Amazon Best Selling Transcription
Wait, What? Really? OK with your host, Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say, wait, what? Really? Okay. This is the Messaging and Optics podcast. Wait, what? Really? Okay, I’ll be your host. My name is Loren Weisman. I’m from Fish Stewarding Group. And in this episode, in the next couple episodes to follow, we’re going to be putting a focus on marketing, on the ideas of how people are marketing and promoting and where they’re choosing to do so and with what authenticity and authority they’re using. Or on the other side of it, is it just empty hype? And then for those of those using certain claims that are false, are some of those claims hurting people that can actually state those and be true? The title of this episode is Amazon Best Selling Book claims and the 16,000 book categories on Amazon, inside of the publishing and the self publishing, there are 16,000 categories. So maybe you’ve heard and you probably have so many people claiming to be a bestseller. Well, there’s only so many bestsellers that have the authenticity, the authority and the actual objective proof to state that. Yet on Amazon, this truth can be stretched in certain places and in other places it’s being purchased. So maybe you’ve noticed it, maybe you’ve seen, whether it be on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram, people talking about, you’ve got to purchase my best selling book. Well, is it really a best seller or is it not? And either way, isn’t it coming to a time, or aren’t we coming to a time where we can set the seed and a foundation of authenticity and authority and move away from the hype that everyone is using? So, for example, that one person that truly has a best seller is online, offline, ebook, physical book, audiobook, selling to that level and making that statement, even them, for them to consider stepping back. Because that statement can be false, that statement can be contrived, that statement can be purchased, that statement can be massaged. And what I mean by massaged is there are publishing companies out there and book promoters that will advise you to put your book or write aspects of your book in a certain category where there are very few other authors or other sales. In turn, you get this nice little snapshot. You get seven people to buy it, 10 people to buy it, 20 people to buy it, and now you come up with a number one ranking and number two ranking and you’re a bestseller. That strikes me as a little bit of a lie, deception and immoral. Maybe it doesn’t bother you that’s your choice. On the same note, many of these bestseller models, these are the publishers and some of the book promoters that just showcase a questionable ethical standard. You can pay them or pay companies that they invest independently contract, where in a given period of time, you will set this book. And this is the funny part, it’s not a best seller because you’ve given it away to robots. They’ll set the book for a certain time to have a series of robots download the book. So in this one compressed amount of time, all of these bots will download your book and then pump your rating up for just, you know, few minutes. And those publishers and those book promoters, they’ll take a nice little screenshot and send it to you and now tell you, hey, look at bestseller. Yeah, you’re a bestseller for a moment. Except you weren’t a bestseller. You lied. You purchased that time to be downloaded by bots. You gave the book away. So maybe if the truth came out, it would be a little bit more along the lines of better, best robot downloader for a few minutes. The point being here is it’s questionable in how many people are handling the ethics, the authenticity, and the tactics of getting a book out. So I invite you, and maybe you’re not the type, maybe you are. I invite you to set and plant the seeds of authenticity, of authority, of just that element of honesty when you’re putting your book out. Now, on the other side of it, maybe you don’t need to write a book. And there are a lot of PR agencies and a lot of marketing companies. You got to have a book. You got to have a book to showcase your authority. What if you don’t have a book in you? Then don’t write one. Maybe it’s creating a podcast. Maybe you have a podcast in you. Maybe you have a video series. However, when you begin to use these fake methods and false measures to try to up and amplify your authority, it’s being built on something that is not real. Reviews can be bought, books can be bought. You can go to some of these sites out there and they will pre write a book for you. There are AI systems that will do it. There are companies that will sell you a package where they just say, move this around, create a cover, add this, this, and this, and your book is done. And I’ve commented on one of the companies and I told them, I said, it’s not, it’s not stealing because they wrote them. They wrote this material, they’ve adjusted it in a number of different ways, and they sold it to you. So it is not stealing. However, it is absolutely plagiarism because now you’re using other people’s words and you’re claiming them as your own. Many of these marketing companies too are now sending people and say, part of your social group and part of your content, you can hire people to help write your book for you. And I remember