$450 in Book Sales in TWO HOURS!?

Can you make $225/hour selling your books? Maybe ...

Part 1: The Disclaimer & Context

This is a long article, so buckle up. I’m bringing all the receipts. Before I do anything, I want to share a few screenshots with you, so we have proper context and transparency.

What you see above are a pair of screenshots from a live-selling app called Palmstreet (I will get to that). This represents roughly half of my total sales experience on the app (these were from a live sale I ran on March 24th). I’ve spent approximately 2-2.5 hours on in two separate live-selling sessions (and honestly, much of that time was basic chit-chat with people joining the live sale), and I pulled in a gross profit of close to $500.

Now, for comparison, here is my March sales report from Amazon:

Paltry, I know. This isn’t fully representative of my sales as my non-fiction book, Joy-Jitsu, is being sold both through Amazon and direct (and yes, that’s me in the audiobook narration: also PLEASE DON’T BUY IT - I’ll have signed copies on my site soon, you should 100% wait for those), and I had a wacky Caretaker re-launch to fight through, but you get the idea.

Here’s the math - About $64 in March through Amazon. (My February sales were about double this one), and close to $500 gross (there are standard fees and shipping costs - which I will get to), in two hours of live-selling on Palmstreet.

Now that this is out of the way, let me preface everything I’m about to break down for you with the following statements:

I had help doing this. I am not trying to sell you anything, I make nothing talking about this, it isn’t an advertisement, and I don’t give a flying crap sandwich if you decide to try it or not. If you know me from MIRTH QUAKE, or you’ve spent more than 60 seconds chatting with me … ever, you know that I get great joy out of helping my fellow author friends and the indie community.

My goal is to offer information to you, so you are armed with knowledge you can choose to use. If there is anything remotely related to personal benefit out of this, I’ll be fully transparent about it.

I cannot stress this in stronger terms:

I do not care about what you decide to do with this information. It does not affect my life in any way, we are not competitors, I wish you the best - in fact, I hope you are a thousand times more successful than I am. Off you go …

With that out of the way (as both reality check and a clarification of my motivation), I’d like to break down the entire concept behind this sales avenue, how it compares to “normal” sales through Amazon, and provide a relatively detailed accounting and methodology for what happened on the best sales day I’ve ever had as an author.

Also answer the question … was it worth it?

As an indie author, sales of your book means you are both the author, and also now the marketing department. Congrats, you have yet another hat. We spend a lot of time talking about our book online (and many of you lovely fellow authors push your books almost exclusively to fellow authors, which - and I say this out of love - is really stupid).

We are searching for every advantage and every reader and buyer, and part of that is understanding every tool that is out there that could help you. That’s what I’m trying to do here. Help. You.

Part 2: What Is Palmstreet?

Well, have a look at the website:

This is a different type of sales channel than barking at people on X or FB, or firing up the paid ad machine on Amazon or the like. In fact, it has absolutely zero to do with books and book sales, and that’s the point.

Palmstreet is a live-selling app that started out catering to plants and the plant community, has expanded to things like rare minerals (buy up show pieces like malachite or amethyst), and has expanded to crafts and in fact REPTILES (that’s right, you can sit there drunk off your ass at 2AM, swipe right, and purchase yourself a $500 turtle).

You see the categories on that screenshot - right above the “download app” button. You know what you don’t see?

Books.

That’s right. I can confidently say (feather in the cap, yo), that I was the original bookseller on Palmstreet. Look at me go. Trailblazer. Thank you for indulging my brief ego stroke. So let’s answer a big question first …

How The Fragnog Did I Hear About This Thing?

My fiancée, Jaclynn runs a plant business. She has a successful plant YouTube channel, she has a plant Palmstreet account, and runs an online shop as well as doing almost weekly livesales of plants on the app. Palmstreet started as an ecosystem for plant sales (wait … a community of plant sellers developing tools to help independent growers sell plants? It’s almost as if the indie community is only missing people willing to yank their heads out of their own asses to ACTUALLY support their fellow indie authors in some impactful way … weird … I digress …)

Also, Jaclynn’s hot af, and I’m a lucky guy. Sometimes she puts me on camera on her channel so I can be stupid and goofy and entertain all the old ladies and gay dudes that watch her channel and think I’m cute.

Anyway, Jaclynn started running sales on Palmstreet and raking in upwards of $500-$600 in a 2-hour sale once a week and I’m sitting here thinking “Holy Schnitzel, can that work for books?” I was watching her do this week in and week out. Hanging out, talking with customers that were huge fans of her channel and the plants she had in inventory, and crawling out of her plant room a little tired, but with $500 in the bank.

So, she graciously let me jump in at the end of one of her plant sales to see if the good people in her orbit would purchase books directly from an author. I talked to some wonderful people on there, and tried to get a few books sold.

Part 3: The First Impromptu Sale

I spent 30 minutes chatting with people watching the sale.

I sold around $200 worth of signed books.

