As an aspiring writer, you might be asking yourself the potential secret behind writing a book that doesn’t require tons of marketing efforts to sell and put money in your pocket. Now, if you want to write a book that actually sells, then you should know the potential mistakes that you need to avoid so your book can actually sell.
There are some very common reasons that books don’t sell. Knowing these reasons will help you move in the right direction with your writing career.
Be Adaptive to the Market Changes
The thing is that book success is not so much about whether you can write a great book or not. We all know a mediocre book that topped the bestseller charts. It is far more about your current platform, the potential market conditions, and your position in the market.
It also comes down to the uniqueness of your book, its content, and its solution – if you are writing non-fiction – to appeal to your intended audience. Your book’s success also depends on your willingness, as the author, to adapt to the market.
Now, if you are writing a non-fiction book, you should know that it is a popular category in the global market to the point that on-fiction actually outsells fiction books.
Top Reasons Books Don’t Sell
If you are trying to successfully sell your non-fiction book, you should know that it is actually an easier genre to build your target audience around. Let us face the simplest truth of life – we all have problems, and we constantly seek solutions to them. Now, non-fiction books offer such solutions – but still, many books won’t sell.
Let us check out some of the common reasons that non-fiction books don’t sell.
No Established Author Platform
Even before you publish a book, you should assess the size of your current audience. Believe us when we tell you that the size of your audience on your author platform is a crucial predictor of your book’s success, especially for your book launch.
This aspect also perfectly indicates why the major publishing houses look first at the writer’s platform to determine whether they will give a book a deal or not. If you have thousands of people reading your newsletter or thousands or millions of people watching your YouTube videos – you certainly have an audience that will buy books from you, and probably a lot of them.
So, if you have a well-written book with an amazing cover – by the way – pay attention to your book cover, as it can make or break your book. Check out this book cover art gallery to get a better understanding of why covers matter to attract your intended audience – however – you will still need a platform to build your audience first. If you don’t have one – your chances of writing and publishing a sellable book decrease to a great extent.
Bad Cover or Title
On the subject of paying attention to your book cover, you should know that another reason that your book might not sell is a cover that blends in or has chosen a bad title for your book. These are things that can happen during the production of your book.
The book cover acts as the packaging, which is why you must pay attention to the packaging and design it in a way that appeals to your readers. Of course, you should feel proud of your book cover – but what matters the most is for your target readers to immediately identify that your book is exclusively for them.
When it comes to launching a sellable book, you should keep in mind that the process is not focused on you and what you like but solely on what your ideal readers like and what they feel attracted to. The focus is also on the category where your book is competing and what would make your book pop out for an ideal reader.
Your title matters even more than the cover at the time of launching, as you can always change the cover post-launch. Make sure the title is memorable, easy to say, and benefit-driven.
A Weak Hook of Your Book
Another reason why your book might not sell as you hoped it would is because of the weak hook of your book. Think of your book from a buyer’s perspective and answer the question of why would someone buy your book. What can you say to get your ideal reader’s attention that many other authors from the same niche haven’t already said?
You can actually change the angle of your book to establish a stronger hook. You need a distinct hook and a clear audience to market your book to. It would even be better if you had the credentials to back your book up.
Read also The Benefits of Hiring a Local Motor Vehicle Accident Lawyer: Why Proximity Matters
Lack of Credibility
Usually, people buy books from people they can trust. Now, this trust comes from their credentials. Naturally, people want to learn from people with decades of experience who have been through their fair share of failures and successes.
People want to buy books from those who can give them value that they can consume in a few hours versus having to experience the pain of learning the lessons themselves. Of course, it is still possible for the story of an average person to work.
But if you don’t have an audience and you are fully relying on others to promote you and put you in front of their audience – this can be a big challenge because people want to promote something that is already proven.
Being the mere author of a book on the subject can take you a distance as far as building credibility. But you can not ignore the importance of credentials or experience, and if you don’t have strong credentials – you can do several things to make your book a success:
- You can partner up with someone who can help.
- You can interview the pros of the industry to share what they do that no one else does.
- You can collect personal stories of success to bolster your position on the subject.
On that note, you will still need a clear and engaging reader-focused hook.
