They’re all making it up. The authors who say they are #1 Bestsellers, the literary festivals that gush over the boom in Indian publishing, the press that makes up extravagant book sales numbers, everyone. I don’t blame them. Writing a book consumes your life leaving you lying spent on the floor after you’re done with it. You need validation to pick up the pieces again. Unfortunately, book sales in India are not that validation. Here are some real book sales numbers based on extrapolation of a few different data points*:
- 90% of books published in India sell <2,000 copies/year.
- 9% of books sell between 2,000-10,000 copies.
- <1% sell >10,000 copies (True “bestsellers”).
How do you reliably make it to the 1% with every book you write? How do you create a true groundswell for your books so you don’t have to ask your corporation to place a “bulk order”, one of the many ways to game the bestseller lists for one week? Here I share a few suggestions to create an authentic bestseller that endures a decade not a week. Note though, I’m not the best author to take marketing advise from. I don’t have the followings of Chetan or Amish. I don’t know what genre I write in, who my target audience is and when my next book will come out. Only when an idea or a character completely takes over my life and compels me to write do I write a book. I’d probably sell more books if I were more predictable. Or even if I knew who I was writing for. But I can’t. I just write what matters to me. And each book strips me off everything I know and it takes me years to learn new things again. Yet my books manage to find their audiences so there’s much hope for you to do far better than me.
Here is a brief summary of my real book sales to date.
Keep off the Grass (2008): 80,000 copies.
Johnny Gone Down (2010): 60,000 copies
The Seeker (2015): 30,000 copies in 6 months.
Total=170,000 copies. This doesn’t included pirated copies, which should add a minimum of 30% to the number to take the total to 200,000+.
Marketing Lessons from launching an authentic bestseller
1. Write a book that matters at-least to you.
You can’t outsource marketing your book to an agency. It’s work, as you’ll see in my points below. Are you truly prepared to give so much of yourself to it? Your answer will be a resounding yes only if you’ve set your life on fire to write your book and now you want everyone to see the light. Not because of petty fame but because you’ve figured something out about the messy, glorious human condition. Or at-least you think you have. Without that conviction, I’d say move on quickly to the next book and make it the one you’re willing to put everything—money, security, dignity—on line for. Then, follow the steps below.
2. Grassroots is your #1 strategy.
80% of your efforts should be focused on the bottom two rungs of this pyramid.
Instead, authors spend a majority of their time trying to get mega-influencers attention—getting Salman Rushdie’s blurb, paying Times of India to write about their book etc. None of that moves the needle. When was the last time you bought a book after seeing a photograph of a Page 3 book launch event? The #1 driver of book sales is word-of-mouth and the only way to drive that is to get the book in the hands of hundreds of readers.
In the US, you can achieve the same outcome with mid-level influencers—book bloggers, Bookstagrammers etc. but in India, few bloggers have passionate, loyal followings so your best bet is hand-to-hand combat. For Keep off the Grass in 2008, for instance, I reached out 1:1 to everyone on Orkut (the dominant social media then) who had self-identified themselves as fans of books like English August to introduce myself and give free book excerpts over a period of six months. The same approach won’t work now when social media has become so spammy, of course, but you can achieve the same outcome with a different approach. Amish went book-store by book-store to promote his books. From what Penguin tells me, Durjoy Datta goes to colleges in fifty different cities to talk about his books. Giving away excerpts and free advance copies of your books to as many people as you can in your genre are the single most effective strategy for selling your book. Even in the best case, you’ll be able to give 1000 copies of your book for free. The resultant word-of-mouth will easy offset the sales loss and give you an honest chance to create a phenomenon. Even for The Seeker, which I marketed very little, since I was focused on the US launch, the single best marketing I did to get the book off to a solid start (#2 bestseller in HT-AC Nielsen Scan Week 1) was to offer free excerpts and review copies online.
