The One Mistake That Could Stop You From Selling More Books

*This is a guest post by Melissa Breau, an AMAZING editor I've had the pleasure to work with a number of times.*

You probably didn’t get into writing for the money. But once you’ve put all that hard work into writing a book, paid to have it edited and had a cover designed, you’d kind of like it to sell more than a few copies, right?

Well, there’s something most authors overlook when it comes to selling their books—and it’s something that can make a huge difference in the number of copies you sell.

 WRITING A GOOD BOOK WON’T GUARANTEE SALES

While writing you surround yourself with the world your characters live in, so it can come as a surprise when you’ve finished your masterpiece to learn the work is only half over.

A good book may gain you a reader’s loyalty, but before they know whether your book is any good they have to put out their money and buy it. You still have to market and sell it.

And all that is just to lead a potential reader to your sales page—it doesn’t guarantee a reader will click “buy.”

It’s the content that have on that sales page that will make up their mind on whether they should click away or click to add money to your bank account.

 The Secret to A Great Sales Page

The key to creating a great sales page is to think of this part of the process as a business—your readers aren’t just fans, they’re also customers.

Like any “customer,” readers are looking for the right “product” to satisfy a need. With a business book, perhaps they’re looking for tips on using Twitter; with a fantasy novel, they’re probably looking for an escape. If they’ve made it to your page, it’s likely they are looking for a book like yours.

But if you want them to part with their cash they need to be convinced you have what they need. So if you want to sell more books, you need to think about the your customer—what info does he or she need to decide if your book is for them?

Then make sure your sales page provides them with everything they need to know.

Not sure how to do that? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post—a primer on what every self-publishing author should know about writing to sell.

This is a guest post written by Melissa Breau. She is a freelance writer, editor and a cheesy romantic who likes long walks on the beach and arguing about comma placement. Her FREE online tutorial on Maximizing your eBook Sales details how-to create a strong book description, get reviews and write an author bio. Or, if you want help making it happen, sign up for her new eBook Sales Package (packages start at $150).

Last call for Reviews!

Okay, you have until January 31st, midnight to get your review of Dark Waters up on Amazon. Why would you do this? Um, for the chance to win a whopping $150 Amazon Gift Card, PLUS the chance at 5 $10 Amazon Gift Cards! Side note, I only have 14 reviews so far (one of them's mine) so that means you have a HUGE shot at this prize. And since Dark Waters is only about 45k words long, it won't take you three days to read it. ;0)

How do you get in on this fabulous contest? There’s no purchase necessary, you can sign up for my NEWSLETTER (Which only goes out once a month) to get 1 entry into this contest. How do you sign up? To the right---> is a NEWSLETTER sign up. Easy Peasy.
Want another free entry? “Like” my Facebook Fan page and I’ll give you an additional entry.

Now, you can get EVEN MORE entries just by purchasing Dark Waters. (Which by the way is only .99) Email me your Proof of Purchase( after you purchase you can forward me your receipt from Amazon) for 10 entries into the contest.

Write me a review on Amazon ( No, it doesn't have to be professional, just a review of 20 words or more), email me the link, and get an additional 20 entries!!

Phew. That’s a lot of chances to win, so good luck, and happy reading.

This contest is open internationally, and will run from December 29th/2011 – January 31th 2012. Winners will be announced February 5th 2012.

*All reviews and purchase links NOT emailed to me will NOT be entered into the contest.*

*Entries through Facebook and the Newsletter sign up need not send any additional emails in order to be entered into the contest*

Readers and Reviewers, where are you??

This is a reminder post that the Review drive for Dark Waters is still going until January 25th! You have some great chances to win, even if you aren't a "professional" reviewer! So far there are only six (6) entries!

To celebrate the release of Dark Waters I am going to have a review drive, just like I did for Sundered.

Only this time, the Grand Prize is cold, hard, Amazon Gift Certificates.

$150 to one luck winner, and 5 $10 gift certificates to runners up.

How do you get in on this fabulous contest? There’s no purchase necessary, you can sign up for my NEWSLETTER (Which only goes out once a month) to get 1 entry into this contest. How do you sign up? You can leave a comment below with your email, you can email me at motionsrider@yahoo.ca to tell me you want to be a part of my newsletter OR you can sign up off my Facebook Fan Page.

Want another free entry? “Like” my Facebook Fan page and I’ll give you an additional entry.

Now, you can get EVEN MORE entries just by purchasing Dark Waters. (Which by the way is only .99) Email me your Proof of Purchase( after you purchase you can forward me your receipt from Amazon) for 10 entries into the contest.

Write me a review on Amazon ( No, it doesn't have to be professional, just a review of 20 words or more), email me the link, and get an additional 20 entries!!

Phew. That’s a lot of chances to win, so good luck, and happy reading.

This contest is open internationally, and will run from December 29th/2011 – January 25th 2012. Winners

will be announced February 5th 2012.

*All reviews and purchase links NOT emailed to me will NOT be entered into the contest.*

*Entries through Facebook and the Newsletter sign up need not send any additional emails in order to be entered into the contest*

"Dauntless" book Launch & a Short Story to boot.

Tomorrow, October 31st, is the big day, the release of Dauntless, the third and final instalment of the Nevermore Trilogy and I’m just a tad bit excited. Okay, I’m -over -the -top -nearly - peed- my- pants- excited!


