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Questions tagged [sales]

This tag should be used for questions about the sales in certain market segments that are related to writing. You should mention which kind of market segment you are aiming for, such as the kind of writing or the genre.

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15 votes
4 answers
4k views

How can my book purchase get the most money to an author?

I'm a reader, not an author. But, when I buy books (in whatever format) from authors I enjoy, I'd like as much of my purchase prices as possible to get to those authors. So, I'm wondering: do authors ...
Daniel Griscom's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
22 views

Business books; list of annual "bestseller" titles

In a word I'm trying to find a list of "best selling business books of 2023". or at worst "popular business books of 2023". Or indeed 2022, etc, or even by decade would be fine. ...
Fattie's user avatar
  • 101
0 votes
0 answers
15 views

Access to Single NPD BookScan Report: Is it possible? [duplicate]

I'm seeking assistance to obtain a single NPD BookScan report for one book. Direct access to a full license is beyond my current needs and budget. If anyone has access or knows a consultant who ...
TheBear0005's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
181 views

Why would a movie studio pay for a script?

If someone sends a movie studio a movie script they wrote and the studio likes it, they presumably like the idea, not the exact setting and character names. So why not change those and call it their ...
ispiro's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
1 answer
282 views

How do you sell to people who don't know they have a problem?

I use the "Problem / Agitate / Solution concept" copywriting formula, often with good results. This is a great framework if the problem is obvious (e.g. weight loss), but about problems that ...
v_i_m's user avatar
  • 35
1 vote
4 answers
319 views

How Much Can I Reasonably Expect To Earn in Royalties For My First Book?

I recently sent a book proposal for one of my books, a Christian fantasy, to a publisher named SUNBURY PRESS, and I was wondering if they take me on. How much can I reasonably expect to earn off my ...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
55 views

Books sales volume data

I am looking for a database / list of books with sales volume numbers for each title. If this isn't available, then what is the best proxy for sales volume numbers that is available? I am not just ...
user42754's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
381 views

Shipping self-published books directly from Amazon to bookstores: bad idea?

I have a book published by Kindle Direct Publishing. Most of my sales are to bookstores and up until now I have been ordering books (author copies) from KDP then shipping them to bookstores myself. ...
Alex Hajnal's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
201 views

Comics marketing: focus on issues or collections?

Situation: 5 year comic book series (by my spouse; I do marketing, website, etc) 4 issues a year (in theory...it's been slower) Issues are available as e-comic only Every 4 issues is collected into a ...
Cyn's user avatar
  • 32.4k
4 votes
1 answer
87 views

Is there a way to get historical sale details (specifically geographical areas) on a book?

I ask for legal reasons concerning trademarks, where it's necessary to know where books were sold and when.
DebbieS's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

In which countries do printed fantasy novels sell the most?

I tried to find sales figures about printed fantasy novels and how they compare among different countries, but I couldn't find anything in that regard. I can find generic statistics about how the ...
Secespitus's user avatar
  • 5,686
1 vote
1 answer
163 views

Which are the fastest-paying literary magazines?

How fast a magazine pays is a function of several factors like their response time for stories they accept, their payment policy (eg., paying on acceptance as opposed to paying after publication), and ...
user394536's user avatar
  • 2,174
4 votes
1 answer
107 views

Where can I find people to collaborate with to edit/sell my work?

I'm not sure this is possible. I am looking for someone who can edit and sell. I have a series of books I can't get them off the ground. I am editing and selling challenged. I would be open to ...
Rene Cournoyer's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is there still a market for solo adventures game books?

Game books like Choose your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf series were very popular in the past. They are a series of single-player gamebooks. Typically, beginning at the first section,...
Chaotic's user avatar
  • 706
7 votes
2 answers
505 views

Do popular books use simpler language?

This might seem like an obvious question, but I'm curious if there's been any research into whether popularity correlates with linguistic simplicity. Furthermore, do popular novels use linguistic ...
inappropriateCode's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
100 views

Use of "salesy" secondary titles on Amazon

I was looking at the sales rankings on Amazon today with my publisher and he pointed out that all of the self-published best sellers have a short title then a semi-colon followed by a pitch line (see ...
Brereton's user avatar
  • 435
2 votes
1 answer
220 views

What are the effects of releasing an ebook version months before a hardcover?

I would like to know the effects of releasing the ebook and hardcover versions at the same time versus releasing an ebook version and then several months later releasing the hardcover. Does this ...
Eric Brotto's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
87 views

How long can you host preorders for?

