What Are Bulk Buy Incentives
Selling books is really hard!
One way to sell more books is to focus your energy on bulk sales.
Bulk buy incentives represent book marketing techniques that amplify book sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple copies of a title at once in exchange for special pricing or added value.
Do the math. You can sell books singly and add up the numbers, 1 +1 +1, or you can sell in bulk and see sales multiply 1000 X 10, or 10+10+100+1000+1500.
Authors typically don’t target individuals to obtain bulk sales. Instead, they focus on organizations, educational institutions, book clubs, and non-profits that need multiple copies for their members, employees, students, or clients.
Incentivizing these larger quantity buyers, authors can strategically increase their sales by making buying in bulk more enticing.
Read on to see how to add bulk buy incentives to your book launch ideas.
What’s Possible with Bulk Buy Incentives
You may want to sell thousands of books in a week to reach bestseller status on a big list, and most business books that make a bestseller list include some bulk orders.
It’s important to keep in mind that making a bestseller list takes valiant effort and investment of both time and money. Plus, some bestseller lists might intentionally exclude bulk sales in their calculations.
When identifying your objectives for bulk sales, be sure to do some research on the bestseller lists you’re targeting.
Bestseller Success
Strategically implementing book marketing techniques like bulk sales is key to generating enough sales to potentially hit a bestseller list. Weaving Influence supported Mark Miller on the launch of his book, Culture Rules, helping him amass more than 5,500 pre-orders leading up to the launch, which landed him on the Wall Street Journal* and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Mark offered incentives for orders of 11+ books that included a free one-hour virtual conversation about the book. Many of Mark’s pre-orders were bulk orders, strategically placed through Porchlight Books and independent retailers.
Read our case study about his campaign.
*Note: As of February 2024, the Wall Street Journal best-seller list has ended.
Even if you don’t want or expect you’ll make a big bestseller list, bulk sales are still a helpful way to quickly see more of your books in readers’ hands, creating more possibilities for your book and work.
As a first-time author, you may find it harder to identify bulk purchasers for your book unless you have a well-established reputation with your clients. As your work grows in the world and organizations see the value you offer, you will gather readers who are excited to buy your next book.
Most authors view a bulk sales approach as both proactive and reactive.
You are proactive when you make a list of possible organizations or individuals who would buy your book in bulk and contact them to share your bulk incentives.
You are reactive when someone approaches you for work, and you negotiate your fee to include a bulk order of your books.
Let’s explore how to leverage bulk buy incentives to increase sales of your book.
Getting the Most from Bulk Buy Incentives
As you strategize your bulk sales offers, remember that there are many ways to add value and encourage the purchase of your book in bulk.
Some tips include:
Identify incentives that will compel your audience. Whatever offer you make must be congruent with your book’s content and value. Look for offers you can make that fit your audience’s needs and interests.
Be creative! Look for ways to offer unique incentives that compel people to buy more books.
Make sure your offers will scale. If you’re offering your time in exchange for bulk sales, make sure the numbers add up. You have a limited number of hours available and don’t want to over-promise your time. When possible, look for incentives that do not require your time. This could include exclusive access to a video series or other digital resources related to your book.
Use bulk sales as a negotiation tool. While most authors can’t afford to trade keynotes for book sales, you can use the purchase of a bulk order of your books as a negotiating tool in closing a keynote sale by offering your keynote for a price and allowing part of the price to be applied toward a bulk book purchase.
Ask for bulk purchases. Many authors sell thousands of books to clients of their consulting practices. Your book brings your clients your best thinking and learning in a convenient package, which can be read, re-read, and shared. If clients already pay top dollar for your knowledge and expertise, they will likely be willing to invest in buying multiple copies of your book. Consider the price of a day of training with you vs. the cost of bulk purchases of your book.
Create a landing page or PDF flyer that clearly outlines your offers and promotes/shares them widely. Don’t assume that people who want to purchase in bulk will know about your incentive offers. Proactively share your offers and make sure people can easily find them. Be open to possibilities beyond the offer to develop approaches that work for your clients.
Time these bulk buys proactively. By sending bulk sales to a site like Porchlight Books, which reports to BookScan, you can increase your chances of landing one of the big lists. Porchlight also has a monthly bestseller list, so if possible, time your bulk sales through Porchlight to land within a certain week or month. Another bulk sales resource is BulkBooks.
Pro Tip
You may be wondering about placing a bulk order through Amazon. While each book will still be counted as a sale by BookScan, Amazon’s sales ranks are fueled by the number of orders, not by the number of books in each order. A bulk order from Amazon of 20 books at once, for example, will not have the same impact on your sales rank as 20 individual book orders. Instead, it will influence your rank the same as a one-book order.
Put a time limit on your offers. If you want your bulk orders to help you land on a bestseller list, work to gather them as early as possible so that they ship during the week your book is released. This may mean timing your pre-order bulk incentives to expire about a week before launch. You can also shift or adjust your offers to continue to attract bulk orders after your book is released.
When it comes to bulk buy incentives, the sky is the limit. Be sure to relate your offerings to your target audience and ensure you have the resources (budget, time) to carry out any promised deliverables you may include.
The Bottom Line
Whether your goal is to maximize sales for potential inclusion on a bestseller list or simply expand the reach of your message by getting more books into readers’ hands, bulk buy incentives play a vital role in your overall book launch strategy. Integrate bulk sales into your book launch timeline to transform your book from simply published to genuinely impactful, setting the foundation for long-term success.
Take Action
Weaving Influence can partner with you to discuss your specific sales goals related to your book launch and help you develop a bulk buy strategy that will get more books into readers’ hands. Contact us today to get started! Bulk buy incentives represent book marketing techniques that amplify book sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple copies of a title at once in exchange for special pricing or added value.
Kelly expertly supports authors through their book launches through strategic account management, with a specialization in mobilizing their networks and building impactful launch teams. She coaches authors throughout her launch management on how to best influence bestseller opportunities and secure Amazon reviews, ultimately increasing visibility, media coverage, and opportunities for growth and success.