To help Dauntless shoot out of the starting gate, I’m asking that those who are waiting oh so impatiently for it, to please purchase it between 6-7pm PST to help with the Amazon rankings. This will help me be seen by even more readers, something every author wants and hopes for.

After the writing journey I’ve been on so far (looking for an agent, found an agent, agent is too busy for me, floundered on my own for a bit, now self publishing while agent is in the wings) for me this is a big accomplishment to see a full trilogy published and doing well.

I feel it’s in large part because of YOU my readers. How so? The feedback has been phenomenal, the reviews are 99% 4-5 stars and were not talking just one or two reviews. We’re talking 60+ reviews between the first two Nevermore books, Sundered and Bound. That has given me the encouragement I needed to continue pursuing self publishing.

I wouldn’t be here without my readers and supporters and I want to find a way to thank you. I thought about money and jewels, fast cars and exotic vacations . . . And then I realized what you would all want.

A new story from the Nevermore World.

Tomorrow in conjunction with the release of Dauntless, I have a short story called “No Way Safe” that will be published in the e-zine Forever Nocturne.

The short story follows Annie and Dustin, a brother sister duo as they face packs of insatiable Nevermores, a gun toting crazy woman in a bright purple muumuu and the very daunting task of surviving in that deadly world on their own. Though the short story will leave you hanging (you aren’t really surprised are you?) you will get to see the culmination of Annie and Dustin’s journey in Dauntless.

Again, thank you for all your support and reviews. It is for YOU that I write my stories and I love hearing that you get swept away in them and care about the characters as much as I do. You are the best. =)

Happy Reading!

Dividing Amazon into Edited Indies and Un-edited Indies

I’ve had several guest editors on my blog that have written about the importance of getting your work edited before you self publish. The general consensus is that (and I agree with this) all writers should have their work edited prior to self publishing.

But there is a conundrum when it comes to the market. Readers want books that are inexpensive and often won’t take a chance on a new author if the book is over .99. They are afraid to put money out for a book that isn’t put together well. I don’t blame them. I have seen a number of e-books by self published authors that are not only riddled with mistakes, but also look as if the author hasn’t cared to even attempt a proper e-book design.

You know, the book is missing things like chapters, an attempt at formatting, spell check. Basics that should be done no matter what you decide to charge.

So I don’t blame the readers one bit for not wanting to take a chance on an e-book. I get frustrated too.

There are authors who say that they can’t afford editors if they are only going to be putting the book up for .99. Their argument is something along the lines of what do you expect for a .99 book? Again, I can understand that. Let’s say you put $1000 worth of editing into a book (that’s not a lot by the way, that is a mid-low range of cost) and then you put your book up for .99. Under the current royalty rate at Amazon, you need to sell over 2800 books just to break even. That’s a lot of books.

But what if there was a different way to go about this? A way to, in a sense, reward authors who’ve taken the time and money to properly edit their books prior to publishing them?

Stay with me here. I know that there are flaws in what I’m about to suggest, but it’s an idea that may prove some merit if you give it a chance.

What if when you uploaded your book to Amazon (just for simplicities sake I’m going to use Amazon as my example) there was a section that said “Tag your Editor”. And then there was a list of *(1)*Editors registered with Amazon. You scroll through, find your editor and then tag them.

In my case that would be Jessica Klassen and Melissa Breau.

Then Amazon sends an email to these to lovely gals asking for confirmation that they did indeed edit my work. The click on the yes and now my book has confirmation of being edited.


What would this accomplish you ask? Two things.

1.It would show readers that the book was, at the very least, edited.

2.It would allow the author to charge a higher price for their book if they chose to.

You see, my idea is that if you aren’t an edited author, you can still publish your book, but you can’t charge more than .99 for it. Quality and cost can now intersect on Amazon.

In fact, to take this a step further, why not have Amazon break the Indie Authors into two sections? Edited and un-edited. That way the reader can decide where they want to spend their money and their time, with authors who *(2)* can’t/won’t/don’t edit or they can spend their money on authors who think enough of themselves and their work to put in a little time and effort.

If you have editors you could still choose to do a discount of .99 for your book, but again, readers would be able to see that you have CONFIRMATION of editing have been done.

Like I mentioned, there are flaws to my plan, but they could be worked out. This would give readers some idea of the quality of book they were purchasing and allow them to feel more at ease with a slightly higher price for an indie author’s book, which would in turn help the author make a living.


After what I’ve read in indie books, I can tell you that while there are a large number of authors who would never publish their book without editing, there are also a large number of authors who don’t, for a variety of reasons even make an attempt at having their work edited. The unfortunate part of this is that the people who need to get editing done are rarely the ones researching and finding out what the industry standard is, because if they were, there would be no need for this discussion.


*(1)*The editors would have to somehow prove that they were indeed legit before being able to get on the list and it could be broken down into country too. Perhaps they would have to supply Amazon with either a reg. Number from an editors association or proof of employment with a publisher or perhaps just website. I don’t know the answer to this one, it’s one of the flaws in my system that could easily be taken advantage of.


*(2)*There are a LOT of editors out there who are reasonable, I don’t think it’s a matter of can you afford to edit, but can you afford not to. Save your pennies, you can hire an editor, even if it’s for a single pass through the manuscript, it’s worth it.