How To Sell Books and Influence People

Hey friends!

I see a lot of writers asking:

What's the best way to......?

What's the best way to find an agent?
What's the best way to edit your first draft?
What's the best way to write a query letter?
What's the best way to sell books?
What's the best way to hit the best seller list?

This is a reasonable place to start. It is the epitome of a starting question, the first one you throw out in the world, the first one you put in a search engine, the first one you ask that friend that knows someone whose cousin is an agent. You absolutely have to start somewhere and this is where most people start.

I have to physically restrain myself from responding to each of these questions on the internet and elsewhere with there is not one best way and ok but what kind of agent, book, draft, query, etc etc etc? I personally feel a way about this question because it's my life's work to answer these questions in detail and I've been doing so for the last twenty years. That's all my problem and not the problem of the question-asker or answer-seeker.

BUT, the answer to all these questions is there is no one best way to do all those things. I've probably said this 100 times, (and those answer-seekers have seen that 0-3 times), but if there was one way to do any or all of those things, then we'd have cookbook-like books on how to get published and we'd all just follow a recipe. Alas, this is not the publishing world we have, and I think we're the better for it. Does it make it harder to write books and get published? Yes.

But why would it be easy?

If you are seeking answers to questions like these, I beseech you to reframe your questions, or at least understand there isn't going to be a simple answer. It is natural to want the best, most efficient, and fastest way to reach your goals. I mean, we want that in all corners of our life. But with most things, there isn't just one path/method to get there. How do you run faster? Strength training or intervals? How do you make a better pie? Fancy ingredients or find a new recipe? How do you do a crossword faster? More puzzles or more concentration?

The answer to all of these is yes. You're going to lift some weights and run some intervals and see how those work for you. You're going to try your grandmother's cherry pie recipe and that one from that chef who makes a lot of edible foams and see how they turn out. You're going to do the Sunday crossword every week and see how you get better, or not, over time. You're gonna try some stuff, and see what happens.

That's how writing, editing, querying, and publishing work, too. You won't know until you try some stuff, and even then, you won't have empirical data to compare and contrast whether posting 27 times in a month on Threads or Bluesky sold more books. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Those metrics aren't even available to you. You're just going to know how it felt, how it worked for you, and if it's worth it to keep it up, and make your next set of decisions from there.

My book WRITE THROUGH IT has been out for almost a year. If you're in Brooklyn, come out to Liz's Book Bar on Smith Street on June 10th, the actual one year birthday of the book, for a casual Ask Me Anything event at 7pm. Last time we had a dozen or so people just sitting in that lovely bookstore/wine bar chatting about publishing and asking questions. It was so fun! I'm stoked to do it again. Be sure to RSVP. And there will be books to buy and I can sign them. But after a year on sale, I have found I know exactly how to sell (my) books. I've figured out what will keep a book (i.e. my book) selling about the same number of copies a week, every week, for almost 52 weeks straight. (In June I'm going to tell you what those numbers are, so stay tuned.) What's my secret?

Talk to about 30 people a month about my book, in person or online, however I can. I've had at least one online or in person event for the book every month since it came out, and I think that personally talking to that relatively small number of people has lead to my consistent sales. I'm probably giving this all away before the June numbers post, but whatever. I think that these events, again in person or online, sell a handful of books to the attendees, and those people tell one or two friends about it, which results in another one or two sales, and the promotion of those events–by me and the event leaders/stores/etc–lead to another few sales and all told, that sells new books every month.

This works specifically for me because:

1. I have a platform that enables me to promote my work to a decent number of people (about 30k here, 12k Bluesky, 4k Threads, 2.7k Insta). Probably only 10% of those followers see any one thing I post, but still, they're at my disposal.
2. I have expertise in an subject people want to talk about a lot. There are lots of publishing newsletters, blogs, podcasts, etc, so there are ample opportunities for me to bloviate about books.
3. I'm not shy. I like being out there talking about this stuff. It's no small thing and I know others struggle with it more than I do. It's still a chore to do, but I hate it slightly less than others.

As you can see, not all authors are going to have my platform, my expertise, my temperament so my plan of do one thing a month at least is not going to work for all authors. But also, authors do not need exactly all these things to replicate my success (or create their own). They can use what they have. Maybe they're great on video and can do a bunch of TikToks. (I refuse to put time into video editing so this is not a big part of my platform.) Maybe other authors are really active in a group like SFWA or SCBWI and they can tap that community. Maybe the author is a librarian or somesuch and knows a lot of writers/booksellers/other librarians? Maybe the author just has a few good writer friends online they can ask for tips/help/Instagram Lives? The point is that you both have to use what you have and also go out and find things yourself and see how it turns out for you. You're going to get Nos. But you'll probably also get some Yeses.

Shouldn't the publisher be doing all this, you say? Yes and no. A traditional book publisher's job is to promote the book, not necessarily the author. And they're best suited to connect with book-adjacent media outlets and sales channels. They know a bunch of the websites that do book reviews and author interviews in your genre. They've pitched you to those, trust me. But they don't know every micro-influencer or niche newsletter out there, and as an expert in your subject matter (yes, that includes fiction) you probably know more than the publisher does. This is OK. There are not enough publicists in the world for every imprint at every publishing house to know every outlet for every book. Would that it t'were true.

So, what's the best way to sell books? I've found a pretty good way to sell my book, I think, and the way I got there was trying stuff and seeing what happened. I don't have any more access to sales figures or data than you do, if you're set up to see Bookscan numbers through your Amazon Author Central account. I don't have direct access to who bought how many books after which event, but I can see how the overall numbers change over time and extrapolate to the best of my abilities. This is all just stuff I can do, with what's in front of me, and the only new things I've gained are better resilience to cold calling and even less shyness about following up. This is how it works for me. In time, you will figure out how it works for you. Come tell me what you've learned, too.

Happy Book Birthday to Katie Kennedy's SEVENTH book (with three more in the wings!!!!) THE DECLARATION DECODED.

This is an unfortunately really timely book that can and should be enjoyed by all ages. Maybe this should end up on the doorstep of some family or friends who need a reminder?? Your local elected official????? Just sayin'.

And don't forget:

OXOXOXOXOXO

Kate

Who am I and what is this? This is Agents & Books, a twice-weekly newsletter about writing, publishing, and the creative life. I've been an agent for almost 20 years, most of it at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, and I'm the author of two books: Write Through It: An Insider's Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life (Simon Element, 2025) and a picture book called Pay Attention to Me!, with illustrations by Rob Justus (Sourcebooks, 2026). If you haven't already, become a subscriber today. $5 a month or $50 a year. Same price since 2019!