“My book’s been out for three weeks, but I haven’t sold nearly as many as I thought I would by now! What’s wrong?”

I hear this repeatedly from authors — in person, via email, online.

Somehow, many authors have been brainwashed into thinking that if they don’t sell thousands of books in the first few weeks of publication, that all is lost.

It’s hopeless.

They’ll never sell another book again.

Discouraged and disappointed, they stop doing anything to support, market, or promote their books.

They just give up.

What many instructors don’t understand about books

I don’t think anyone is teaching this, though. It’s more likely that authors are seeing that online course instructors are completely focused on how to launch a book, ignoring what comes later.

This could be because many popular book marketing training programs were created by people who are internet marketers. They treat books like online products, which tend to sell the best only when they’re new. It’s that whole “scarcity” concept — “The cart is closing now!”

With many digital products such as book marketing courses, you can only buy the product for a limited time.

That’s hardly the case with books. I wonder if many course creators miss that point.

But just because internet marketers don’t try to sell their online training programs and other digital products once they’re not “new” anymore doesn’t mean you should take that approach with your books.

The long tail

In general, books don’t become wildly popular overnight. For book sales, there’s what’s often referred to as a “long tail.” A lot of products sell slowly, in small quantities, for a long time (hence, a “long tail”).

In contrast, a relatively small number of books are immediate best-sellers.

Those that do skyrocket to the top quickly are nearly always from traditional publishers that are supporting the titles with significant marketing budgets. And with the exception of a few debut authors, the best-sellers are often written by established writers.

Penguin’s campaign for Celeste Ng’s second book, Little Fires Everywhere, is an excellent example. Marketing started months before publication date and included a major ad campaign.

Why would you expect the same results without those resources? The average author simply doesn’t receive this level of publisher support. Because of that, it’s clearly unrealistic to expect sales that match those of household-name authors in the first few weeks of publication.

Amazon category best-seller status is deceptive

Oh, sure, you can orchestrate an Amazon category best-seller campaign (that’s an affiliate link for a free e-book that tells you how to do it). But you know that hitting number one in a category isn’t the same thing as being a true best-seller. You can sell fewer than 10 books in one day and become a category best-seller for a short time.

The only real reason for working toward category best-seller status is bragging rights.

Authors aren’t complaining to me about not reaching that goal, though. They’re complaining that they haven’t sold hundreds or thousands of books as soon as their books are introduced.

It rarely works that way. Instead, many books become true best-sellers over time because of good word-of-mouth.

Why book marketing requires patience

In order for people to talk about your book, they have to read it. Most of us don’t read a book as soon as we buy it — your book gets added to a stack of others waiting to be read, or sits on an e-reader. (Right now, I’m reading a book I purchased a year ago!)

Readers will get to to your book eventually. When they do, they’ll tell others about it if they love it. It takes time for them to discover, buy, read, and recommend your book.

If you’ve got a huge publisher behind you who distributes hundreds of advance review copies in an effort to build buzz before, during, and after your book launch, you’re very lucky.

But if you’re the average author, whether you’ve used a traditional, hybrid, or self-publishing model, you need to be in it for the long haul — or tail.

Success doesn’t happen overnight. You need to be patient.

Adjust your expectations, then keep marketing long after the launch.

Ride that long tail to publishing success.

What have you been doing to promote your book beyond that launch window?

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s Awesome Gang, “where awesome book readers meet awesome writers.”

This site, run by an author, offers a number of opportunities for book exposure. They range from getting listed on the site to author interviews (you interview yourself) and social media mentions.

There’s no charge for any of this. For a mere $10, though, you can get your book featured on Awesome Gang’s home page and be guaranteed a spot in its social media promotion.

Learn more at AwesomeGang.com.