How Many Books Do I Have to Sell to Make My Book a Bestseller? By Trissa Tismal

Praise For Conducting Effecttive Twitter Contests

I just finished reading Tony's book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests and I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed. Not only do you receive a step-by-step outline of how to implement a contest, but you also get tons of very helpful tutorial videos. This book is worth 10x what you pay for it... it's like getting an entire course! -Shelley Hitz, author of A Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging * Tony Eldridge's "Conducting Effective Tweeter Contests" displays the same relevance, integrity, and attention to detail found in his daily Marketing Tips for Authors Blog. Tony takes a fresh topic and provides a highly readable, illustrate, step-by-step roadmap to success. Tony takes you on a pre-launch to follow-up journey that even the most techno-phobic author or business owner can use to maximize their social media marketing. -Roger C. Parker, The "Best Selling $32 Million Dollar Author" and author of #Book Title Tweet * If you'd like to boost your Twitter followers, I highly recommend Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. The combination of video and text reinforces the message and is terrific for people who learn better by watching or who feel a bit intimidated by online marketing. Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer and author of the Twitter Guide for Authors. * Conducting Effective Twitter Contests is amazing. Tony covers topics that go beyond basic contest running to topics such as protecting your Twitter relationships and everything in between. I haven't seen anything like this information. Tony has developed a step-by-step system to make it easy for you to follow. Phyllis Zimbler Miller, co-founder of Miller Mosaic Power Marketing and author of What You Should Know About Using Twitter Effectively and Strategically

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Author: Tony Eldridge | Posted at: 6:00 AM | Filed Under: Guest Authors, Publishing

Today's guest, Trissa Tismal, is the "EntreprenAuthor" success coach who works with authors to help their books become bestsellers. She is a trained professional coach in many areas and the professional behind www.AuthorBestseller.com . Today, Trissa will be talking about book sales and best seller status.

Before we get our guest's post, I want to take this time to thank everyone for your support of the Kindle release of my novel, The Samson Effect. Thanks to you, it's had a better month than I could have imagined. It's humbling to see it pass NY Times best selling authors on the Amazon best seller lists. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for your support.

Now, on to our guest post for today...

How Many Books Do I Have to Sell to Make My Book a Bestseller?
By Trissa Tismal

Becoming a bestseller is the ultimate dream of every author. Besides the fact that bestsellers make the most difference in the world, hitting this milestone comes with a lot of respect and perks.

When you're a bestselling author, people see you as a super star. You become a highly sought-after guest on radio and TV interviews. You get featured on newspapers and magazines. Filmmakers want to turn your book into a film. You start attracting ideal high paying clients that gladly pay you what you're worth. While before you were lucky to get paid for any speaking gig, now you are able to charge $5,000 to $35,000 or more per keynote. More people learn about your work and you get a dramatic increase in your client base.

A very common question I'm always asked is, "How many books do I have to sell to make my book a bestseller?"

When you're a bestselling author, people think that you've sold millions and millions of books around the world. Most authors think the same way too. The truth is becoming a bestseller does not equate to millions of books sold.

The bestseller's list is a ranking system. It's like the billboard top 100 list for songs or the box office movie hit for films.

An example is the box office on a weekend in July 2010. The #1 box office movie hit that weekend was the Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which grossed $83.6 million. It's number one because it sold more movie tickets than all other movies showing at that time. The number two box office hit on that same list is The Last Airbender, which sold $51.8 million.

Now let's look at a weekend in March 2011. The #1 top box office movie hit is "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which grossed at $23.7 million. In this list, Diary of a Wimpy Kid sold more than everyone else showing that weekend so it got the #1 spot. Even though in the earlier example, on the same box office list but just on a different weekend, The Last Airbender sold $51.8 million—much more than the $23.7 million of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But the The Last Airbender got #2 spot on the first list and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid got #1 spot on the list below because the box office movie hit, like the billboard top 100 and the bestseller list is a ranking system and its not based on a specific number of sales.

So how many books do you have to sell to become a #1 bestselling author? The answer is more than what the existing number one book is selling. If Harry Potter is currently #1 and its selling 10,000 books, then you have to sell at least 10,001 books. That will knock out Harry Potter from the number one spot and make you the #1 bestseller. The key is to push sales as high as possible so it climbs the charts and outsell every other popular book on a particular bestseller list.

