15 Jul How to Sell Books on Amazon

How To Sell Books On Amazon

To date, I have sold 32,110 copies of my book on Amazon!

Statistics say the average author doesn’t sell more than 250 books in the first year.  I would say I have pretty good numbers for a self-published author.  

Now,  just to be clear, the number above (32,110) is for ALL of my books, not just “one book” and here’s where it gets interesting…

In 2019, my total book sales were 421 total.  Then in 2020 it jumped to 5,985 sales and in 2022 we were at 7905 sales (not including KU borrows) and the numbers keep increasing.

So what made the difference in sales?

First of all, I went from being an amateur writer to being a professional writer and went from being an uncommitted writer to a committed writer.

It all started back in December of 2019, when I read an article on the Written Word Media blog that said the average number of books an author who makes $100K per year has is 28 books.  

As soon as I read the article, I had this crazy idea that beginning in January 2020, I would write a book a month for a year to test this theory and see how much passive income I could create in the next 12 months.

I’m happy to report that at the end of those 12 months, my my monthly passive income was $3,335!  Pretty incredible since that number exceeds what I expect my monthly social security check will be when I retire (and that’s after working 17 years in the legal field in corporate America).

Writing a book a month was just an experiment at the time, but I had so many people asking me how they could do the same thing I was doing, that I ended up writing two books about my experience.  Those books are:

• 28 Books to $100K 
• Digital Retirement

Even after I wrote those books to share my journey, I had so many readers asking me if I had a program they could sign up for.

So about two years ago I created a DIY course, 28 Books to $100K, and have had hundreds of people take this course.

Now I have readers asking me for a group coaching program so they can do what I did… which is replace their social security income and retire early.  Consequently, I’m in the process of launching the Digital Retirement Academy which will be my first group coaching program due out in September of 2022.

I have to tell you, it wasn't easy writing a book a month. 

Here are some of the obstacles I had to deal with:

• Family issues that came up that interfered with my writing time
• Setting boundaries around my writing time
• Making a plan for the books I would write for the 12 months and then changing my mind half way through writing some of the books
• Indecision about which books to write
• Paralysis by analysis
• And many more

In fact, I ended up writing a book about my struggles with writing a book a month called “How NOT to Write a Book”.

Even though writing a book a month was hard, I had enormous growth, benefits and lessons learned from writing a book a month.

My Top 10 Lessons I Learned From Writing A Book A Month:

1. My writing improved with practice and feedback from my editor (practice makes perfect …or almost perfect).
2. I figured out at the end of the year that 80% of my sales were coming from 3 of my books and I wouldn’t have known which ones would take off and which ones wouldn’t, because I don’t have a crystal ball.  So there is a higher chance of success by writing multiple books and seeing what the market likes and wants.
3. After the first couple of months, it was a struggle to write a book a month because I was winging it; so I created a “system” for writing a book a month which made it so much easier going forward (and this is what I teach in my 28 Books to $100K online course).
4. I have had many people hire me in my done-for-you Bestselling Author program, which brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars and it is because they found one or more of my books on Amazon.  So I’m making money on the back-end as well.
5. I am seen as the expert by many people who find me through my books.
6. I have noticed many top authors targeting my books (and my name) for Amazon ads such as Joanna Penn, Perry Marshall, Donald Miller, and Gundi Gabrielle to name a few and because of that I am getting more exposure.
7.  I built a ton of self-confidence by writing a book a month.
8. Instead of putting all my eggs in one “book basket” I spread it around by having multiple books.
9. By writing short books (125 pages or less) I can write a book a month and achieve my goals.
10. I use my books to get booked on top podcasts and summits.

I’m sure I can come up with more lessons learned and benefits, but this is a good start.

If you would like to get on the waiting list (we open 4 times per year, you can go here: DIGITAL RETIREMENT ACADEMY

In summary, if you want to sell books on Amazon, my advice always is to do a proper book launch and get on multiple bestsellers lists so your book can be found on Amazon and second, if you want to sell more books, then write more books. You can read more about the 3 pillars to becoming a bestselling author here.

I wish I had a crystal ball and knew which books would take off, but it’s fun seeing what happens and as they say, the fun is in the journey!

My top 3 books at the end of the year ended up being:

1. How to Find Your Passion
2. 28 Books to $100K 
3. Digital Retirement

Happy Writing!

Michelle