audience. With Tweetadder, I can piggy back off of popular authors in my genre. I can also meet readers who mention that they read about ghosts, the supernatural, or suspense thrillers in my genre. And it does so much more. This really is an amazing tool. It costs $74; a one time charge, including a lifetime of free updates. Very much worth the cost.

Speaking of free, TWISTED VENGEANCE and REUNION and KILLING THE GIANTS are free today. If you enjoy supernatural thrillers, I'd urge you to get a copy, read and review one or both of these books. I recently started writing book two of the Twisted series, so if you like it, there will be a follow up soon. And if you need help marketing your book or in general need help getting a handle on this indie author gig, get a copy of The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe; you won't regret it.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance,  The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe and other thrillers.

The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is GRATIS Today (Mar.17th)

Hi, Writer Friends.
I don't have a new post today, but I wanted you to know that I have decided to offer The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe for #FREE today (Mar. 17) in the Kindle store. I'm doing this hoping that many of you will write a review when you are finished or maybe even pick up one of my other books.

I talk about giving, and recommend offering up your book(s) as a means of promotion and readership building. I'm just practicing what I preach. While you're here, why don't you peruse my author services and sign up by email so you get all my posts and helpful tips!

Here's the link in the US: The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe (US)

Here's the link (UK): The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe (UK)


Here's the link (DE): The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe (DE)


You can get The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe in print here.

Wherever you get it, please leave a review. Thanks!

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance,  The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe and other thrillers.