How to Run a Pantser Launch and Grow a Best Seller

Everyone who writes a book and launches it into the world dreams of being a best seller. At least that’s what my goal was. The truth is that I made so many mistakes that I never should have received that special best seller, as awarded by Amazon.

Bradley Charbonneau, N.A. Turner, Jack Heimbigner, and Joe Elvin asked how I achieved the honor and encouraged me to write about the process.

I see so many big writers using it both ways. Amazon awards a “best seller” banner, but Grammarly wants “bestseller.”

How do the award-winning lists use the term?:

The big guys who ought to know don’t know. They’re guessing. I’m not wasting any more time on the matter. I’m embracing the two-word variation and running with it because that’s how I roll.

The most important thing is that you receive encouragement because I made so many mistakes that I should never have earned that best seller banner, but I did anyway, and I’m confident you can too.

The big guys get the title all the time. They rig the system in their favor and buy the title, because if they can, why not? I mean…

Who doesn’t want to be a best seller?

It helps to have connections. I connected with every relationship I’ve spent the last 3–5 years building. I connected with every friend and writer friend I’ve touched, empowered, inspired, and empowered.

I purposely chose not to connect with others. The book was a well-kept secret for as long as possible so certain people couldn’t take credit for the momentum that was building around the project. If I couldn’t trust them with my secret they didn’t know about it until it was too late to stop this book from rolling out.

Those who were in-the-know are among my most trusted advisors.

Influencers came along-side by sharing their connections and their lists.

Many of the people who helped launch the book are some of my best friends. They are people I know well and have strong personal connections with or have helped in some way.

The unofficial launch team was a fantastic surprise. These are people who said, “You’re launching a book? Cool! How can I help?” And, they went above and beyond by showing up in invaluable promotional ways.

I don’t have a firm grasp on the number of “unofficial launchers,” the people who came out in support with social sharing efforts and reviews.

There were more than I can count. Some I don’t even know about.

Seven little emails can launch a best seller.

The cover was my nemesis. It wasn’t available in usable form until after launch week had already begun. My friend Jack Heimbigner, launched a productivity book at the exact same time and afterward we reflected on the struggles of our respective launches. We chuckled at our shared experiences.

Amazon changed something about its system that made it awful to use. It wouldn’t accept the industry-standard format of a book cover any of the seven times I submitted it. Neither Jack nor I could use the covers our separate graphic designers gave us. We each got creative about getting our covers approved by using nontraditional methods.

I took the image I paid my graphic designer to produce and put it through Amazon’s cover creation system.

At nearly midnight going into day two of launch week.

A whole day of launch effort lost, but I had already cautioned launch team when to use their best effort, which thankfully, wasn’t on day one. Day one was to be very quiet, but it didn’t stop my frustration with my graphic designer for not providing a usable cover for paid professional services.

Tears, frustration, and a few cuss words slipped out in those moments.

There were so many mistakes made I can’t count them all.

I should have registered through BookBubearlier, but I didn’t have the time to figure out how to use it. If someone has or can make a tutorial on how to use BookBub, this is a marketable product.

My book was going to launch in May before my girls were out of school, but it was the first week of June and my family needed me back. The girls needed Mommy. My husband needed his wife.

The free days were scheduled and book sales were going well, but I could no longer schedule the count down-promotion so I changed the price manually. Purchasers couldn’t see the sale price, just the purchase price, which isn’t a big deal, but no one knows they are receiving a discount. And, everyone loves a sale.

I used numerous websites to purchase ads that ran during launch week. Additionally, I used Amazon’s new beta ad selection. It’s Amazon, after all, and if Amazon wants a new product to be a success I believed these ads would receive an extra boost. I trusted my gut and went for it.

A lot of people are asking what effect the Medium pub, Publishous had on book sales.

No question. My efforts helping writers become a success on Medium through Publishous paid themselves forward. Publishous has nearly 16,000 followers and that list is hungry for these answers.

Those writers are the reason I wrote the book. The book answers the questions I answer every day. They are hungry for this knowledge and they are still showing up with their support.

The results: a best selling book for nearly three solid weeks.

Today it is still trending just under a best seller. There are other plans for the book. Everyone loves a good come back story, so be on the lookout because this book has much more to offer.

If you are interested in Making Money on Medium: Build Your Audience and Grow Your Income with Medium.com get your copy today.

If you find its contents helpful please leave an honest, hopefully, positive Amazon review.

Source: Medium.com

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