by Penny C. Sansevieri
Have you started planning your holiday book sales yet? If you haven’t, you should, because Cyber Monday and Black Friday are right around the corner.
While I know we all like to put off thinking about book marketing during the hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer, the truth is that if you don’t start soon, you could miss out on a lion’s share of book sales.
There’s a reason Amazon does their big Amazon Prime day in July, so if you want to grab big holiday sales, you’d better start early. Let’s begin with a few questions to ask yourself when planning your approach.
Is Your Book a Good Candidate?
Consider your book cover and topic. Is your book cover ready to appeal to holiday shoppers, and are you willing to put in the time to brainstorm ideas to connect your topic to what those shoppers are looking for?
When you start early, you can spread some of this work over months instead of weeks. Be realistic about what you have time to do and also be realistic about the appropriate strategies for your book.
Your number-one consideration is the book itself. If your book currently suffers from a sales slump or a visibility issue, you should look into the reasons why this is the case before you jump headlong into the holiday sales funnel.
If reader response isn’t great, figure out why. Maybe your cover needs tweaking, or your blurb on Amazon isn’t strong enough, or your description is too wordy. When did you last review your book description?
When department stores get ready for the holiday shopping season, they check stock, product placement, pricing, and product descriptions on fliers and online. They consider every single element to make sure everything is right.
Once your book itself is ready for prime time, you’ll need to connect what you offer to the needs of shoppers. The holiday sales market isn’t a typical sales funnel. You need to present your book as a gift or novelty, and you need to create a connection between your book and the holiday. For example, you might update your Amazon book page to say something like “A Perfect Gift for Mom this Holiday Season!” or “A Perfect Gift for a Young Reader!”
Thing is, for all of the retailers out there, holiday sales don’t just happen. You have to work for holiday book sales by making what you are offering that much more special.
Holiday book sales require packaging, planning, and knowing your readers. Without further ado, here are my top-five tips to make the holiday bookselling season bright:
1. Make Sure Your Cover Belongs in the Top 10
Book covers using all sorts of colors and designs come our way almost every day. Of those covers, not all of them make the cut. By that I mean some are just flat-out bad, while others could use a boost or better focus. Which category describes your book cover? Is your book cover really helping drive book sales?
If you’re not sure whether your cover is ready or if book-cover feedback isn’t great, now is the time to revamp that cover. Or maybe it’s time for a new cover altogether. That’s why you should start early for your holiday push, because sometimes important changes or tweaks need to be made and these take time.
If you’re still confused about your cover, look at the top sellers in your category. You can easily view them on Amazon, and you’ll gain insight about your target market.
2. Increase Your Book Reviews
According to an article by SquareUp, a whopping 96% of holiday shoppers read reviews (sometimes from multiple sources) before deciding whether to buy a product. Reviews are crucial to grabbing holiday book sales.
For many authors, getting reviews for your book often feels like an uphill climb. We know when it comes to book sales, there’s nothing better than a bunch of book bloggers saying great things about your book. And book bloggers who review books just for the love of the books or topics are a fantastic resource.
3. Get Your Website Ready
Next, cast a critical eye over your website and make sure it’s holiday-sale ready. Do all the buttons work? If you’re selling books via your site, is the shopping cart easy to find, access, and use?
Whether you mastered your book marketing for a while or you’re beginning your journey, many authors struggle to have a good website. A good website gains more footing within the holiday book-sales market and keeps readers entertained the other eleven months of the year.
The goal for many authors is to sell books. I mean, other than branding, selling is the real goal of your website, right? Yes, you want to entice readers to get to know you, but at some point, you want to say, “Buy my book.”
When it comes to increasing holiday book sales, create images and announcements that let readers know you’re ready to make the sale. Maybe you’re offering a BOGO (buy one, get one) deal or free shipping. All offer details should be clearly laid out for your potential customers to see as soon as they land on your site.
4. Schedule (and Write!) Your Blog Posts
It’s easy to forget about your blog while doing a whole host of other things in preparation for your holiday book-sales push. Use your blog to get in front of your readers. Plan the blog posts that push specials like your ebook discounts or BOGOs. Get these ready and scheduled as soon as you figure out your promotion calendar; it will be one less thing you need to stay on top of when the holiday shopping and sales season goes in full swing.
5. Warm Up Your Mailing List
I often talk about the importance of your own newsletter list; planning out your newsletters is a really important thing to do to capture holiday book sales. But that’s assuming you send regular newsletters already. If you don’t, begin mailings soon so your list becomes familiar with your mailing schedule and, of course, remembers who you are. With the huge number of email newsletters your reader likely receives, make sure yours pops. Set a schedule and stick to it, even if it’s only once a month.
Increasing your holiday book sales isn’t hard, but it will require some work. If you start early, the work can be spread out over the next several months so you’re not scrambling in October to get those holiday book sales. The holiday market is wildly competitive, and this year more than ever, Cyber Monday is going to be a big cash cow for many retailers. Make sure your book is part of this buying frenzy. Not only will this help you sell books, but it’ll also help your book get into the hands of readers everywhere.
So pop a peppermint and get into the spirit – you’ll be glad you did. Good luck!
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.
