Book Sales CyclesBy Karen BaneyFinding real, publicly available statistics about the seasonality of book sales is nearly impossible.  But, I believe this is a very important topic to discuss, especially for new authors who are not familiar with the ups and downs they will experience over the coming months and years.According to Anthony Wessel, a book industry veteran, book sales have tended to be flat on a week-to-week basis for the past 40 years.  However, there are some seasonal boosts, like around the holidays.(1)  I’ve witnessed this trend to some extent over the past two and a half years. Upward Trends In many of the indie author communities I’m involved in, there definitely seem to be other times where authors gripe more about slow sales and give praise for great sales.  In general, August and September seem to be better months, starting an overall upward trend for the next several months leading into the holiday season which peaks in January. Downward Trends February begins the slow slide downward bottoming out in July. Many authors have said that July is traditionally their worst month, which matches my sales reports for 2011 and 2012.  Best Sales Month Whereas, historically December is the best month.  This trend seems to have changed since 2010 as more eReaders are given as gifts for the holidays and for two years in a row, Kindles were Amazon’s top sellers during the holiday season.(2)  For me, January was my best month in 2012 and 2013, following a strong December.  I think many other authors see high sales in January for this same reason. Responding to the Trends What are the take-a-ways?  Be prepared for slow sales in the dog days of summer (June & July).  Realize that competition is fiercer during these months.  Consider ramping up paid advertising to find new readers, so they purchase your books instead of another author’s.Another good time for a solid marketing campaign is the last week of December and first two weeks of January.  Make sure those new eReaders get filled with your books.Throughout the rest of the year, persistence is critical.  Keep up with your routine marketing efforts like social media advertising, guest blog posts, author interviews, and periodic paid advertising.  Vary your marketing so you are constantly looking for new readers. Sales Tracking is Critical If you are not already doing so, start tracking your sales on a monthly basis.  Keep each year’s reports on a different tab on an Excel spreadsheet.  Then have a summary sheet so you can compare monthly totals side by side year over year.  By tracking your sales you can identify seasonal sales trends as well as poor performing titles or retailers.Certain things, like KDP Select or new releases, can skew your numbers.  For example, in January 2012, I jumped on the KDP Select bandwagon.  That month remains my best overall month, but it was largely due to a loop hole in Amazon’s algorithm where free books were given equal weight as sold books.  That loop hole was closed in March 2012 and sales stabilized after that.  Despite the wild success of January 2012, when I still had high sales in January 2013 (without KDP Select), I was more willing to identify that as an overall trend. Your Thoughts? We invite you to take a minute to weigh in.  Have you observed similar trends in your sales?  Or have you noticed something entirely different?  Were there extenuating circumstances that contributed to a particularly good month?  Have you tried anything that was successful to help boost sales in slow months during the summer time?Take a minute to share your thoughts below.
Learn more about pricing, distribution, and the other keys to book marketing success in Karen’s new book for authors, 10 Keys to eBook Marketing Success.  Now available on Amazon .
Best-selling self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  To learn more about her novels visit her website:  karenbaney.com .  Authors can find tips and information on self-publishing and marketing at:  www.myauthorservices.com .
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Sources:(1) http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/10/08/the-cycles-of-book-sales/(2) http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/55721-amazon-e-book-sales-soared-print-crawled.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=3069f6c3f6-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email