When Promoting Your Self-published Book, the Customer Has the Last Say

If you are someone who has written and self-published a book, you have probably read some interesting articles stating, "The most books a self-published author can expect to sell is roughly twenty five copies, seventy-five copies or maybe one hundred and fifty copies. Do not count on your social network friends to purchase your books. Bookstores are not likely to place self-published books on their shelves." If you take heed to these experts' advice, you would probably conclude, "Why bother to put all of my energy into writing a book if the most I can expect to sell is a few copies of my work?"

The question is who decides how many books you will or will not sell? No matter how much authority a person claims to have when it comes to marketing books, he or she will never be able to guarantee whether your book will sell millions, hundreds or single digit copies. The end users will decide if they want to purchase your book, not a public relations firm, or a marketing specialist.

If you sell three books a month, it beats selling no books at all. Remember, books will be out there for the life of the author and another 75 years after the author is gone. Of course, you want to make a nice return on your work while you are alive, but the interest in books will continue after you have departed this world, and you expect your heirs will benefit from the steady royalties. Success does not happen over night nor does the selling of books in mass amounts unless you are well-known author or a celebrity, and if it does, the popularity of that book may be short-lived. There are peaks and valleys when it comes to selling books. The market is inundated with books of every genre, but there is always room for another paperback. It may take sometime before your book reaches its recognition, but if one person buys your book, and raves about it, eventually, your book will gain in popularity, which will equal more sales.