12 steps to your Amazon bestseller – tips from Stephanie Hale

If you have been following my blog lately you will be aware that I am reporting on what I learned at a Book Promotion Seminar that took place earlier this month in London. Stephanie Hale, who runs RichWriterPoorWriter was our final speaker, and here I would like to share with you her tips for making your book into an Amazon bestseller. Stephanie has written many books, with Millionaire Women, Millionaire You being her most recent.

‘As a rule, if you manage to sell 100 books in a day, that will give you Amazon bestseller status,’ Stephanie explained. Many books never sell more than 500 copies – ever. What follows is her method for ensuring that  a book reaches bestseller status.

‘There are many benefits to being a bestselling author,’ Stephanie continued. ‘You achieve expert status, you can add the phrase ‘bestselling author’ to your PR, you get invited to speak at events and the more readers you have, the more opportunities arise to build your contact list. Once those people are in your list, you can then sell more products to them.’

12 Steps to Amazon Bestseller Status

1. First, you need a great book, with a great title, cover, opening page, back cover blurb, an emotional message containing buzzwords, your website, your photo and an attention-grabbing endorsement, preferably from a celebrity.
2. Next, submit your book to Amazon – .com, .co.uk and all other relevant sites.
3. Give away review copies and get people to write reviews on all the Amazons.
4. Identify your target audience, find directories, forums, clubs, websites, publications and blogs that are popular with your Ideal Reader.
5. Create a buzz about yourself – post extracts online, ask for feedback, get comments from people, contribute to blogs, forums and other social media sites.
6. Set a date for your campaign. Check this date does not clash with big sporting events, holidays etc. You can use Google Trends to see when certain subjects have a peak moment. This is the date you will ask everyone to purchase your book, so you need to prepare your helpers in advance. More on helpers in step 9.
7. Collect irresistable bonuses, preferably available by download only, and that will encourage people to buy your book. Stephanie has a Millionaire Vault packed with wonderful stuff for her readers.
8. Ensure that it is easy for your readers to get hold of these bonuses, preferably via a single download link.
9. Build a network of helpers who can spread the word for you. Choose helpers who have active lists, affiliates, blogs and so on. Ideally, you want to be contacting 10,000 people. So identify helpers with substantial lists and it is not too difficult to be emailing 10,000 people during your campaign.
10. Write a persuasive sales letter that you will email out to your helpers, asking them to share the news of your great book and your incredible offers.
11. Write an enticing web page on a website devoted to your book. Share testimonials, benefits, features and of course information about your bonuses. Don’t forget to add a buy now button!
12. Monitor your progress, check your sales figures, keep in touch with your helpers and keep track of what is working. Like they say, ‘what you measure you can manage’.