3. Advertising works best as a supplement to content.
I’ve invested a lot of money in digital advertising, both in my work as Chief Marketing Officer of a start-up and in my online course and book launches. Again and again, I see the same pattern emerge: the only advertising that generates a positive ROI is advertising to your website visitors (or fans or mailing list subscribers) and to an extent, lookalike audience of website visitors.
Anything beyond this bullseye target is a ROI negative spend. Here’s a look at a recent Facebook campaign I ran for instance for my online course —the conversion costs of website visitors are at-least 60% lower than any other audience.
Said another way, people have to know you and what you believe in (and as a result want to visit your website or fan page) before they buy your book. And the best way to do that is to write about topics that consume your soul and perhaps inform and educate a little as well. I get about 50,000 visitors a month on my website and almost none of them come because of my books. They come for articles like these.
http://www.karanbajaj.com/yoga-meditation/how-to-finally-start-meditation-in-2016-a-complete-guide/
Eventually, I hope they buy my books but even if they don’t, I write what I’m deeply interested in so that is its own reward.
P.S: If you still want to spend on advertising to sell your book, here’s a very detailed Facebook advertising guide on how to achieve a break-even on your spend.
http://www.karanbajaj.com/writing-creativity/the-only-book-advertising-approach-that-works/
4. Get one blurb that counts.
Keep off the Grass had just one blurb—Ruskin Bond.
“A racy and entertaining account of a romp through an ever-changing yet timeless India…wild, witty and wicked !” — Ruskin Bond.
Johnny Gone Down had blurbs from everyone from media—Hindustan Times, India Today, Times of India, CNN IBN—to celebrity blurbs like these.
“An Amazing journey. Wonderful characters who keep you hooked till the very end” — Raju Hirani, Director Munnabhai/ 3 Idiots.
“One incredible adventure. What a read!” — Ajay Devgan, Actor.
Result, no difference. If at all, I think Keep off the Grass took off faster than Johnny though Johnny will remain my deeper-felt novel among the two. One effective blurb from someone with a loyal, passionate following is all it takes to establish credibility. Don’t go after numbers.
5. Don’t waste time on social media. Instead, create a passionate email list.
The #1 time killer for authors is social media. Facebook’s organic reach is down to a decimal point. Twitter is full of spam. Yet authors spend hours composing the perfect post, the perfect Tweet, that’ll sell less than ten copies. Thankfully, there’s an alternative. Build a deep, passionate e-mail list. Here is an excellent comparison on the effectiveness of an email list vs. Facebook and Twitter (source: Devesh Design).
Yes, an email list is 50-100 times more effective than Facebook fans and Twitter followers. How do you build an email list? There are enough Internet experts who blog about this full-time so I won’t go into detail here. But two principles that worked for me to grow from zero to 10,000 subscribers in less than a year:
a) Offer real value for them to join your list. For example, this is the call-out on my home page(you can join by the way!).
b) Treat them as friends rather than subscribers and share the best of what you know with them. Here is how my email for folks begins this week, for example.
Each week I send emails with personal stories and ideas about things that matter to me and I think could add some value to my subscribers’ lives. Rarely do I promote my books to my list but when I do they always zoom up to the Top 100 on Amazon. In contrast, I see little movement in my rankings when I post on social media.
6. Hire a PR agency only for vanity.
I’ve gotten great press for each of my novels—and it’s never moved the needle. Johnny Gone Down fell off the India Today bestseller lists the same month India Today named me a “Top 35 Under 35” Indian. Elle wrote an entire feature about me as did The Telegraph and Times of India and the book didn’t budge in Amazon rankings the same week they all appeared. There’s a role for press, of course, and I recommend it. But know what the role is. It’s for vanity not sales. Vanity matters. Now, your aunt in Surat finally knows why you’ve spent years in a dungeon. And your girlfriend realizes why your socks never match. But only you can decide what you should pay for vanity. These are two publicists I recommend who’ll get you your money’s worth (in five seconds of fame not sales):
If you forget everything above, don’t worry for an instant. Just remember the first point. Write a book that matters. Everything else is dust as the Buddha would say, a castle in the sand that’ll be swept away by the next wave. Just let your words resound in eternity.
