What to do when your book sales are slow…

By Sharon Fussell, July 30, 2015

It’s the end of July and what a bizarre month it’s been: first a heat wave and then days and days of rain. Oh well, that’s British weather for you!

In my experience, I find that British weather is a little bit like book sales: unpredictable and changeable. This month alone, some days have seen orders that have been two or three times higher than usual and I have no idea why that should be.

I just try to ‘make hay when the sun shines’, so to speak, and make the most of the flood of sales, the good days making up for some slower days.

That’s how book selling works: sales are sometimes slow and other days they pick up, for no apparent reason.

I have been selling books on Amazon and eBay for ten years now, and it’s always been the same.

Some days I begin to panic when sales drop alarmingly: I feel as though they may never pick up again. I start to look for reasons. Has my feedback dropped? Can buyers see my stock? Have eBay or Amazon blocked my listings from view!?

All very silly! Usually within a few days sales pick up again and it’s all as usual again.

So why do sales fluctuate? Is there anything you can do to try and keep sales consistent, or even increase them?

Here are a couple of things I do to ensure to optimise conditions for sales…

Pricing – I always keep prices refreshed. Go to your inventory and adjust prices: you will be surprised how a little tweak here and there can increase sales.

Feedback – If you do have any negative or neutral comments driving your rating down, see if Amazon or eBay will remove them – if you deem them unfair. If they refuse, try emailing the customer and requesting they remove the feedback.

Let’s hope the summer improves into August… Sales in August can be very good, especially if you have study books ready to list.

There are lots of teachers and students looking for research and study books before returning to school, college and uni – so make the most of that in the coming weeks.