Beyond the Bestseller Dream: The Realities of Selling Books in 2025
The New Rules of Publishing: Selling Smarter, Marketing Better, and Owning Your Success
Working in publishing, specifically in publishing marketing, has taught me that most authors live in delusion.
I mean no offense when I say that because I, too, lived in delusion. I had the best-selling author dream where I thought I would get a big publishing deal, tour the country, appear at all the bookstores, sell millions of copies, have my books turned into a movie, and become a millionaire.
Simple, right? No!
85% of published authors will never experience the best-selling author dream all authors have because they will never sell more than a couple thousand copies of their book in their lifetime. After all, most authors just want to write. Which is okay, but being a published author in 2025 is more than just writing a great book. And it’s definitely more than the best-selling author dreams we all have.
Being an author in 2025 means you must be a marketer regardless of the avenue in which you publish your book, traditionally or independently.
Many authors rely on traditional book sales through bookstores and online retail opportunities. Many authors haven’t succeeded because they hyper-focus on these avenues instead of diversifying and understanding that their selling power lies with them.
When you traditionally publish, you usually have about 3 months (A quarter) worth of marketing effort from your publisher before they move on to the next book launch. After that period, most authors’ book sales drop until the next book launch or until they put effort into the marketing.
When you independently publish, you have to handle marketing from the start. However, most indie authors have traditionally published goals and try to mimic traditional marketing practices. They, too, end up hyper-focusing on bookstores and online retailers, mainly Amazon.
Pro-Marketing Tip: You should be thinking about your marketing strategy during the writing and editing process because you should be writing to your specific audience. And before you argue with me, every book has an audience. As an author, it’s your job to write to them and find them so you can market that you wrote a book they would love because when you focus on your audience, you are guaranteed sales.
As an author in 2025, you must think outside the traditional publishing mindset to sell books and build a brand.
First, your book is your art, yes, and a piece of your soul, but it’s also a product that needs to be sold. A product that has a specific audience because, no, not everyone will want to read your book, but your audience will.
The first step is decentering other retailers to sell your book.
No, I don’t mean you should go out and pull your products from the shelves; I mean, don’t share those links when promoting your book. When talking about your book, your go-to shouldn’t be you can find it on X, Y, or Z; it should be you can find it on my website.
When talking to the public about your book, always direct them to your website, not to other retailers, even if you don’t handle the fulfillment yourself.
If you handle the fulfillment, you should want the sale more than other retailers. If you don’t handle the fulfillment, have the buy buttons go to your preferred outside retailer, but the traffic goes through your website. Both options allow you to drive traffic through your website and build your brand if you are interested in a mailing list or followers. And if you’re an author in 2025, you should be building a brand around your authorship.
If you have copies of your book in your possession and a website, you should be selling directly from your website. In the beginning, handling your fulfillment won’t be too hectic, and when and if it becomes overwhelming, you can switch the buy button to an outside retailer. I suggest this because authors should get the most profit from their art, and this is the best way. Also, you don’t have to wait for your profit if you’re a traditional published author. This is how you put your selling power back into your control.
The second step is decentering online promotion as your main form of promotion.
Most people rely on online marketing as their primary form of promotion and they are leaving so much money on the table by not looking elsewhere, especially when you’re first starting out.
As a new author in 2020, I sold 1300 copies of my first book in 3 months. One thousand of those sales came from me selling directly to the buyer in person. Boots on the ground, a table, and face-to-face contact got me those sales.
To date, I have sold over 10,000 copies of my own books (6) and around 5,000 copies for other diverse authors (Liberate Your Bookshelf Bookstore). All of those sales were made in person.
Online sales will never beat in-person sales unless you have a vast platform, and even then, likes don’t equal sales.
You should be vending at in-person events. Bringing your book to your audience is my motto. And when I say in-person events, I don’t mean the local book fair where you compete with other authors to sell the same product type; I mean every event that calls for vendors to sell products you should be signing up for. This can include farmers’ markets, music festivals, and local block parties.
Part of knowing your audience is understanding where they show up in the world and you showing up there, too.
Invest in some event setup (table, banner, table cloth) and walk away merchandise (flyer, business cards, or author brochures) and start your in-person event journey. No, it won’t be easy. Yes, you will have to step out of your comfort, but it will be worth it once you start connecting with your audience in real-time.
Nothing beats selling your in-person on nothing but vibes and passion. If you haven’t done it, you are definitely missing out.
The third step is forming a strategy that combines consistent online and offline promotion.
Ultimately, you should be doing a mix of online and offline sales. Start slow and build as you go. I recommend committing to one in-person event a month and one post a day about your book or the themes around your book. Once you get into a groove, you should be introduced to a mailing list, but that is a different blog post!
To wrap it up in a little bow, direct sales quickly get you to the money, and no one takes a cut but you.
