I’d love to say my book MORE has sold three million copies, been translated into 28 languages and the film rights have just been snapped up by Netflix. But I’d be lying.
Over the last six years, I’ve learned a few hard lessons about selling books. There is a code that can be cracked. My time will come.
The one BIG THING I strongly believe is: PULL not PUSH. Trying to push your book into publishers or retailers is soul destroying. I have the scars!! Instead, you’ve got to get people reading it, loving it, telling their friends and writing gushing reviews about it on Amazon or wherever.
Once there is demand, the sales will be PULLED through and publishers will be chasing you. So if you want to become a bestselling millionaire, these are my five Hot Tips:
1. As Good As It Gets – your book has to be as good as you can make it. No time, effort or expense must be spared. If it needs re-writing then get on with it. Get it edited professionally. If it carries your name, be proud of it.
2. Self-Confidence – if you don’t back yourself, no one else will. It’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance but practice walking it. If you’re excited about it, others will be.
3. Persistence and Determination – statistically, every rejection you get moves you closer to the eternal YES. Don’t give up, keep pushing. It’s that next call or email or connection
4. Box Clever – there’s more than one way of getting famous. Write your own book review and send it to the magazine /newspaper / blog site. Enter some book competitions. Give entertaining talks about how to write a book and take some along for sale. Open accounts with major wholesalers to get distribution.
Do you have website / FB page / blog? How about making a video trailer….oh go on then: MORE video clip
5. Don’t Forget Libraries – if you sold a copy of your book to every library in the world, you’d be a bestseller overnight. And what about audio books, other languages, e-book formats and braille? It’s all about reaching your audience.
And if none of the above works, here’s 5 true stories to make you smile and keep you going:
- The Beatles were rejected by Decca, the American record label, in February 1962. Instead they awarded a recording contract to The Tremeloes, adding that “guitar groups were on the way out.”
- Walt Disney was fired as a cartoonist by the editor of the Kansas City Star in 1919 who complained that Disney 'lacked imagination and had no good ideas.’
- Elvis Presley was fired by Jimmy Denny, Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in 1954 after one performance, telling him “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You oughta go back to drivin’ a truck”
- Charles Darwin left school in Shrewsbury at the age of 16 in 1825 and recalled being described by his teachers as “a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect.” His own father told him he was only interested in shooting, dogs and rat-catching, adding “You will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.”
- Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. Belgian artist and collector, Anne Boch, bought ‘The Red Vineyard at Arles’ at auction for 400 francs in early 1890, just before van Gogh died in July that year, aged 37. She sold the painting in 1906 for 10,000 francs.
The final words are from Sigmund Freud who wrote in a letter to his friend Wilhelm Fliess dated 12th June 1900.
“Do you suppose that someday a marble tablet will be placed on the house, inscribed with these words: 'In this house on 24 July 1895, the secret of dreams was revealed to Doctor Sigmund Freud'? At the moment I see little prospect of it."
I’ve been to the house. The marble tablet is a beacon of hope to us all.
In April 2020, Andrew published his third crime fiction novel, simply called More. It’s a psychological thriller about food security, greed and addictive behaviour. The action moves between New York, London and Rio de Janeiro
http://www.andrew-harris.net/
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