Is it worth striving to achieve bestseller status?

Everywhere you look on the Internet, you see advertisements for how your book can reach bestseller status. My simple search for “how to become a bestsell” on both the Google and YouTube search engines resulted in a plethora of options. They included:

• “bestselling author,”
• “bestselling novelist,”
• “bestseller,”

and many other variations.

It’s what everyone wants, right?

Yet my unpopular opinion is that it’s not worth it.

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Strive for Bestseller Status

1. It’s fleeting.

Amazon updates its rankings (bestseller status) every hour. When you combine that with the flood of new authors coming into Amazon every single hour, that means your book’s ability to achieve and retain bestseller status is going to be limited.

2. Bestseller status can be manipulated.

If you’ve studied SEO really well and really have honed in on keywords and your categories within Amazon, it’s easier (I’m not saying it’s easy) to hit bestseller status.

There are people who would say that’s fair because they did their research and simply put in the hard work. That’s true. But the fact remains it can be manipulated. A low-quality book can become a bestseller simply because the author used the right keywords.

When you consider the prestigious New York Times bestseller list or the USA Today list, it gets even harder to hit bestseller status. Which means that even more manipulation can occur.

There’ve been a lot a lot of rumors over the years about how some third-party companies working on behalf of certain authors and publishers were able to game the system and buy authors their spot on the New York Times bestseller list. That’s been hotly contested, of course. But the fact is that it can be manipulated if people really put their minds to it, which limits all authors from having an equal chance.

3. Rankings are based on launch week sales and reviews.

On Amazon, bestseller status is all about a large number of sales and reviews the first week, especially the first forty-eight hours.

And in the New York Times, it’s all about selling 5,000–10,000 books the first week that your book launches. Considering the fact that most self-published books sell only 200 copies per title, that means not many indie authors will meet the New York Times threshold. In addition, book sales also have to be spread across the entire United States and be from a variety of retailers.

As you can see, there are a lot of requirements that prevent the average indie author from becoming a New York Times bestselling author.

USA Today offers a slightly better chance for indie authors to get on their list. They take into account the sales of all formats of a title (unlike the New York Times, which only considers one format) and they receive data from indie bookstores and even book subscription services.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with achieving bestseller status, the fact remains that striving to achieve it can distract us from our true work. And, for some people, it can become an obsession.

Rather than stressing and expending excess energy on achieving bestseller status, I encourage you to focus instead on creating a quality book.

How to Write a Quality Book

Make it valuable.

Someone recently confided to me how frustrating and disappointing it is when they spend $20-$25 on a book only to discover that it offers absolutely no value. They feel like they’ve wasted their money.

You don’t want people to say that about your book.

Truly successful authors provide valuable content that meets a need, resonates with the reader, and keeps them turning the pages.

This can be achieved by offering a solution to a problem, inviting curiosity, or telling an entertaining story.

Do your research, meet a need, and show your personality.

Make it high quality.

In addition to making sure it’s well written, make sure it’s free of as many grammatical and typographical errors as possible.

I don’t believe it’s possible to create a completely error-free book. There’s always something that you’re going to overlook—something minor—but try to make it as free of errors as possible.

Creating a high-quality book also requires the assistance of a professional editor and designer.  

It’s also beneficial to receive feedback from others, such as a critique group, a critique partner, and/or beta readers. But asking for feedback is just part of the equation. You also need to be open and receptive to that feedback.

You don’t need to incorporate each and every recommendation. However, when multiple people question a particular area in your book, then you probably ought to change it.

Take your readers on a journey.

Keep them moving through your book with relevant storytelling and presenting information in a logical, flowing way. Offer them insights and value throughout the book and then lead them to whatever it is that you want them to do at the end.

• Invite them to work with you.
• Provide them with an opportunity to continue to learn about a certain topic.
• If you’re writing a series of books, let them know what’s coming next.

These are the things that you want to focus on—quality content rather than bestseller status.

👇 Did you find this post helpful? Let me know in the comments! 👇

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