Amazon Bestseller Day Get Help, Do Your Homework, Clean up Your On-line Presence, Pray. Part 4

Sandy Nathan, award winning author of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could, Numenon & Stepping Off the Edge.

“I ran into Jeff Bezos at the TED conference,” my friend, Jamis MacNiven wrote. Jamis is the owner of Buck’s of Woodside, the pancake palace frequented by Silicon Valley’s mightiest.

The TED Conference (which stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design) is the invitation-only conference where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. Past speakers include Isabel Allende, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Clinton.

And Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon.

“I introduced myself [to Bezos] as 1,767,987,” Jamis continued. “He asked, ‘What does that mean?’

“I told him it meant everything.” 1,767,987 was the Amazon ranking of his book.

And it does, doesn’t it? Our Amazon rankings mean everything to us authors. They’re the air we breathe, the ground we stand on, and the reason we do stupid things.

This is Sandy Nathan, owner of Your Shelf Life. We’ve been discussing Amazon Bestseller Days, and my Amazon Bestseller day in particular. Here’s a summary of where we are now:

On Part 1, I introduced Amazon Bestseller Days as those events where you induce a bunch of people to buy your book on the same day, thus driving your sales ranking to the top of Amazon’s charts. I told you my story, show and telling the need for a COHERENT MARKETING STRATEGY AND GOOD TIMING in planning your day. I introduced four invaluable sources of information you should devour before beginning and gave the names of two organizations offering to coach and host your Day.

On Part 2, I talked about the need for person to person contact in obtaining support from your sponsors. You are the best ambassador of your work and yourself. Pick up the phone. Go in person. Don’t rely on email to enroll sponsors or anyone else on your drive. And handle your personal issues about marketing. Get reliable, skilled help.

On Part 3, I talk more about obtaining sponsors, the importance of enlisting sponsors with LARGE mailing lists. I showed an example (mine) of a bad approach to sponsors. IF YOU’RE SMART, KEEP IT SIMPLE.

I recommend that you check out the  previous posts.

When I write, I attempt to convey not only the FACTS and HOW-TO information about a subject, but also HOW IT FEELS to live through it. The latter information may be more important to you in your decision-making than the former.

The large tasks to be completed for a successful Amazon Bestseller Day include:

• Setting an intelligent, doable Day with enough lead time to accomplish the job.
• Getting help. You’ll need help contacting sponsors, with your web work, loading results onto the computer … Most of this help must be highly skilled: People with web skills, communication and persuasion skills, computer skills and the ability to follow a plan. You need a plan.
• Enlisting sponsors to provide gifts for your Day. Don’t scare them off with complicated requests. Make sure they have large email lists AND WILL SEND OUT EMAILS FOR YOU, as promised. [Of course, you can’t tell this before the fact.]
• Cleaning up your house: Your on-line house. Get your web presence in order.
• Drumming up demand for your book. That means with your friends, on-line and off. Includes the social networking sites, clubs, the whole shebang. (More on this.)
• Really drumming up demand for your work: Human beings need ACCEPTANCE TIME to process new information. That means the invitation to buy your book on your Day. Buyers need to know who you are and why they should pay attention to your invitation.
• Assembling the gifts. My Amazon Prize Page [Which has been taken down, alas.] did not assemble itself. Each entry required repeated contact with the donor and posting on my web page.
• Dealing with Amazon. Who’s your publisher? Will Amazon have enough books to ensure your party’s success?
• “Growing your email list” by capturing email addresses of buyers is an important benefit of an Amazon day. Can you record the Amazon receipt numbers of your buyers so they can download prizes? Can you capture addresses? Do you know how to use your mail management system? Do you have a mail management system? Update your own mailing list.
• Keeping in touch with the organization hosting you. Make sure you know what their deadlines mean. Does a drop dead date for getting stuff in mean at 5 PM or 8 AM?
• THE DAY. I’ll write an entire post on this.
• Postmortem: Results, recommendations. Was it worth it? What would I do differently?

I’ve covered some of this and will cover the rest in future posts.

Sandy Nathan and Rey de Corazones BSN, "Eddie"

It’s a rainy day here on the ranch. Time to really write––spend quality time working on my books. That bliss is why we do it, isn’t it?

So long for now, compadres!

Sandy Nathan

The photos at the left and below record a highly significant equine event. This was the first time I rode after having my knee replaced. Was I scared? Yes.

Was it a good ride?

Keep reading:

Sandy Nathan and "Eddie"

Twenty minutes after this photo was taken, my knee blew up like a watermelon and I was on my way to my physical therapist’s in tears.

Does this matter? Yes and no. The ride was ecstatic and worth everything.

And it was a cautionary tale.

All the best,

Sandy Nathan
Who kept going and by 2011 was the winner of seventeen national awards for her books

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link for more information. All links below go to Kindle editions.)
The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy
Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production with an early 2012 release date planned. If you liked  The Angel you’ll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.

SERIES INDEX:
Amazon Bestseller Day 1–Bestseller or Bust
Amazon Bestseller Day 2–Forget Your Own Marketing Ideas
Amazon Bestseller Day 3–Get Top Sponsors!
Amazon Bestseller Day 4–Recap of 1-3 + Do Your Homework
Amazon Bestseller Day 5–How Many Books Will You Sell/Dealing with Amazon
Amazon Bestseller Day 6–It’s a Numbers Game: Have a Giant Mailing List
Amazon Bestseller Day 7–Blow by Blow of THE DAY
Amazon Bestseller Day 8–Was it worth it? Post-game Recap