How to Sell the First 100 Copies of Your Self-Published Non-Fiction Book

Do you want to write a book? Have you written a book, but haven’t published it? According to writer Joseph Epstein, “81 percent of Americans feel that they have a book in them — and should write it.” With the rise in self-publishing options, like Amazon’s Direct Publishing, anyone can publish a book. You just have to write it.

However, writing a book is just half of the equation. People need to read your book. They need to find out that it exists and they need to purchase it. This is not as simple as it may seem. You can’t just publish your book, say nothing to anyone about it, and hope it just happens to take off. It never works that way. Although many creative struggle with this concept – you have to promote the book.

Here’s a very effective way to promote your book and sell your first 100 copies.

Before you publish:

1. Ask questions on social media about the problem your book solves.

Before you tell people you’ve written a book – and even before you’ve written a book – ask people to answer questions about the problem you are tackling. People love responding to polls and questions on social media sites like Facebook. It’s a great way to get engagement. Plus, you will discover the exact people who show interest in your question. There is a reason the specific question you asked grabbed their attention: their interested.

For instance, if you are writing a book about weight loss you could ask your friends, “what’s the hardest thing about losing weight?” or “what is the best way to lose weight quickly?”. You will get many responses. This is a great way to spark people’s interest and get them talking about your topic. It’s also a great way to see where people struggle. If you can find a solution for them, they will buy it.

2. Tell people you are working on a project and need their help

Since you’ve been asking questions on your topic and building up engagement, introduce the idea of the book and tell people you’d like their help. Simply tell them to send you an instant message through Facebook if they’d like to help you out and also get free access to your project. You won’t get everybody who responded to opt-in, but you should be able to get a solid group of interested people. Get their email addresses and explain what the book is about and what you need from them.

First, ask them to tell you their story in terms of your topic. For instance, “tell me how your weight has affected your life and why you want to lose weight.” Then ask them to be “test readers” and send them a free digital copy of your book. Request feedback in return. If your book is decent, you should get several positive responses.

3. Announce your book to the public – but don’t publish yet.

Tell everyone you know – on social media, through email, in person – that you have written a book or are writing a book and tell them when it will be published. Set the date far enough in the future so you have time to talk about it and build up some buzz organically.

Publish the book – and sell it.

With this small community of highly engaged and emotionally invested people, you will be able sell at least 100 copies of your book relatively quickly. Ask them each personally to share about it to their communities and social avenues. Have them write reviews for your book and ask them to post them to Amazon. Provide them with the Amazon link to your book and ask them to post it to social media with their recommendation. It doesn’t take a lot of people to generate 100 sales using this method. Have each person post on the same day so you can generate the most buzz at once.

You don’t have to spend any money to “advertise” this way. Yes, you can spend a lot of money on Facebook ads or by paying for services to market your book. The good news is you don’t have to to get initial sales.

So, go ahead – publish your book. Be courageous and put it out there. Don’t just provide a resource to people in a book – build a community around it. You can use the momentum to build a platform around your book and leverage it to help more people in more ways than just a book. The world needs your book. Publish it.