*Data extrapolated on comparing my weekly ranking on Amazon with books sold over 12 weeks, qualitative interviews with sales teams at the Top 3 publishing houses, and a few authentic secondary research articles like these.

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59 Responses to “How to sell 200,000 copies of your books in India: A marketing guide”
Dear Karan,
I have become a big fan of yours. I really admire you for everything you are doing. I recently mentioned you in my blog post, ‘A Billion Writers’ which was inspired by your interview of Jake Morrissey. Unfortunately, I have not read your all books, I wish to read them first and then talk to you.
Thanks
Binod Mairta
Kind words man, thanks. Hope you enjoy the books.
Hey, thanks for writing this :).
Interesting points. I thought most books didn’t sell for lack of popular marketing like ads in papers, and good PR. You hold contradictory views. Nice to read and very informative. Hope all these things work brilliantly for you.
Thanks Raj. Appreciate the thought. I’ve read a rule about book advertising that a person has to see an ad for a book 7 times to convert so you can imagine that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars of spend. Inefficient if not impossible!
Very very useful
Glad!
Immense gratitude Karan for always sharing the yogi wisdom about everything we need. You are phenomenal and a true Seeker. The way you unfold the insight made me reading your blog again and again.
Thank you and keep guiding us.
Terrific Ajay! Just hopped over to your site–you’re doing an incredible job. Probably the only Indian I know in the personal development space? Keep it up.
Since most of your novels are character driven, it would be great if you could do a post on how to add layers to your character, and make them multi dimensional.
Great idea, thanks for it!
But is 165000 copies a good number considering your opportunity cost (since you’re an Ivy Leauger)? @ Rs 500 price point and 10% royalty (both reasonably high) it comes to about Rs. 8 million over 8 years. Or a million Rs. a year. That’s not a lot to sustain in today’s world, and you’re living in the US.
Also, what do you do between books? Just wondering what is a full-time writers life style like.
Amit–2 things: a) A writer’s income goes beyond a book esp. if the books do well. See this article for more details: http://www.karanbajaj.com/writing-creativity/how-much-money-does-a-novelist-make-de-constructing-my-writing-income/ b) I do have a corporate job which’s actually benefited from my writing. http://www.karanbajaj.com/writing-creativity/the-incredible-power-of-a-creative-side-hustle-and-why-you-need-one/. Hope this helps!
Hi
I wish to publish some of my short stories.
Kindly guide me how to proceed further.
Karan is a great guy and he’s doing an amazing job of not only writing bestseller novels but also helping budding authors unconditionally. I’ve taken his paid course but found that he shares most of his knowledge freely on the web through his blog and YouTube. An amazing guy. Hope you have many many bestsellers to your name, Karan.
A genuine guy to look up to as a starting novelist. I thoroughly recommend his course to get that structured training in writing/publishing and to revisit his wisdom again and again.
Vinay, such kind words. Deeply appreciated! Your endorsement for the course means a lot as I put much thought into it. Thank you!
first of all, i’ve read your novel keep of the grass years back and it was one of the book made me feel like i just need a good story and when i write, everything will fall into place. thank you for writing articles for providing inside knowledge…please don’t stop writing articles other than writing novels.
Your motivation keeps me going. Thank you Arun!
Hey,
This article did pep me a lot but I’ve been struggling to sell my book to the audience. Those who’ve read it, love everything about it. But I am still unable to make a cut. If you can help me a little, please. I’d written the book when i was 17 and got it published two months back at the age of 19. It is titled Love You To The Moon And Back!
Kindly help.
To Literature,
Tejaswini Parker
Did you follow all the steps in this article, Tejaswini?
Love this article Karan! So Honest and to the point. Great explanation of how to really drive your books sales. I always see the #1 Bestseller tag with a bit of incredulity! Really good to see your sales numbers! Really like it that you look for a mutual interest among your readers for a win-win relationship! Best wishes for Yogamax!
Thanks Pavan. Indeed, very hard to know a true bestseller vs. not!
