8 Essential Elements to Improve Your Book Sales

Hey folks, I thought I'd put together a short list about the essential elements your book must have to succeed. You'll find plenty of tutorials about how to improve your book sales so here's my take on it and why this is a good list to follow.

Edge of The Apocalypse

Here's a list, in order of importance, your book needs to communicate.

1. Genre
2. Awesome Title/Sub-Title
3. Blurb (back sales copy)
4. Opening Sentence
5. First Chapter Hook
6. First Chapter Cliffhanger
7. Reviews
8. Author Authority/Website or Blog

GENRE:
This is a no-brainer. It's all about your genre and genre specific images on your cover. I'm working on a post-apocalyptic book series (The Edge of Time Book Trilogy) so my obvious genre is Science Fiction. Post apocalyptic fiction is a sci-fi sub-genre.

What kind of images does my book cover need to have? There are many typical images; destroyed landscape, crumbling or burning buildings, social upheaval, zombies, etc.

Research other covers in your genre and try to use images, colors, and font styles that match those covers with a unique layout that best fits your story. Design your cover so it appeals with a sense of curiosity about it.

The main purpose of your cover is to get readers curious about your story so they can read the blurb on your back cover. The blurb has to be good enough so readers will want to read your first chapter, and that starts with a curious opening first line that hooks readers through the chapter until the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.

These are all bullet points for another article where I'll detail each step with examples.

AWESOME TITLE
Of course you need an amazing title because your title communicates the main concept of your story.  My book title (book one) is Edge of The Apocalypse because this title says to readers (fans of apocalyptic fiction) that this is the beginning of an apocalyptic event. (the edge). Obviously, this is the event my first chapter opens with.

BLURB
A book blurb is the back cover sales copy. Notice my emphasis on the word sales. Make no mistake, your back copy is strategic copywriting designed to get readers to read your first chapter. It's an important part of your sales funnel and more than just a snapshot of your story.

OPENING SENTENCE
Let's face it, the better you can open your story, the better your chances of making a sale. Although, this is not as critical as you might think.

FIRST CHAPTER HOOK
Your hook is probably the most important part of your book at this point because aside from your amazing cover, title, curious opening sentence, your first chapter hook is the reason readers will or will not buy your book. Get this right and your book has a better chance to sell. Get it wrong and you risk alienating potential customers from all your books.

FIRST CHAPTER CLIFFHANGER
Your cliffhanger at the end of your first chapter is critical because this is your reader's gateway to the rest of the story and a strong cliffhanger helps generate good book reviews.

BOOK REVIEWS
Book reviews are overrated but yes, good book reviews are important, although, I've bought many books with not so good reviews. It all depends on how much you like the story. For me, as long as the book has some good reviews, I'm comfortable buying it if I like the story and I know I'll enjoy reading the book because of the author's voice, plot, setting, story concept, characters, etc.

AUTHOR CREDIBILITY (WEBSITE/PLATFORM)
Believe it or not, this is probably the most important criteria because you also want to judge the author as far as their dedication to their writing craft. Remember, the most important thing new author's have going for them, is the current book(s) they are selling. Any previous work is a bonus if the books were successful.

The author's current book reflects everything about them, their platform, their upcoming books, their view of the world, and the types of stories they want to tell, etc. This helps build an author brand.

In my next post, I'll break down this short list and expand in detail, everything you need to know to design a kick-ass book cover that communicates enough information to get readers to read your first chapter and hopefully your entire book.

Your book cover must generate a chain reaction of events with all green lights in order to generate sales and good book reviews. Ideally, you want to have all these elements in place so your book can hopefully go viral and readers will do most of your promotion (word of mouth) for you.

In other words, your book sells itself. That's a tall order but many authors have done it so it's not impossible. Readers have to trust you as an author to deliver good stories. Putting yourself out there is also important so readers can see your personality and how you express your story ideas.

Readers want to know that as an author, you're committed to writing and publishing great stories for them to consume. One-hit wonders are okay, but a number of bestsellers is far better.

I'll also mention several one-hit wonders that made it very big and how they got there.

