How to Make More Money Selling Fewer Books
By: Ginger | Posted on August 1, 2025
For most self-published authors, success is measured in sales volume. But what if you could make more money by selling fewer books? That’s one of the surprising benefits of selling your books directly to readers instead of relying solely on the big online retailers. With higher profit margins, instant payouts, and a more personal connection to your audience, direct sales offer a path that can be both financially smart and deeply satisfying. As Ginger explains, this isn’t about abandoning the big eBook stores altogether, but about recognizing how direct sales can work better for certain types of authors, especially those with small but loyal followings. Whether you’re tired of chasing algorithms or simply want more control over your writing career, there’s real power in learning how to earn more from less. Back in May, we welcomed writer and actor Lauren Carter Reilly to the Fully Booked podcast and discussed her… Read More >
Build a Book Sales Funnel That Converts
By: Ginger | Posted on May 9, 2025
Building a successful book sales funnel is not just about clever ads or a polished website. It’s about guiding your readers from curiosity to purchase in a smooth, reliable way. If you’re selling eBooks directly to readers, even small issues like a slow-loading page or a confusing checkout can cause them to drop off before they buy. In today’s blog, Ginger breaks down how to build a book sales funnel that truly converts. Drawing from his own direct sales experience and use of a variety of tools, he shares tips on writing effective Facebook ads, optimizing landing pages, and streamlining your checkout process. Any author looking to create a reliable sales funnel that leads readers straight from interest to purchase will find this guide indispensable. The fundamental goal of storytelling is to take your readers on a journey, leading them on a path that makes them feel one initial emotion,… Read More >
You’re Not Just a Writer—You’re a Business Owner
By: Ginger | Posted on March 28, 2025
Most authors just want to tell stories, not crunch numbers. But in the world of self-publishing, writing a great book is only half the equation. The other, less glamorous (but equally vital) part is knowing how to track what’s working and what isn’t. That means thinking like a business owner. And every successful business runs on data. That’s why today, Ginger is going through the steps needed to turn your sporadic writing side hustle into a more sustainable, full-time income. By tracking key metrics like word count, book performance and marketing results, you’ll gain the insight needed to make smarter decisions. Once you start acting on those knowledge, you’ll find it easier to grow your audience, boost your sales, and ultimately stop leaving your publishing success up to chance. I’ve mentioned before how I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 9-years-old—but even back then, I had more of… Read More >
The One AI Use Writers Won’t Hate
By: Ginger | Posted on March 21, 2025
The soul of being an author is writing books—and no machine, no matter how advanced, will ever truly replicate that. But just because we don’t want AI handling our plot twists doesn’t mean it can’t serve us in other ways. In fact, when it comes to one of the biggest bottlenecks self-published authors face in selling more books, AI might actually be the perfect secret weapon. As Ginger points out in today’s blog, writing may be our passion, but publishing is a business. And buried in that business is a mountain of data—ad results, sales numbers, conversion rates—that most authors don’t have the time (or desire) to sift through. But AI was built to make sense of messy data, and in Ginger’s case, it helped diagnose the issues with his ads and pull him out of a recent slump. So if you’d like to stop crunching numbers and get back… Read More >
How Bad Ad Creative Can Hurt Your Sales
By: Ginger | Posted on January 3, 2025
When it comes to book marketing, your ad creative—images, headlines, and taglines—plays a critical role in the success of your campaigns. Even the best advertising strategy can fail if the creative doesn’t resonate with your audience. Ads are often the first impression of your book for potential readers, and if that impression falls flat, no amount of targeting or budgeting can make up for it. Poor ad creative doesn’t just hurt your clicks, it can actively drive up your advertising costs. That’s why this week, Ginger is laying out exactly how the quality of your ad creative can make or break your book’s marketing efforts, and the strategies you can use to identify what works and what doesn’t. More importantly, he also shares some practical tips for creating engaging, high-performing ads that not only drive traffic but also connect with your readers. A few weeks ago I wrote a post answering… Read More >
Splitting Your Ad Budget When Doing Direct Sales
