I’m betting that most of my readers are either already authors, want to be authors, or know someone close who fits either category. If you’re in the first group, try this hack and you’ll see it pushes extra sales your way. If you know an author, feel free to forward this on to them.
- It doesn’t matter if your book is already published or not yet launched, you can still use this hack.
- If you’ve already done the first steps, skip ahead as needed.
- If you need help, get in touch. I can help at any step from publishing to marketing.
- Get your book ready to publish to Kindle and Amazon print (formerly Createspace).
- Hit that button and publish it! Get this done first so you’re not waiting on proofs and edits. Wait until your book is live and for sale before you move to step two.
- Sign up for the Amazon Associates affiliate program. This way all the links you send out point back to you and Amazon pays you extra money on any sales that come from you.
- Copy the link to your book and add it to your Works inventory database. If you don’t have one set up yet, you really need to get in touch.
- Find a hot-selling book that just came out, is coming out soon, or hit it big for some reason. Old books come back all the time when a TV show or movie comes out, e.g. The Handmaid’s Tale. Get the link to it.
- Put together a sheet of instructions and send it to everyone you know. Have all the necessary links in the instructions. (If you want a detailed tip sheet with these instructions, message me back.)
- Tell them to type in the link to your book on Amazon and add the book to their cart. They don’t have to buy it.
- Type in the link to the other hot-selling book you researched and add it to their cart.
- If they want to buy either book, perfect! You just made a sale. But they don’t have to buy. They can just let it sit in the cart until the end of time or go back in and empty the cart.
- Your book will now be more likely to show up along with the best-selling book anytime someone searches for either one. Because of the association effect you’ll grab a few of the customers who are buying the other book.
Hope this makes you a ton of money! Do me a favor if it does. Once you hit a benchmark- $1000 in a day, one of the Amazon best-seller lists, or your own personal goal, send me an autographed copy.
Here’s a concrete example. Bear in mind, by the time you read this, I’ll have more recent ones as well.
A buddy of mine and former Marine Paul Yurkin published Memoirs of a Security Contractor a couple of years ago. Mat Best, spec ops veteran, security contractor, and owner of Black Rifle Coffee, also released his memoir Thank You for My Service. Both books are very similar in tone and story.
The difference- Because of his coffee and wildly popular Youtube videos Mat has a monstrous following, and his book skyrocketed to several best-seller lists. If Paul’s book shows up on the suggested products from Amazon, he’s liable to make sales as well. It’s a perfect book to associate with because it carries the same customer base.
It gets even better. Because Mat owns Black Rifle, both Mat and Paul’s books are liable to show up when customers search for Black Rifle Coffee.
Here’s a funny catch. I was going to read Mat’s book much later after used ones show up on Amazon. While working on the links for this newsletter, I went ahead and ordered a brand-spankin’ new hardback copy. It’s proof the hack works, because it sold me unintentionally.
I’d love to hear any success stories based on this.
Take care,
Dr. Redbeard
This message was written by a team of geeks, nerds, gamers, and Dr. David Powers. You can always find us at www.callsignredbeard.com. Thanks for reading!
In the words of Starship Troopers, “Would you like to know more?”