How to Sell Books as a New or Unknown Author

About this video

Answering subscriber Paul’s question about how he sold his first book as an unknown author, Dale tells his own story and what he would do differently. He began writing in 2013 and by early 2014 had a 44,000-word manuscript, ‘The Three Keys to Greater Health and Happiness to Unlock your Greater Life.’ He says he did zero research on selling it, assumed publishing was enough, did his own terrible cover, hired no editor, left the manuscript riddled with errors, and published only a CreateSpace print book, not Kindle or audiobook. All he did to sell it was tell everyone he knew he was a published author, and he says he made a whopping $21.50 in his first month, and still quit his day job. His advice for doing it over is: 1) Refine the product by hiring professionals so readers stay and refer others. 2) Develop an action plan and spend a couple of hours planning how to get the book into more hands, rather than publishing and praying. 3) Use your inner circle of friends, family and acquaintances to build hype for the first book, follow up once, then leave it alone, because that option works only once or twice before they tire of it. 4) Hire professionals for what you do not know, such as editing, cover design, marketing and promotion, and play to your own strengths. He also points viewers to his YouTube series on marketing and promotion for self-published books.

Key takeaways

• Dale says his first book sold mainly because he told everyone he knew he was a published author, earning $21.50 in the first month.
• Refine the product first: hire professionals for editing and cover design instead of releasing an error-filled, self-covered book as he did.
• Build a real action plan for getting the book into readers’ hands; publishing and hoping is not a plan.
• Use friends, family and acquaintances to build launch hype once, follow up once, then stop, because the inner circle tires quickly.
• Play to your strengths and hire out editing, cover design, marketing and promotion where you lack expertise.

Episode details: published April 9, 2018 · 5:05 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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