My Book Is Live and Has Almost No Sales: What Do I Do in the First 30 Days?

If your book is live and almost nothing is selling, do not panic and do not change everything at once. Work through four weeks in order: first the page readers see, then how readers find the book, then price, reviews and a small ads test, then what the numbers tell you. The first two weeks cost the least to fix.

A trickle of sales is normal for a first book. I wrote about why in why your self-published books aren’t selling, and this post is the plan for when the book is already out.

What should I do in week 1?

Week 1 is about the page a reader lands on. If the page does not convince, nothing you do later will work, including ads.

1. Put your book next to the top sellers in your niche. Open the best sellers for your topic and compare. Does your cover look like theirs? Does the title promise something clear? Does the description sound like it was written for the same reader?
2. Check the cover. Its job is to look like the best sellers in your niche and stay readable as a small thumbnail. Don’t get creative. See what you need to know about book covers.
3. Check the title and subtitle. Readers can’t buy what they can’t find, so the title should promise a result and contain a word people really search for. There is a catch: KDP locks an ebook’s title, subtitle and primary author after publishing. For a paperback or hardcover you can change them only within 72 hours of the first publication date (KDP: update your book details). After that, a new title means a new edition, so decide whether the title is really the problem before you touch it.
4. Rewrite the description. It can be changed at any time. KDP allows 4,000 characters and supports bold, italics, lists and h4 to h6 headings, but not h1 to h3 (KDP: write a book description). Its job is to show you understand what the reader needs and to take the risk out of buying your book instead of another.

What should I do in week 2?

Week 2 is about whether readers can find the book at all.

1. Rework your keywords. KDP gives you up to seven keywords or short phrases. Its advice is to put them in the order a shopper would type them, to test them by searching Amazon before you publish, and not to repeat words already in your title or categories (KDP: keywords). I look for phrases where a few hundred to under a thousand books show up, and with a tool like KDSPY I check that some of those books are really selling. That is an affiliate link, so I earn a small commission if you buy. The full method is in how to use keywords on Amazon KDP.
2. Check your categories. You can select three categories, and you can change them later in your Bookshelf. KDP says a change can take up to 72 hours to show and that it reviews the changes (KDP: categories). Choose categories where books like yours already sell, and don’t put the book in an unrelated category for a bestseller flag. It risks your account.

What should I do in week 3?

Week 3 is price, honest reviews and a small ads test.

1. Look at your price. Price signals value, so don’t make yours the cheapest in the niche. On Amazon.com the 70% ebook royalty band is $2.99 to $12.99 since 07-Jul-26, and prices outside it earn 35% (KDP: ebook list price requirements). I explain what I charge, and what I got wrong early on, in how to price a self-published book on Amazon.
2. Ask for reviews the safe way. Ask readers who bought and read the book, for example through a note in the book and your email list. Don’t pay for reviews. KDP’s rules say you may give away free or discounted copies “as long as you do not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review”, and that reviews posted in exchange for compensation break the Community Guidelines (KDP: customer reviews).
3. Start a small ads test. Sponsored Products are cost-per-click ads: you set a daily budget and pay only for clicks (Amazon Ads: Sponsored Products). Keep the budget small. Run one campaign for the paperback and a separate one for the Kindle edition so you can see which format earns and which loses, and start with automatic targeting and a low bid.

What should I do in week 4?

Week 4 is reading what you learned and deciding what to fix next.

1. Read your ad results. If nobody clicks, the cover or title is the problem. If people click but nobody buys, the book page is the problem: description, price, reviews. This is the quickest feedback you will get on weeks 1 to 3.
2. Use the search terms. The search term report shows what readers typed before they clicked or bought. Move good phrases into your keyword boxes and your description.
3. Start an email list. A list is the one audience you own, and it is where your first honest reviewers and your next book’s first buyers will come from. Pick a simple tool, offer a free gift readers want, and put the sign-up link at the front and back of your book. Keep it simple and start before you think you are ready.
4. Change one thing at a time. If you change the cover, title, price and description in one weekend, you can’t tell which one worked.

What if it still isn’t selling after 30 days?

Then the problem is usually the market, not the effort. Either the topic has few buyers, or too many books already compete for them. That is hard to judge on your own book, because you are too close to it. If you would like a second pair of eyes, book a free 25-minute discovery call. We will look at your title, cover, description and keywords together and decide what to fix first. If you want ongoing help after that, I also coach authors one to one and in a group, and we can talk about that on the call too.

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