How I Sold 80,000 Books: Book Marketing for Authors

Disclaimer: Alinka Rutkowska emailed me a copy of her book in exchange for this review.

I typically dislike small eBooks because often they aren't well written or formatted. Alinka Rutlowska's book, How I Sold 80,000 Books, is an exception to my rule. This slim book takes only 30 minutes to read but it is jam-packed with useful information any author can apply to their publishing process. Rutkowska hooked me from the start when she reminds the reader that not everyone will have the same successes as she does because every author's goals and definitions of success are different. She then goes on to explain how product (aka your book), place, price, and promotion create a cornerstone to reaching that individual success and how authors can use these four Ps to hit their target sales.

What I liked: Rutkowska has great humor. Her bits on finding a proper editor made me giggle, mostly because I do a lot of editing for other authors myself. There were many times in this book where I found myself nodding along with the advice. It's good stuff, and written in such a way that even if you “know it all” you'll enjoy the refresher. This advice isn't just for one platform (print or ebook), it's directly applicable to both. Rutkowska also gives links to some very fun and informative videos on how to do some of the things her book talks about.

What I didn't like: There's a link to a page on her site for a product called “Kindle Spy”. I immediately loaded the page in and discovered how heavily markety-sounding it was. When I tried to close the page, it triggered a pop-up window on my browser (which has pop-ups blocked). This makes me wonder what is under the hood of that app/page. Curiously there's a section in the Promotions chapter called “Picture and Bio” but the only text under it is “see ‘Product.'”— why is this here if she wants readers to go back to the Product section. I'm left wondering how the picture and bio can be a promotional seller.

BOTTOM LINE: If you are an author and want a good, quick read that provides you with tons of traditional, and not so traditional, ways to sell more copies of your book, then Alinka Rutkowska's How I Sold 80,000 Books is for you.