Self-Publishing Day 2: Research Before You Write
Hey, crew! I’m sharing my 5-day self-publishing challenge on here this week. Yesterday, we talked about how to generate a new income stream by the end of this year with a self-published book on Amazon.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to research your way to increased book sales.
Before you worry about launching, marketing or even writing a book, you need to research and make sure there’s an audience for the book.
There’s no point in writing something no one is looking for -- it’s a waste of your time and money and will leave you feeling discouraged about becoming an author.
For me, I wanted to write stories about my travels but the immediate demand was for more practical knowledge on how to find cheap flights. I ended up writing my first book on how to find cheap flights and it did well, because I gave the readers what they wanted.
Poll your audience to see what they’re interested in. Start engaging your email list, friends on Facebook and followers on social media to see what their pain points are and what they want to know more about.
If you’re writing fiction, ask your audience about the plotlines/setting/characters they want to see you write about.
Start your research by browsing the categories in the Kindle bookstore.
If you want to write a nonfiction business book, for example, you might check under Kindle e-books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales.
When you’re in a specific subcategory, take a look around. Who’s in the top spot? Who’s number 20? The top 20 books in a given category will be shown on the first page when you make a selection, which is where you want to be.
To find out if you can realistically make it there, you’ll need to know the average daily book sales of Nos. 1 and 20. Click on their book’s page and scroll down to where it says “Amazon Ranking.” It’s usually a number between 1 and several million and indicates the book’s place in the overall Kindle store.
Anything under 100,000 means steady daily sales. How do you know this? Well, once you have a ranking you can translate that to book sales through a nifty tool called the Kindlepreneur Book Sales Calculator. All you do is enter the ranking and the calculator tells you how many books per day that ranking is selling.
If the #1 spot is ranking 300 overall in the Kindle store and the #20 is ranking 20,000 overall, that’s a tough category to rank for. You’ll likely be competing against the Stephen Kings and Sophia Kinsellas of the world, meaning your book might peak its way onto the top 20 list at one point but it’s unlikely to stay there.
Generally, you should aim for categories with a ranking of 50,000 or less in the #1 spot and 500,000 or less in the #20 spot. This means that the first book is making steady daily book sales and there’s demand for it, but there’s also a high chance you can outrank the #20 spot to get more visibility.
You’re allowed 2 categories when listing your book. There are several things you’re looking at when browsing categories. Is it a category with a lot of celebrity authors? You may think your autobiography is fascinating, but it’ll have a hard time competing with Michelle Obama’s.
Is this a genre where people expect a certain product, like romance? Often times the storylines that sell the best are mimicking prior successful themes and plotlines while changing the names of the main characters. Fifty Shades of Grey started as fan fiction for Twilight, for example.
Is there enough interest in what you’re offering? Maybe you want to teach people how to start a website through Bluehost but that’s too specific of a topic and you’d need to broaden your book to how to start a website, period.
The best thing you could come across is a book that is making a lot of sales and is terrible. This means that there’s a need for that book, and that if you improve upon what’s out there and offer a more comprehensive or entertaining product, you’ll easily match or exceed those sales.
Now that you’ve done some general browsing, it’s time to get specific. Identify at least 3 competitor books that are ranking well. Study them and ask yourself the following questions:
What categories are these competitor books ranking highly in?
What do the bad reviews say, and how can I improve on that or fill in the gaps in content?
What do their book covers look like?
How many reviews do they have?
Are any of the reviews from media channels or well-known endorsements?
What keywords are they using in their title/subtitle?
How are they writing the description?
What’s in the first few pages of the book?
What does their outline say/cover?
Great! Now that you’ve scoped out the competition and seen where you fit in, it’s time to get to the good stuff – writing your book. I’ll see all you budding authors tomorrow.