My books started out terrible – worse than terrible. Now I am the proud author of 22 books and yes, I make well above the yearly average you quoted [$3500–CO]. In fact, I make more than that a month…

I offer a few tips that might help.

Give yourself three years to make or break it.

Never miss a chance to promote

Consider the source of advice carefully. If someone has written a booklet on how to sell, and hasn’t got the bestselling books to back it up, ignore them.

If a thread is not about books, don’t bother reading it. Those are for people who have nothing better to do and those can get under your skin fast.

Relax. Nothing is instant in this business, from the upload to the reports. Everything will fall into place in due time.

Don’t make enemies. There are people…who will trash your books with bad reviews if they find what you say offensive.

READ. READ. READ. The more you know, the better your book will do.

Write more books. Very few make it to the top with their first book.
What to do if your book is not selling:

This is a profession and an honorable one. Be proud that you’ve completed a book and don’t let anyone discourage you.

I cannot say this enough – change your blurb.

Yes, the one you have now is brilliant, but it is your work-horse and has to draw the reader in. If is isn’t, it’s not really that brilliant. Change it, wait a few weeks, and if you are not selling, change it again.

Take your focus off of yourself and put it on the reader. What do they really see when they visit your website/blog or read your blurb/description? If it’s all about you, they will click away in a heartbeat.

Devote time each day to promoting.

Consider if you have exhausted your potential readership at a particular price point. Sure, you can give away, or sell more copies at the bottom price, but frankly I’m in it for the money. Most of my books sell for $4.99 and I worried when I raised them. Now I know there is a readership that will ignore $.99 or even books listed at $2.99. As long as it’s still cheaper than most Trad. books, it looks like a bargain to them. It’s a trade-off…do you want higher rankings and less money, or do you want to pad your bank account?

And…if it needs another edit, do it. It is so easy to upload a new version, there is no reason not to. I can’t count the number of versions I’ve uploaded and I’ll do it again when readers point out a problem or tell me they found some typos.

Well, that’s my two cents, take it or leave it.

Marti’s Website
Marti’s Kindle Author page
Marti’s Blog – Get your writing advice from someone who has already done everything wrong.