How to Get Readers Before You Write Your First Book
Hint: this is not your typical social media advertising advice
I’ve written twelve non-fiction books under a few pen names. The first book I wrote sat on Amazon’s digital shelf for two years (yes years) before I sold a single copy. Then it sat another year or so before the second sale. This was during the first days of the Kindle and eBooks were the Wild West.
The second book I wrote three years later.
This time I got lucky, because there were so few books on Kindle compared to the number of people willing to buy them. I wrote it. Did zero marketing. And waited for people to buy it.
I sold five hundred copies my first day.
“Ah-ha! I’m a writing genius,” I thought. I proceeded to write three more books with the launch-it-and-they’ll-find-it approach. I promptly sold maybe twenty copies total, across all three books. And while those sales weren’t happening, the sales of my best-seller dried-up too.
Joy.
Somehow I entered the indie publishing world during it’s mayhem phase. Now, all that Wild West business is over. If you don’t have a professional book with a professional cover (and a professional marketing plan) you’re lucky if you sell a copy to your mom.