Yep. I know.

These were live AUCTION style sales. So basically, “Hey, I’ve got this book called SPACE PEW PEW (which you totally SHOULD buy, btw, it’s one of the funniest books you’ll ever have the pleasure of reading), and I’ll sign it, to you, right here as we chat!” So she created it as a temporary “item” in the online store after taking a quick pic of me through the app, threw it on there with a 3-minute countdown, and someone bought the book for $43, outbidding a few others.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at some screenshots from that first, unannounced, impromptu book sale back on March 1st:

The image to the left is a $43 sale of a book that my wholesale cost on is $5, plus 3 bookmarks which cost a few cents. So basically, I sat down in front of a camera with a bunch of plant people, snapped a picture of myself holding a book they’d never heard of, threw it up for an auction, had a great time, and brought home about $30 in profit (after shipping, cost, and a nominal sales fee).

When was the last time you spent 3 minutes selling a book for $30 in profit?

Hate the game, not the playa.

I sold a few more of those packages and my last copy of Joy-Jitsu (more coming, see above) in the same way. The above screenshots are just a few of the sales.

Part 4: Duplicate The Experiment.

After spending about 30 minutes on the app and raking in somewhere close to $200 in net profit, we decided to set up and run another test, this time - no plants, no co-opting one of Jaclynn’s sales. Just me, selling books. On the app. Here was the promotional thumbnail for the sale page:

It’s hard to see … but there’s a little reminder bell there. Yes, 62 people had this sale bookmarked. A few people missed the live and bought my books from the store afterward, even. So there were some residual sales that I didn’t even count here.

Basically, you set and schedule a live sale, set up some of the items you’re selling in the “online shop.” Each account has a storefront connected to it - people can purchase items directly from the store at any time, or they can purchase on the live auction. You can also do giveaways for free that are picked randomly with a cute little spinning wheel (which we did, to keep people eager to win free swag like trading cards, bookmarks, and stickers).

I had a TON of stuff available and ready to go, both for this auction and to have inventory to offer people through my website, or for upcoming convention season:

Yes. All of this costs money to obtain, and you have to use everything wisely. Buttons, bookmarks and stickers are super cheap giveaway items, the bookmarks always have the QR code linking to the books for sale, and I have packs of 12 trading cards for SPACE PEW PEW (at a wholesale cost of about $1 each set) which I can use as giveaways or throw-ins to add some value to a sales package.

The posters were the priciest, I have 10 of them, and they’re legit epic, just saying. Saving those for Con season.

Next, we set up items in the store. This is what that looks like:

People could buy the bundle in the store by going to your online storefront, or they could wait for the live sale, buy it, and have it personalized and signed. Like Alyssa here, who bought during the live sale and said, “Write something naughty in it.”

That’s a screenshot from the sale. Yes, my handwriting is terrible (which is why I hate personalizing), and yes, it says, “Have fun playing with Uranus.”

On this duplicated sale I spent about an hour and a half hanging out with people, most of it chit-chat between live auctions (we did a live auction about every 15 minutes or so). I did some readings straight from the book, talked with people, and had a legit GREAT time. About $300 in sales later, I was done, and a week later, shipped out the books.

When people buy them, shipping costs are factored in, and Palmstreet takes a small percentage as a selling fee for the app. It’s stupid easy. As soon as the items are scanned and shipped (we went USPS), the funds hit your account within about 24 hours.

Two sales - one impromptu, one planned, and my final NET take-home after fees, packaging, and shipping was around $350 considering also a few after-live residual sales from items in the shop.

So $350 net for 2 hours of talking about your books, signing them, and getting in front of an entirely new audience on an app that has ZERO to do with book sales?

Not bad, I’d say …

Part 5: How Do You Get In On This?

That’s the big question, I know.

First, understand my advantages in getting these results:

1. I leveraged Jaclynn’s shop, she’s been on the app for about 5 months and has followers that look forward to her plant sales, but even still, a book sale on a plant shop getting 60+ reminders isn’t far off from the 100 plant sale reminders she’ll typically get.

2. I had Jaclynn’s help. The app has a little bit of a learning curve. It’s not hard to use, but it is different than something like YouTube. If you can use Twitch or run a livestream where you manage comments and such, you can use Palmstreet.

3. I had something to sell. Auctions are always better with unique items. So having some swag to create different “packages” was critical. A package with bookmarks, one with stickers, one with two of my books plus trading cards - all of this kept people engaged and waiting for the next auction to count down. If you’re trying to auction a book for $20 that they can get in an online shop for $20 … and you’re just going to auction the same thing for the same $20 in 15 minutes …why would they bother? There’s no hook, and no motivation. Which brings me to the final, most critical advantage …

4. I AM AN INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING PERSON. That’s called charisma, people. Charm. If you’re not willing to be engaging with others, ask questions, answer questions, think quick on your feet and entertain, be a little self-deprecating, and be a LIVE storyteller, this will not work for you.

