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Yesterday I sold more books than ever before!


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Yesterday I sold more books than I did during my best month of sales when selling as an Amazon affiliate -- just one day of sales.  Sales the day before that beat yesterday!

 

The surge in sales has been experienced by every indie bookseller I have spoken to.  After this post I will spend the next 10 to 12 hours processing book orders!  I went to bed too tired to process yesterdays outstanding orders -- that has never happened.  Customers, thankfully have been more than understanding -- this has simply been inspiring

 

One long term booksellers told me he has never seen anything like this in 50 years in the book business!  During my brief phone conversation with this brother I got more orders than I did during the entire month of May.

 

I could go one and describe in much more detail -- i just do not have the time.  I took the morning to update and add some website content.  I added a couple more bookstores to the site.  I also added audiobook excerpts to the top 10 selling books on AALBC (for just the past 4 days).  Most of these books are out of stock and on back order, but every customer I asked was more than happy to wait!

 

Here are the top 10 best selling books for the month of June (so far)!

 

  1. How to Be an Antiracist
  2. The Fire Next Time
  3. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  4. So You Want to Talk About Race
  5. Between The World And Me
  6. My Vanishing Country
  7. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
  8. Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches
  9. Their Eyes Were Watching God
  10. It’s Not All Downhill from Here

 

audio-book.jpg

 

Thanks to all AALBC's new customers; Now have to get to work to do 🙂

 

  

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Hi @Maurice Thanks so much for your business the best way to see how much it cost to ship would be to actually go through the process of placing the order.  The shipping cost will be calculated and you can then decide if you'd like to place the order.

 

If you have any difficulty or the option to ship abroad is not available let me know please -- thanks!

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17 hours ago, Troy said:

Hi @Maurice Thanks so much for your business the best way to see how much it cost to ship would be to actually go through the process of placing the order.  The shipping cost will be calculated and you can then decide if you'd like to place the order.

 

If you have any difficulty or the option to ship abroad is not available let me know please -- thanks!

Ok, that sounds good. My daughter has gone and ordered the book I originally wanted so I'm going to look for something else. Thanks.

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On 6/4/2020 at 1:58 PM, Troy said:

Yesterday I sold more books than I did during my best month of sales when selling as an Amazon affiliate -- just one day of sales.  Sales the day before that beat yesterday!

 

The surge in sales has been experienced by every indie bookseller I have spoken to.  After this post I will spend the next 10 to 12 hours processing book orders!  I went to bed too tired to process yesterdays outstanding orders -- that has never happened.  Customers, thankfully have been more than understanding -- this has simply been inspiring

 

 

@Troy Congratulations!  Overnight sensation more than 20 years in the making.  I'm kidding.  I congratulate you on staying the course. You don't just talk about you are about it and you were ready when the tide - scratch that,  Tsunami hit! Bravo!  Thank you!

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Hi @Mel Hopkins no book seller, I have spoken to, has ever witnessed anything like this before.

 

I was not totally prepared for the surge in books orders --  no one could have anticipated that kind of demand.  It put an strain on the entire book distribution chain no one is unaffected not even the big "a."

 

But you are right I was in a position to quickly scale to demand. The things I had working for me was,

  • The website was prepared for the traffic.  Thanks to a surge in traffic last year I was forced to upgrade my web server.
  • I ditched Amazon and began selling books directly (many new customers stated they chose AALBC because they'd rather support an indie book seller over Amazon) I simply would not have gotten the extra sales if I were still an Amazon affiliate. 
  • Access to credit. I could have brought a couple automobiles with what I spent on books in the last 10 days.
  • I was able to hire help quickly.
  • I had the time and energy to do this work. I worked every day since since May 28 at least 12 hours per day. One evening I had a few friends and tomorrow I'm taking completely off -- but that was it.  Yesterday I didn't even take time for dinner.
  • I'm technically capable and was able to quickly make changes to the website, like adding a feature to say when a book would be available.

Most of the problems I encountered was simply the availability of books.  Because of the pandemic, some books that are still in print, are simply unavailable to me.  Some publisher have been shut down until March. Distributors, printers, shipping companies are strained.  this all effects booksellers.

 

Virtually every customer has been completely understanding -- it has been amazing.

 

I do have to say there was once customer that gave me some grief....

 

A month after their order shipped (before the surge), I gave the customer their tracking code. They emailed and called complaining that their book has not yet arrived.  They should have gotten it in about a week (it was shipped media).  The tracking number indicated that the USPS lost the book in transit.  This is info the customer could easily see for themselves.  I was unaware of the lost package, because once I provide a tracking number I leave it up to the customer to get back to me.

 

Now during the pandemic everything is slower and lost packages happen occasionally. The customer was sent a new book, but they had to feed me the classic line, "This is why I don't like to deal with own-Black businesses." 

 

I know... I was floored too! 

 

I explained to the customer that you can't judge all Black-owned business based upon this single transaction with AALBC -- especially when the problem was caused by the United States Postal Service and I made good on the order.  If just seems to me that Black business are held to a much higher standard.

 

Literally every other customer has been a blessing. I was selling a hardcover of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, but the hardcover is unobtainable right now.  I went back to customers, and offered to send them the paperback version instead, with a $10 refund for the difference.  To a person they all said, "Keep the $10 we wanna support!"  I could not believe it.

 

 

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Guest IndieAuthor90

I also sold the most books in one day and in one week than I have in the last year. On June 1st sales just skyrocketed and I hit a Top 40 list on Amazon. My book, What If We Were All The Same! has been a hit. For us self-published authors it is truly awe-inspiring and uplifting to see all your hard-work come to light.

 

What If We Were All The Same! embraces all of our beautiful differences. Aimed to help children understand there are many great reasons for being friends with those who are different than they are. Whether they have red hair or brown hair, green eyes or blue eyes, long legs or short legs, light skin or dark skin, glasses, uses a wheelchair or anything else, it's absolutely OKAY! Our differences are what makes us unique and if we truly think about it, would you want to be the exact same as someone else?

What If We Were All The Same! is fun-filled with rhymes and colorful illustrations, brings attention to tough topics children can relate to.

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