How to Reach #1 Bestseller Status on Amazon

Many authors believe the most important thing they can do to hit #1 in various categories on Amazon is write a really good book. Granted, writing the book is the first step, but beyond that, your job is to set the stage for Amazon.com success.

Part of your marketing strategy must include correct set up on Amazon. There are dozens upon dozens of ways to market a book, including media releases, selling at speaking engagements, developing a website specific to the book, giving it as a gift to your accountant, doctor, friends, neighbors, and family members in hopes that they love it so much they will buy copies for their friends, family members and clients.

But one of the most important aspects of selling books is making the book available on Amazon and optimizing the information on the site in a way that entices potential readers. Most authors, regardless of how many books they’ve written and published, know Amazon is a must do. Granted, not every author agrees with this, but the majority do.

To get the most out of Amazon and break through the millions of books listed on this mammoth online seller, there are three areas you need to optimize:

• Author Central feature
• Book description
• Categories

Author Central

To get the most from what Amazon has to offer you, the author, use the Author Central feature. In essence, this is your own unique author page that contains information about you. To use the Author Central feature, you must have one or more of your books for sale on Amazon.

On this page, you need:

• A beefy biography
• A head shot
• Editorial reviews
• Your blog’s RSS Feed
• Special announcements, such as upcoming speaking engagements

Author Central provides a way for readers to sign up for email notifications from Amazon when you release new books as well.

Setting your information up on Amazon Central is relatively easy. Do a quick Google search on “Author Central feature” for details on how this is done.

Book description

One of the most important aspects of selling on Amazon is the book description. Yet, many authors put little effort into writing a compelling description. As an author, you need to take full responsibility for making sure the description is such that people can’t help but want to read your book.

The description gives readers a great idea of what the book is about and what’s in it for them—the benefit or value that targets the reason why they should read this book. The description on Amazon is like the copy on the back of your book; it tells readers about your book.

Many authors leave it up to their publishers to write the description. Although some publishers put a lot of thought and care into doing this, not all do. Don’t leave the description to chance. If you don’t like what you read, or you don’t feel it’s compelling enough, take control of assuring the description is well written.

The description should be beefy and keyword rich. Don’t skimp on the wording. The description is actually your sales conversation. This content can be between 30 and 4,000 characters in length. Use as much of this as possible. The book description usually appears within 72 hours of putting the title on Amazon.

You can use the Amazon book description on the book’s website (or the book’s sales page on your existing site) as well as in other places where you sell the book.

Categories

The goal for most authors is to have their book become #1 in the chosen categories. That means it becomes not only a bestseller but the top bestseller in a category. In most cases, you are allowed two categories for your book. The more unique the categories, and yet, specific to the genre and topic of the book, the better. Crowded categories make it harder it  to get to #1. (But do pick relevant categories despite the number of titles in that category.)

For example, as of the date of writing this article, Health, Fitness & Dieting is a very broad category that has 156,130 results on a quick search. To rank #1 in this category is going to be extremely difficult.

If you narrow the category down to Health, Fitness & Dieting: Diets & Weight Loss: Detoxes & Cleanses, there are only 898 books listed (at the time of writing this post). This category gives your book a much greater chance of reaching the #1 bestseller spot. You have a much better chance of getting to #1 quickly due to how few books are sold in this “drilled-down” category.

Again, the goal is to have the greatest chance of getting to #1 in a category (or categories). To achieve this goal, be sure to narrow the categories down as much as possible and make sure you tie the category closely to the topic of the book.

Below is a screen shot of the categories for my most recent book, Power Up Your Sales.

Because I am very clear on how important choosing categories is, the book maintained #1 position in both categories for over two months from the date it went live on Amazon.

As of the date of this post, you can still get the Kindle version FREE. Click here.

Conclusion

Writing a book is one aspect of the author’s journey to success. When you put as much time into the marketing and positioning as you did the writing, you open up the greatest chance for your book to end up in the hands of as many readers as possible. After all, isn’t knowing lots of people are reading our books what we ultimately want?

About the Author

Kathleen Gage is an internationally recognized Internet marketing advisor who works with socially conscious entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge into money-making products and services.

Although Kathleen Gage is best known for her no nonsense approach to life and business, when she’s not working with clients, creating information products, writing books or speaking on the platform, Kathleen can be found training for a marathon, walking her dogs, working in her many flower gardens, feeding her horses, or playing a fierce game of cards.

Kathleen is the author of Power Up for Profits: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Online Marketing.  Visit her website at www.powerupforprofits.com.