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32
Steve Weber
Let’s boil it down to three essential questions:
1.
Are Amazon Bestseller Campaigns profitable? Do they generate
more income for the author or publisher than they cost?
2.
Do these campaigns enhance the reputation of the author and the
book?
3.
Most importantly, does the bestseller promotion provide enduring
word of mouth for the book, or do sales evaporate quickly?
Making the list
We’re list-crazy these days. Everything is ranked: books, movies,
radio and TV shows, Web sites, video games. The lists are dutifully
reported in newspapers, magazines, and even mentioned on news
broadcasts. Who’s No. 1 today? Who’s up and who’s down? How many
gazillion dollars did the latest Hollywood blockbuster rake in last
weekend?
Actually, this stuff matters a lot: Most of your sales happen after
you’re on a list, because that’s how lots of people discover you. For years,
big publishers have used every trick in the book to break onto lists like
the New York Times Best Sellers. One way is to offer huge discounts to
certain retailers who place big orders, making demand appear strong.
For
struggling
authors,
Amazon is the
most democratic
list because
everyone gets
on it, whether
they sell tons of
books or just a
few. Each author
who has sold at
least one copy of
his or her book
on Amazon is
ranked
somewhere in
It’s easy to check the Amazon Sales Rank of
any book. Scroll down the book’s product page to
the section labeled Product Details. The Sales
Rank is at the bottom of the section.
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