How to Launch a Book and Become an Amazon Best Selling Author!

Did you know that if your book makes it to one of the 11,000+ Amazon Best Seller lists, that Amazon will start promoting your book? (more about “how” later)

Did you also know that the “Best Sellers” lists on Amazon are the most highly searched lists on Amazon?

Hold tight because you’re about to learn a lot about “what you didn’t know” that “you didn’t know” about Amazon.

Amazon has an algorithm (just like Google does) which is a hidden criteria of data that they collect on each book which helps them decide where to place a book in the search results.

So the Amazon algorithm is a big part of becoming an Amazon Best Selling Author.

Unfortunately (just like Google), Amazon is not going to tell you what this hidden criteria is. You basically have to figure it out on your own!

Since 2013, I’ve been researching and collecting my own data and experimenting with the Amazon Algorithm and have had 100% success in getting my clients books to the Amazon Best Seller’s list. You can read my story here of how I published my first book on Amazon in 2011 and after 1 year I had zero sales. Very frustrated, I took a step back and spent a year researching how to get on Amazon’s radar and their best sellers list.

With my new found knowledge, I launched another book (“Never Work Again: 6 Secrets to Earning a Playcheck Instead of a Paycheck”) on October 23, 2012, and had 2,128 downloads in one day!

Since then I’ve helped dozens of authors launch their books through my Amazon Best Seller program and get on multiple Amazon Best Sellers lists in one day! Many of them have become “International Best Selling Amazon Authors”!

Getting your book on an Amazon Best Sellers list is important because until you make it on the Best Sellers list, you are INVISIBLE to Amazon.

The great thing about Amazon though is that once you do get your book on an Amazon Best Sellers list then a few things start happening…

You get lots of Amazon Love!

Amazon will now start promoting your book on several of their highly searched lists such as:

Top Rated list;
Movers and Shakers list;
Most Wished for list;
Recommendations list;
New for You list;
Hot New Releases list;
Frequently Bought Together list;
Customers Who Bought This Item, Also Bought this…list;
Best Sellers of 2015 list;
AND MORE!

In addition to these highly searched lists, Amazon will also show you Amazon Love by putting up PAID Facebook ads like this one that they did for my client, Suzanne O’Brien, R.N., the day after we got her book on 5 Best Sellers lists (2 in the US and 3 Internationally):

They also tagged her book a “Best Seller” as seen here:

Then they added her book on the “Hot New Releases” list:

I’ve also seen Amazon run Pay-Per-Click PAID ads on Google for books on the Best Seller’s list.

So these are just some of the many reasons “why” you want to become an Amazon Best Selling Author.

In addition to the huge amount of marketing Amazon will do on your behalf, having the title of “Best Selling Author” will give you more credibility, establish yourself as the expert in your field, gain media attention, make more sales from the book and from your other products and services, and take your business to the next level.

Amazon updates their best sellers list hourly; one of my client’s books has remained on the Amazon Best Sellers list in the #1 spot for 2 years now and continues to earn her over $2300 per month in royalties!

What I’m saying to you is that 50% of success with your book is writing an amazing book that people want to read and the other 50% is making sure the world knows about it!

Although there are many ways to market your book, I’ve found that getting on the Amazon Best Seller’s list is the absolute first thing you should do.

Doing a strategic “Book Launch” is the way I get all of my clients books on the Amazon Best Sellers list and it’s what you should do so that people can find your book. So here’s….

How to Launch a Book Successfully on Amazon:

Build a list of people who are interested in your topic; I have thousands of people on my email lists from my becomea6figurewoman.com website and also from other websites I own. If you’ve studied internet marketing, you’ve probably heard every expert tell you that the money is in the list. Having a list is having potential customers/clients to market your products and services to. Building a list doesn’t have to take months or years, in fact, with Facebook ads, you can build a substantial list in just 30 days.
Choose the right categories for your book. Amazon only allows you 2 categories for your book, and because most authors are inexperienced when it comes to the setting up and publishing of the book, they pick what they think are the best categories are for their book and they usually choose the wrong ones. Categories make or break your book. I use 2 pieces of special software and spend hours analyzing categories for my clients books. It’s that important. My client, Nancy Hartwell, who I mentioned earlier told me a story about how Amazon changed the category of one of her books and her sales fell 50% overnight. I think that Amazon decided to remove that particular category and it negatively affected Nancy’s book sales. She had to build her sales back up after this category fiasco and put it in a new category. You absolutely must choose the right category for your book if you want to have success on Amazon.
Select the right keywords for your book. Again, this is another common mistake I see authors make when they upload and publish their book on Amazon. You are allowed only 7 keywords and it’s not something I guess at with my clients books. Again, I have software and a system I use for figuring out the best keywords for a book, and sometimes I spend hours determining my 7 keywords. An example would be if you were writing a blog post. You can just pick a title about what you want to write about and publish your blog post. Or you can do what I do and that is use the Google Keyword Planner and actually research what keywords people are using to find your topic. You have to do the same thing on Amazon. Don’t guess on your keywords, you must research this.
Write an Introduction that “Sells” Your Book. The Preview section of your book once it’s published on Amazon is the most important real estate you have to selling your book. Remember the days when you went to Blockbuster to pick out movies to watch and bring home. How did you decide on the movie? You read the back of the DVD cover and it either persuaded you to get it or put it back on the shelf. The introduction is a piece of the “selling feature” of your book and it must be properly written in order to get people to take action and buy your book. I spend a lot of time with my clients working on the Introduction to their book and I’ve got it down to an 8-step process that I use over and over. Take time and writing an Introduction that persuades the reader to hit the “buy” button for your book.
Have a Professionally written Book Description. I’ve actually seen books published on Amazon with a one sentence book description. And guess what? They had zero sales! You absolutely must write a killer book description if you want someone to purchase your book. I would go so far as to suggest that you hire a copywriter to do it for you. It’s that important.
Reviews, Reviews, Reviews. Yes, Amazon loves reviews. I recommend doing a soft launch (which is what I do) prior to the big launch and getting at least 5-10 reviews for your book. It is definitely part of Amazon’s algorithm and your book will be promoted more once it gets to the best sellers list if you get your reviews. I will warn you though… it’s very difficult to do. People promise they will download your book and write a review, and only a small percentage actually do. In my program that I run, my clients all support the other authors and help out with reviews. Do not do a big launch without at least 5 reviews of your book (5 and 4 star of course!).
Orchestrate a Massive Book Launch in a 1-3 day period. Because Amazon updates their bestsellers list hourly, it’s important to concentrate your book launch into a 1-3 day time frame. This is what I do on my client’s behalf — I use multiple channels of social media, my email list as well as setting up promotions on over 50 websites and Facebook groups. I essentially do a massive promotion to catapult my client’s book to the top of the Amazon Best Seller’s list! I have 3 phases to my book launch and I also teach my client’s what to do AFTER we get their book to the Amazon Best Seller’s list. This is key for ongoing success!
Screenshot your book on the Best Seller’s list. Once your book gets to the Amazon Best Seller’s list, you want to take screenshots of your book on the various lists. I actually create marketing pieces for my clients once their book becomes an Amazon Best Seller. Additionally, I send the cover back to the graphics designer and have them add the best seller logo to their cover and then republish the new cover. Psychologically, people want to buy “best selling” books!