Thanks karan. you are right about a point that you mentioned. By reading your blogs I have included all 3 of your novels in my TO READ list. still to read. your blog in which you laid bare your income through novels was quite unique as no body does that. Getting exact figure about the bestsellers is again a difficulty.
Very use full. Thanks
Great article. I’ve had a few #1 Amazon bestsellers in the mystery thriller and suspense genre.
India is an exciting market and I’m creating a brand new character aimed specifically at the Indian market. I’m excited about this phase and my new book should be out before Christmas
Excellent, good luck!!
Hi Karan,
I’ve recently self-published my first book for young adults – Goan Chase, and your advice in this article is worth its weight in gold! Thanks for sharing these valuable, immensely helpful tips.
Statistics are noteworthy. Analysis full of wit. I think it really works.
The real internet–read search results–are full of articles on book marketing ideas and tricks but none of them are as enlightening as this one. I agree with the paragraph where you explained the lies of contemporary publishing industry in terms of sales and the overhyped Best Seller tag.
This is THE BEST article on this topic on the whole internet. Thank you so much for creating such quality posts.
I wouldn’t say I agree with your points just because of the facts you stated. I do have my personal interests but beyond that…
It’s true that those reviews in newspapers hardly make anybody purchase a book. It’s the book bloggers, book Instagrammers and book youtubers that can help.
Hi Karan, great article. Unfortunately, read it a little late in the day. My first novel was launched 2 months back in India. It is doing extremely well, though I feel, it would have done better had I read your article earlier. My question is a lil different, how does an Indian writer based in Paris, market a novel with a domestic ( indian plot) with international appeal ( subject matter) to international audience I.e US mkt and the U.K. Mkt. My novel KALAYUG is available in Amazon ( paperback and kindle) across the world. But, how do I ensure that people become aware about it? Many thanks Anurag
Superb, This will work, man–did you try it?
http://www.karanbajaj.com/writing-creativity/the-only-book-advertising-approach-that-works/
Hi Karan,
Just read this article and found it very insightful and to the point. My book ‘Pendulum of Love’ released couple of days back. I think i need to revisit my strategy of using social media. The publicity looks really difficult as I don’t have the backing of a big publishing house or the budget of full page newspaper ad. Any suggestion!!!
Thanks
Thanks for writing such a master piece, Am exactly struggling at selling my book. It’s one among the best books ever composed, It’s not an exaggeration but true.
Hey Karan … Im from BIT Mesra .. so someone from college recommended your book “Keep off the grass” .. and when i saw Ruskin Bond’s note on your book, it felt like it would atleast not too bad… so i bought it and did enjoy reading it.
So maybe they (blurbs) work at some level. Keep writing.
Cheers
hi
I want to publish a book. So Please guide me how can i publish a book.
Hi Karan,
I found your article very motivating. Please check my soulwork on amazon if you get time and suggest . Your feedback and suggestions would be highly appreciated.
And I see a new India arising: Right here …..right now! (Heaven on earth se… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y3CRC15/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_HmiazbW8KPT42 via @amazon
Hi Karan, I appreciate your work of sharing inputs on how to sell 150000 copies in India, your content is useful to me as i am penning a book for the age group of 16 to 22. Its a profile building book for an excellent kick start in career. Can i get some specific inputs regarding how to start it, i mean what steps i need to take care while writing books on youth-career-attitude etc.
Please i need help Madam i want to sell all of my book rights and i dont know which steps to take. I really need help please.
I have have written a very good novel for the first time and I am waiting to publish it, I have gone through many literary agent and publisher but unfortunately I havnt received any response, I received many bad reviews from many self publishing company
So I would like to know is it OK to publish my first novel througha particular printing press by self and distribute it through novel distributers ?
Preferably not, mate. Put in the effort and get a major publisher–they add a lot of credibility to the book.
Thanks for writing this interesting points. This articles helps Novel Writers to Sold their Copies and tells methods to them what to do and what kind of marketing they need to do .
