By Vicki H. Moss, Contributing
Editor for Southern Writers Magazine
What about Book
laundering firms that hire people all over the country to buy books one at a
time through many different retailers using different credit cards with
different shipping and billing addresses? What about paying a fee for our
publisher to have our book placed on the front tables at Barnes and Nobles?
Doesn’t WSJ or NYT bestseller = more money?
With those questions
and more rambling through my thoughts, the big day arrived for Nailed It! The Nail Salon Chronicles’ book launch. The word was out, now the
wait. I kept checking Amazon rankings every 30 minutes and noticed the rankings
were updated every hour. I wondered if all this searching the book title on
Amazon helped Nailed It! The Nail Salon Chronicles leave
page five to rise to page one on the search, staying in either the number one
or number two spot – depending on if there was a sponsored book or toy being
promoted by Amazon. The rise to the first page certainly had nothing to do with
book reviews because there were none. Then the results magically
appeared.
Natalie and I were
truly stunned when Nailed It! The Nail Salon Chronicles rose
to #159 in the rankings, up from around millions of books in the inspirational
category. And at one a.m., I went to bed, not knowing if the rankings had risen
even higher, since Natalie lived in California which is in the Pacific Time
Zone and her friends and family were still making purchases. To my knowledge,
Amazon doesn’t notify authors how high in rankings a book may have climbed, so
I had no way of knowing final results.
Lessons learned from
all of this? Forget about making the NYT and WSJ bestseller lists. Like the
stock market—the system is more than likely rigged since there’s no tried and
true check list for rising to the top. Bias will forever be a main player. Have
your NYT and WSJ bestseller strategy, but concentrate on marketing through
social media platforms, word of mouth, TV and radio, speaking engagements, and
while standing in line waiting for a table in a restaurant—yes, I’ve made a
sale that way. (Once, I sold one of my other books while chatting with someone
before mall doors opened and the inquisitive couple visiting from another city
asked, “What do you do?”)
Then, if there’s any
money available for hiring a publicist, find one who has had proven results in
your book genre. The main thing to remember—authors are their best publicists.
When someone asks about your line of work—have a printed card ready to share
with your book’s information and where it can be purchased. No brainer: Always
keep extra book copies in your automobile, briefcase, or purse.
Final tip: Begin
working on the next book, for after all, who wouldn’t want the challenges of
another marketing campaign?
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