Selling books in an oversaturated publishing market

I’m writing today’s post for all my Indie author friends out there in the writing community who have ever wavered, or given up on their writing. Recently I had brunch with a writer friend who has decided, for the foreseeable, to quit her writing. She also sells crocheted and hand-knitted clothes and toys at craft fairs, and feels they sell much better than her books. I asked my friend if she minded me writing about her story – keeping her info anonymous, of course, as per her wishes – and she agreed, in the interest of helping out the writing community.

My friend confided that she had only sold a handful of books last year; not enough to keep her motivated. She doesn’t do active promotion of her books, other than occasional posts on social media, and selling a few copies at fairs alongside her knitted/crocheted crafts.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post called motivation to write when it’s not about the money. I still pretty much feel the same way about writing as I did in that post two years ago: that my motivation comes from writing and sharing my stories with the world. My first drafts are always for me. If I thought about selling books at that stage, I might quickly get overwhelmed and lose my motivation.

I hope this post doesn’t come across as preachy. I can’t change another author’s feelings about their reasons for writing, or for putting their writing aside in favour of more lucrative work. I totally understand that, as someone who relies on a full-time day job to pay the bills. My friend is a stay at home mum, and said she feels thankful to have time to make and sell amazing crafts. Personally, I cannot knit even a plain scarf without dropping several stitches, never mind something as complicated as a toy, or an elaborate cardigan (one can wish). I could only dream of being as talented as my friend. My level of knitting skills remains rudimentary despite trying hard for well over a year.

My friend is accomplished at both crafting and creative writing. I’m sad that she has decided to give up the latter. I confided in her my motivation for the publishing side of producing books – not the creative writing side, which I have mentioned above. It is a simple philosophy that has kept my spirits up: if, in any given month, I sell even ONE copy of ONE of my books to a new reader, then I am happy. One new reader is another person who is now aware of my work. One new reader means I have extended my audience by one person.

Does that sound sad? Maybe for some people, but not for me. That is my baseline for happiness in my Indie author business. My friend asked me what would happen if I sold zero books in any given month. I explained that if I had ONE Kindle Unlimited page read for any of my books instead, then that would mean someone out there in the world has downloaded my book. I would still feel happy and motivated to continue publishing my books. If I sold zero books and had zero page reads, hypothetically? I would still continue writing, as I write for my own enjoyment, but I might have to go back to the drawing board to do more marketing and advertising research. With so many traditional and self-published books out there, marketing is the hardest part of reaching readers in an already oversaturated market. It’s even harder for Indie authors, as brick and mortar bookstores often won’t stock self-published books as they already have so many new titles from the big publishers.

It makes me feel sad when the publishing and marketing side of book production stops an author doing what they love, especially when they are talented at the creative writing side. I suppose the point of my post is that, if you have a talent for something, please don’t give up. Let it take a back bench while you pursue other more lucrative pursuits, but please revisit it later. I have very little hope of ever selling my knitting, but I haven’t stopped. I do it because I enjoy it, not because I hope to ever make money from it. I make some money from my writing. The amount varies each year, but is increasing overall as the years pass, but I’m not motivated by royalties. I’m motivated by my enjoyment of the creative writing process, and I only ever think about the publishing and marketing side only once I have a book ready that I’m happy with.

Keep going with what you love, talented writers. There’s a gap in that oversaturated publishing market and your books fit nicely in that space!