The ONE Thing Stalling Your Book Sales
✏️ And How to Fix It ✏️
Everything you need to know about selling books can be boiled down into a single math equation. It’s a simple one.
And once you understand this equation… and how to manipulate it, you can unlock huge growth in your readership and income.
But before I share with you this equation, let me first share why this matters.
When I was 15, I published my first novel (a YA dystopian thriller called Control Freakz). I was starry-eyed, thinking that right after I hit publish on Amazon, I’d somehow be interviewed next on the Today Show.
Funnily enough, I was interviewed by my local news station.
After the live interview, I dashed home to check my Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard.
0 sales.
What the actual f*ck?
It took me years to figure out why this television appearance flopped. And it wasn’t because people were distracted by the blonde tips in my hair (I promise, I don’t dye it… it just happens to be that way 😂). It’s because I was reaching the wrong people.
In short, I was thinking about the growth of my author business all backwards. And this backwards thinking got me into trouble for years:
Spent $6,000 and 1,000+ hours building a backlist before even selling my books
Spent $1,000+ a month on ads and barely broke even
Got burned out, was doing a million things at once, and was SO stressed
The truth is that your authorship story likely rhymes with mine (most of ours do). And if it doesn’t, it may be because you have been too overwhelmed to know where to get started.
The good news… is we have an equation that will tell us the answer.
And once we decode it, we will learn something magical: the Growth Bottleneck in our author business.
The Growth Bottleneck is the #1 thing holding us back from growing our readership and income. Once we zone in on what this is, we can put all of our effort into solving it.
So… let’s discover your Growth Bottleneck. I promise it’s not as intimidating as it sounds!
3 Metrics Rule Your Author Business. Here’s how to find them…
With mathematical certainty, I can model out exactly what is holding back your author business from growing. And you can do the same with just a napkin and a pencil ✏️ (pens work too, but we are big fans of pencils here at Author Sidekick! 😅).
This equation takes the New Readers (Audience Reach x Conversion Rate) entering your stories and subtracts them from the Readers Churning (aka leaving) from your active audience. This leaves us with your Growth, or how much your readership is growing.
Mind you, this doesn’t mention a mailing list # or follower count. This is a measurement of your active readership that is buying your stories and supporting you.
If your readership isn’t growing, for 99% of us, that means we aren’t able to make a living (cause our readership, at this time, is likely too small to support you making a living).
And even if you are a full-time author, if your readership isn’t growing… that means it’s likely shrinking. Thus, without releasing more books, increasing your prices, or releasing new products, your days at your current income are numbered.
So, how do we grow our readership?
Simple: we fix the one metric in this equation that is hurting our business the most at any one given time. Your growth bottleneck will shift from time to time.
Sometimes it will be your Audience Reach, or getting new readers to be aware of your brand and story.
Sometimes it will be your Conversion Rate, you are getting lots of readers to see your stories, but not enough are actually buying.
And sometimes it’s your # of Readers Churning, or how many of your readers buy one book from you and then consistently buy more stories or products from you.
There’s always one of these numbers that is holding you back more than any other. And by focusing on improving that metric, you will alleviate your Growth Bottleneck and make progress towards a six-figure author income and beyond much more rapidly.
Of course, after you alleviate one bottleneck, a new one will pop up. That’s the nature of the beast! But now, you know where to focus your efforts in a given moment, so instead of doing a million things at once, you are focused on the things that matter most.
Now let’s dive into how to identify and alleviate each kind of Growth Bottleneck.
Growth Bottleneck #1: Audience Reach
How to identify this bottleneck:
First, write down an estimate of how many people have seen your books over the last 30 days. You can divide this by channel/platform. For example: TikTok —> 5,000 views. In-Person Signing —> 100.
First, real question, have you gotten a significant # of eyeballs from at least one channel/platform to see your books? For many of you, the answer will be no… and this is your bottleneck if so! What is a significant # of eyeballs will depend on the specific marketing channel. For instance, 100 people at an in-person signing is great, since those people are high intent and ready to buy. Whereas 100 impressions on a thread is not enough, you’d typically want 10,000+ on short-form content
P.S. Want a free gift? You can read my Author Creator Marketing Playbook (how to dominate on social media) for free here.
How to fix it:
Most authors have an Audience Reach problem at multiple points in their careers.
At first, this is the bottleneck we all start with! We can’t have a conversion rate to our stories or any readers churning if we don’t have any level of audience reach to begin with. We solve this at first through One-Time Marketing Events.
