What if your book isn't selling? How to decide if a book is a failure or a success? And what to do!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Can you believe it? Over 500 sales before release day shocked me! If you'd like to get a copy of this beautiful book, you can grab it here: books2read.com/thequeensrise

[@marygracewriting]

I think the fact that the Queens Rise is an omnibus is also a huge factor in how many pre orders you would get. Not everyone who has already read the books as single copies is going to be interested. Omnibuses are a bit of their own market. Honestly, I think its doing AMAZING even without the ingram sparks number. (What a blessing) Also, I really enjoyed the individual books.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

I absolutely agree, it's definitely harder to sell an omnibus for that reason and more! Thank you so much!!

[@Donna_K_Kahelin]

You have helped me so much on my journey. I bought the Queen's Rise and I am waiting with anticipation!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yayyy thank you Donna! So excited for you to get it and hope you love the story! :D

[@donnegalgordon]

That is so amazing! I honestly can't wait for my book to come in the mail and I am counting the days! :) Excited to see how the numbers keep performing for you too!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Woohoo!! I'm so excited for you to get it too, I can't wait to hear what you think! Thank youuu! :D

[@Falconlibrary]

I can deal with failure. It's success that scares me.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

That's fair! But something to face head on, just like failure! :)

[@arzumardalieva3874]

I feel the same!)) Success is scary 😂

[@mirimariana]

It's the fear of loosing that success for me. Imagine if your first book does so well, but then noone reads the second one...omg 😭

[@Jaime-f2k]

That is a beautiful cover. I can only imagine how great your sales will be when it is released. Your videos have helped and encouraged me so much over the last couple years. I published a Christmas book (under my pen name) in December 2022. Almost nothing happened with it, but I didn't give up on it. The next Christmas season I did a Freebooksy/Fussy Librarian promo (on a year-old book), and now it's my most popular book (out of 9 novels). A novella I wrote (20,000 words) taught me the opposite lesson. To give up on it right away because it just didn't work. :-)

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay thank you so much, and I’m so glad to hear that! How cool that the promo helped it take off unexpectedly, I love stories like that! 🥳🎉

[@mycuprunnethover8062]

I’d be ecstatic over 7 preorders! I have 3 books out and only a total of 20 sold (hitting 20 was actually exciting to me lol) You’re an amazing author and incredibly successful. Don’t let numbers knock you down!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you so much!

[@marcusappelberg369]

How are you doing now? What are your books about? :)

[@sirenxoxo3]

This video was such a wild ride! Lol. I'm having the exact same experience with my debut. Only got 2 ebook pre-orders on kdp but over 70 hardcover sales through Ingram. I felt this video on another level haha. Congratulations on all those orders at the end 🎉!!!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Haha glad you enjoyed it! And glad I'm not the only one who had such a weird discrepancy between the different formats haha!

[@AuthorJenniferKrigbaum]

Omg Bethany that’s amazing!! Congratulations!! 🎉🎉🎉 I hope you found a way to treat yourself for such a wonderful accomplishment! ☺️

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you so much Jen!! I'm super excited and will probably treat myself with a nap and a mocha LOL!

[@isabellajuanitalyn]

This is so insightful and it's really put into perspective the whole idea of failure for me, especially in life terms.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

So glad you enjoyed it!

[@silverknight1966]

Those who got my book, loved it. It's getting people to get the book in the first place. Marketing

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yayyy that's awesome! Yes that definitely sounds like the book is a winner and it's maybe something to do with the packaging that isn't reaching your ideal readers - the book's packaging (cover/description/etc) is your very first marketing tool so that's a good place to start investigating! :)

[@silverknight1966]

@@BethanyAtazadeh I just got a new blurb ... A new cover for the paperback, and republish it is my plan this week. Then work on a good blurb for book 2. I published book 1 and 2 within a week of each other... I wrote book 2 during a delay getting book 1 out. Have book 3 in beta read status, and started drafting book 4

[@coffee_cookies_books]

Congratulations on the sales. From the beginning of the video to the end, I was so happy for you. And thanks for the Net Galley co-op. I'm definitely going to contact them!!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay! Thank you so much!! And absolutely, I hope you have an awesome experience with it!

