I am sure you are all like me. You pick up a book that is from an "acclaimed" author, or one from someone who is getting rave reviews for the book. You are excited. This should be a great read. And then you get barely 3 chapters in and you are just screaming. What is so darn amazing about this book? Why is this book getting so much attention? How on Earth did it make it to that Best Selling Book List? Surprisingly, it is not always about the quality of the book.
This is all a numbers game.
Let's consider a few things. To move up those Best Sellers List, look at that middle world, It all comes down to if someone bought the book or not. When you ran to the bookstore to buy that latest book that you want to throw across the room, or you downloaded it to you e-reading platform, you just moved it one more notch to the top.
Let's also consider which books move up those lists. It is the authors writing for those bigger publishing houses who are marketing that book like crazy and making it visibly available to readers. Those of you self-publishing are just hoping to find someone. If you are at a publisher that has a limited space available on those book shelves, you will get smaller numbers of sales.
But these authors have their names EVERYWHERE? Yes, again part of that is due to the publishers, but these people are also marketing things like crazy. One author I know of has marketed the same book all year but in different places and in different formats. They also enter every contest imaginable (including those small ones that almost ensure a win) to get their name out there.
Finally, those reviews are stemming from a great street team. A street team are those people who you know will always post great reviews. The more on your team, the more reviews.
The deal is, and this is unfortunate, but it is does not always come down to the quality of the book. It is all about marketing.
No comments:
Post a Comment