This is the third post in a three-part series.
If you write and publish a book on a timely topic, you stand the highest chance of hitting a bestseller list with your new release—and of doing so quickly and easily. Not only that, if you choose to blog your book on a subject that is current or newsworthy, your site will rise in the search engine results pages (SERPs) faster than you thought imaginable. As you publish posts after post, you’ll attract the attention of all the people searching the Internet for information on this hot subject. Then, when you release your book to the fan base you created, voila, you’ll have a hit!
If you don’t believe this bestseller strategy works, think about books published after or during a newsworthy event, such those released after September 11 or during the most recent economic downturn in the United States. These books revolve around timely topics. You can find many examples, including the biographies of celebrities who die, such as Steve Jobs.
Choose a Timely Topic
If you have studied your market, you know what is of interest to your readers’ at any given moment. For example, when I published The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Writing a Book in 30 Days on October 31, I did so because the topic was timely in my readers’ world. Most of my fan-base consists of people who would like to produce a book. Many of them participate in a November write-a-book-in-a-month challenge, such as National Fiction Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) or National Nonfiction Writing Month (NaNonFiWriMo). Therefore, I knew many writers—those who knew me and those who didn’t—would be interested in an e-book that helped them write a nonfiction book in a month. Not only that, The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Writing a Book in 30 Days would target perfectly those writers who specifically follow me, or who participate in NaNonFiWriMo, which I founded.
As I write this (not quite two weeks after the book’s release), I can report that The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Writing a Book in 30 Days became an Amazon bestseller immediately, remained on the list for more than a week, and was on and off the list for another week. It also was named an Amazon Hot New Release several days in that initial 14-day period. And I did very little promotion.
In much the same way, if you want to produce a bestseller, determine what topic is most timely for your market. Then write a book about it and release it while your readers still have interest in the topic. Better yet, uncover that timely topic early! For example, if you write about crafts, release your winter holiday craft book just after Halloween. If you write about self-improvement, have your newest release prepared for January 1st—when everyone is ready to turn over a new leaf, or begin work on their New Year’s resolutions. Or if you are a tax expert, publish your book on how to get more money back from your tax return in January or February.
5 Tips for Putting This Strategy to Use
To put this strategy to use:
- Review your reader profile. (See Part 2 in this series.)
- Check the news and the calendar; then make a list of potential timely book topics.
- Brainstorm book ideas that relate to these timely topics and that provide high value to your potential readers—that target your market’s wants and needs by answering their questions, solving their problems, easing their pain, addressing their interests, and fulfilling their desires.
- Determine if your idea is unique and necessary in the marketplace. (See Part 1 in this series].
- Write and publish one of those books so it releases just when they need it most—or prior to that time.
Do this over and over again, and each time you’ll produce a bestselling book. Not only that, if the topic is evergreen, which means it is one that your market is interested in annually, you might find your book on the bestseller list again every year, if not sooner.
Did you miss the earlier parts of this series? Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Photo courtesy of kikkerdirk| stockfresh.com
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