[@BruceWayne15325]

Hi Bethany. One thing that can help is to run an ad campaign and look at the numbers. I don't mean the sales. If you don't get many clicks, then that tells you that either your book is in the wrong genre, or that it needs a new cover. If your book gets lots of clicks, but no one is buying it, then that tells you that your blurb (or alpha content) need work. I can relate with your debut novel. My debut wasn't even planned to be published. I just wrote it as a gift for my wife. It wasn't in the genre I normally write in. I was writing for her, not me. It was also no where near where my current writing is at today. I had never bothered to edit a novel until then, and I learned so much from that process. While my debut was a total donkey, and I plan on delisting it before I publish my next novel (so I can start with a clean slate in my genre of choice) I don't think of it as a failure, but as a growing experience. Every book I've written has improved me as an author. Failure is literally the path to perfection.

[@writerscarlettlarsson]

But donkey book sounds so cute tho 🥺🤣

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Hehe it does, doesn't it! Love that!

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

Only just discovered your channel. I'm an unpublished author still on my journey to getting published, and so far I think the videos you've made are giving some good advice. So, subscribed.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay so glad to hear the videos have been helpful, thank you!

[@SDHegyes]

After seeing the IS numbers, does your opinion of it being a donkey book change? Because those numbers... WOW!!! That's amazing! And with it being an omnibus, which I think are harder to sell in the first place, those are definitely good numbers (to me). Congrats and happy release!

[@JanetteGellarRomanceAuthor]

congratulations!! You did work hard for it. I say that because multiple times you said that you hadn't done enough for the book and I think especially with the upcoming baby and the pregnancy you've worked hard and done what you could.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you Janette, I really appreciate that a lot!!

[@alexwholey3391]

Great video ❤ I was looking at my sales for my books overall since I began two years ago, and realised mine are donkey books. There were a lot of orders when they were in KU but only when they were on free promotion. I don’t know if this means people got them because they were free.

[@MissShembre]

The cover is so pretty! I'm so happy for your that you've sold so many pre-orders!!!!!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay so happy you like it! Thank you so much!!

[@MediaAttorney]

Congratulations Bethany!! I'm excited for you!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you!!🥳🎉

[@5Gburn]

I know you've probably covered this before, but how did you get the dimensional gold tiara and earrings on the cover? I didn't think PODs offered that as an option.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Great question! That was through a company called 48 Hour Books, although there are other companies that do gold foiling as well! I talk about it in my three kickstarter videos, but can't remember which one lol, I think this one here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6W9iWeZqbqdfpY

[@Fr0stGenesis]

As a small-time author, one day I hope to have my own "good panic attack" moment like you did at the end there.

[@classicaljg]

My debut collection of short stories is currently sitting at 3 pre-orders - fingers crossed it's because I'm not good at marketing and not because people just really aren't interested... (it's ghost stories so I'm hoping there is a market for short stories in that genre!)

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Good luck with preorders! But also remember my experiences I mentioned in this video, a collection of short stories isn't a standard novel so in my experience they can be amazing but still be a little harder to sell - doesn't make it bad, just more difficult to market. You've got this!

[@classicaljg]

@@BethanyAtazadeh Thank you! :D I'm just keeping everything crossed I'm not the only person craving some new ghost story collections 😆

[@sherimoon]

Such a good video. Thank you for it! But what if the donkey book is the first in a saga? Where you need to read all the books to get the overall story? Wrute book 2 and it even sells worse? Do you continue the saga or quit and publish a standalone or new series?

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay thank you! If book one isn't selling well, the rest in a series naturally won't either because no one will get past book one. So you could use my tips in this video about whether to improve or let it go, based on your investigations. Good luck, you've got this!

[@sherimoon]

@@BethanyAtazadeh I know. That's where I'm scared of. A few readers will love book one and will be upset if the series dont continue. But it makes no sense to publish book 2 if the first one is a donkey. :/

[@jeanshelbybooks]

Congrats on the IS number! I have a question about that. Libraries can go to IS it Sarra suggests strongly to not put the ebook on IS. If libraries want digital copies do they go through. One of the D2D libraries? Thanks!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thanks! I don't use Ingram for ebooks either. Yep D2D has lots of library options and I've talked to a librarian friend who said they work great. :)

[@jeanshelbybooks]

I’m SO glad to see this. Thanks!!!

[@jeanshelbybooks]

I took all 5 of my donkey books down earlier this year for new covers and fresh edits. I haven’t decided if that was such a good idea because My first republishing is still a donkey. 😅 The new ISBN process and getting all the first editions taken down has been quite an ordeal and I’m kind of regretting this decision but I’m in the thick of it and am going to see it through.

