Shocking! The vast majority of books make less than $100 a year

"The vast majority of books make less than $100 a year,” according to John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

Another book marketer says, "50% of the books published don't make even that much. In my experience, at least 90% of books will fail, maybe even 95-99%. Fail means the books earn less than $100 a year."

I find this shocking and totally unacceptable. Why? Well for one thing, why would an author spend so much time writing a book that never gets read?

Yet, there's a reason why most books never make more than $100. Most authors do NOTHING to market their books.

To me that's even more shocking. It's like, "Really?!?!?!" Come on! The books are not going to miraculously make it into the hands of the reader. You, the author, must be proactive in your approach.

I've been involved in the game of book marketing for a long, long time. And... every book I've written has made money. In some cases, lots of it.

Admittedly, I have been incredibly proactive in my approach to making sure my books get a lot of visibility.

One way to increase your chances of success is with a proper foundation on Amazon. There are three primary things you MUST do to get the greatest traction on Amazon.

You must:

1. Have a solid book description with appropriate keywords and search terms
2. Select the best categories for your book
3. Have a well-constructed Author Central page

All three of these will contribute to greater results in your book sales efforts.

Once you get your book on Amazon.com, now comes the fun part of marketing your book. There's lots of great ways to do this. One of my favorites is with a blog tour.

A Virtual Book Blog Tour is much like a traditional book tour, except the stops are all virtual. Instead of going from bookstore to bookstore, the author goes from blog to blog.
1. A virtual blog tour is a tour of various blogs and websites. It is recommended to post on blogs that have a similar readership as those who would be interested in your book.
2. A blog tour is a great opportunity for an author to reach high numbers of potential book buyers and readers.
3. A blog tour contains blog posts, interviews, reviews and/or guest posts that are posted to a series of blogs during a specific period of time.
4. A blog tour can be done live where the author actually visits each blog and answers questions by the host. You can also do a tour where your information is submitted ahead of time in order that you have greater reach without be restricted by the clock.
5. Virtual blog tours are a wonderful alternative to a “live” bookstore tour. There’s no travel involved and costs are minimal.
Don’t be like up to 95% (or more) of authors who never, ever make money with their books. Be in the tiny percentage of authors who go the distance and proactively promote your books. Not only will you gain lots of satisfaction knowing there are people out there who are enjoying your work, you will also likely make real money.