No one is buying my novel

A lot of good advice in this thread but . . .

Here's another take: One book—however great the story, however well written—will get lost in a sea of millions of newly published books. It's a numbers game. Nothing sells your first book better than your second or your fifth. Later books are the greatest promotional tools you have and most of us readers find earlier books and authors from their later works. Yes, we fall in love and go back to buy and buy and buy. So get crackin' on your next book. just my 2 cents

I don't see a link to the book in your signature line, so I can't offer any comments about why it might or might not pull me in as a romance reader. As others have in this thread, I strongly suggest spending some time commenting on other people's work in the share your work forum. This will give you posts towards your 50 post requirement for posting your own work for critique there. It will also give you a sense for the way the process works.

As others have already said, every book published today has to compete in a vast ocean of titles. In the old days, one went to a bookstore and browsed rows of titles, glanced at covers, and read back cover blurbs and maybe a few pages. Nowadays, even most trade published books don't make it into bookstores. Online sites, though, make it hard to browse for authors and titles one doesn't yet know.

Personally, I get a lot of references to new authors via amazon's "similar titles" feature, which presumably are based on some kind of algorithm from my past purchases and (maybe?) ratings. I also hear about titles occasionally in forums here on AW, and occasionally from blogs featuring "best of" lists and so on. The problem with these systems is brand new authors, especially ones that are self published, fall through the cracks. There's sort of a catch 22.

I think the secret is to get enough people buying and reviewing your book so those algorithms have data to use. This probably does take advertising, soliciting reviews, and a certain amount of promotion. It's also important to have a slick, targeted presentation that appeals to the kind of reader who would like your book and having content that is well written and edited, so it pulls potential readers in when they scan the opening pages.

As others have also stated, there's as snowball effect with self publishing. The more books you have out there, the more people will stumble across at least one of your titles and hopefully want to read the rest.

Unimportant said:

(Cover art. Especially cover art. I can't even draw a stick figure, and I've no eye for colour or anything. Is there a Reedsy equivalent for cover art, O SP Guru Community?)

Click to expand...

I used 99 designs for my cover. I wrote a blog article about the process. I used the designer who won that contest for the second book cover which I will someday soon figure out how to post on AW. $275 for this second design. I think the first one when I did a contest was more. $325 maybe?

https://www.willowthomson.com/ramblings/my-99-designs-book-cover-contest

Interesting... the cover and blurb have changed dramatically.

However, I strongly suggest you get the blurb critiqued, either here or elsewhere.

Maggie2005 said:

It's a romance novel...
I didn't want any of my family members or friends to buy the book, cause they'd be giving me five stars reviews and I only want honest opinions but so far I have nothing...
it's .99 and still no one is clicking to buy.
It's edited and the cover is awesome too, so why do you think no one would risk it a little ?
What should I do???

Please advise....

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What kind of marketing have you done? Books, especially in as competitive a genre as romance, don't sell on their own. Amazon has become "pay for play". You have to advertise to get any kind of traction. Otherwise, it just sinks to the bottom of the pile while more active writers move up the list.

Maggie2005 said:

It's a romance novel...
I didn't want any of my family members or friends to buy the book, cause they'd be giving me five stars reviews and I only want honest opinions but so far I have nothing...
it's .99 and still no one is clicking to buy.
It's edited and the cover is awesome too, so why do you think no one would risk it a little ?
What should I do???

Please advise....

Click to expand...

Look at Hidden Gems. This is a site used by a lot of self published authors - you can give away electronic ARC's to readers and they'll leave honest reviews on Amazon. The cost is $20 (I believe) for 10 reviewers. Reviews will help with your sales... a little. As Marissa D said though, you have to advertise to get noticed on Amazon, and it's better if you have several books out.

Unimportant,

I've found both of the cover artists I've worked with through Deviant Art. I found an artist I liked, and then looked at the various artists she had liked until I found one who was perfect for the job I had in mind. I wrote him and asked if he'd be interested, (and he was, because for some reason no one had ever asked if he'd like to do a cover before), and then we negotiated a price, I submitted a contract to him, we both signed it and went to work. He wound up doing the covers for Terra Incognito and A Few Gold Pieces More for me.

This thread has been very informational!

I can't see your book, the link is gone. I think you've been given some great advice. Here's another piece of advice, read, read, read, and read some more. The people who read romance are voracious readers, and I would be willing to bet they read more books in a year than any other genre. Most of these people can judge a book by it's cover and often do. Know your clientele.

I'm one of those people who could care less about reviews. A review is someone's opinion, and why do I care what others think? I don't. Even J.K Rowling has bad reviews, King has bad reviews...a review is an opinion and frankly I wish Amazon would down grade how important reviews are in their system. But it is what it is.

Maggie2005 said:

It's a romance novel...
I didn't want any of my family members or friends to buy the book, cause they'd be giving me five stars reviews and I only want honest opinions but so far I have nothing...
it's .99 and still no one is clicking to buy.
It's edited and the cover is awesome too, so why do you think no one would risk it a little ?
What should I do???

Please advise....

Click to expand...

I wish I had some advice, but I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'm pretty sure 99% of my sales are from family and friends. I've gotten good feedback through impression with my Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter ads, but it's not translating to sales. Sorry I couldn't help.

Best of luck!

I've been gone a while. Writing the third book of a trilogy is a bitch, at least for me. I've had no time for AW (or much else)!

Your first book unless if you're Jo Rowling won't get much play, certainly not in the first few weeks. Or the second or third book. But keep writing and publishing. Every book sells the previous books as well.

My experience has been that I made a little under $600 the first book then $1000, $1200, and so on for succeeding books. Then book seven jumped to $18,000 and eight to $19,000. This happened over eight years.

Writing is a long game. Don't give up. (Actually it's probably impossible to give up. We are doomed obsessives who MUST write just as we MUST breathe!)