: Re: How can a book get a Kirkus Star, yet have no sales? How can a 3-year-old book receive a positive rating from Kirkus, and even earn a Kirkus Star, yet still have almost no sales? I have

@Kevin153

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There is no one single magic bullet that performs all the work of promoting your book for you. This is why it is so hard to self-publish successfully unless you are also a great salesperson. Most "name" publishers put some time and resources in to promotion, but these days, even with the best publisher, you are expected to handle much of your own promotion.

Typically a good review in a respected publication such as Kirkus helps you gain more publicity, because it grants you legitimacy, but it isn't going to sell the book all by itself. It's a good thing to mention in interviews and put on the book cover, it probably drove a fair number of direct-to-library sales, and it's likely to help her sell her next book to a publisher more easily, but it isn't like winning the lottery.

There's a very short list of accolades that single-handedly convey success, and that's only because they generate so much widespread publicity on their own: The Pulitzer, the Booker, the Nobel, the Newberry and the Caldecott, Oprah's Book Club. Anything outside of those is nothing more than a boost in the right direction.

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