going back to the sites and like, help write your book with you. No, no, for you. Many of these people are writing now. There’s an aspect and there’s a fine line and there is some morals around the ghostwriter or that person that’s writing along. That’s one thing. However, to just flat out state, this is what you created when you didn’t create it at all, it makes it a little bit questionable. And would you turn around and state, oh, I went to this company and I bought this and I moved these paragraphs around, I changed some chapter titles, I put this on. If you’re not prepared to share any method, any step or any part of how you created your book and how you put that out there and how you promoted that book, if you’re not prepared to share that with the audience that might buy it, then maybe just for a moment, consider it’s not necessarily something to do. Oh, well, all these people are doing it and there are plenty of people doing it. You can search right now online how to get an Amazon bestseller and you’ll see a couple of the motivational types of you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do this and blah, blah, blah. However, the majority of the searches that come up will talk about the methodology of track a category that’s here, but if that’s not you, that’s false. Buy this, add this here, do this. I mean, they’re adding these elements that don’t stand on any kind of solid rock. It’s all on sand that just slips out from underneath you. So if you’re going to write a book, if a book is something that interests you, if it’s something that you wanted to do, do it, but do it from build it from the table of contents to the chapters to the words on the rock and not on the sand to be blown out away from underneath you showcase it so that every step of that is something you’d be proud to share. I’ve written a few books. I’m proud of them. I’m proud, less proud of the first one. I’m proud of what was done and how it was done and the problems that I had and the stuff that I came up against and these little nuances and the delays and the costs and all of it. But I’m proud of it and I stand behind it 100%. And I ask you that if that’s what you’re thinking about doing with a book, that you are able to do the same. You don’t have to buy these book templates. You don’t have to write the. I mean, some of these writer courses take it with a grain of salt as something that one person has done. And the other thing too, in building authority, please consider staying away from the 90 different authors wrote this book and writing this one segment to get your author cred. Consider bringing it back to authenticity. Consider bringing it back to the authority. Consider rooting it in this stable, secure zone that showcases that anybody that would come at you or look at this stuff could see that this is true and it’s you. And that can make such a difference. It doesn’t mean you’re not promoting. It doesn’t mean also going out there. And this is something to consider whether you’re a best seller or not. Something to consider when it comes to your book. Talk about the aspects of the book. Maybe there’s imagery that you talk about, whether it’s an illustration inside of the book or not. Maybe add an additional illustration to refer back to a chapter. There’s this guy, J. Warner Wallace, who has this book and he refers in, I think it’s like the 13th or 14th chapter to are to believing in Mark Hillism. And I found that just so funny listening to his audiobook. And in that I was thinking it’d be really funny if this guy or his social team posted out something. Do you believe in Mark Hillism? And then reference the book, reference it’s in chapter 14. Maybe mention it’s not a cult and just leave it out there. Plant that seed, set that seed out there for it to be seen for other people as you have a certain experience and as you’re writing and on the chopping block with an editor. Maybe keep that material and format it into a blog. The audiobooks are a wonderful element, but you can still talk about and extrapolate beyond and go into a podcast about some of the stuff that you didn’t touch on or some of the stuff that can go further as opposed to just buy this now. And you know, it doesn’t have to be this envy, ego, look at me, number one, because so many people are saying that. And in the chorus of that ego, arrogance and hype, some of the People that actually have those accolades are being lost. So whether you have a book that sold five copies or a book that sold 5 million, consider sharing the nuances, the elements, the supplements, the compliments across different areas. Pull quotes from the book, use the press releases. Look at it getting out there. Look, when you, when you do a review or you’re going to put a review online, point it back to a verified place. If you get a review from one of the book, you know, one of the book agencies, and you can, you, you can, when you first put a book out, you can send it through a series of reviewers, a series of magazines, be able to point it back, because that’s another thing. Reviews can be purchased, books can be purchased. You know, Amazon tried to adjust to the verified sell, but right now you can make a purchase through a group that will look like it’s a series of different verified sales. And then of course, the same thing goes with the reviews. Think about