It is said we all have a book in us. That's great but is your book going to be a best seller .. and will you ever write it? A few weeks ago I completed my latest book. In the past I've written, or contributed, to some fairly heavy titles and they have done fairly well within their restricted specialist field. But this time I'd written a book that had wider appeal ... or so I hoped.
My latest book is called "Advertising Secrets: Essential Advertising Tips That Advertising Sales Reps Prefer You NOT To Know". It is a composite of my 30+ years of experience buying advertising space; I've had responsibility for a £5.5million annual spend in a previous life and I still write and place a lot of ads even now.
The idea was to write the sort of book that would appeal to business people that were placing ads, as well as the general reader with interest in the sort of advertising we are all bombarded with each day.
The thing is, I know that most advertising doesn't work.. but it can be incredibly effective if used correctly. My book was aimed at ensuring no one need ever fail at advertising ever again.
But the real problem wasn't writing the book. Effectively I'd actually completed it years ago and it only needed updating. All I had to do was pull together odd articles and website pieces, bits from various courses I'd run and there was my book.
No, the real problem was marketing it. I'd have to prove I actually knew about marketing and advertising. So I took the plunge and launched my book as an ebook on Kindle.
Why Kindle?
Simply because it is so easy to publish on Kindle and costs absolutely nothing. The risk factor is nil. Also, these days downloads are the way so many books are purchased and Amazon allowed me to set the price at a low level so everyone could afford it.
Marketing a Best Seller
So how do you get to number one in your niche market when hundreds of books are being published per day. Well it isn't done by sitting back waiting for sales.
My theory was that you had to dominate the market and that it isn't necessarily about selling huge numbers of books over a long time. To become a best seller you have to sell a lot of books over a short time scale. If you did this I surmised you would then see the power of Amazon support you with placement in their best sellers list and recommending the book. Then long term sales would be assured as recommendation came in from readers.
So, once published, I set about telling people about my book. Some of them told other people and sales started to rise. We then put the book on free release for a few days and tried that. I had a certain reservation about this as when something costs nothing people don't value it; but this tactic played a part in our strategy.
By placing the book in the Kindle Select list I also enabled Amazon Prime subscribers to download the book at nil cost. This may seem a pretty stupid thing to do; give away my secrets. But Amazon actually splits the Prime subscriber income each month and, so although it is free, I still get paid.
Then a few days after promoting the book my mate Ian, in Manchester, emailed to say he was on Amazon.co.uk and the book was number one in its category. Wow!
Then I saw it hit number one on the Amazon.com site .. then it hit the top spot in Germany, France and Canada. In just 48 hours I had a best seller on my hands. It also went up the charts in places like Spain, Italy and even India.
Sales have now moderated to a steadier pace .. and I've started my second book. Will it be a best seller? We'll have to wait to see but I know the formula.
So I think that, if you have a best seller in you, you should go for it. Get writing, get marketing and reach for that top best seller spot.
PS Want to see the evidence? Just CLICK HERE and check it out.
CLICK HERE to get my latest book on Amazon.
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