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Plug Your Book!
35
With some Bestseller Campaigns, buyers are offered many more freebies
if they buy two, three, or even 20 copies of your book at the same time.
The bonuses are advertised as being worth hundreds or even thousands
of dollars.
The e-mail blasts are sent to registered subscribers of e-mail
newsletters, so the messages aren’t illegal spam. But just in case things
don’t go as well as planned, some consultants suggest you also pester
your family, friends, and coworkers to buy your book on the special day
to ensure it has enough sales to move up.
… and this is success?
The marketing literature for Bestseller Campaigns give plenty of
references that seem to back up the promises. Dozens of earlier
Bestseller Campaign books are listed as success stories. But a quick
check of their actual sales on Amazon reveals that several of these books
haven’t been successful at all.
As shown in Figure 2.1, the sales charts for these books zigzag all
over the place, a sure sign the book is going nowhere. Further, look at
the sales ranks—they’re a long, long way from No. 1. Obviously, these
books are selling only a few copies a year on Amazon.
And these are the success stories? The flameouts must be
spectacular.
On the other hand, look at the three bottom sales charts in Figure
2.1, the ones for books promoted with Web sites and blogs. Their sales
ranks are much stronger, and the trend lines are flat, meaning steady
sales. These books probably sell more copies each day on Amazon than
the “Bestsellers” rack up in a whole year.
Haywired recommendations
What goes wrong with the Bestseller Campaign books? Some of
them are probably wonderful books, but nobody’s buying. Meanwhile,
books with genuine word of mouth can have strong, steady sales for
years.
A bit more digging into these Bestseller Campaigns shows the real
reason they can collapse. When readers follow their own curiosity, they
tend to buy lots of the same kinds of books. For example, the Amazon
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