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Books - Perfect Bound, Self-publishing Posted by Ann O'Brien on 07/02/2025

Are you looking for ways to boost book sales? You might have seen a spike in book sales immediately after your launch date, or perhaps you’ve experienced a slow burn of steady sales over time. But sometimes that spark of excitement about your new book fizzles out and you are left with low book sales, even if you have done all the suggested things to market your book and build your audience.

Almost all authors experience a dip in sales, so if low book sales are plaguing your book sales, take a look at our 11 strategic ways you can boost book sales and turn around your sales numbers.

1. Boost Book Sales: Actively Seek Reviews

One of the ways readers learn about new books or new authors is by reading reviews. Places like Goodreads and Amazon both have robust book review sections, attracting readers seeking their next book or author to discover. Many self-published authors start strongly with reviews, asking early readers to support their new publication with reviews.

But older reviews may not be enough for current readers to rely on, so asking around for fresh, authentic reviews of your book can help boost book sales numbers. Reach out to your fans and followers on social media to request genuine reviews, citing your need for new reviews to be posted. Fans love to help out authors they enjoy, and when you provide a link to one or more sites where they can quickly help you out, you are likely to get some traction on your request.

2. Boost Book Sales: Make Your Author Bio Shine

Another way to counteract slow or low book sales is to revisit your author bio, updating it with anything current or different to catch the eye of different potential readers.

Mentioning your current book’s title and any genre-specific content will help quickly showcase you and your work to potential readers, giving you a chance to snag new book enthusiasts with your freshly updated bio.

• Readers will see a time stamp on your update, indicating you are an active author on the site.
• Bios with keywords matching your book, genre and common search terms can help your bio show up higher in keyword searches.
• A new or updated photo also shows potential book buyers that you are online frequently, possibly influencing them to check you out.

3. Boost Book Sales: Remember to Continue Marketing after the Book Launch

The time leading up to your book’s launch is filled with anticipation, social media posts and a marketing blitz to help get the word out. But once your book launch happens, don’t tap the brakes on your campaign. Continue your marketing strategies to ensure that your book has the best possible chance of reaching readers. It’s easy to think that once the book is printed and you have set in motion a variety of ways to let potential readers know about your new publication, your work is done, and the sales will come rolling in.

But the truth is that self-publishing authors need to keep up their efforts to minimize low book sales in the future. Posting snippets of your book, offering social media shout-outs as a thank you to reviewers, giving followers some behind-the-scenes content or alerting followers about updates to your bio are all ways you can keep your marketing campaign fresh and interesting after your book launch to boost book sales.

4. Boost Book Sales: Pursue Interview Opportunities

Readers love to hear from their favorite authors and many also enjoy meeting new or unfamiliar writers. Take advantage of this by scheduling interviews with podcasters, book groups or other literary circles who promote and work with authors so you can widen your potential readership and boost your book’s sales. Genre conventions may offer a new author panel opportunity for upcoming or genre-specific writers, and you may be able to connect with other interviewers by reaching out to influencers on BookTok or Bookstagram.

5. Boost Book Sales: Reevaluate Your Book’s Defining Categories

Make sure that your book is categorized correctly on Amazon and other book-selling platforms so genre enthusiasts can find you. Do a keyword search to find listings of all of the book genre categories and subcategories and apply to have your book marketed under all that fit your book. This will broaden the reach of your book, helping you to boost book sales as well as expanding the possibility of becoming a best-selling author in some of the smaller categories.

6. Boost Book Sales: Relaunch Your Book

Just because your book is already for sale doesn’t mean that you can’t relaunch it. Maybe your book launch was underwhelming, or most likely, you have learned a few things as a published author since you planned and held your book’s initial launch. If you want to breathe fresh life into slumping book sales, consider relaunching your book to capture a new audience.

• Consider reprinting a new version of your book to create interest. It might have a new cover, include reviews on the cover from notable readers or just be a fresh reprint with updates or changes that improve the book in some way.
• Bring together the same or a new launch team to make it official.
• Coordinate your efforts with social media posts, in-person promotions and other attention-getting actions that help you build excitement to counteract low book sales.

7. Boost Book Sales: Seek Endorsements to Increase Credibility

When someone of note promotes your book, readers transfer their positive feelings about that person onto you and your book. Take advantage of the power of endorsements by sending copies of your book to notables in your genre, authors you are connected with or book influencers. Let them know directly that you are seeking endorsements for your work.

Offer them a simple way to provide the endorsement through a link or email, they can complete it with their comments and approval to use their name. Using a trusted person’s endorsement will increase your credibility as an author and will attract the attention of readers to your work because they respect that person.

8. Boost Book Sales: Sharpen Your Book Description

On a huge bookselling platform like Amazon, having the best possible keywords in your book description can help you reach the right reader quickly. Survey other books in your genre or subgenre to see which keywords are popular and most often used with books like yours. Adjust these words within the body of your book description to more keyword searches that will return to your book. Of course, make sure that you don’t keyword stuff your description with content not in your book or you run the risk of turning off readers and future book buyers, who read your book with an expectation that it doesn’t meet.

9. Boost Book Sales: Start Ads on Sites with High Book Activity

Buying a few well-placed advertisements on sites like Amazon, Instagram or Facebook can be a great way to directly reach your target audience. Play with the parameters of your ad using A/B versions to see which ones have the highest click-through rate. Use high-quality graphics of your book’s title and cover to attract attention or consider new art to capture the attention of potential readers, so you can increase your book’s sales.

10. Boost Book Sales: Use Subtitles with Keywords

Your book’s subtitle is another location where you can inject popular keywords that will attract potential book readers and buyers when they are using search engines like Amazon to find a new book. Consider including a keyword-rich subtitle that will attract potential readers to your book, enticing them to look at your book’s thumbnail and potentially take a look at your book.

11. Boost Book Sales: Keep Up The Efforts

Being consistent with your ongoing book marketing strategies is probably the hardest but most effective part of boosting your book’s sales. Remembering that your book’s sales are measured over weeks, months and years, and not days, can help you look at sales over time instead of being elated or disappointed at sales surrounding just your book’s launch.

Promoting your book consistently will keep your book’s title in front of potential readers, reminding them that you are an active author whom they should check out if they haven’t already. Ongoing efforts give you the chance to loop in readers to your newest book or upcoming projects you have and can help you to build a relationship with readers so they will feel invested in you as an author.

Create and Print a Beautiful Book

Whether you are promoting your first book or you are an accomplished author, self-publishing a book with a trusted printer ensures that your book will look great when you get it into the hands of a reader. Dazzle Printing can help you take your work from a completed manuscript to a gorgeous book, ready for your readers to enjoy in just a few days.