Bestsellers and Book Sales Expectations
Author: Gail Richards
Most new authors have no idea how book sales happen or what
numbers to expect. A typical successful book from a major
publisher sells between 20,000 and 40,000 copies. Healthy
book sales from a smaller publisher may number at least
5,000 copies, whereas a self-published book may be
considered promising if it sells as few as 1,000 copies to
a wide audience.
Set your sales goals high but your expectations lower.
Obviously you want high sales for you book; otherwise, why
do all the work? But be clear about your vision. If you
plan to author a book for your own seminar business, your
expectations will necessarily be different from those of
the author who wants to become a world-class speaker and
subject-matter guru. Clearly a book about diets will have
broader market appeal than a book on corporate strategic
planning.
Your ability to drive book sales will also depend on the
name recognition you’ve already established. Someone
like Dr. Phil McGraw can realistically expect his next book
to sell millions of copies regardless of the subject
matter. How’s your name recognition?
Most people are surprised to hear that less than half of
book sales each year are through bookstores, leaving other
possibilities for authors to pursue.
Many new authors just assume their book will appear in
bookstores. If the book is self-published, it is very
unlikely you will be able to crack the bookstore market;
therefore, it will be important to consider:
• Sales through your own Web site
• Sales through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
• Sales through other Web sites and affiliate programs
• Sales through print catalogs
• Sales to specialty markets for premium incentives
(organizations and corporations)
• Sales to mass merchandisers or other retailers
Almost the only way to get your book into national
bookstore chains is to be published by a traditional
publisher. They have the distribution methods in place to
make this possible.
You may choose to self-publish and work on sales through
some of these non-bookstore channels, get to credible sales
figures, and then approach a traditional publisher to
finally hit that desirable bookstore market.
If you sell your own book, you know exactly how many books
you printed, how many have been sold, and how many are left
to be sold in the printing.
Oddly enough, when books are published by traditional
publishers and go through the bookstore system, there are
very few avenues open for authors and even publishers to
track "real" sales of books. The Bookscan report from
Neilsen Broadcast Data Systems, available since 2001,
provides weekly sales by the major book retailers. But only
the very largest companies can afford this expensive
service. It is virtually impossible to estimate the real
sales of a book from the quantities that are shipped to the
stores. Remember, all "sales” to bookstores are made
with a long-established, full-price return policy anytime.
That means all the books could be returned to you, even a
year later. Major publishers expect overall return rates
of 20 percent to 30 percent, but individual books can be
much, much higher.
When your book is returned, it doesn’t mean that
someone bought it, didn’t like it, and sent it back
through the bookstore. Far more likely, it was never sold
in the first place, and the bookstore returned it to the
distributor after sixty to ninety days.
You will see sales numbers on your royalty statement, but
generally there is also a reserve for expected returns as
well.
If your book is published by a traditional publisher or
printed by Lightning Source, you can call the distributor
Ingram’s sales tracking phone number, 615-213-6803,
to hear about sales for both the previous week and last
year.
It seems that most authors these days say their book is a
best seller, and that’s because there is no
established, objective criteria for what that means. There
are roughly forty national and regional best-seller lists
in the United States. The New York Times’ list is
probably the most well-known and respected. Another one
that is well-known, especially inside the publishing
industry, is provided by Publishers Weekly (PW). In 2005,
442 adult titles were declared best-sellers, according to
the Publisher’s Weekly compilations.
Some best-seller lists such as those belonging to
Publisher’s Weekly and USA Today are based on
national surveys, with others on much less objective
criteria. The New York Times bases their list on a poll of
both chain and independent bookstores. The list from the
American Booksellers Association polls only independent
bookstores. The Los Angeles Times polls thirty bookstores
in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to compile its list.
Only eight self-published books have made it to number one
on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list.
About the Author:
Gail Richards is founder of http://www.AuthorSmart.com a
dynamic website connecting aspiring authors with the
classes, audio library, tools, information and resources
needed to make smart, informed decisions at each step in
the nonfiction book publishing journey. Jan King is the
founder of http://www.eWomenPublishingNet
membership organization devoted to supporting and coaching
women who become successfully published nonfiction authors.
