I ran a promotion through Amazon last week and to my big
surprise it actually worked! Over 34,000 people watched the promotional
video for my book on YouTube and 90 of those viewers went ahead and bought my
book. This brings my total paid for copies in three months up to 220 which is
what I would call a respectable start for my alter ego.
What does it all mean? Well, the rankings say it all. For a
brief moment I made an under 4,000 overall ranking which translates to around
40-50 sold copies per day. At the time of writing I’m back at 25,000, which
averages at around 4-5 sold books per day. I expect this to drop lower again,
soon. It’s not what you might call a big deal but it is a milestone all the
same. I have now well and truly crossed the major Amazon hurdle that spells
death for most writers: You need to sell a certain amount of books (I believe 50-100)
before Amazon starts to actively promote you. If you linger in the high hundred
thousands with only a few sold copies you don’t exist. Once you cross that line
of recognition, the automated Amazon promotion starts kicking in. From now on
your book will be listed under the also reads. This is free advertising and the
single most important target for new authors.
Forget hunting for reviews. It’s
irrelevant. The myth of 50 reviews has long been debunked. Amazon doesn’t care
about feedbacks, nor should you. What counts are sales and short of a miracle
you can only get them with a successful promotion. No, I did not pay anybody a
lot of money to get my sales up with questionable email carpet bombing. I did
all this on my own, by using the tools Amzon puts on our disposal and an investment
of $ 130. It just goes to show you that you don’t have to pay the snake oil
sellers and promotion sharks to run a very successful campaign on your own.
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