Monday, July 25, 2016

How to Make an Amazon Best Selling Book

The theory for producing a best selling book is to drive as many people as you can to buy your book through the narrowest time frame in a book category that doesn’t have very many books in it. You also want to pick a category that doesn’t have a popular best selling author or big selling book at the top that you have to take on.

This is why building your platform is important; you need fans to do this. If you can do this it is very likely that you can create a bestselling book. Maybe even a #1 category best seller. It won’t last long so be sure to screen capture the Products Details area of the Amazon sales page for your marketing. Generally this technique works best with Kindle books because you can lower the price down to $.99. But I have also seen it work with paperback books but the per book price will by much higher.

Step 1. Research Your Categories.
• Look at your competitors books for category ideas

• Select specific book categories that have under 5-7000 books in them, better if you can find one with low thousands or even hundreds of books.

• Try to find a category that doesn’t have books in the top 2,000-5,000 overall Amazon sales rank. Also look for categories that don’t have a superstar writer or celebrity at the top. It is almost impossible to beat them, look for different categories

• When you upload your book, select the BASAC book categories as close as you can to the Amazon categories. Be sure to include in your description and keywords and even your title/subtitle the Amazon categories that you want to be in. You are helping Amazon figure out where your book should sit.

Step 2. Pre-Launch Your Book
Remember the goal here is to drive as many sales as you can through the narrowest time frame with as many people as you can.

• Prepare and send out your launch announcement or any articles that you might be releasing to your Blog and Influencers network.

• Send press releases out to PR sites free and paid.

• Try to build a street team around your book launch. These are fans that you have that support you and will buy the first copies and post though out their networks. This can be huge, even just a couple of people can make a huge difference.

• Set up a virtual book tour. A virtual book tour are articles and interviews that you have created about you and your book that are hosted on other people’s blogs and websites. Start early and build these relationships.

• E-mail your list that you are launching your book and would love to have their support. Give them the book link and instructions on when to buy.

• Lower your Kindle price to $.99. Have a few friends buy a copy of the book and write several positive reviews. You want to make sure everything is working sales wise. It is ok to have the book live, just keep it quiet.

• If released over CreateSpace lower your price as much as you can.

Step 3. Launch/Release Your Book.
Remember to create a best selling Amazon category book you want to drive as many people as you can to buy your book through the narrowest time frame in a book category that doesn’t have very many books in it.

• Announce your book is live on your social media sites, include a cover shot and the link to Amazon.com.

• E-mail your list that your book is now live.

• Announce your book is live on your blog, websites, make a book trailer video and host on YouTube and all your sites. Any and everyplace you have exposure to the world, announce your book is live.

• Get you street team announcing your book is live through all their social media sites with live links to Amazon

• If you are giving away a free bonus gift tell everyone how to get it.

• Conduct a Virtual Launch Party on Google Hangout.

• Release your Virtual Book launch and tour.

• This is key, post your progress in your social media accounts during the launch day about what is going on, how exciting it is. Make it an event. Encourage others to join in, get your fans involved to get you over the top to a #1 position.

• Be sure to screen capture your Amazon ranking as you climb, don’t try to guess the top, just keep recording the screen during the day. This information is located in the Product Details section of your Amazon book sales page.

• Amazon updates on an hourly basis but sometimes nothing happens for hours and then it starts to roll, you will have to pay attention for 24 hours. Having a few fans in other time zones can really help out with the watching.

Step 4. Re-Release/Announce the Book Release at the End of The Day
• Re-e-mail your list and repost in Social Media about your launch, be sure to not burn out this list.

• You can push books over the top during the night by letting readers know how close you are to #1.

• Watch what is happening the next day, some countries take a day or so to catch up to the #1 ranking.

• International best sellers can be done with as few as 3-5 book sales, build relationships with fans in other countries.  This turns you into an International Best Seller

• Remember to check your rankings and screen capture, #1s and Hot New Releases

Step 5. Thank Everyone for All the Support
• Thank everyone for the support and help. Especially thank your super fans and anyone that reposted through their networks for you.

• Update all your bios about your new best selling #1 status.

• Post the screen shots of the new rankings and the success. You will be surprised, people will still be buying. People like success.

• Have your book cover update with a best selling burst or banner.

This post is a companion to the Launch Case Study of my own Amazon International Best Selling campaign for my Book Marketing Checklist for Self Publishing release.
http://brucethebookguy.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-i-launched-my-book-marketing.html

Don't Have a Book? Read My Series on How to Easily Create Your Own Book

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