Selling Your Self-Published Book to Family and Friends


Photo by Lisa Fotio on Pexel

Selling your self-published book to your family and friends sounds so easy. Just ask your spouse, kids, parents, uncles and aunts, and close friends to buy your masterpiece. In reality, I found this more challenging than I expected. As I am not selling my book to make money and I have a well-paying job, I found it difficult to ask my family and friends to purchase a book from me.

Based on my goal of selling 200 copies of my children’s book, Frankenstein’sScience Project, my action plan included approaching my family members and friends to distribute copies of my book.

The first person I approached was actually the illustrator for the book, Alex Bjelica. He was not really a friend, but a working colleague on the book. After my book was officially published in January 2018 through Lulu, I sent Alex a free copy of the book. He had done such a wonderful job on the illustrations, that he deserved a copy. When he received his copy, he thought the book was “fantastic”. I then suggested that if he wanted a few copies for distribution, I could provide some at cost. He never took me up on the offer.

In March of 2018, I ordered X copies of my book that I was able to purchases with 10% off and with free shipping. With taxes, this brought the cost of each copy to $5.62. When my sister-in-law came over for a visit, I gave her a copy. She also deserved a copy as she had worked so diligently as a beta-reader and in editing my book. Bless her soul; she also bought four copies that I provided her at below cost as I only charged her $5 each. She distributed the copies to her family and friends. I consider these four copies to be my first sales.

I could not get myself to sell copies to my family so I mailed a copy to my sisters, my brother, my nephew and niece, my father and my aunt. I do not consider these as counting towards my goal of selling 200 copies.

When it came to friends, my approach was slightly different depending on who the individual was. For two friends, I told them that I had published a book that was available on Amazon. I asked them if they would like an electronic copy or a paper copy. I had made a PDF version of the book that I was ready to email. They never responded, but I noticed a sale on Amazon a little after we communicated.

For others, such as an old friend and my editor, I sent them the PDF version of the book. For a couple of people that I mentor professionally, I mentioned to them that I had published a book. One bought two copies off Amazon and the other bought one copy.

I did not officially approach any friends at work as it is not really acceptable to sell products in a government workplace.

Selling to friends and family was not terribly successful, although I did sell 9 copies initially.

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