[@datprawn4850]

There are many reasons a book doesn’t sell, such as the ganre isn’t in, or that it will be picked up at the right time in years, even decades down the line. The biggest reason today we can all agree is TikTok and how it has given people, especially children, such short attention spans that watching something for a minute makes them stressed. Yes there’s Booktok that promotes book, but from what I’ve heard it does more harm than good.

[@TheTAlanHorne]

You made important points, but I would remind you to consider how a book's sales do not occur in a vacuum. For one thing, the number of books an author has published has a cumulative effect. Authors with many books under their belt are more likely to get attention for their latest release. The process also works in reverse. Publishing new books can spike the sales of older ones. Ascribing a book's sales wholly to the marketability of that one book is not the greatest kind of analytics. A more "big picture" approach creates better prediction models for authors. I suspect the preorder success of THE QUEEN'S RISE is largely contingent on how the strength of your backlist contributes to each successive release (though your cover is doing its job; no argument there). Thanks for being one of the better author channels on KZbin.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Ahhh I didn't even think about mentioning backlist, but you make a very good point. Of course, it depends on if the backlist is good or not (my first few books weren't that great haha)... You could also say not only does backlist factor in but so does size of audience-the more someone has poured effort into building their readership, the more they will have target readers excited to buy too! But thank you, so glad you enjoyed the video! :)

[@alyssaheck8750]

That’s amazing!!! How do you do Ingram and D2D preorders?

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thanks Alyssa! You set the book up on those platforms with a release date and once you press "publish" it goes on preorder. :)

[@moonykmi]

Loved this video! Thank you for sharing ❤

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you! So happy you liked it!

[@jeanshelbybooks]

I took all 5 of my donkey books down earlier this year ( 0 sales) for new covers and fresh edits. I haven’t decided if that was such a good idea because My first republishing is still a donkey. 😅 The new ISBN process and getting all the first editions taken down has been quite an ordeal and I’m kind of regretting this decision but I’m in the thick of it and am going to see it through.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Aw man five books at once is a lot, I can relate! I remember revamping The Stolen Kingdom covers was super overwhelming and I didn't even take them down, just had to swap covers, so I feel for ya! Hope that the experience will be worth it and good luck with investigating what's working/what isn't! :)

[@brookelinder]

In complete honesty, I binged all 3 of them when the 3rd part came out. The first was hard to read until somewhere in the middle-ish. The 2nd was good and the 3rd broke my heart in a good way. As a whole, part 3 made it worth it. I remember the Kickstarter when you released The Queens Rise, and I wanted to order it so bad since I had been reading it on Kobo. I just didn't because with 6 kids, I had no money. With the economy as it is, I'd say it's because books are an extra in life, not because of the book or covers. A Kobo or Kindle subscription is more doable for most who can't afford to buy the actual book right now. (That said, I bought The Stolen Kingdom Collectors Edition omnibus for my daughters birthday and just The Stolen Kindom for my niece on her birthday. Probably why I couldn't order The Queens Rise)

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Oooh you make a good point, the economy absolutely plays a huge role in decisions as well! I totally get that! But yayyy I'm so so happy to hear you binged the series and that you got The Stolen Kingdom omnibus and regular books as gifts as well, thank you so much for sharing!

[@dienercontent6872]

When it comes to rewriting, it makes very little sense to massively rewrite a stand alone, but I know several authors who have successfully rewritten the first or second book in a larger series because it wasn't selling well enough to continue the series. To me, that's really the only time to massively rewrite.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yes I agree, a standalone being rewritten wouldn't help much but a book in a series could make a huge difference like mine did! :)

[@Sara-gp6cf]

Congratulations 🎉 Enjoy your unicorn book. ❤

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yay thanks Sara! 🥰

[@CM_Marquez008]

Congratulations, that's amazing! 🎉

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you so much! 😀

[@heatherkirchhoffwritesya]

Looking forward to the next video! Keep in mind: Some people might be waiting for Christmas or birthday! :) l can't wait to order my copy!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you! :D Very good point, that makes total sense. And woohoo I can't wait for you to get it!

[@LFlowers36-o3p]

I’m in the process of changing my cover as my debut has been disastrous 😂

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

My debut cover needed to be changed too, you’re not alone! It’s pretty common honestly, it’s just how we learn. :)

[@woodlandlady7011]

Hi Bethany! I pre-ordered the hardback copy

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yayyy thank you so much, I'm so excited for you to get it!!! :D

[@xXMoonlightQueridaXx]

Congratulations Bethany!!

