We all know how important writing a good story is. It’s because of this reason we spend most of our time honing our craft.

We read every single book that we can find about writing, and learn as much as we can about character development, plot, and writing a better dialogue.

Anything related to honing our writing chop perks us up.

Well, it makes sense why most of us spend most of our time honing our craft.

It’s the thing that helps move the needle on our book sale.

If we don’t write a good story, bad reviews will flood in, hurting our reputation and author brand in the process.

While it’s true that writing a good story is the key to getting readers to come back and buy anything you release, it’s not the only thing that can generate sales for you.

Don’t get me wrong. Writing a good story is important.

But you should be focusing on these things too if you want to be in this author business game for the long haul.

Why writing a good story doesn’t guarantee the book is going to do well, sales-wise

Let’s ponder this question for a moment – what gets people to buy your book in the first place?

Sure, you can say it’s because your book is well-written.

But here’s another question for you to ponder – how does your target audience know that the book is well-written if they’ve never even read the book?

Okay, you can say it’s through word-of-mouth that gets this reader to pick your book.

Even with that, it doesn’t guarantee this reader will continue to buy your book if it’s a series or whatever books you’re releasing.

Let’s exclude word-of-mouth from the equation for a second and come back to our second puzzle.

If you’re a brand new author and you don’t have a street team to spread the good words about your book, it’s impossible to know whether your book is a well-written book or not.

So, what gets this target audience of yours to pick your book over many books this person stumbled upon before you?

Well, the answer to that is your book cover.

A professionally designed book cover is the reason that got this person to stop and have a look at your book.

But will this person grab it and buy your book right away?

Sadly, the answer is no. This person will stop by and read the book description first before buying the book.

It’s only when this person finds your book intriguing that this person will buy your book right away.

Summing things up, your book cover and description are the reason that gets this person to pick your book over everybody else.

But there’s another thing that comes into play first before all those things fall into place.

The thing that steers your book sales in your direction

Like it or not, the one thing that makes a big difference to your book is none other than marketing.

Ah yes, that sleazy buzzword.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a traditionally published author or an indie author.

You have to spare some of your time to market your book too, not just write and publish the book.

Having a well-written book isn’t going to do anything to you if you don’t do anything to let people know about your book.

While having a professionally- designed book cover and enticing book description helps, it won’t move the sales needle either if you don’t let people know that your book exists.

The good thing about book marketing is that you don’t need to turn yourself into a sleazy car salesman to get people to buy your book.

And you don’t need to follow this one specific formula either just because this one author swears by it.

Just pick one or two from this list and stick with it.

Regardless of which book marketing strategies you pick, just be sure that building your email list is your utmost priority.

And that’s what I did. I cut down all the things I need to do to these two things – building an email list and blogging.

Do this thing as well while you’re at it

There’s a reason why building an email list is important – it’s the only way for you to have direct communication with your readers.

Sure, you can argue that you also have a direct connection with your social media followers.

But do you have your social media followers’ email addresses?

And how can you be so sure that your social media followers will see your book release announcement when the lifespan of your social media post is way shorter than the lunch that you get at the convenience store?

The answer to that question is you can’t unless you have their email address.

Internet marketers say the money is on the list for a reason.

It’s because it is.

And since we’re talking about owning your audience here, you may as well start thinking about owning your own platform.

Why is it important to own your platform, not just your audience?

Well, it’s simple. You don’t even own your social media followers, let alone your social media profiles.

If your social media profiles suddenly disappear or your followers are heading elsewhere like what happened to me with Tumblr, then you’ll lose contact with your followers for good.

When I say owning a platform, I basically mean having your own website.

If you’re not sure where to begin, you can take a look at my guide right here.

It’s not what you think

Your long-term success as an author goes way beyond just writing a good story.

Yes, your readers will come flocking to buy your books because of how much they enjoy reading your books.

And if you’re lucky, they may talk about your books to other people too.

But before you can reach that point, you need to get their attention first.

And the only way to do that is through marketing.

Should you care about it when you haven’t even published your first book yet?

Well, of course you should.

And you should care about marketing too even if you’re writing nonfiction.

Regardless of what kind of books you write, never neglect marketing. The unintended consequences are never good if you ignore it on your own perils.