Advice for writers
for writers
How to Get Readers to Buy Your Book: Turning Discovery Into Sales
What Reader Behavior Can Teach Authors About Creating More Book Buyers
Someone can read your book without buying a new copy—they might discover it at the library, borrow it from a friend, buy it used, pull it from a shelf at home, or access it through a subscription service. If you’re wondering how to get readers to buy your book, that gap between readership and sales is the place to start.
A recent Authors Guild and Codex Group study illustrates the gap. Among the print books and ebooks consumed by surveyed active readers during the previous month, 19 percent had been purchased new and another 6 percent accessed through a paid subscription. Libraries, used books, personal collections, and other sources accounted for the rest.
Authors have limited control over where someone gets a book once they want to read it. They have much more influence over why someone wants to own a copy, how easily that person can purchase it, and whether a reader stays connected long enough to buy the next one.
Quick Answer: How to Get Readers to Buy Your Book
Give the right readers a clear reason to want the book, a reason to own their own copy, and an easy path to purchase it.
That means building awareness among people likely to care about the book, communicating its value clearly, removing unnecessary friction from the buying process, and maintaining a direct relationship with readers after they discover you.
Libraries, recommendations, subscriptions, and borrowed books can all introduce an author to new readers. Your marketing should give those readers somewhere to go next.
Reading a Book and Buying a Book Are Different Behaviors
The Authors Guild and Codex Group surveyed active readers—people who had read at least one book in the previous month and at least four in the previous year—and asked where the books they consumed had come from.
For print books and ebooks:
➜ 19% were bought new
➜ 6% came through paid subscriptions
➜ 29% were borrowed from public libraries
➜ 10% were bought used
➜ 19% came from readers’ existing collections
➜ 16% came from other free sources, including borrowing from others and piracy
Those figures describe books consumed, rather than the percentage of readers who ever purchase books.
Someone who borrowed one novel this month may have bought several books at another point. A reader pulling an older title from a personal collection may have purchased it years ago. A library reader may discover an author through a borrowed book and purchase the next release.
The practical takeaway is simple: when determining how to get readers to buy your book, earning attention and earning a new sale are separate steps.
Library Readers Can Become Long-Term Readers
The same Authors Guild/Codex study found that active library members read more books than nonmembers. That makes library readers especially valuable for discovery and word of mouth.
A library borrow can introduce your work to someone who later:
➜ buys another book in the series
➜ purchases a gift copy
➜ attends an event
➜ joins your email list
➜ recommends the book to another reader
➜ leaves a review
➜ requests your next title
➜ buys a signed or special edition
The larger opportunity is to give readers a clear way to stay connected after they finish the book.
Give Readers a Reason to Choose the Book
A purchase begins with attention.
For most authors, that starts with positioning. A reader should quickly understand:
Who is this book for?
What kind of experience will it give me?
Why should I choose this one?
For fiction, the answer may come through genre, premise, emotional promise, tropes, atmosphere, or recognizable read-alikes.
For nonfiction, it may be the problem solved, expertise offered, question answered, transformation promised, or subject explored.
Generic marketing weakens that distinction. “A moving story about love and loss” competes with thousands of books. “A gothic family mystery set inside a decaying seaside hotel” gives a particular reader something much more specific to respond to.
Before trying to persuade more people to purchase your book, make sure the right people can immediately see why they might care about it.
Give Readers a Reason to Own the Book
Some books naturally invite ownership. Readers annotate them. Refer back to them. Display them. Give them as gifts. Collect every edition in a favorite series.
Authors can strengthen that impulse!
Make the Physical Book Desirable
Depending on the book and publishing model, ownership incentives might include:
➜ signed copies
➜ special editions
➜ attractive hardcover editions
➜ illustrations or maps
➜ bonus material
➜ bookplates
➜ bundled series
➜ companion journals or workbooks
The choice should suit the book and its readers. A professional reference book creates ownership value differently from a collector-oriented fantasy edition.
Give the Book Lasting Utility
Nonfiction authors can also make the book useful enough to revisit.
Checklists, exercises, reference material, diagrams, prompts, recipes, worksheets, or other material readers return to can strengthen the value of having a personal copy.
Ask: What makes this book worth keeping?
How to Get Readers to Buy Your Book: Make Purchasing Easy
Interested readers sometimes abandon purchases for very ordinary reasons.
They cannot find the right edition. The author’s website makes them hunt for the book. A social post creates interest without providing a buying path. A retailer page contains outdated information.
Check the route from interest to purchase yourself.
A reader who discovers you should be able to reach a page that provides:
➜ a clear description of the book
➜ cover and format information
➜ major retailer options
➜ direct-purchase options, where available
➜ audiobook or ebook options, where relevant
➜ one obvious call to action
Then link that page wherever readers regularly encounter you: your author website, newsletter, social profiles, email signature, event materials, and book back matter where appropriate.
Our broader guide to book marketing strategy covers the channels that can bring readers to that purchase point.
