HELP! Tips For When Your Books Aren't Selling!

It's release day!! You are excited!! You have taken all the necessary steps to make sure you have a successful release day by doing all the guest blogs, advertising, marketing to your target audience, and throwing the best on-line release party you could!

Sales are soaring! Numbers are up! You are on cloud nine.

Fast forward two weeks later....

Your sales have hit the wall. All of your die-hard fans have bought your book and so have your relatives. Now what?

1) Write!
Don't stop writing. No matter what! With each word you write, you get better and better.
Don't let a day go by that you don't write. Write daily! Even if it's only 500 words. You are 500 words closer to getting another novel out there for your waiting public.

If you don't believe me, go and pull out that plastic tub under your bed with manuscripts you wrote when you first started out. Go on. . . I'm waiting. . .now read the first paragraph.
Cringe worthy? You bet! I told you that with every word you've written, you've gotten better!

2) Start marketing and promoting all over again!
Don't roll your eyes. If you aren't selling, you need to go back to your marketing plan and reevaluate it. What worked a couple weeks ago? What didn't work a couple weeks ago?
Your marketing plan is fluid. You will add and delete tools as you release each book. What worked for one book, might not work for another.

Redo what worked for you a couple weeks ago. Was it a guest blog with your target audience? If yes, then you should still be sending your Facebook and Twitter friends to that site.

Do you have any reviews yet? And are they good? Be sure to toot your horn! You are your book's only advocate in the early stages of a release. It's up to you to get the word out.

3) Reviews
Do you have any reviews on Amazon yet? If you do and they are good, make sure you tell your friends to go in and YES the review. These yes's help your book move up in the algorithms to make your book more visible.

Don't forget to pay it forward to your writing buddies! Go in and YES all their reviews that are GREAT!

Be sure to send your Facebook friends and Twitter followers to your good reviews. Let new readers know that your book is GREAT and worth the purchase.

If you know the reviewer, I know mine because most of them are on my STREET TEAM, be sure to put a public thank you note on their Facebook wall! This gives you more exposure to potential new readers.

4) Luck...plain, dumb luck!
I hate to type that, but sometimes that is just what happens....LUCK!
Unfortunately making big sales are often a matter of time and luck. No one knows the real magic to selling books, but every little bit helps.

It takes most writers years to make a great track record in the selling department. So that's why it's important to write, write, and write more.

What do you do when your sales seem to slump?

Tips to Edit Your Own Work

We all live in edit hell! Even if you claim you love it, you know you don't (shaking finger at you)! Unfortunately, editing skills separates a mediocre writer from a great writer in the self-publishing world. (Little secret: even traditionally published writers have to have extensive editing from their editors. NO ONE turns in a perfect book.)

I have never claimed to be a perfect writer. FAR FROM IT!! Over the past few years I have learned a few tips that help me self edit my books before I get them to my editor. I have to have an editor. It's only good business practice, but here are some ideas to help you along the way.

1. Just write!

Don't edit while you are writing. Get the words on the page and let your creative juices flow. If you worry about editing, you are going to get stumped and not get in your word count or ideas down.

If there is a blatant typo, yes change it. Don't go back and fix grammar, punctuation, etc....

2. Step away.

After you finish your novel, it's a good idea to step away for a couple days and let your mind have some down time.  Use this time to read. Writers should read, read, read, and this would be a great time for that. Let your mind escape from your characters.

After a couple days go back and read your novel. You will be able to look at it with fresh eyes and catch some of those simple mistakes. Plus stepping away will give you fresh ideas and see plot holes. This is a good time to help layer your story-line.

3. Kindle it!

I use the word Kindle as the universal reader but I also mean any ereading device, this includes your phone or your PC. I always send my novel to the ereader before I send it to my editor and before I publish it, I send it to my ereader.

It's easier to spot mistakes on a different device. Plus I want to see exactly what it will look like when my readers will buy my book. More times than not I catch too short/long paragraphs for an ereader or formatting mistakes that need to be fix.

4. Cut Unnecessary words!

I use a lot of but, exclamation points, and goofy words on my blog. It's a place for me to just write and help authors. I really should take the time to write the blog, edit it and take my own advice. BUT this is where I get my words out and let my creative juices flow and I don't cut out the unnecessary words.

Don't do this with your manuscript! Cut out the repeating words, phrases, unnecessary adjectives (Lisa spoke loudly....Lisa screamed).

5. Use spell check!!

Spell check doesn't always catch the true editing issues, but it doesn't hurt to run it a couple times before you send it to your editor or before you publish. It's another set of eyes to get you to look at some issues that you might not have caught before hand. Missing words and homophones are not found using spell check, but it will help with the general, easy mistakes that easy for your eyes to miss.

6. Read your story out loud.

Reading out loud will help your trained ear hear the missing words or world flow. This is one of the strongest editing tips you can do to catch those missing words. Read each word carefully, slowly. We know our manuscripts so well that sometimes we can skip over the words, so take your time and truly read it like a readers!

7. Send it off!

Enough is enough. Once you think you have edited until your eyes and fingers have had enough, you've had enough and so has your manuscript. It's time to send it to the editor or publish it. Let it fly on its own!


Side note: It's taken me years and over three editors to find a perfect fit for me. If you go look at any of my reviews, you will find several reviews that claim my books have editorial issues. AND THEY DO....luckily, I just had all of them re-edited by my fabulous editor, Judy Beatty!! She is doing a guest post on Monday!! AND giving away a free edit! Be sure to stop by!

Do you have any tips for our writing community about editing?

BTW....If you get a chance pop over to Book Tour Radio! I'm being featured today! FUN!!