Penelope Thompson, the author of "How to Sell Thousands of Your Self-Published Book" was the poster girl for the struggling self-publisher. After selling 20,000 copies of her own books without the help of a traditional publisher, she has advice and a story to tell other money-strapped self-publishers who are desperate to learn how to sell books.
Imagine quitting your job then losing $10,000 on your first failed self-published book, and having to dump thousands of books out in the trash. That was Penelope Thompson's unfortunate reality a decade ago. Since then, she's learned countless marketing and sales techniques for how to sell books that have led her to sell over 20,000 copies of her own books.
Penelope is the author of a handy information-packed eBook on how to sell books as a self-publisher entitled "How to Sell Thousands of Your Self-Published Book."
"I can't believe how hard it is to find a resource on or offline that tells you in simple terms how to sell books," Penelope says, "As a small self-publisher with a bunch of books piled up in your living room, all you want to know is 'how do I move these rectangular cardboard boxes out of my house already!'"
Thousands of self-publishers across the world have a similar story. In fact, over 93% of authors barely manage to sell 1,000 copies of their books after release (Source: Steve Shapiro). That's a far cry from the tens or even hundreds of thousands of books that many new self-publishers think they'll sell.
Penelope went so far as to hit the streets of NYC to sell copies of her books. She suffered through hot days, fickle pedestrians, and carrying heavy bags of books down packed city blocks. She discusses this wild yet rewarding experience in the eBook.
"Selling my books from a table on the street was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life, but it taught me some very important lessons about what it takes to turn a book browser into a book buyer and how to get word out about your book," Penelope recalls.
Instead of giving her readers an idealistic goal to shoot for, Penelope's eBook on how to sell books focuses on a more realistic goal for a self-publisher : how to sell a few thousand copies of your books in a short period of time using basic book marketing tips, concepts, and methods.
"Of course everyone's results will be different, and it depends largely on how interesting or informative the book is, but I think selling about five thousand copies of a well-written self-published book is a realistic goal if you follow all of the instructions in my eBook."
The "How to Sell Thousands of Your Self-Published Book" eBook is a whopping 23 chapters, packed with information that self-publishers want to know about how to sell books including:
- How do you get the attention of strangers so that they will look and buy your book at book signings?
- How to sell cases of your books rather than just a few at a time
- Is it a good idea to place radio or printed ads for a book?
- How to sell books online -- instructions for setting up a book website that draws traffic and sales
- How to tell the "story" behind your book to create an instant sale with anyone
At just $9.95 to start (for a very limited time--discounted price guaranteed until 7/10/10) this eBook is one of those rare situations where the value greatly exceeds the price. As one of her eBook subscribers commented, "No matter how good a product my book is, a sound marketing plan is what will make it sell." Penelope's how to sell books eBook helps self-publishers develop that sound book marketing plan.
Visit the how to sell my books website to learn more about the eBook. If you want to read free book marketing tips and tricks, follow her blog at http://blog.howtosellmybooks.com/
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