“How To Write a Book"
--"Creating an Instant Best Seller”
Get Ready to be on the Best Seller List!
by Steve Manning
A book that is a best seller is easier to sell than a book that is not a best seller. The premise is based on a concept called social proof. Briefly, if everyone else is doing something, then I should do the same thing if I want to remain at least equal with everyone else. So, if many people are buying this book, then I should buy it because many people are. And they’re buying it why? Ostensibly because it is a good book, but they may well be buying it because everyone else is.
Sort of incestuous, isn’t it.
Incredibly powerful, too! Quite a few books become leading best sellers that way. I’m convinced that in the entire world there are only five people who have read “A Brief History of Time,” by Stephen Hawkings, in its entirely. For everyone else, it’s a best-selling piece of furniture proudly displayed in the living room book shelf. Everyone bought it because it was a best seller. (And you looked clever if you had it in your personal library.)
So how do you get your book listed on the best seller list? Well, there are two very important pieces of information you should know. First, there’s no legislation that dictates what a best seller is. You can sell 5,000 and be listed, you can sell 50,000 copies and not be listed. No rules. Usually someone asks a whole bunch of retailers what are the top five, 10, 100 or whatever books they’re selling. The titles are tabulated and the top whatever number come out as the best seller list. One week the top seller has sold 10,000 copies. The next week a different top seller has sold 100,000 copies. Again, no rules.
Next, there are hundreds of best seller lists. If it’s an obscure best seller list, (top plumbing books) no one mentions the list. If it’s the New York Times, everyone mentions the list.
And there are loads of lists.
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD, “How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! It’s free, no charge, but you can bet this $100 CD will be carrying that price tag very shortly. How do you get it? Just email me at Free CD, Please, or CD_please@writeabooknow.com and make sure you include your name, your mailing address and your telephone number in the email. Now, back to the article…
Best selling fiction, best selling non-fiction, best selling soft cover, best selling hard cover, best selling specific nation, best selling thriller, (heck, best selling you-name-the-genre), best selling commercial fiction, best selling literary fiction, best selling within-the-book-store chain, best sellers from independent books stores, best selling, well, you get the idea.
I suggest you go all out and create your own best selling list.
Just as an aside, I know of one seminar company that successfully marketed itself as the nation’s leading seminar company specializing in improving dental and chiropractic practices. Of course, they were the ONLY seminar company specializing in improving both dental and chiropractic practices. Hard to argue with THAT kind of evidence.
Get your book into a small independent bookstore. Give the bookstore owner a big margin, it’s worth it. Now do everything you possibly can to sell as many books from that location as you possibly can. From book signings, to seminars, to media interviews. If you have to, do the old Mark Victor Hansen routine.
Go out in front of the bookstore with a copy of your book. Talk to people. Tell them you’re in the bookstore now signing copies of the book. It’s a great read, or it makes an ideal gift. There’s even a special price while you’re doing the book signing.
Within a week you should be able to get a letter from the bookstore owner saying that this is his or her all-time best-selling book, or is certainly on the stores best-seller list.
Hey, you’ve got a best-seller.
Go to the next bookstore with that letter in tow and you’ve got instant access to their shelves. Or use the letter in your marketing. Or both.
Don’t forget to get a sticker for your book that announces “Best Seller.”
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