Becoming a USA Today/Wall Street Journal (WSJ) bestselling author can be life-changing. It will likely open many doors for you in terms of earning media coverage and landing high-paying gigs and clients. The USA Today/WSJ Best Seller status also helps to sell books. But how in the world do you become a USA Today bestselling author in 2022 and beyond?
Here is a checklist to become a USA Today/Wall Street Journal bestselling author:
- Make sure your book has mass appeal. You can’t expect to hit a national best-seller list with a book geared toward a small audience. Nonfiction is the best fit, e.g. business, self-help, etc.
- Don’t rely solely on Amazon. In order to hit USA Today/WSJ best-seller, you must have sales on Amazon and at least one other platform.
- Get around 15 Amazon reviews prior to the USA Today/WSJ campaign. I recommend leveraging your email list and/or social media to get some early reviews posted, priming your book for big sales as you make the big push for a national list.
- You must make your book an ebook. Unless you’re with a major publisher who can sell thousands of print copies, you’ll need to focus on selling ebooks – around 6k+ downloads.
- Distribute your ebook through Amazon and B&N. The majority of the sales should flow through Amazon, with maybe around 500 sales through another platform like BN.com.
- Only USA sales count. If your book will mostly appeal to an international audience, then hitting one of these lists is unlikely.
- Run your promo campaigns over a 7-day period, preferably from a Monday – Sunday.
- Use Facebook and Amazon Ads to drive sales. These types of PPC ads can be ultra targeted – you can hone in on interests, locations and other demographics.
- Use multiple large ebook promo sites to promote your ebook to thousands. Google “ebook promotion sites” and get ready to spend. Remember, you need to get over 6000 paid downloads in a week, so one email list from an ebook promo site isn’t going to cut it.
- Leverage your own social media and email lists if possible. It’s time to email your own list(s) and broadcast the 99 cent ebook deal to your social media followers, too. Don’t be shy!
Does all of this sound too daunting? I’m not going to lie, it’s tough! I know authors who have tried multiple times to land on the USA Today Best Seller and couldn’t quite reach the level of sales required to hit the list. You can spend thousands of dollars (and lose a lot of sleep) taking out ads on numerous email lists and PPC platforms and still miss the mark, unfortunately. Like anything in life, there’s usually a lot of trial and error. That’s why it makes sense to hire a company like mine, MindStir Media, that can run the entire campaign for you – leverage huge, proven email lists and run the right PPC ads on Facebook and Amazon if necessary.
Don’t get me wrong, the checklist above works! But…it’s not foolproof. And if you don’t want to go on the rollercoaster alone, just team up with MindStir Media to run your best-seller campaign for you. Either way, I look forward to seeing your name on a national bestseller list in the near future!