What Are Average Book Sales Numbers?
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Writing a book for the first time is an exciting, rewarding process. But when it comes to the actual sales of your book, it can be difficult to know what you should expect in terms of average book sales. There’s no one-size-fits all answer when it comes to average book sales figures, but with a bit of research and insider knowledge, you can get a better idea of where you might fall in terms of book sales numbers.
Genre Matters for Average Book Sales
The book genre and target audience of your project plays a significant role in the average number of books that are sold. Additionally, within each genre, there are subcategories that can also affect how many books are sold. For example, romance novels typically sell better than science fiction novels. But this is a broad generalization, since books can also go viral on BookTok or otherwise take off. Then the average book sales expectations go out the window.
Certain projects will have niche appeal or be issued by a small publisher or self-published. These tend to have more modest average book sales numbers. But even nonfiction and fiction published by a big traditional publisher can flounder. It’s not unusual to see a project from a major press sell fewer than 1,000 copies in its first year.
Size and Series Matters for Average Book Sales
Book size is also an important factor in determining average book sales. Longer books are bigger in terms of physical space or cost to download the ebook, and usually require more time and effort from readers, so they often move a bit more slowly than shorter books do, and are more expensive to produce, ship, warehouse, and stock on bookstore shelves.
If you’re publishing a book series, your average book sales might look different than they do for a standalone, as you are not just thinking about how many copies of the first book have sold, but of the entire series. Readership does tend to either dwindle or grow as a series progresses. If the series is doing well, more and more people will read through the entire thing. If it’s doing poorly, the average book sales for the third book will demonstrate a decrease of interest.
Social Media and Word-of-Mouth Matter
Social media and word-of-mouth are also important factors when looking at average book sales numbers. Having an active presence using a social media platform for writers allows authors to connect with potential readers and build relationships with their fans that could lead to more book sales down the line. Additionally, word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. If people like your book, they’ll tell their friends about it—and those friends will likely buy your book too! That’s what writers try to replicate with influencer marketing campaigns, and by sending out advance copies to garner blurbs and book reviews.
At the end of the day, there is no one definitive answer as far as what average book sales will be—it depends on several factors including genre, size, using social media for writers, and word-of-mouth recommendations from other readers who love your work. However, by researching industry averages and working hard on promotion efforts such as increasing your online presence or engaging in word-of-mouth campaigns through interviews or reviews from influencers in your niche market segmentation—you can get a better idea about how many copies you might expect to sell upon launch. That’s not to say your average book sales can’t increase over time. Some “sleeper hits” have taken off years after publication and enjoyed a long life on shelves.
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