http://www.robertswartwood.com/uncategorized/how-to-become-a-bestseller/ Occasional News, Insights, Rants, and Other Miscellaneous Stuff Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:15:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.robertswartwood.com/uncategorized/how-to-become-a-bestseller/#comment-1284 Robert Swartwood Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:15:57 +0000 http://www.robertswartwood.com/?p=1298#comment-1284 You are correct, sir. That's what some people call velocity. Many authors encourage their readers to buy their book the very first week so that it will get as many sales as possible and possibly make it reach the bestseller charts. Of course, if you knew each and every bookstore in the country that reports their sales to the NYT, then, theoretically, you could make sure all your books are bought just at those places and, who knows, it would be a bestseller even if it didn't sell elsewhere. The best way to tell if a book is a true bestseller is by the USA Today and WSJ, as noted above, because they use the actual numbers reported all over the country via Bookscan. You are correct, sir. That’s what some people call velocity. Many authors encourage their readers to buy their book the very first week so that it will get as many sales as possible and possibly make it reach the bestseller charts. Of course, if you knew each and every bookstore in the country that reports their sales to the NYT, then, theoretically, you could make sure all your books are bought just at those places and, who knows, it would be a bestseller even if it didn’t sell elsewhere. The best way to tell if a book is a true bestseller is by the USA Today and WSJ, as noted above, because they use the actual numbers reported all over the country via Bookscan.

]]> http://www.robertswartwood.com/uncategorized/how-to-become-a-bestseller/#comment-1271 ST Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:11:23 +0000 http://www.robertswartwood.com/?p=1298#comment-1271 for some reason this reminds me of those things in high school where the students vote for homecoming king/queen or "best body" or whatever. i had a girlfriend who was in charge of tallying votes for one of those once for a school with a few hundred kids in the class and she said the winners only had like 4 or 5 votes apiece. there were so many people to vote for you only needed to garner a handful of voters to win. in regards to books, if there were a way to get a couple thousand people to buy your book in a week -- even if that's all you ever sell -- that could be enough to make you a "bestselling" author. for some reason this reminds me of those things in high school where the students vote for homecoming king/queen or “best body” or whatever. i had a girlfriend who was in charge of tallying votes for one of those once for a school with a few hundred kids in the class and she said the winners only had like 4 or 5 votes apiece. there were so many people to vote for you only needed to garner a handful of voters to win. in regards to books, if there were a way to get a couple thousand people to buy your book in a week — even if that’s all you ever sell — that could be enough to make you a “bestselling” author.

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