{"id":11207,"date":"2017-09-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=11207"},"modified":"2017-09-25T10:44:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T14:44:01","slug":"usa-today-bestseller-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/usa-today-bestseller-list\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indie Author\u2019s Guide to Hitting the USA Today Bestseller List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a bestselling author? <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly possible, but not everyone who sells well makes it onto the list. As it turns out, you need to meet certain criteria to even be <\/span>considered<\/span><\/i> for a list like the USA Today bestseller list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, I hit the USA Today bestseller list with a multi-author box set. <\/b><\/p>\n

I then joined a second list-aiming set, and in June, I ran a large promotion on my own series bundle. I didn\u2019t make it that time, but I <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> learn a lot about what it takes to become a bestselling author.<\/span><\/p>\n

The USA Today bestseller list ranks the top 150 best-selling books using data collected from the previous week from online and brick-and-mortar retailers.<\/b> They publish the first 50 in the print version of USA Today and publish the top 150 online every Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Making the list can mean exposure for you, and the privilege of adding the title of \u201cUSA Today Bestselling Author\u201d to your credentials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think you might want to aim for the list? Here\u2019s what indie authors need to know before running a promotion.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/span> Run your promotion Monday through Sunday<\/span><\/h2>\n

Keep in mind that the bestseller lists only give a snapshot of what\u2019s selling really well during any given week. <\/span><\/p>\n

That means a book that sells well consistently but never sells thousands in one week may never hit the list.<\/b><\/p>\n

Likewise, a book that sells really well one week but stops selling well later on \u2014 or even goes out of print \u2014 can still make it. Even books that are several years old can rise to hit the charts with a good promotional strategy behind them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The USA Today list adds up sales from the previous Monday through Sunday to determine the bestsellers for that week. So if you\u2019re going to make a go at it, plan your run for those days.<\/span><\/p>\n

(See point #5 if you plan to make a list run on a new release.)<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Sell on more than one platform<\/span><\/h2>\n

To be considered for the USA Today bestseller list, your reported sales have to come from more than one platform. <\/span><\/p>\n

That means that if you\u2019re digitally exclusive to Amazon in KDP Select, you don\u2019t have a chance no matter how many copies you sell. (Unless you\u2019re selling enough print copies, which is rare for indie authors.)<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that the USA Today list doesn\u2019t collect data from every sales platform. <\/b>If you\u2019re trying to hit the list by selling enough print copies through print-on-demand (POD) companies like Createspace, those sales won\u2019t count. Furthermore, Google Play isn\u2019t included on their list of contributors, so those sales won\u2019t count, either. <\/span><\/p>\n

(You can view a <\/span>list of contributors here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, if you sell enough copies on platforms like Amazon, Nook, and iBooks, all those sales will combine to determine your book\u2019s ranking. Indie authors typically focus on digital sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Aim for at least 500 sales on Nook or iBooks<\/span><\/h2>\n

Amazon is arguably the easiest platform to sell on for indie authors, especially when running a major promotion. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, since you need sales on more than one platform,<\/span> your best shot at getting enough sales as an indie is to <\/span>focus on iBooks or Nook as your secondary platform.<\/b><\/p>\n

However, these two retailers won\u2019t report numbers to the list unless you\u2019ve received 500 U.S. sales for the week. Be sure this goal is part of your promo strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"usa4. Shoot for 6K U.S. sales minimum<\/span><\/h2>\n

There is no real number needed to hit the list. <\/span><\/p>\n

It all depends on what else is selling that week, and some seasons are more competitive than others. I\u2019ve been told \u00a0summertime is a good time to aim for the list because there\u2019s less competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, 6,000 sales is generally a \u201csafe zone\u201d for making the bottom of the list <\/b>(though it\u2019s best to aim higher because that number is never a guarantee). <\/span><\/p>\n

Also note that these sales have to be in the U.S. to count.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Consider a pre-order period to gather more sales<\/span><\/h2>\n

Any book can make the bestseller list no matter when it was released. However, many authors aim for the list with a new release. One of the benefits to this strategy is that you can set up digital pre-orders on platforms like Amazon, Nook and iBooks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Note that your <\/span>Amazon sales ranking<\/span><\/a> is determined based on when a pre-order is placed, but the USA Today list counts your pre-order numbers when the book is released. <\/span>A pre-order period gives you more time to gather those sales.<\/b><\/p>\n

A word of warning: Due to time zone differences, pre-order numbers can sometimes hit the night before your scheduled release. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why if you\u2019re going to go this route, you\u2019ll want to release on a Tuesday. That way if pre-orders <\/span>do<\/span><\/i> hit the night before, you still get those numbers on Monday, which is when the clock starts for your list run.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Give it all you\u2019ve got<\/span><\/h2>\n

Make no mistake: Hitting the list isn\u2019t easy, even when multiple authors are working together. <\/span><\/p>\n

Expect to invest a <\/span>lot<\/span><\/i> of money into marketing. How much really depends on your genre since some books are easier to sell than others. I\u2019m in the young adult genre, and several authors I know \u2014 including myself \u2014 didn\u2019t make it with a $2,000-$3,000 marketing budget. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s just a marketing figure for the week. It doesn\u2019t count the <\/span>cost of publishing a book<\/span><\/a>, such as the cover design, editing, formatting, etc. You\u2019ll need all those aspects down first before you run a huge marketing campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also takes an incredible time commitment. I spent a month of daily work preparing for my solo promotion, but it\u2019s pretty typical for authors to run three-month pre-order periods prior to a list run.<\/span><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t claim to be an expert on the USA Today list, and I\u2019m sure much of this information is subject to change over the next few years. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, after aiming for the list three times in the past year, I\u2019ve learned a lot about what it takes, and I hope that other indie authors can learn something from it, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you plan on trying to hit the USA Today bestseller list within the next year? Tell us about your plans in the comment section.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Make the list! An indie author breaks down how to hit the USA Today bestseller list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":11571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1288,1289,1287],"class_list":["post-11207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-bestseller-list","tag-bestselling-author","tag-usa-today-bestseller-list"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}