How to Kill Your Book Sales

What's the quickest and best way to kill your book sales?

Respond to a negative review and then go through an author meltdown of sorts.

It's one thing to air your dirty laundry online; it's another and tragic thing to get into an online pissing contest.

I pity the author who didn't know what she had gotten herself into before it was too late over at Big Al's Books and Pals.

Big Al, you were a class act for the way you handled this author.

What's really interesting is the number of hits this author received on her Amazon page. Well, she's had her Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame but not what she expected when she took on Big Al and company.

With a little help from my friends...

Let's face it, marketing a book on your own can be a little difficult and daunting at times.

You don't want to get "in the face" of too many folks at social networking sites or on your blog by reminding them to buy your book. On one hand, you don't want to be too aggressive to chase people away; on the other hand, you want to post "friendly reminders" from time to time.

Having a great marketing strategy including book signings are par for the course for marketing any book, but when you get right down to it, the best way to market a book, is still word of mouth.

And that's what one of my friends, blog follower and fellow blogger Nye did on her blog over the weekend by mentioning my novel. Whether or not this is going to translate into any actual sales remains to be seen, but her post is another way of spreading the word. Thanks Nye!

It's not as easy as you'd think

Coming up with an attention-grabbing "blurb" to promote War Remains was not as easy as I thought.

You don't want to give away too much information about the novel, less is more that sort of thing, but you want to give enough to entice would be readers and buyers of your book.

My first time out, I think I gave away a little too much with the book description. It was okay, but I felt I could do better.

And I did.

Robert “Bobby” Washkowiak battles his way through the bitter first winter of the Korean War, longing for home, his wife, and newborn son. Fifty years later, his son and grandson come across his wartime letters and together, they try to find out what really happened to him on one of the battlefields of that “forgotten war.”

Yeah, I like this a lot.

I hope you do, too.