#BestsellerLists

Everyone wants to write a bestseller. Of course. You want your book to be so popular that it becomes a household word - such as Fifty Shades of Grey by British author by E.L. James, the current "hot" book. I'm sure that the author is more than happy with the sales of the book. Who wouldn't be?

But do you have to get onto the bestseller list to have a book that sells a makes your wildest dreams come true? Absolutely not. My book sold over 250,000 copies but it was never on anyone's list but mine. Why not? Only 15% of the sales occurred in book stores. It takes only 35,000 copies to make it to bestseller status in the United States (5,000 copies in Canada), which might or might not be exciting, depending on your goals. 

Never was I unhappy with my sales numbers. Most of the copies sold to the corporate market, which is even better than book store sales because they are guaranteed sales. When book stores order books any unsold copies are returned to you - the book market is strange indeed. The bottom line, however, is that books moved out of my warehouse. End of story (no pun intended).

Bestseller lists are arbitrary, anyway. The New York Times, for example, communicates with a select group of book stores and reports sales of their most popular books. What if you sold 50,000 copies of your book on Amazon, or you sold 100,000 copies to XYZ corporation? The New York Times would be none the wiser but how happy would you be? 

Your efforts must be focused on sales - wherever you can achieve them, whether in book stores, to the gift market, in catalog sales, via your website, to charities as fund raisers or wherever you can get them. 

Denise

www.inktreemarketing.com
www.publishacookbook.com