I've read that all preorders for a book count towards first week's sales. So for example, if you open preorder for 3 months and sell 9,000 copies during that time, you could hit the NYT Bestseller ...
Eric Brotto's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
3k views

ISBN and international translations for sale in another country

If I understand the ISBN correctly, if I as a publisher, created a Spanish translation here in the US, but was also selling it in, say, Brazil, do I need a separate ISBN issued from Brazil where the ...
Gwen D Steel's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
460 views

Should an author have one website or two?

I have seen that sometimes an author will have one website with a lot of content and a separate website that does nothing but offer the book(s) for sale. What are the advantages of this approach? ...
aparente001's user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
144 views

Increasing sales of my Kindle ebook

How can I boost sales of my Kindle ebook? I published it on 28 August 2016 and since then only seven copies sold. So any suggestions? What should I do? I shared it on my social-networking page but ...
Zeba Ali's user avatar
5 votes
6 answers
1k views

Can Originality Sell a Book?

I am currently occupied with the all-too-familiar pursuit of banging my head against a brick wall. In this case, I am attempting to make my novel original. Here's why: I've been developing the ...
Thomas Reinstate Monica Myron's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
96 views

How do I find total sales of my book?

Sales reports for my book from the publisher (about 2 per quarter) are grossly inconsistent with visits to the novel's Web site (about 100 per month) and people who've told me they bought a copy. How ...
Doug McPheters's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
824 views

Amazon statistics, who is selling how much

How can I estimate how many copies of a book are being sold on Amazon? I presume there is some relationship between the rank of a book and its number of copies sold. For example, "The C Programming ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
114 views

CreateSpace and Amazon Sales

I'm about to self publish my 2nd book. I promote heavily to my small niche market and often buyers find it on Amazon. If I simply use CreateSpace as my printer, a few hundred at at time, do I HAVE to ...
RRC's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
1 answer
453 views

Commercial novels, a prefered POV?

This pertains to the potential salability of electing to choose between POVs, here specifically between first or third person limited. There are several threads, like What are the advantages and ...
Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
255 views

Use Pen Name after Blunder?

Three years ago I published a novel on Kindle. 10K free copies went out before I realized the text was vertical! It is still quite painful to recall. I unpublished it, got a new cover, waited 6 ...
Scribe's user avatar
  • 61
4 votes
2 answers
497 views

How fast do traditionally-published books sell after they have been published?

Of course there are many answers to the question of how fast major publishers move their books after publication, but I am looking for something like the truism I once heard on the radio and cannot ...
Iron Pillow's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
129 views

using a literary agent

I have read numerous books on the pros and cons of getting representation with a literary agent. Would any of you care to give advice on whether or not an agent is a good idea? I understand they work ...
mudpuddle's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
73 views

Distribution, a competition with myself

Distribution sales make much less profit than regular sales. This way distribution creates a competition with myself. This is especially important when advertising my book on radio or TV, as the ...
porton's user avatar
  • 748
0 votes
2 answers
246 views

Discouraging link to Lulu or CreateSpace

I am finishing writing a non-fiction (religious) e-book. It looks like for me that the most effective way to market my writings is to advertise it with AdWords and sell as e-book directly through ...
porton's user avatar
  • 748
1 vote
1 answer
47 views

Does using narrow keywords increase conversion rate?

I am going to advertise my book with AdWords. Does using narrow keywords increase conversion rate? It seems that no, because conversion rate depends only on clicks, and clicks happen after keywords ...
porton's user avatar
  • 748
2 votes
2 answers
126 views

Paying a bookstore to stock your self-published book

A local bookstore has decided to charge $35 to stock my book for 6 months. For each book sold, they get 40% and I get 60%. The stocking charge is new. Is this common and reasonable?
Bill Curatolo's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
159 views

YA bestsellers by reader's gender

There are lists with YA bestsellers. What they don't tell me is which books are bought by girls, and which by boys. Are there any resources showing (YA) bestsellers by reader's gender?
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
141 views

For Sci-Fi books, what is the purchasing split between regular and ebooks?

I can get the data for ALL books. But can anyone direct me to regular/ebook purchasing data broken down by genre (specifically sci-fi)?
dmm's user avatar
  • 3,579
9 votes
4 answers
662 views

Does giving away free stories boost sales?

Is it worth it for writers to give away free short stories (or entire novels)? I've heard people say that having freebies on your site can boost sales of your books. I'm not talking about giving away ...
Ralph Gallagher's user avatar