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank youuu! :D

[@bryanhughes5470]

Love that cover.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you so much! :D

[@simonwoodward-pe8uv]

Probably an impertinent question - do you have a fulltime job, or is authoring and marketing your fulltime job?

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

That’s fine to ask. I’d like to call myself a “full time” author but I also am “full time” KZbin and a “full time” mom to a toddler and soon a second baby. So my actual work time spent on all my work (including but def not limited to the books) is about a two hour nap window when my toddler sleeps lol

[@aquilawatercolor]

I have unicorn paintings and donkey paintings. 🤓 ps Eilie is your biggest fan ❤

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Haha I love it, now I need to see both of them! Yayyy thanks Eilie and Jess!

[@J_International]

Great advice

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you!

[@davidstewart8796]

as always so open and honest about your wriring journey. You officially rockmore than Chris Fox now (sorry Chris).

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Haha thank you so much! And Chris is awesome!

[@martymcfly6411]

I write what i love and its an extension of me. Money isnt why i do it. I do it for the art. I am an artist first. If the world loves it or hates it makes me feel no different. I will never sell out my artistic integrity to make a buck.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

That’s a great perspective too!

[@woodlandlady7011]

Unicorns🦄and Donkey's 🐴🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Hehe I love it too lol!

[@tracy-marie]

Congratulations 🎊.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thank you! 🤗

[@DeeBlaregold]

Congratulations

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Thanks Dee! :D

[@kit888]

Could be the cover. Looks like one book. Readers who like omnibus collections might see the thumbnail and skip it. Good luck.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Yeah it could be worth adding a simple tagline that says “books 1-3”, you never know! But like I revealed in the video at the end, it’s actually selling super well so I might not need to!

[@LomisPlayground]

Anyone else watching this and realizing all 20 books you have out are donkeys 🤣😭

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Don't judge your hard work too harshly! But also, I hope the tips in this video will help if you do decide to try improving some to see if that helps! :)

[@alandavies3727]

Most books are donkey books! Without marketing you don’t stand any chance of success.

[@zrienkersh1475]

Also we’re in a recession.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

That’s very possible, I’m thankful it actually didn’t hurt the release at all as you’ll see!

[@authorjenn]

So I have a bunch of donkeys. :(

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

Hey I've been there! That's how a lot of my initial books started out - the key is to investigate WHY using the tips in this video and see if there are some easy improvements to be made! It can be fun! :D

[@zrienkersh1475]

Maybe because your cover looks like Ai art. People don’t like that.

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

I have a feeling you didn’t watch til the end? Because a lot of people actually love the cover, a large number actually ! And it’s not AI, I can guarantee that with many drafts from the artist. ;)

[@crystalrosenberger4221]

Hi Bethany, I know you love your cover, but the first thing I thought when I saw it was that the image seemed AI generated. This can be a turn off for some. Not trying to be the AI police, I just hope that’s not a problem for your sales. I enjoy your videos. Blessings to you!

[@nicoleporter1369]

It doesn't look AI generated to me, but that maybe because I watched the cover creation videos. What about it looks like AI to you?

[@Ika0713]

Nothing about it looks AI generated tho

[@BethanyAtazadeh]

It's definitely not AI generated, I got six different revisions from the artist who has now quit doing character art because AI took over and they don't feel like there's a place for them anymore. I know you mean well, but be careful what you judge AI, that could really hurt an author's career unfortunately. I also am curious what you think looks like AI - I don't know what you're seeing but all the stuff I've heard about AI looks nothing like this.

[@crystalrosenberger4221]

@@BethanyAtazadeh Please know I wasn’t trying to offend. I know it’s not AI from watching your videos, and I didn’t say it was either. Something about it, maybe the eyes or style makes me think of AI generated stuff I’ve seen. I wanted to share that with you in a constructive way. If I thought it, maybe others might, too.

[@kimberlymiller566]

I actually thought the same thing until watching the BTS videos of the cover process. I’ve seen so many character art pictures made with AI that have this same look - a shiny/shimmery quality, ultra symmetrical facial structure, and somewhat generic style (like the pictures could all be essentially the same person, they don’t seem to bring a specific character to life). That’s the frustrating thing about AI being on the scene now, not only is it stealing jobs from artists but it’s also muddying the waters so it can sometimes be hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.