And as for the “How Do I Do It?”

Currently, Palmstreet does NOT offer a “book” sales channel. We are firmly in the Oregon Trail / Wild West days (without the dysentery). This is all uncharted and unmapped territory, and as such it’s a little trickier to get into.

I leveraged Jaclynn’s account as a test, and since then she has reached out to their technical and management team (she has worked with them previously) to see if it might have potential for “Books!” as a category moving forward. More testing, and more people will be necessary.

Up next for me is creating the account, building it, and seeing if it’s viable as a once-monthly sales venue, similar to setting up shop in a bookstore for a live signing, but without the awkward kid picking his nose, staring at you and remarking, “Why isn’t anybody talking to you?” Thanks, you little shit. See your mom over there in the vampire porn section? She doesn’t even like you. She got you for free from a Wal-Mart door greeter.

Anyway, here’s what you CAN do if you’re interested in a new opportunity:

1. Grab the app, it’s free. Pop into some live sales. It’s quick and easy to see how it all works. Do some chatting with people. Don’t buy anything unless you really want plants, reptiles, rocks, or craft stuff. This is the learning curve. Understand the system. It’s super simple, truly.

2. Know someone on the inside! And this one right here is the only time during this entire post where I’m going to mention something that would have a slight benefit - not for me, but for my hot af fiancée. If you want to try this, it’s good to know someone that can vouch for you because there is an approval process to be set up as a seller on the app. If you sign up and reach out to Palmstreet with a, “I heard about this through Jaclynn’s Jungle” - or even point them to this post, you may have a better chance at being approved quicker creating a sales account on the app (they will absolutely verify that you aren’t a scam artist, may reach out to Jaclynn to confirm, and only approve you after ensuring you aren’t going to screw up their ecosystem). Jaclynn will likely get a small sales credit as a thanks for the referral. So if you are going to try this, drop a note in the comments so we’re prepared with a heads-up, will ya?

3. Have a following. This is the toughest challenge, isn’t it? Getting people interested and following you on the app. You can do all kinds of things to help with this - co-sales with other people, reaching out to your fans or mailing list, setting up an event for a “live book signing” like my thumbnail set up above, etc. You’ve got to think outside the box here.

4. Have more than a book. You cannot auction off the same thing, it’s boring, and people will sniff out that there’s no benefit or advantage to bidding for a book they can just buy on Amazon anyway, for cheaper. A few books and some swag can get you through an hour of live-selling with some variety. If anything, this should be encouragement to create even more, so get those words pumping, people.

In Closing, and Final Thoughts:

Listen, it’s hard being an indie author. The biggest part of that challenge (marketing-wise, not writing-wise) is knowing WHERE your audience is.

If there’s anything that I stumbled into here that I’ll take some credit for, it’s this: I know that my audience is not exclusively fellow authors. Is Palmstreet a perfect sales channel? Nope. Does it replace Amazon? Nope. Can you pull in a few hundred bucks in a few hours of work?

Damn right you can. I did it. Twice.

Plant people, rock collectors, and reptile keepers have tendencies toward introversion by nature. That usually means they tend to be book people, too. These are the quiet ones, the readers, the ones in their own heads and their own worlds. People who love peace and a great escape. All I have to do is be engaging, charismatic, and communicate that I, too, am in that world with a vivid mind and a knack for storytelling, and they’ll be eager to support me, and my stories.

That’s all I did here. I knew there were readers. I found them. I was authentic. I told them about my books, a little about me, and what they can expect if they give my words a chance.

When I presented SPACE PEW PEW I told them it was a story with a ton of heart, great characters, and if they liked shows like Firefly, or movies like Spaceballs, Galaxy Quest, The Fifth Element or Guardians of the Galaxy, they’ll love SPACE PEW PEW.

When I presented The Caretaker, I told them it was a mind-bending Urban Fantasy story. At times violent, at times romantic, at times a mystery, and always with a ton of heart at the core.

I had strangers crying when I told them about my brother, showed them his place in the book, and read the dedication to I wrote to him.

They appreciated the comparisons, the descriptions, my vulnerability and my authenticity. It all resonated.

I signed books for the people buying them, I signed books for their husbands as a gift, I even signed a copy of The Caretaker in honor of someone’s brother who passed, because of my tribute to Joe. These are incredible human connections direct from an author’s mind to great people out in the world living their own adventures. I have new fans now, and it’s awesome.

I realize you may have questions about this whole experience. I can do my best to guide you to answers, but understand that I am not Palmstreet, I do not work for them, I don’t even have my own account. As with anything, you’ll have to do some research and decide on whether this is something you’d want to do, I just wanted to make sure you had as much information as possible, bring the receipts, and offer it all up with full transparency.

If you appreciate the info and the work I went through to get this all together, buy my book and drop a review, it’s the only thanks I could ask for.

Until next time folks, happy writing, happy marketing, and remember - the world is starving for your words and you are worth reading!