At some point, though, you will start to see your income growth slow to a trickle. You are still selling some books, and your new releases are still selling, but you aren’t growing fast enough anymore to make an impact.
This is when you need to build a Reader Growth Engine that allows you to systematically reach more eyeballs without putting in endless effort.
Note: You can get all 50 Author Marketing Superpowers to help you supercharge your readership and income in a beautifully illustrated deck of cards here.
Growth Bottleneck #2: Conversion Rate
How to identify this bottleneck:
Are you getting eyeballs, but few people are actually buying your book?
Your conversion rate on your Facebook Ads is poor (under 2-3%). Your conversion rate on Amazon Ads is low (under 5%). Conversion rate is compared to how many people who get to the landing page for your book, how many actually buy.
Maybe you are doing in-person events, and the other authors around you seem to be selling a good deal more books.
Many of us think we have a Conversion Rate Bottleneck when we actually have an Audience Read Bottleneck. But… I’ve definitely had conversion issues too (particularly with my Conspiracy Chronicles Series… that was just a mess 😂)!
How to fix it:
Improve your packaging. This could mean changing your cover and description, being more outgoing if you are at a signing… depending on your sales channel, the elements of your packaging will be similar. But the core principle is the same: entice a curiosity in potential readers that hooks them into your story!
Improve your targeting. Sometimes we are reaching people, but reaching the wrong people. To fix this, we need to get clearer about who our audience is. Maybe we are emphasizing tropes in our marketing that aren’t as central to our book description and packaging, bringing the wrong readers in. Maybe you are promoting to Fantasy readers when your story really is more Horror at its core.
And last, but certainly not least, exploit a Story Gap — an unmet reader desire that your story fulfills. A great story gap is the #1 thing that will improve your conversion rate. Instead of blending in, stand out. Anyone can be inspired by top books in a subgenre and create a similar cover and description. But how will readers know which book to choose? This makes it harder to convert readers. Stand out… and your creativity can lead to more sales. You just need to channel it the right way. My article on Story Gaps helps you do just that…
Growth Bottleneck #3: # of Reader Churn
How to identify this bottleneck:
Are you seeing a huge drop-off in sales as readers progress through your series?
Are you seeing limited word of mouth growth (this is called a K-factor, also covered in the 10 Bonus Author Marketing Superpowers)?
Are you getting lots of readers to join your mailing list for a freebie, but they aren’t going on to actually buy books from you?
If any of this sounds familiar, this may just be your growth bottleneck!
How to fix it:
Identify your Read-through Rate and where readers are dropping off (a calculator for this is included inside the 50 Author Marketing Superpowers Digital Bonuses). Edit and revise your story to improve your read-through rate. Your goal is to increase the % of readers who stick around till the retention point.
Create rituals that immerse readers further into your stories. Think book clubs, drink nights inspired by your books… possibilities are endless, but the principle is simple: create more surface area for fans to be able to engage with your worlds.
Lastly, create regular content that entertains your readers and therefore builds trust. Maybe you share regular memes, book reviews, or more with mailing list subscribers. This is especially true for email list subscribers who came in through a freebie/lead magnet. They need extra nurturing to increase your Longtail Conversions (aka people who purchase from you months after joining your mailing list… which is most people).
Now it’s your turn!
What is the growth bottleneck in your author business right now? Is it your Audience Reach, Conversion Rate, or the # of Readers Churning? Let me know in the comments of this post or by replying to this email 💙.
There is a lot more nuance I could add to this post, so if you want me to do a deep dive into each of these growth bottlenecks individually, shoot me a line!
And if this post was useful to you, I’d certainly appreciate you sharing it with author friends 😊.
I’ll see you all soon for another edition of the Beyond the Book Podcast and an exciting new launch to help make my book marketing coaching more accessible to authors.
In the meantime, don’t forget…
Together we are boundless,
Michael Evans
The Author Sidekick
P.S. In just about a month, I’m opening up the doors to the Readers First Challenge, where we help you build a reader growth engine that can take you from story idea to six figures in record time. If you’d like to join the waitlist for the challenge and get a special discount when it’s out… You can do so here.
"Audience Reach" is a great way to redefine visibility. Book marketing is all about reaching the right audience, which is why its so important to have a good understanding of who you need to target. With my first published book, I created audience segments and developed a plan to target each segment. Not every segment responded and I learned where to focus my efforts. Still, I wouldn't say no to a local TV spot :)