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Publishing a Second Book for Strong Sales

May 16, 2009 by Kat Gautreaux, Account Manager

Wheatmark author James D. Best has written three fiction books. Best says that the sales of his first book increased after the publishing of his second book!

Marketing your book is a lot of work. There’s the constant maintenance of your book’s virtual life on Amazon, Facebook, and your blog as well as the real-world work of toting around copies, handing out publicity materials, and trying to get free publicity through media outlets.

Exhausted yet? Why not get more bang for your buck and write another book? A second book can be a real boost to your sales by simply existing.

Here’s the deal. On Amazon, where millions of people buy books every day, there are a series of tools that they offer sellers that can help you. Beyond the picture of the book, descriptions, and (hopefully) excellent reviews, there is a fantastic tool you can take advantage of if you have a second book: pairing.

Amazon will automatically pair your two books together in the listing. Whenever a potential buyer visits one of the pages, the other book will be there tempting them.

Authors with multiple books are seen as more credible, particularly with nonfiction. If you’ve written two published books on a similar topic, you automatically position yourself as an expert in your field.

Another thing that publishing two books does is give your marketing efforts a 1-2 punch. The same amount of work that goes into marketing one title goes into marketing two. If you do the same amount of work but sell twice as many books (because people are more likely to purchase both books on sites like Amazon), that’s twice the royalties for half the work.

Here’s a final note on the two-book plan. Some book topics have been written about extensively. By having a book that addresses a more niche topic within your field, you can market to a very specific section of readers with more guaranteed sales. This technique enables you to write a second book with a broader audience, but drive traffic to it through the niche book’s marketing efforts.

Having a second book gives you credibility as an author and as an expert, and will maximize your marketing efforts. You may also want to consider doing a revision on your previous book updating the cover to reflect your multiple book status and, while you are at it, fixing any interior issues.

If you haven’t already begun your next book, the time to start is today.

Tags: marketing, amazon, publishing
Filed Under: Publishing,

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