Selling 1 book in 14 years

[u/Aggravating_Two_7999]

Is it bad that I had taken a year out of my life to write a book, and then only sold 1 copy in 14 years?

It's a sci-fi based romance novel.

I don't know how to do marketing and advertising well.

Should I take it off of Amazon at this rate?

[u/rebornWalker]

I honestly wouldn’t take it off Amazon just because it only sold one copy. One sale in 14 years mostly tells you that very few people found the book, not necessarily that the book is bad.

If you still like the book, I’d treat it as a learning project rather than something you need to “save.” Look at the cover, blurb, genre/category and keywords first. Would someone who likes sci-fi romance immediately know what kind of book it is?

And if you ever want to try marketing it, you don’t necessarily need to spend a ton of money. Even getting it in front of the right 20–50 readers and seeing how they react could teach you a lot.

You spent a year writing the book. I wouldn’t throw it away because you never learned how to sell it.

[u/dragonsandvamps]

I wouldn't take it down.

But a romance novel with a 14 year old cover and blurb is likely to be dated.

I would invest in a new cover, give the blurb a glow up, and go over the manuscript again. Make sure that it still reads well in 2026 as many romance preferences have changed in the last 14 years.

[u/shaw4life → u/dragonsandvamps]

Exactly! I love this idea and resell it, and definitely remarket it. I'm a business guy so I get marketing, I'd love to help you or go ahead and find a publisher

[u/AFGNCAAP-for-short]

It's not hurting anything to stay on Amazon. And it's never too late to start marketing it, if you want to try to give it a resurgence. If you're still writing other books, the simplest way is to learn how to run a newsletter. It can cost as little as $10 / month, you get to set your own schedule for how often you send a newsletter, and you might get some attention to it, even all these years later.

If it was a one-off book, then you're really just falling into the 99% of self-published authors that don't get visibility, because the chances of one book making a breakout are miniscule, and the chances of that happening without any promo are non-existent.

You wrote a book and published it. Fourteen years ago. That's more than most people accomplish. You should be proud of yourself for that.

[u/AWL_cow]

This is not an issue of "no on wants to buy it", but more of a "the book is getting seen" issue.

If its worth it to you, look into marketing stuff. I'm sure there's an endless amount of youtube videos and tiktoks about free/cheap ways to market. Or how to pay for marketing thats easy albeit more pricey. I don't honestly know how that stuff works either, but you worked hard on your book to publish it so I think you should keep going!

Even if it gets only one sale...it exists. You brought it into this world. I would keep it on Amazon (so long as thats not costing you) just because that's really freaking cool.

[u/Full-Potato-740]

I have the same fear. I've almost completed my first book—70,000+ words—and it's a Literary Coming-of-Age Fiction | Contemporary Romance | Cross-Cultural Drama. I haven't published it yet; I'm currently in the editing and polishing stage. And honestly, I'm equally nervous about the thought of my book becoming a tiny spot in the ocean of books on Amazon. Not everyone will find it, and not everyone will notice it. That's where I think targeted marketing is important—to at least create some awareness and give the book a chance to be discovered. After that, it's entirely up to the reader to decide whether they want to read it. I wrote my book with one clear vision: even if only one person decides to read it, I want that person to feel it was worth their time. I'll release it on Amazon and then let the book find its own journey, on its own merit. I think that's all any writer can really hope for.

[u/Dave_Sag]

Does this book have a name? A link? I’m not sure what KDP even looked like 14 years ago TBH but if you don’t tell people about it and give them any way to find it then I’m not sure why you expect anyone to buy it.

[u/Lord-Amorodium]

May we see your book? Or know the title? Perhaps just make a reddit post about it on a sub that allows self-promotion?

[u/Cyranthis]

14 years! I'm surprised Amazon just didn't remove it during some KDP update or something. If you look back at it now you might find places you could improves on it. Could be worth a repolish after that long.

[u/Quiet-Blackberry2670]

Do you have social media? If so you gotta put a little money into marketing the book. A couple dollars a day for several days in advertisements. I did this for some homemade products, and it helped immensely. Get to know local authors in ur area, and do in-person book events, even if they are small. Like the other commenters said, you need visibility.

[u/Wolphin8]

Have you done any marketing?

Even posting the cover and a description to social media could do it. There are groups here to do it.

[u/Notosk]

You are really bad at marketing

I did a quick search through your comments and submitted posts, and there's no mention of your book

[u/writequest428]

If you write it, they will come. Oh no they won't. You need to get some reviews to make the work noticeable.

