How to Write an Amazon Bestseller

At the time of writing, my first book is ranked #8 in its category, with 7 x 5 reviews* (I took a screenshot to prove it). I’m excited! I never imagined it would qualify at all!

Amazon’s sales rank is something of a mystery. I oversimplify, but it seems to be based on the number of sales per hour, with a weighting to adjust for long-term bestsellers like Harry Potter.

Okay, so I don’t know how many other books there are in the “sales and marketing” category, or how long it will stay in the top 10 (it’s been in and out at least three times now that I know of, not that I follow it endlessly! ). And to be fair, I still don’t know if that represents sales of 2,000 books, 20 books, or 2 books! My printer, Lulu, prints books on demand (minimum quantity 1) and should send the “creator proceeds” to my PayPal account after 6-8 weeks.

That said, I think it’s still an impressive achievement. In fact, it’s an understatement, since I also sell direct copies, so they are not counted in the Amazon ranking.

‘The Little Fish Guide to DIY Marketing’ is my first foray into publishing – it’s a compilation of the tips and stories that have been published in my newsletter over the years. The book was available starting in June 2010, but people only started buying it when it “released” on Amazon in October. It’s like it suddenly became a reality as soon as it was available on Amazon.

This is how I did it.

Let’s say you already have a good idea, a title, a target market, some writing skills, and someone to design your book for you. Although the content took me about two years to complete, fitting it into everything else I do, I found that to be the easy part!

Get Testimonials

When selling anything, what others say is more convincing than what you say yourself, so I knew my book needed testimonials to print on the inside and back cover. I sent PDF copies to volunteers, but found that less than half of them actually contributed their comments (hopefully due to lack of time, not because they had nothing nice to say!). Of course, it’s hard to ‘chase’ people when they don’t get paid, so it caused another delay in the process. Eventually, I collected some lovely reviews and it was finally ready for print.

The next stage was a huge learning process, with a number of key decision points along the way.

Traditional edition or self-publishing

First, you need to decide whether to find a publisher/agent or self-publish.

If you want to find a traditional publisher/agent to take care of everything for you (and take a cut), your best bet is the latest copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook (available at all good bookstores) and there are plenty of other resources. online.

If you need help with your content, there are several book trainers/midwives, independent book publishers, and short-run printers/publishers for you to choose from, for a fee (email me for a list of recommendations).

Despite warnings online about deteriorating customer service, I opted to self-publish through Lulu.com. I also found an email address for someone there which was tremendously helpful (although there was always a delay in exchanging messages between the UK and US time zones).

If you do the same as me, then you have to decide whether to post on your own or let Lulu be your editor. Being a bit of a control freak, I decided to become an editor as well as an author.

Buy ISBN numbers (or not)

To do so, you must purchase a block of ISBN prefixes from Nielsen BookData (minimum quantity is 10, currently costing £111.86 including VAT). You have to download, print and fill out a 4 page form, but it’s not hard (except you have to figure out the meaning of unknown words like ‘title verse page’ – it’s the inside page that goes back to the title page and includes publisher’s name, copyright and ISBN details).

Search “nielsen isbn” for everything you need to know.

Be careful, it takes a while for your ISBNs to be issued, so you can’t rush this part of the process. Also note that as a publisher you are also required to send a print copy of the book to Nielsen and the British Library Legal Deposit Office within one month (they send you the instructions along with the ISBN information). If/when you make changes, you need to publish another edition of your book with a new ISBN, so make sure everything is perfect before you pass the final proof.

Tip: If you’re also producing an e-book version, you need your own ISBN. When setting your price, keep in mind that print books are not subject to VAT, but e-books are.

If you don’t want to go through all this, let Lulu be your publisher and get your ISBN for free.

designing the cover

Next decision: Are you making your own cover design or are you using Lulu’s cover design wizard? Fortunately, I have access to a talented graphic designer who worked with me on my own beautiful book cover. Lulu automatically produces the barcode for her ISBN, which she then downloads to include on the back; it should go in the bottom right corner with a “quiet zone” around it. Between us, we designed my book cover (using royalty-free images, of course) and uploaded the print-quality artwork to Lulu.

To make a one-piece cover (envelope), you need to download Lulu’s “Cover Image Templates” for the front and back for your book size and overlay them on the left and right sides of your design. Adjust the page size and margins to match. Use Lulu’s ‘Column Width Calculator’ tool and add that measurement in the middle.

There is more information in Lulu’s “Book Cover FAQ”.

Inner page design

Compared to that, handling the inner pages was relatively easy: they were already designed and saved in PDF format (individual pages, not spreads). I just had to make sure the title page and title verse page were included in the front (which changed all my page numbers) and upload the file. If you don’t have access to design skills, you can upload Word files instead, for Lulu to convert to PDF. Then you need to request a ‘proof’ of the book and ‘approve’ it when it’s finally perfect (I’ve done it several times and sold the proof copies at a discount).

Tip: Authors pay a little less when ordering their own books, and Lulu has monthly specials that may be worth the wait.

Get to Amazon

My next decision was an easy one: I wanted the book on Amazon, so I paid Lulu about £50 for Global Reach Distribution. (If you choose Lulu as your publisher, you get a free Extended Reach Distribution instead.)

Here, I hit a snag. I originally designed my book in A5 size, with beautiful white paper, but it turns out that you can only have a few sizes to distribute, and A5 is not one of them. I had to change the layout to fit the US commercial size. I just added bigger margins and reuploaded it. The problem is that it couldn’t be that size on white paper, only cream.

I found that Lulu’s explanation of sizes is not very consistent. In some places they refer to the name of the size, in others they mention inches, and in others, centimeters.

For more information, search Lulu Help for ‘Which books are eligible for distribution’ and ‘What paper will my book have for the cover and inside?’ The information you need is scattered throughout her online Help, so email me for my handy summary of paper sizes and colors that are eligible for Lulu’s Global Reach distribution.

Once all the sizing, paper, and distribution have been worked out, it takes 6-8 weeks for your book to appear on Amazon. I found that almost unbelievable in this internet age! And then I discovered that it also takes a while to turn on ‘Look Inside’, even after you’ve uploaded another PDF of your entire book to Amazon. But eventually, my book was online and sales suddenly started to increase.

Tip: Other sellers may offer your book as “used” or “like new” at a discount. If you don’t reduce your margin too much, you could also establish yourself as a discount seller to compete with those sellers.yes

Marketing your book

As a self-publisher, you have to do your own marketing. I invited everyone who bought the book to check it out online (happily, everyone has loved it so far). I did marketing online at no cost, using social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. For example, I ran a ‘retweet’ competition on Twitter that promoted it to new followers. I also did local PR and advertised it in my newsletter. And finally, I keep a small stock of books to sell at events I attend (such as training courses and local networking meetups). People love the glossy cover and sometimes even ask me to sign my book, like a true bestselling author!

Disclaimer: Please note that these instructions apply to the UK. Even if you do exactly what I did, I can’t promise your book will become an Amazon bestseller.

Tip: You can track sales on Novelrank.com (it’s fascinating, but don’t get too hung up on it!)