Make Big Book Sales During the Holiday Season

The Halloween candy is long gone from stores and the shelves are already sporting goods in reds, greens, and blues. Many people complain about how early this type of merchandise appears. Why is it out already? Because people buy it. Holiday sales make up a whopping 20% of annual sales for retailers. You can cash in on the biggest spending season of the year with a few simple strategies to get shoppers to notice and buy your books.

Start Promoting Your Holiday Book Sale Now

November just started and it’s the perfect time to begin your holiday promotion. First, decide what book price you will use. Are you going to discount your regular price to entice buyers? Perhaps you’d like to keep the normal price since people are more likely to purchase during this time of year anyway. Whatever you decide, begin spreading the word about the perfect holiday gift—your book! Take pictures of your book with holiday decor and share them on social media and in your author newsletter. Remind people there’s nothing like a book signed by the author for that book lover on their list. Once you start promoting, keep it up throughout the holiday season to increase the probability of making sales.

Check Your Inventory and Order Books

Check what books you already have in your home stock. Printers get slammed in November and December with orders from authors. Plan ahead and order early. Otherwise you may pay extra fees for rush printing and shipping. This cuts into your profit and makes it quite stressful waiting for delivery. IngramSpark recommends ordering hardbacks by November 26th and paperbacks by December 3rd in order to have your books arrive in a timely manner. (KDP hadn’t released holiday order recommendations at the time of this post.)

Entice Readers with Something Extra

There is a lot of competition for those seasonal dollars. Think about what you can do to make the buyer feel like they are getting something extra they won’t get during the regular year. You could include a gift-with-purchase, perhaps something related to a topic in your book. If you write fantasy, you could give out a fun dragon keychain with each purchase for example. Gifts-with-purchase don’t need to cost a lot of money. Be creative and resourceful to come up with something economic for you and enticing for buyers. Another extra you could provide is gift wrapping. People love saving time, especially if it’s offered free. Including free gift wrapping with purchase is an easy way to make your book more appealing. You could also offer a bundle discount. If one book is $12, you could make two books $20 and three books $28. Bundling gives an incentive for a larger purchase. Any one of these strategies will help elicit a purchase.

Participate in Holiday Craft Fairs and Bazaars

Churches and community organizations frequently have events featuring local retailers where their members can shop. Often vendors pay a table fee that acts as a donation to the organization. Research popular local events and contact their coordinators to find out about table fees and availability. Shoppers at these events enjoy unique and interesting finds, something special for that one person on their list. Be sure your table is decorated and inviting, and use your buyer enticements to encourage a purchase. Being friendly and chatting with attendees is the best way to make sales at table events.

Online Advertising for Your Book

Last year, Amazon took almost 40% of all US retail sales for the holiday season. It will likely be even higher this year. Amazon began as a book seller, and according to Bloomberg, Amazon currently sells 88.9% of ebooks and 42% of physical books. People will definitely be going there to buy books this season, a lot of people. Make sure your book has visibility among the millions of others. Look at your budget and determine how much money you have to spend on AMS ads. If you’ve never done an ad on Amazon, check out their Getting Started Guide. There are also many useful tutorials on YouTube such as this one from KDP University and this one from Kindlepreneur. Take the time to learn how to create and manage AMS ads and you will soon be seeing the benefit.

Planning ahead will help you sell more books and have less stress during the holidays. Make things fun whenever possible and be sure to keep up your marketing and promotions. Wishing you many, many book sales this shopping season!