Some time ago, in a web forum far, far away, I was introduced to a nifty Amazon hack. When new titles are released, there is usually a pre-release period. During this time, orders can be placed with Amazon, they order the pre-orders from the publisher in one go, and your goodies are dispatched on day of release (or sometimes sooner).
In addition, each item on Amazon has a sales rank. That is, the position in the sales charts. This is worked out for overall sales (like, #34,012 in all books) and in categories (#430 in Apple Macintosh books, for instance) where listed. As with many things on the Internets, these figures are exploitable. Here’s how…
Pre-sales count towards the sales rank. I know this because the sales rank for The Alternative Kitchen Garden: an A to Z, Emma’s latest opus, are bouncing all over the place, and fleetingly reached as high as #9,700 or so – which is pretty good considering it’s not even out yet.
Now, books have far more visibility when they’re in the charts. Many people troll through the book charts for inspiration when buying books, and having a listing there gets more primetime sales.
So, on the grounds that pre-ordering a book increases the sales rank, this increases the visibility. And as the book isn’t out yet, canceling before the order is processed/fulfilled won’t cost you any money. It makes the item rise higher in the charts, and those buyers who aren’t aware of the book will be made aware of it when they browse the charts. Items ordered and then cancelled a few days before release won’t incur any charges, and still count as sales.
By my calculations, to get listed in the top 100 gardening books on Amazon, there needs to be a sales rank in the #8,000 block – and the lower the sales rank number, the higher the position in the charts, and the higher the sales.
Here’s where you come in: I’d love it if you could pre-order the book. If you want to cancel before it’s processed/despatched, then that’s totally fine – if you want to keep it and go through with the order, we’ll sort you out with a limited edition personalized book plate for your troubles – just let us know when you get the book and see you right.
This, in turn, will make us Oprah-rich in a years time and you’ll all be invited to a party on our new yacht. Or something.
Guerilla marketing 101. And so it begins.
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