The Best Series Tip No. 2: Look Like a Bestseller

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

• Look Inside (or Search Inside)
  
• Kindle
• Editorial Reviews Section
• Profile Page
• Customer Images
• "Also Bought" and "Also Viewed

Now that you've followed Tip No. 1 and have an Excellent Book to distribute through Amazon, you need to make sure that your book looks like a bestseller.

Check out the best-selling books in Amazon. Look at their Amazon pages and check out all the bells and whistles they have going for them. Then get those bells and whistles for yourself.
Best is a firm believer in the Look Inside option for books on Amazon. It allows potential buyers to peek at the book and see if they like it. The Da Vinci Code has it, why shouldn't yours?

Another thing that Best did to make his book look like a bestseller was to have a Kindle version made. The reason? Plain and simple. The bestsellers had Kindle flags on their pages. In order to get a Kindle flag, you need a Kindle version. The great part is that he now sells Kindle versions of his books as well!

Another point he made was to keep the writing as professional as possible. In the Editorial Reviews section, the content should represent the quality of the book it is selling. Remember to edit it well. Sneak over to other book pages and find ones you think are really well done and mimic their content. Most authors won't have reviews by Publisher's Weekly, so in many cases the Editorial Reviews will be information about the book that you've written yourself.

One of the nice things about Amazon is that other authors have come before you. You don't need to break new ground, you can crib the brilliance of others!

Several other elements that are often skipped by the self-published author are pieces like the profile page. But don't neglect it! One month Best said he had more than 400 views on his profile in December alone. Entry points that support the call to action to buy the book help underscore credibility and allow multiple ways to bring your message to your buyer.

The last point with tip No. 2 is the "Also Bought" and "Also Viewed" link to your book. There isn't much you can do to manipulate this except to ask people you know to buy a second book while they are in there buying your book. However, Amazon will automatically pair your multiple titles if you have them. So you don't need to suggest buying your own book!

To build a winning image, you need to have a book that looks like a winner. By creating an Amazon page that looks professional and mimics the same techniques as the bestsellers, you'll be in the game with your excellent book.

Next tip: Publish a Second Book

The Best Series Tip No. 1: Offer an Excellent Book

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Best Tip No.1: Offer an Excellent Book

One of the first things an author must consider before heading into open selling waters is whether their book is an excellent book. An excellent book doesn't mean the next J.K. Rowling. It means a quality book. Have you edited, revised, re-edited, revised again, and repeated the process several times? Is the book professionally copyedited and then proofread? The editing stage is crucial and should not be skipped. If you plan on selling your book in competition with other professional-level books, you need to make sure your book has gone through similar rigorous editing that a traditionally published book goes through.

Another aspect of the excellent book is the design and layout of the book. The interior should be elegantly designed to go along with the content of the book. A correctly designed interior can set you apart from the pack. Publishing books is becoming more easily available every day.

However, just because someone can upload a Word document, doesn't mean they know how to make a book. By working with your publisher or with a designer, you can make sure that your book will be well designed and well received.

And of course, lastly, because the first thing your buyer will see is the book's cover, you need an eye-catching and appropriately designed cover. Chartreuse may grab the reader's attention, but it isn't necessarily appropriate for, say, your book about wolves. Choosing a design that is fitting for your book and that will also be easy to see on a web-based seller like Amazon will help your project win readers before they even open the book.

For more information on book editing and design, visit our Author Resources section of the Wheatmark website.

Next tip on the horizon: Look Like a Bestseller

Wheatmark Author Climbing the Charts at Amazon.com

On Wednesday, November 26, 2008, Jim Best's book, The Shopkeeper, rose all the way to #2464 on the Amazon sales rank. This is 2,464 out of 5,000,000 and it puts his book in the top 0.0005% of all titles available. What's more interesting is that he's done it all without putting money into marketing. He's put plenty of time in, certainly, but since publishing with Wheatmark, Jim has utilized his Amazon page as his greatest marketing tool. He has 18 five-star reviews. He has a blog on Amazon. He's also published a second book with Wheatmark, The Shut Mouth Society, which ranks at #15,953.

In fact, if you went to Amazon and typed in Western, in the book department, The Shopkeeper would come in at #3, right behind Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian at #2.

An independent fiction author can compete.