There are many apprehensions and dilemmas on the saleability
of books with which a self-publishing writer wrestle. They are the cause of
forming such questions.
1. Will the book
sell?
2. How will one sell the book?
3. How will the writer advertise his book? How much has to
be spent on such activities?
Let me begin with a display of the report of my sales which
had taken place in the last thirty days up to November 23, 2019.
Allow me to present my analysis on display. I am not a
statistician (I envy them, and I do not know much about statistics). I direct
your attention to the arrows in the display.
The arrows are aimed at three countries, namely India, America
and Germany. These were countries where my books were bought. I substantiate it
by adding that I am from India and write with an Indian audience in mind.
Look at the titles which were sold. They are five.
To achieve the figure for sale for November 2019, I have
adopted following means.
1. I regularly posted on the multiple blogs on the titles.
I have published four books in the last
sixty days. The posts on them provided information on the release of the
titles. One of the titles is an older one. It is a well-received title by now.
I keep on writing about the subject matter in that book on my blogs.
2. I have availed the services of Amazon Advertising. I
have started ad-campaign in the category of sponsored items.
3. I have developed three pages on specific titles on
Facebook. I posted separately on each page.
4. I post the information on my timeline on Facebook.
5. I have availed the Free download campaign of Amazon only
for two days. I did not promote this campaign.
6. I have not availed the Google Advertising. I find it
cumbersome. I have not developed faith in their results.
For achieving the above results, I have not made any special
efforts. I have incurred a cost of nearly ₹ 200.
Apart from the above-mentioned sale, there was sale in Kindle
Unlimited also. The collection from KNEP is never much. It has remained less
than ₹ 100 per month for the last twenty-four months. However, I believe if the
books were read in that programme, it was a result of the marketing and
advertising pointed out earlier.
In brief, to promote my books, I have used the following
three methods.
1. Blogging
2. Facebook
3. Amazon Advertisement
My Impression
For me, the fascinating thing is that my titles are sold
across the borders. The copy sold as a paperback. Some months back, and that
was in July, another paperback was bought in Japan. The books were sold in
America and Canada. I do not find any possibility of a sale for reprints within
India. The main reason is that the prices become too high because of the customs
charges and courier expenses. In Europe and America, it is generally less than
10 Dollars or Euros. Secondly, the paperbacks are manufactured on those
continents, and they have simpler customs regimes. Apart from that, the ebooks
have been sold on Amazon.com, and that could include a more prominent
geographical region. All this had been achieved with the help of marketing and
advertising methods mentioned earlier.
I hope that this analysis may have answered the question
with which this article has begun. To be specific, I state that the book sells
if you adopt some substantiating marketing and advertising methods.
In the case of writing posts on the blog, it should not hold
any writer for making such an effort. The writing is the actual nature of the
writer. The writer may write his book. The writing of a post on a blog is also
an act of writing. It compliments his actual activity. Therefore, writing a
post on a blog is not a wasteful activity. If one writes, then only a reader
will get a chance to read. I must bring in a recent survey from
MRUC, which
states that the readership of printed news media is increasing. Their readers
are there.
Now the issue of selling of the books. I believe that who is
bogged down by apprehensions of the possibility of finding a buyer is the
victim of their thinking. They have to grow out of binding of their region.
They have learned about a peculiar process of impression development in mind
while living a particular society. They have to expand beyond their social
limits. There may be intelligent and successful people in a social system which
force you to follow a set course of success. You learn that you have developed
this mindset in a particular ecosystem. You have to burst out the chains of
their ecosystem and set yourself free. BREAK Free. Then only you can frame the
right questions.
The evaluation based on the actual profit made is a reliable
criterion. Even I want to earn a lot of money. Who does not? But, for a
Self-publishing, you have to check the questions which you frame. Become aware
of the process which formed that question. After that, you must learn to learn.
Yes, learn to learn. Do that on your own. Therefore, the principle is to learn
on your own. It requires a different type of formation process. You have first
to learn, that to be scientific, it does not mean that you get the reports of
the scientific associations. They are good. But, your dependency on the reports
only for the results is not okay. Being scientific does not mean to collect a
large quantity of data. That is one of the methods. But you must learn another
way of a scientific approach, and that is experienced by doing an activity.
That will change the diction and form of a question.
Catalogue of the Books written by Sumir Sharma
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