Bestseller Strategy
I've spent the past day learning a lot about how the Amazon.com bestseller system works and how to get to the top of it. So far I've read Turn Your Book Into An Amazon Best-Seller and How ANY Book Can Become An Amazon Bestseller!. This post will help you learn about how bestsellers are determined, how to become one, and my thoughts on how book buyers are being misled.
The basic strategy is to:
- Pick a date and time. Amazon.com determines its bestsellers every hour and its bestseller list includes 100 books. So, there theoretically could be 2,400 bestsellers every day. I've decided I would like to become an Amazon.com Bestseller on my birthday, November 15th.
- Create value boosters. Create give-aways (ebooks, online video & audio, articles, online courses, etc.) that are worth hundreds of dollars that people receive when they purchase your book at the day and time you've chosen. Make most of the value boosters electronic so that the cost to distribute them is $0. This essentially gives a lot of value to the consumer at no cost to you.
- Create a sales letter. Create a sales letter that convinces people to buy the book at the hour and day you've chosen.
- Contact email list owners. Convince opt-in email list owners with lists related to your book topic to send a special email to their list with your sales letter.
- Automate the Process. Set up your web site for automation so that people can input their Amazon.com receipt and then be forwarded to a web site for the free gifts.
- Wait and See. Get only a few hundred purchases in the hour you've chosen and, voila, you're a best-selling author. get a few thousand and you could be the #1 bestseller!
Some of the success stories with this method are:
- Michael Litman
- Brian Tracy
- Randy Gilbert
- Joe Vitale
Gaming the System.
From my reading, the NY York Times BestSeller list (the most prestigious bestseller list) isn't that much different than Amazon's. Many NY Times best-selling authors have used the strategy above of getting people to buy all the books in chain bookstores in one day. The main differences seem to be that the NY Times list is smaller, tabulates the bestseller list less often, and only polls some 3,000 bookstores with many independent bookstores and other sales channels not included.
The bestseller lists seem to measure marketing tactics more than the quality of the books. A book that was on the bestseller list for one hour receives the same credential as a book that has grown through word-of-mouth, had constant sales, and been on the bestseller list for a few weeks. I think it is very misleading to consumers who look at the "bestseller" seal and say, "If so many people liked it, then it must be a good book." Is this just the way it is? Should authors not try to game the system ? Should consumers become more aware of how bestsellers are determined? Should companies that publish bestseller lists change loopholes in the system, even if they are profiting handsomely just the way they are?
Posted at October 10, 2003 02:59 PM
Well Michael you've discovered one fundamental deciet of the trade publishing business. Once upon a time when it took substantial capital to print a book, large publishing houses manipulated best-seller lists the same way. As independant publishers and then entrepreneurial self publishers gained affordable access to printing, the "secrets" of bestseller lists became more dispursed.
Basically bestseller lists are a marketing tool for the retailer and the publisher. It is neither of their interests to create transparancy nor democracy in the lists.
Having said that, McDonalds gives away toys with their Happy Meals for the same reason. Try to get a 6 year-old interested in a competitors hamburger.
