How To Become a Bestselling Author On Amazon

How to Become a Bestselling Author On Amazon


It is not necessary to be a great write to be an Amazon Kindle bestseller.  That is right.. I said it!  You don't even have to be a good writer to be a bestseller. I have read multiple e-books that have sold a ton of copies that a high school senior could have written.  I'm talking about books with typos, books with incomplete sentences and books with formatting issues.

So.... what DO you have to do to sell enough copies to become a #1 Amazon bestseller?  In my opinion, there are three things that any author has to do to elevate themselves to that top 1% of e-book authors.

1) You have to do the work.  Period.  Bestselling authors aren't always better writer than you.  They often are not more educated than you, or even more experienced writers.  The reason they sell a butt-load of books is because they have put in hundred of hours of research before they even started writing their bestsellers.  They know what their competitors have done to succeed.  They know why types of books are in demand and they know what keywords people use to find books before they buy them.  When bestselling authors finish writing their books, they spend the time to have people read their books and leave them feedback and then they address any weaknesses.  They find people to market their book and they networks with other authors and bloggers in their niches to get their books in the public eye.  Bottom line - they sell a lot of books because they work harder than most other authors.

2) Bestselling authors write books that people want to buy.  I know, I know.  That sounds stupid, but it's true.  Most authors write about topics that they enjoy writing about or the subjects that they know the most about.  Author Derek Doepke summed this idea up succinctly in his book (I will paraphrase a bit here) "Average authors write books and then ask "how can I make this book a bestseller?"  Bestselling authors ask "what will become a bestseller?" and then write that book."

I love that statement.  It doesn't matter if you have written a tour-de-force manuscript, if nobody wants to read it or nobody sees it.  Write what the peeps want to read.  Why didn't Tolkien sell any copies of the Hobbit until after he was dead?  Nobody was reading fantasy books when he wrote his masterpiece.  When that genre became popular, it sold a shit-ton of books.  Figure out what people are reading and write to that audience.  It's much easier than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

3) Bestselling authors understand their readers and why they buy specific books.  You are not writing for yourself.  You should be writing for your readers.  Authors that sell a lot of books understand what their audience is looking for and then use that information to sell their books.  They understand what emotional need their book fills for their reader and they address that need in the content of the book.  They use that need to draw readers to their book in titles, covers and book descriptions.  We will revisit this idea when we start pimping your book.

What do bestselling authors do that other authors do not:

1) Work harder and spend more time on research
2) Write books that they know there is a demand for
3) Understand their readers and why those readers buy books