How to Guarantee a Best-Selling Book
Posted on September 8, 2021
We all dream of hitting the best-sellers list, right? Seeing your name up there in the Sunday Times is the publishing dream!
To have a best-selling book, of course, you have to sell more books than other people. How many? Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Selling 5,000 or even 10,000 in one week is almost guaranteed to get you onto a best-seller list. However, looking at recent Sunday Times lists, the top best-sellers may have sold 7,000+ copies in the preceding week, whilst those in the second, third and fourth place have sales just about topping 2,700. Those in the 7th, 8th and 9th spots sold just over 1,500 copies a piece. It’s a numbers game, but it’s not easy to predict.
According to UNESCO, 188,000 books are published each year in the UK alone. That’s a lot of books for yours to get lost within. However, with 202 million books sold in the UK last year, there are plenty of sales to go around. Getting out of the publishing melee is the big challenge.
Roll up, roll up!
First thing’s first, you need your book to be noticed. Marketing is your friend. We are all blessed (or cursed?) with access to thousands, if not millions, of people at our fingertips for free. Social media is an essential tool in any author’s kit – especially if you’re self-publishing.
Engage with the people you want to read your book and get to know them. Build a network that’s ready and waiting to talk about your book when it lands. That means daily interaction, building relationships and putting yourself out there.
We Brits are guilty of being a little awkward about promoting our own work. Now’s not the place for a stiff upper lip. Instead, channel your inner town crier, paperboy or market trader (anyone with a loud voice shouting at you to buy whatever they’re shifting) and start shouting about your book.
Be savvy
These best-seller lists are compiled, more often than not, via Bookscan. This system doesn’t track every sale from every outlet, especially if you’re selling through your own channels.
This is why it’s so important to know your own goal. What does a ‘best-selling book’ mean to you? It might not be to land on those lists – you might sell through other channels, you might not have the resources to sell the hundreds of thousands others aim for. Whether you’re aiming to sell a million or a hundred, know what a best-seller means to you.
It’s not that difficult to game the system. Mitt Romney reportedly did just that when he published his book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Reports suggest that he asked venues to spend $10,000s on his book in return for him speaking at their venue.
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that these lists are not the be all and end all of a successful book. Don’t lose sight of your own achievements trying to land a spot on there for a week.
To sum it up:
- Best-seller lists are compiled with data from the likes of Nielsen’s BookScan – are you selling through those outlets?
- If you want to be on these lists, aim to sell at least 5,000 copies in your first week (pre-order campaigns help here massively!)
- Marketing and social media are your friends!
- Don’t lose sight of your own goals in favour of focussing on these lists – what does a best-selling book mean to you?