By: Ginger | Posted on December 27, 2024
Direct sales are gaining traction among self-published authors, offering not only higher profits but also faster access to your well-earned revenue. Yet questions still remain with regards to balancing the advantages of direct sales with the invaluable perks of driving traffic to Amazon—like boosted rankings, increased reviews, and organic visibility. Especially if this means having to split your ad budget to cover both cases. Is it worth it? That’s why today, Ginger is examining ways in which we can balance these two competing strategies. What if you could run ads that effectively drive traffic to both your direct sales site and your storefront listing without sabotaging one for the other? It’s a tactic with the potential to deliver the best of both worlds—and one that he’s personally tested. So whether you’re already selling direct or just considering it, these strategies will help you maximize every marketing dollar you spend. Recently,… Read More >
Learning Tough Lessons from Direct Sales: Part 2
By: Ginger | Posted on November 8, 2024
Last week, Ginger gave us an update on his direct sales journey, where he’s been selling his novels directly to readers instead of relying solely on the big online eBook retailers. In that post, he shared how a couple of minor hiccups slowed his momentum but were manageable enough for him to recover quickly. His final challenge, however, proved to be more substantial, ultimately warranting a post of its own. Today, Ginger goes into the details on how his overconfidence and impatience led him down a costly path, consuming more time and money than his first two missteps combined. Yet, his experiment provided valuable lessons, which he’s now sharing to help the rest of us avoid similar pitfalls when we consider building our own direct sales machine. Last week, I started an update about my adventures in direct sales. I started selling my eBooks directly to readers back in May… Read More >
Learning Tough Lessons from Direct Sales: Part 1
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on November 1, 2024
It’s been almost six months since Ginger began his direct sales journey, and while it has been profitable for him, the road to success has been far from smooth. Selling directly to customers, rather than relying solely on online eBook storefronts, is full of untapped potential but also comes with some surprising challenges. As he’s learned, running a direct sales funnel is like building a complex machine—one with countless moving parts that must work in perfect harmony. Small hiccups can lead to significant losses, while each success feels like a hard-won victory. Yet every roadblock is a learning experience, and navigating around them has allowed him to refine his process further. Today, he’s sharing two of the biggest mistakes he’s made and how he was able to fix them. Then, next week, he’ll return with another challenge he faced and go through all of the lessons he’s learned, so you… Read More >
Analyzing the Ad Performance of AI-Generated Art
By: Ginger | Posted on October 25, 2024
As authors, we’re often balancing our creative principles with the need to embrace new technologies that might boost book sales. That’s why, after recently expressing his dislike of AI-generated art in book ads, Ginger decided to run a small experiment to see how effective these ads truly are. By comparing ads using AI-generated artwork with a similar set featuring traditional art, he was able to draw some surprising conclusions. While this sample size is small and not meant to prove anything definitively, the results could be useful for any authors still debating whether to stick with traditional imagery or explore the AI route in their marketing efforts. A couple of weeks ago, I published a rant about how much I loathed seeing ads for eBooks in my Facebook feed that used AI-generated artwork, and it seems from the responses that many of you agreed with me! However, the debate raised… Read More >
From the Mailbox: Direct Sales Success
By: Ginger | Posted on August 2, 2024
Once in a while, a topic discussed on the blog generates more questions than usual and sharing the answers with the community would be more beneficial than simply replying directly to the author. Ginger’s recent Direct Sales series is one such example of this, where the interest in the topic has been high and some of the questions being asked are shared by many. Skipping the big online book retailers to sell directly to readers is a beefy topic, but one that is becoming more popular these days. Still, direct sales success is by no means a given, even if you can navigate your way through the complexity of the initial setup. There are other factors that go into whether it is right for you, and the questions Ginger is answering today reflect some of those concerns. I recently completed a series of blog posts outlining my experiences with direct… Read More >