Build a Way to Reach Readers Again
One sale becomes more valuable when the reader remains connected to the author. An email list gives interested readers a voluntary way to hear from you again without depending entirely on a retailer or social platform to surface your next release.
Give readers a useful reason to subscribe. That might be:
➜ news about the next book
➜ bonus material
➜ a short story
➜ deleted scenes
➜ useful nonfiction resources
➜ event invitations
➜ behind-the-scenes material
➜ early notice of signed editions or launches
The goal is relevance. A smaller list of people who genuinely want your work can be more useful than a much larger audience gathered around something unrelated to your books.
Social media can support the same relationship, particularly when your readers already gather there. Our guide to the best social media platforms for authors can help you choose channels according to audience.
Use the First Book to Sell the Next One
Authors with more than one book have another opportunity: read-through.
A reader who discovers you through a library, subscription service, used bookstore, promotion, or borrowed copy may become a paying reader of later books.
Make that continuation easy. At the end of the book, include a concise path to:
➜ the next book in the series
➜ your complete book list
➜ your newsletter
➜ a relevant companion book
➜ your website
Series authors should pay particular attention to this. One new reader can generate several later purchases.
Standalone authors benefit too. Someone who loved one mystery, memoir, poetry collection, or history is already familiar with your work when the next book arrives.
Selling Direct Can Strengthen the Reader Relationship
Authors who control the necessary rights can also consider selling books directly through their own website or at events.
Depending on fulfillment costs and publishing arrangements, direct sales can provide:
➜ greater control over the buying experience
➜ customer information when readers consent to provide it
➜ opportunities for signed books and bundles
➜ flexibility around special editions or extras
➜ potentially stronger margins
A direct store works best when you already have a way to bring interested readers to it.
For many authors, broad retail availability supports discovery while direct sales create an additional option for readers who want something special or a closer connection with the author.
Make the Ask at the Right Moment
Book promotion works best when the purchase request follows naturally from reader interest.
After sharing an excerpt, tell readers where the book is available. When announcing publication, include the purchase link. At an event, have copies available. When someone finishes a sample, point directly to the full book. When a reader asks what to read next, give them a clear answer.
A good call to action helps an interested reader take the next step!
Look Beyond Unit Sales
Book sales matter, but they represent only one part of the reader relationship.
Depending on your goals, also watch:
➜ newsletter growth
➜ series read-through
➜ repeat customers
➜ direct-store conversion
➜ reviews
➜ event attendance
➜ library requests
➜ audiobook or subscription activity
➜ backlist sales when a new title launches
The Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey found that full-time authors reported median book income of $10,000 for 2022 and median combined income of $20,000 when other author-related work was included.
Those figures help explain why many professional authors build careers around more than the sales of a single title.
Setting realistic expectations for how many books you may sell also makes it easier to define what success should look like for your own book.
Build for Readers, Then Give Them Somewhere to Buy
A strong book-sales strategy connects discovery, ownership, purchasing, and long-term readership.
Make the book appealing to the right audience. Give readers reasons to want their own copy. Remove friction from the purchase. Then give people who enjoy the book a clear way to find you again.
Your publishing path affects how much control you have over pricing, distribution, direct sales, marketing, rights, and reader relationships. If you are comparing your options, our guides to how hybrid publishing works and how author royalties break down can help you evaluate the tradeoffs.
If you have a manuscript you are
ready to bring to readers,
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Get Readers to Buy Your Book
How do you get readers to buy your book?
Position the book clearly for a specific audience, communicate why that reader will want it, provide an easy route to purchase, and stay connected through an email list or other reader channel. Signed copies, special editions, useful extras, series bundles, and direct sales can also give readers stronger reasons to own a copy.
Why are people reading your book without buying it?
Readers get books from many sources, including libraries, subscriptions, used bookstores, friends, and personal collections. Give those readers a clear path from the book they are reading to your other work, newsletter, or next release.
Do authors get paid when libraries lend their books?
In the United States, compensation generally comes through the sale or licensing of the library copy rather than a per-loan payment for print books. Ebook and audiobook arrangements vary according to publisher, platform, license structure, and author contract.
Do authors make money from used book sales?
Authors generally receive no additional royalty when an individual physical copy is resold. Compensation was generated by the original sale of that copy.
How can you give readers a reason to buy instead of borrow?
Create ownership value that suits the book. Signed editions, attractive physical production, bonus material, bundles, reference features, workbooks, illustrations, or other elements readers want to keep can make purchasing more appealing.
Is an email list important for selling books?
An email list gives authors a direct way to reach readers who have chosen to hear from them. It can be especially useful around launches, subsequent books, events, and special editions. Engagement matters more than raw subscriber count.
Are library readers valuable to authors?
Yes. The Authors Guild/Codex study found that active library members read more books than nonmembers. Library discovery can lead to recommendations, newsletter subscriptions, future purchases, reviews, and readership of an author’s other books.
What should you track besides book sales?
Useful measures include newsletter signups, repeat purchases, series read-through, direct-store conversion, reviews, library interest, subscription reading, and backlist sales. Together, they show whether individual readers are developing into a continuing audience.
Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.