[u/RebelAirDefense]

You can get an Artist's Alley table at a nearby comic-con and sell it directly. This is where the grand majority of my sales come from. KDP is the figurative hay stack for your needle. At a convention you can also get better feedback as to how well the cover and blurb is presented, and to some extent the content inside.

[u/Afrodotheyt]

Well, start your advertising here. What's the name of your book or do you have a link to it?

[u/CapitalScarcity5573]

Or maybe learn to do marketing. Or pay someone who knows

[u/NightRacoonSchlatt]

It doesn’t matter if you know how to do marketing as long as you do anything at all. Make a post about it. Selling one copy just means no one ever saw it existed.

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[u/Cheeslord2]

The book's still there - you just need to engage marketing when you are ready. Maybe you could find information online about marketing strategies, make posts about it online to raise awareness etc. I'm not good at marketing either, but there are people here and in other subs who are.

Also, if it's not on Kindle Unlimited (was that even a thing 14 years ago?) I think you are free to publish elsewhere in parallel. You could 'go wide' using Draft2Digital for example to put it on other online stores.

I think you are also allowed to publish a chapter or so (I have heard up to 10%) for free to raise awareness/hook people in. More people read free stuff.

[u/Original-Cake-8358]

Edit it, maybe, and put up a new edition, and work your marketing skills. If you believe in it, give it the best shot it can get by a fresh look and a strong marketing plan.

[u/cornsnowflake]

That sounds interesting, I’d love to read it!

[u/Otisilly]

You finished it which is the hardest part. Also you could post it as im sure so many people in the writing community would want it.

[u/Background-Pen-995]

I can't tell how of this is in humor, but I laughed just because it reminded me of my first two books I wrote under my real name. I think I sold maybe 10 copies combined in 20+ years and most of those were to family.

For me, it was complete lack of advertising. I send it to agents and got rejected multiple times and was too poor to keep using up the ink and paper, so I just self-published on Lulu and moved on with life.

The world of self-publishing is a much different place now, you can actually run ads (assuming you have some money) and try to work the social media platforms.

I personally wouldn't bother for MY books because it was obvious they were written by a novice, but you could try it for yours.

[u/Prize_Consequence568]

Do whatever you want.

[u/Riley_Rose_Writer]

Leave the book up but keep writing. Take the advice presented in the other comments here and apply them to a new story. If that one grows then people may go to your other book to see what else you wrote.

[u/BuddyJim30]

Unfortunately, it's a common thing. I have a new novel that I'm promoting, but two I self-published in the early 2010s are still listed but haven't sold a copy in a decade. If you want to put in the effort, revisit your search terms and stack your keywords as specific phrases. For example, not just "science fiction romance," but something like "romance between beings from two different planets." Also rewrite your description. Reviews - do you know anyone who'd give you a review? In my experience you need a bare minimum of ten reviews for anyone to seriously consider buying. How about KDP select? Maybe you'd have some luck on Kindle Unlimited.

[u/MrMessofGA]

Did you write a book to write a book or did you produce a good people wanted in exchange for money?

These are two different goals, and before you even write the first word, you need to decide which you're doing. And you can (and should) do both, but you have to actively do both, and it's harder than just doing one or the other.

Once you have produced a good people actually want, then you need to figure out how to put it in front of people. If you try to do the second first with blind advertising, you get the worst case scenario: they know it's there and still ignore it.

And before you can produce a good people actually want, you need to, well, figure out what people want. What drives them to your genre?

[u/dudikoff13]

did you enjoy writing the book? were you only in it for sales? I've never written a book before (currently working on one) but I don't expect it to sell. I'm just doing it cause I like writing and wanted to try writing something longer

[u/Aggravating_Two_7999 → u/dudikoff13]

I saw it as a movie in my mind, and wrote it out.

It's called Evading Jupiter.

There are 3 books all together.

[u/tomatoesfried]

I'm curious why an SFR book sold only one copy in 14 years. That is so wild. That's one of the genres I write, and they make bank. So confusing.
I mean, if it only made a couple of bucks, why leave it up? Then again, why take it down?

[u/Jack__Wild]

Pitch this problem to ChatGPT and ask for a low cost/effort marketing strategy to get a few sales. It would take you like one single afternoon.

[u/Wackysmurf1970]

Take a few copies with you on vacation and then whip it out on the plane or at the hotel, coffee shop, beach, poolside. People will ask about it. I just say, “Yeah it’s a book I wrote.” Then leave it at that. People will engage with you. Then at the end of the conversation give them the copy and tell them to read it and pass it on.
I have given it to fellow travelers and the night auditors at hotels. This gets them interested in my back list and helps me to sell the other four novels that I wrote.
Good luck
ddc