Sir,
I read about your statistics in above blog and was horrified.
(90% of books published in India sell <2,000 copies/year.
9% of books sell between 2,000-10,000 copies.
10,000 copies (True “bestsellers”).
And frankly, a bit demotivated too. I am new to world of authors. Although I have read many around 1000 books and novels in almost all genres, I have never written anything and I started writing 1 year back. I am almost on the brink of finishing my first Debut Novel and was thinking about self publishing (after thoroughly editing it) )but I am now really scared and confused. What is the use of creative writing if it fails to reach masses? The strategy which you have suggested in above post is time consuming and I am a DBA Manager in an IT company in Mumbai. Could you please suggest me any self publishing company that actually takes care of all this? Like Notion press or 24by7 Publishing? I am very new to marketing and business strategies.
Regards,
Amit D. Chaudhari
Thanks Karan, very insightful. As a newbie author in India whose book seems to be doing well, I’ve been told by friends and fellow authors that one issue with the publishing industry is that authors are routinely cheated out of royalties because publishers under report sales since there are no audited figures. Is this true, and is there a way to get the correct numbers? Thanks!
Sir, I have published a book name ‘The Ran Away Hostel Warden’ this is a teacher’s love story including romance and crime. My book is also available at Amazon and Flipkart. But, no one knows about it as no press and media release. I have published this book by my own scholarship fees. Now, I have a limited money and this may not effort for press and media advertisement. Please reply to me with some good idea. Thanks.
Very useful and practical info.
A wonderful and insightful article, Karan! I’ve self-published 9 ebooks and paperback novels at Amazon. com. I’ve sold only 17 books in all, so far. But I enjoy writing so am not unduly worried about sales, though I’d be elated if people read my books and provide invaluable feedback.
I am an avid blogger and contribute regularly to magazines, dailies and travel websites.
I conduct classes for creative writing and my students have also got their writings published in print and online.
Hope to catch up on your books.
Thanks for your insight.
Great blog karan
I am self publisher and would like to know how to get a paperback edition of my book in India.
Thanks
Sir i wrote a story on some interesting concept if u can i will send u the story
Dear Karan
Your suggstion is very nice and commonly,
Hi,
“I write what I’m deeply interested in so that is its own reward.”
These are your words but they carry my feelings perfectly well. I have self-published an e-book “Expiry date-not the end,” wrote it for the urge to share what I had learnt, but very soon realized the difficulty in reaching out. Not being socially active seemed for the first time a big drawback. I do not think I could ever go store to store or college to college to promote my book, as I do not even tell my friends about my book.
Your review could be that one blurb that counts.
Thanks
Anita S J
Thanks Karan
your analysis very pointed and business like.
even while being realistic you are very positive
I need help you..
8605343197
Hi Karan,
Liked your honest approach to addressing the challenge of selling more books in India..after having seen a lot of fluff this made a lot more sense..i am writing fiction and was looking at some advice around marketing my upcoming book..
Regards,
Saumya
My first book has been published. DIL KI AWAAZ. It is a Hindi Poetry book mix of some romantic,some Humorous and rests are political Vyang. How I can increase my sale. Whatever copies I have sold that was through push sell and also my friends and relatives who purchased on line. Even internationally also my book is available. Sending you the link.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xdil+ki+awaaz+of+kumar+dhruv+in+INR.TRS0&_nkw=dil+ki+awaaz+of+kumar+dhruv
Please help and guide me accordingly
KUMAR DHRUV
Cell No : 9009990322
Reading this post has been revitalizing for me as I have just self-published my book and I don’t have the slightest idea on how to market it. I will try to create an email list..thanks for the blog
GOOD ADVISE
Dear sir
I have written a book titled Memory Access Plus, Paperback 469 pages in 3 languages English, Marathi and Hindi, Published through Nile Publications India.
I would like to promote it. Please guide me
Very insightful article. I have my published my true account of the paranormal world. Those who have read it have given good reviews, but the problem is i am struggling to get it visible to the mass.
Write a book that matters at-least to you.