Can you come up with one? 

Come on back to see if that book is on my list!

An Excerpt: Edge of The Apocalypse

Millennium Boardgame's New Box Design . . . Here's the Lesson

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. Anybody out there? Not yet. I get it. I haven't posted here in a while so any momentum I had going with SEO a few months ago has gone back to zero.

Good news is that after several mishaps and unforeseen delays, I'm finally printing the second prototype box for the new Millennium board game, so here it is in all it's glory, for whatever this is worth, just for kicks and giggles. I've decided to give this cover a bit of sepia-tone instead of full black and white. I think it works and most likely this will be the box cover that goes into production.

This time around I'm happy to say this current version of the game is playable on all levels from start to finish so I'll be play-testing the heck out of it and fine-tuning anything that needs tweaking. The new launch date is September 11, 2020 so I hope I can stick to that and meet that deadline this time around.

Blah, blah, blah. nobody cares. In fact, all the pretty packaging doesn't mean a thing unless the game is totally playable and engages gamers on a deep level. Superficial game concepts will never cut it so you need something meaningful beyond all the great artwork.

Sure, you need amazing artwork as click-bait, so to speak. But once gamers get a hold of your game and play it out in real life and in real time, you'll need a stronger hook to keep them engaged and interested until the game ends.

And in case you're wondering, the box cover must tell a story. Most games don't because they leave most of the game imagery to the player's imagination and that's a good thing but a better idea is to tell a story with your cover art so you can not only attract potential buyers but also engage them with a storyline at first glance.

Your marketing needs to be worked into

 your stories so you can

use stories to market your books. 

In this case, I've featured an Android, Andrea, holding a gun (central protagonist) front and center with her dog Apollo beside her, smack dab in the middle of traffic--a scene set in the 1930's. Yes there's a story in there somewhere and it's deep, wide, and long. How long? Well, that's the real hook. There's an entire novel (300 pages featured on the front of the box) about Andrea and this fascinating cast of characters.

I'm about half way done writing the novel, which in fact will also be released as 3 separate short stories that tie in all the game activity with scenes from where the apocalypse first struck in Austin, Texas.

Here's a behind the scenes preview: 

Around the middle of book 2 (Epic Apocalypse) Andrea and Maria are stuck with their stolen Tesla pickup, now running low on power in Jacksonville, Florida after fleeing from Austin weeks ago. So they're deep into their adventurous trip north to New York City along with everything that happened since, which is documented in book 1 (Edge of The Apocalypse).

I'm slowly but surely working my way into book 3 (Beyond The Apocalypse). This is where things take an unexpected turn (again) and the girls are blind-sided with another life-altering dilemma. You gotta love it folks! I'm having a blast putting this down and can't wait to finish it and present it to fans of apocalyptic stories. This is the core audience, by-the-way, but I'm weaving in a bunch of sub-plots that have mass appeal.

I know, I'm a long way from promoting this new series but it helps to be inspired along the way. Otherwise, what's the point in living at all? Your marketing needs to be worked into your stories so you can use stories to market your books. That's something to keep in mind as you write. In fact, movie trailers are designed around specific throw-away scenes so think about that while you're writing your next book because it works both ways.

Millennium is alive and well!

Okay, I didn't plan to write such a long, short post but you get the idea. Millennium is alive and well and coming to a store online soon enough so it's an exciting time all around. I really look forward to playing this game in person with several different players to see how they respond to it overall.

I have a feeling they're going to love it and get hooked. And that's the beginning recipe for going viral. Everything must click so that everyone engages and gets excited at the same time and for the same reasons. That's how things are shared and word-of-mouth turns into a flashpoint that fires up the masses and therefore boosts sales in the long-run. Those initial sales also help potential positive reviews, which in turn starts conversations and begins to convert curious shoppers. There's a lesson in here somewhere but I digress.

Check out the game and if you're a curious reviewer, let me know and I'll send you a free game box in exchange for an honest review on Youtube or your game blog.

Your comments or feedback are welcome!

See the Millennium Game on the Developer Website