Presumably you wrote a book proposal at some point in the process of writing your book. So you know who your audience is. When you were writing the book, you had a specific audience in mind. You could visualize members of a certain demographic reading your book. Maybe you wrote it expressly for them.
But are members of this audience purchasing your book? In fact, is your book moving off of the shelves or out of the warehouse as rapidly as you would like? Or do you feel stuck with lots of books to sell and few orders coming in?
You can blame the economy or your distributor/publisher/editor/graphic artist/ex-husband. Or you can reevaluate your project. Here are some questions to ponder:
Question: Have you been marketing to the right audience? Maybe your original plan for your book sort of shifted during the writing process along with your target audience.
Try This: Rethink the content and purpose of your book and determine your true audience. Use feedback from your customers to help you with this.
Question: Are you reaching members of your audience with your promotional efforts?
Try This: Perhaps you are promoting to the right audience, but you were mistaken about how to reach them. Did you think you could do all of your promotion online? Maybe your audience needs to see, touch, taste a book like yours before buying it; or they need a more personalized presentation. Consider going out and speaking on behalf of your book. Or try running a book trailer or a simple video with your live presentation at your website.
Question: Do you have hooks in your book that you could use in promotion?
Try This: If your target audience isn’t purchasing books in the numbers you envisioned, start dissecting your story or nonfiction book in search of additional selling points. Maybe romance readers aren’t the only ones who would enjoy your story. What might be considered additional hooks? Maybe your story has a cat or dog in it, it involves an intriguing mystery, the story takes place in the desert and/or your main character stutters. There are four additional hooks to use in promotion.
If your book sales aren’t soaring to the point you expected—you’re selling books practically one at a time rather than by the dozens—maybe the economy isn’t to blame. Perhaps you’re just promoting it to the wrong audience.
Reevaluate your audience and see if you can kick up your sales. For additional help with this, order my 47-page ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit, Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. It’s only $5.95. And it could help you to increase your book sales 100-fold.
http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html