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Plug Your Book!
25
Bubbling to the top
The more your book sells on Amazon, the more frequently it’s shown
and recommended. Books that sell well on Amazon appear higher in
search results and category lists.
Let’s imagine your book How to Grow Organic Strawberries
outsells a competing title, Idiot’s Guide to Growing Organic
Strawberries. When Amazon customers search for the keyword
“strawberries,” your book will appear on top—customers will see it first,
and notice it before the competition.
More benefits result from your Amazon sales: Your book moves up
in category lists, providing another way for potential readers to discover
it. For example, your title on organic strawberries would appear in this
Amazon subcategory:
Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture >
Techniques > Organic
This subcategory list is like a bestseller list for your niche. Amazon
has 35 top-level categories (like Arts & Photography; Business &
Investing) divided into dozens more subcategories. Unlike general
bestseller lists compiled by the New York Times or USA Today,
Amazon’s subcategory lists show what people care about at the niche
level, where passions run deepest.
Amazon’s subcategories are discrete enough that just a few sales can
push your title near the top, exposing your book to more people who care
about that topic. In our example subcategory Home & Garden > …
Organic, your book could claim one of the top three spots with only two
or three sales per week on Amazon.
Once you’ve bubbled up to the top of your subcategory, you’re firmly
inside the positive feedback loop. Amazon acts as a huge funnel, sending
thousands of readers to your book. That’s why some authors encourage
their Web site visitors to buy books on Amazon—each additional sale
boosts their exposure, prompting yet more sales.
“Simply put, the more customers you send to Amazon who buy your
book, the more visible it will be on Amazon, and the more books Amazon
will sell for you,” says Morris Rosenthal, publisher of Foner Books.
If your book continues selling for six months or so, Amazon can
assign it to more categories, making it even more likely browsers will
find you after browsing in related categories. Books that sell moderately
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