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22
Steve Weber
bookstore, or even the library—but they’re easy to find on Amazon.
Twenty-five percent of Amazon’s sales come from obscure books that
aren’t even carried in a Barnes & Noble superstore stocking 100,000
titles. And the percentage of these “long tail” sales grows every year.
Sure, part of Amazon’s appeal is its discount pricing and free
shipping offers. But the real value for book buyers is being able to find
exactly what they want, says Chris Anderson, author of the 2006
business bestseller The Long Tail:
It’s not enough that things be available, you need to
be able to find them. The big problem with brick-and-
mortar stores is, all shoppers experience the same
store. But the problem of findability is solved when you
go online. You have searching, recommendations, and
all sorts of narrow taxonomies—things can be in
multiple categories at the same time.
For 50 years, publishers have been chasing blockbusters—the
bestseller hits. They had to, because with limited shelf space, bookstores
had to focus on the stuff that moved fastest. Today, chasing blockbusters
is obsolete. Authors and publishers have a wide-open opportunity in
serving niches.
These niche books are the ones people care about most, and the ones
Amazon is most effective in recommending, says Greg Greeley, Amazon’s
vice president for media products: “The Web site is designed to help
customers find books they didn’t know existed.”
Getting recommended
Book sales are a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially on Amazon. The
more people who buy your book, the easier it becomes for the next
reader to discover it. When Amazon notices your book is selling, it
automatically displays your book higher in its search results and higher
in its category lists. And most importantly, Amazon starts plugging your
book into book recommendations on its Web site and in e-mails to
customers.
Book recommendations are Amazon’s biggest sales engine, after
keyword searches. Sixty-six percent of sales are to returning customers,
many of them acting on automated recommendations for books popular
with customers with similar buying histories.
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