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The Power of a Book Marketing Plan (and how to calculate increased book sales)

October 26, 2014 By Heather Hart Leave a Comment Click here for FREE training for Christian writers

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Did you know there is power in a book marketing plan?  I found this to be true in a huge way…more on that later.  However, increasing book sales is something every author is happy to see. The problem is many authors don’t know how to calculate their sales increase percentage.

Unfortunately, I was one of those authors.  Even though I was good at math growing up figuring out formulas and math calculations tends to hurt my brain now.

During our recent video series, I announced how I increased my book sales by 98%. Yet when I went to check the sales increase for my latest case study, I realized that I did the math wrong!

Instead of having an increase of 98%, my sales actually increased by 9,800% – that’s a HUGE difference!

book marketing plan

Calculating Your Book Sales Increase Percentage

Here’s the formula that I used:

New sales – Original sales = Increased Sales

(Increased sales / Original sales) = Sales Increase

So what did I forget?

I forgot that in order to turn it into a percentage, you have to multiply it by 100.

The correct formula is:

New sales – Original sales = Increased Sales

(Increased sales / Original sales) x 100 = Sales Increase Percentage

Why It Matters

At this point, you might be wondering why calculating your sales increase percentage matters. Why is it important.

Without tracking your sales, you will never know if your marketing efforts are effective.

While you can track just your numbers, calculating your sales increase percentage, can help you see which promotions were more effective than others.

How to Increase Your Book Sales

You might be wondering what I did to increase my book sales by 9,800% – I know I’d want to know if someone else made that claim.

I created a book marketing plan.

Many authors admit that they have never created a book marketing plan – and I hadn’t either.

Book marketing plans can seem a lot like budgeting, or just something boring that I don’t want to take the time for. It can seem like a waste of time.

However, a 9,800% sales increase does not sound like the time I invested was wasted.

By creating that plan, I was able to effectively market my book and increase my sales,

And I believe that the same can be true for any author.

Because when you put that time into planning, and then put that plan into action, you will see results.

Take the Challenge

Heather and I have put together a Sell More Books 30-Day Challenge where we will be walking authors step-by-step through setting up a 30-day book marketing plan to help them increase their book sales.

You can find out more at: https://www.trainingauthors.com/challenge

Book Marketing Calendar

Conclusion

Have you ever created a book marketing plan?  If so, did you see your book sales increase?

Leave your answer in the comments below!

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Filed Under: Book Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Tips Tagged With: authors, Book Marketing, book marketing plan, book marketing tips, Case study

About Heather Hart

Connect With Heather Online: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest
 
For close to a decade, Heather Hart has been helping other writers make their dreams come true. As an internationally best-selling and award-winning author, with well over a dozen books in print, she knows what works and what doesn’t. Furthermore, she knows it’s possible to be a successful author without launching your own business. Her desire is to help writers keep writing… and have fun doing it. Find out more at ToolsForAuthors.com
 
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Get Heather's FREE report and learn how to make small tweaks to your book marketing that lead to big changes here.   

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