anything you bought on Amazon. Have you ever noticed, you know, you might look through a review about a certain item and you see maybe a truckload of really good reviews and then you see this one star and it’s just, this is crap and horrible and awful and terrible. And when you click through on that reviewer, they have one review. That’s one of those bots, it’s not a conspiracy thing. Now many of those people and many people inside the literary industry are using that. It’s that false review. And in that note, it’s okay for a negative review. You don’t need to combat it. You don’t need to get it deleted. Enjoy that. When you write something, there’s an aspect. Yes, there can be fact in your book. There can be facts. However, there can be opinions too. And inside of that, to be able to allow someone, okay, that’s cool, you didn’t like my book, as opposed to getting into some war with them. The main thing here is as you look to authorship, if that’s the direction that you’re going, look at it. Or consider looking at it from the angle of enhancing what, you know, expanding out to an audience in a format that some people may find interesting or a culmination point, but not creating something to try to create an authority that you don’t have. There are so many motivational, inspirational, empty books. This is in the health industry, this is in the business consulting. There are, I’m not going to name the site, I’m not going to go after that whole thing. I did that once and got attacked for it. But it’s Easy. They’re out there. You can go to these sites and buy pre made business strategist books. And then you pop in a couple of your quotes, you switch these things around, you add this. Here you have these other templates. My quotes show up in business strategist books and it’s strange because it’s the same quote, because it’s part of a template. Many people will use these quotes and they’ll use quotes from other people. Pop this at the front of the chapter, pop this at the back of it. Why can’t it be your own quote? Or if you’re going to put a quote into a book of yours, talk about why you placed it there, as opposed to using materials to try to enhance what might not be so strong. The point comes down to and the ask, I guess. Consider grounding yourself in your book in honest, moral and authentic strategies and tactics as well in your promotion. Use this instead of the false hype, instead of the false pretenses, instead of the fake numbers. And regardless of whether you’re just starting out and maybe you’ve had six books sold or maybe you have 6 million, consider this is a dirty area where the perceptions are off and that maybe where you might be reaching a new audience. Even though you have a great deal of sales, you could sound like, look like, and come off like everyone else. So inside of doing that book, consider finding the category that suits the book that honors the reader and not just trying to find one of the 16,000 categories on Amazon to try to get a bump up in a number that doesn’t really mean anything. And in the end, is that what you want to attract? Do you want to attract that individual that’s looking for a bestseller for a quick, almost like drug fix? Oh, they’re going to buy it. Or are you putting out a book to form relationships, form connections with, maybe build business with? Because if you’re working the angle of just pure hype and hoopla and a false popularity, this individual or these individuals that are attracted to that may just end up jumping on the next train or the next best seller and throw you off in the trash and you’re booked behind. Consider grounding in the authenticity, the authority and the truth. From there it makes it a lot easier to defend yourself or defend the case for where you’re coming from because you’re not hiding anything when it comes to your book or what you know from there. Look at the realities, okay? Whole bunch of people making up and buying reviews so that when you share a review, share back to the site share back to an individual. I mean, I really and I get tired of it on Instagram. Bill J. Bill J. Or John S. Loves this. How do I know you didn’t write that? And a lot of people are doing that. Give me something that leads back. Give yourself something that leads back. Discuss elements, implement quotes. Add little videos. Talk about the aspects about it. Format it into the audiobook, put it into the ebook. Consider translations. Consider organic, authentic, honorable methods to continually expand and extend the reach of your book without the same bestseller, bestseller. Bestseller. Buy my book. Buy my book. Buy my book. There is so much room for positive messaging and content that can come out with your book and it doesn’t have to be the same message over and over again. And that in turn might set up for endurance sales and endurance connections well past the initial release. In the end, and I guess I rambled on a little longer than I’d intended to look past the claims. Consider stopping and no longer making claims, and share organically, authentically, authoritatively at every step of your book, all the way through the promotion and the marketing of it. And I believe it will serve you that much better. It will serve your audience that much better, and it will stand as something you can be that much more proud of. Wait, What? Really? Ok.