Seems like a daunting task? Yes it is, IF you do it alone. My tip to you is don’t even try doing this by yourself or you’ll be severely disappointed. A feat this huge is something that is accomplished with the help of other people. There will be challenges you will encounter along the way, but never give up. Stay connected to why your book must be in the hands of as many people as possible. Keep on going and don't let anything get in your way.

--------
Bestseller Coach, Trissa Tismal is passionate and dedicated in helping authors make their book a bestseller, make big money and make a bigger difference. To learn more about making your book a bestseller, watch the "Bestseller Insider Secrets" Video at no-charge by clicking here.

For tips, tactics and resources on making your book a bestseller, visit: www.AuthorBestseller.com

Follow Trissa on Twitter: @trissatismal
Join Our Facebook Group: Authors with a Purpose

-------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect, an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests.

10 comments:

Christopher Wills on May 31, 2011 at 6:29 AM said...: Interesting post. So all I have to do is wait until the number 1 selling book is only selling 3 a week and I will leap over them to the number 1 spot.
Philip Corbett on May 31, 2011 at 6:48 AM said...: Not if I get there first!
Christopher Hudson on May 31, 2011 at 9:09 AM said...: Well, Christopher Willis, you're already ahead of me ... you can build on that!
Christopher Hudson on May 31, 2011 at 9:11 AM said...: Sorry, Christopher Wills ... I misspelled your name ... gotta talk to Tony about this 8 point font he's using.
Ernie Zelinski on June 6, 2011 at 1:10 AM said...: True, the bestseller lists are a ranking system. There is the issues of what is a "true bestseller." Self-Publishing Guru says that it is a book that has sold at least 40,000 copies. Personally, I don't believe a book is a true bestseller unless it has sold 100,000 copies.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Innovator, Best-Selling Author, and Unconventional Career Coach
Author of “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and “The Joy of Not Working”
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)
party bags on June 19, 2011 at 12:15 AM said...: You got a nice title and a nice topic to elaborate. It caught me.
Ally E. Peltier on June 23, 2011 at 5:25 PM said...: I was still working at Simon & Schuster during 9/11 and I remember how dismal the sales were that week, since obviously all media was devoted to more important subjects than books :) A bestseller that week may only have sold a couple thousand copies, whereas during a normal week up against a huge blockbuster the #1 bestseller might have to sell tens of thousands. Thanks for explaining this so well in your post.

Two other aspects to keep in mind about bestsellers:

1. Rate-of-sale. A bestseller isn't made when you sell 100,000 copies over five years--it's when you sell more than any other book THAT WEEK, or month, or whatever timeline that particular bestseller list uses as a measurement. And each list is different.

2. Reporting vendors. I don't know if it's still true, but for a long time the NYT bestseller list was primarily based on major retail chain sales...i.e. Barnes and Noble. You could have sold a million books through indie stores and not have made the NYT list (though of course indies have their own bestseller list, for exactly this reason). If being on a bestseller list is important to you, make sure you understand which vendors report to your target list and make sure you focus marketing efforts on sales through those outlets.

Like many things in marketing, it's all about how you spin it: if your book makes the bestseller list of a tiny regional newspaper, you're still entitled to put "#1 Bestseller" on your cover. So such taglines need to be taken with a grain of salt--by other writers, and readers.
raymondmasters on July 7, 2011 at 6:54 PM said...: That's true whenever you seen a starburst, bragging about an award, too. I was so down a couple of years ago about not getting into the top spots of an Amazon awards program, until an online author pal mentioned this fact. Cheered me right up and put a lot of things into perspective.

Thanks,
Raymond
Deborah H. Bateman on August 18, 2011 at 8:30 AM said...: We all have the desire to be recognized for our work. Thank you for sharing this article that helps to put things in the proper perspective. You have to have a passion for what you are doing in order not to get discouraged when you don't reach a certain goal you had in mind. Do the work and leave the rest up to God.
Val Waldeck on August 18, 2011 at 4:42 PM said...: Thank you for your comment,Deborah. So encouraging