How to Create a Million-Copy Bestseller (When Published By Amazon)

At a recent writers conference, an agent-editor-author panel offered rare discussion and insight about an Amazon Publishing success story

The San Francisco Writers Conference—now in its sixteenth year—is one of the more popular writers conferences in the country. Co-founded by literary agents Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, some say it originated the concept of conference “speed dating” with agents. This year, the event moved to a new and larger venue under the direction of agent Laurie McLean and, as usual, drew publishing professionals and writers from across the country. (Disclosure: Jane attended as one of the keynote speakers.)

In three days of programming, we found of particular interest a panel titled “How to Create a Million-Copy Bestseller,” which featured women’s fiction author Kerry Lonsdale; her agent, Gordon Warnock; and her Amazon Publishing editor, Danielle Marshall, editorial director of the Lake Union imprint. The session title is not a sensational overstatement or tongue in cheek; each of the participants discussed how Lonsdale’s debut novel, Everything We Keep, was able to become the Most Sold book on Amazon Charts and a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

First, for those not aware: Amazon Publishing is the traditional publishing arm of Amazon; it consists of more than a dozen imprints and publishes over 1,000 titles per year. It operates just as any other traditional publisher, with some important caveats:

• As might be expected, Amazon Publishing titles see limited brick-and-mortar distribution, since most bookstores refuse to carry Amazon work. That makes publishing a New York Times bestseller a difficult or impossible feat and may be partly why Amazon launched its own bestseller list, Amazon Charts.
• Amazon Charts tracks sales of all book formats sold via Amazon and is split into Most Sold and Most Read. Both categories include books accessed via digital subscription (Kindle Unlimited) and digital audio (Audible), as well as the Amazon First Reads program, which makes ebooks available for free prior to release to Prime members. Thus, Amazon Charts is likely to include half a dozen or more Amazon Publishing titles at any point in time.

As of today, Everything We Keep has sold more than a million copies and has been translated into about two dozen languages. (Lonsdale has continued writing and publishing in that series and also writes standalone books, all domestic drama/family suspense.) Some of the key highlights of the panel:

• Editor Danielle Marshall said Amazon takes a variety of approaches to get a reader to try a new author—including making the ebook available for free to a Prime customer or making a discount offer to a customer. She admitted that she couldn’t say much about specific marketing tactics, as Amazon keeps such methodology confidential. But Everything We Keep was in the Amazon First Reads program, and Marshall said that propelled some sales. After that, Amazon kept surfacing the book “to millions of readers” to break Lonsdale out as an author. However, Marshall was quick to add that once a book is out in the market, “Readers decide if your book is a hit. They absolutely decide.”
• Lonsdale’s agent, Gordon Warnock, said that “Ebook pricing is a big battle agents have with publishers.” He believes publishers are behind the times in wanting to price an ebook at $12.99—and that even $9.99 is too much. He said he’s had to fight tooth and nail for even $5.99 or $7.99 to make an author easier to get into people’s hands. He said, “[Amazon’s] Lake Union has had a much more progressive viewpoint, and the goal of a debut is to get the book into new hands.” Marshall said she’d much rather sell hundreds of thousands of a cheaper ebook than a few thousand of a $12 book, especially when trying to establish a new author. Once the author is established, then the pricing can go higher. Lonsdale said, “In the beginning you want to sell your book for 99 cents. Every book, you have more and more readers. Don’t get hung up on being worried that something is being sold for less than $10.”
• For her part, Lonsdale actively markets via Facebook and email newsletter. She runs a secret Facebook group for her top readers and actively recruits new members about twice a year through her email newsletter. Those readers are her superfans and the people who help build buzz for the book prior to release. As far as how she spread the word for her first book prior to having superfans, Lonsdale said she drew from her writing community—primarily other authors: the people who knew about her journey and were committed to supporting her. Marshall advised, as far as author marketing, “Do what you are good at and what you enjoy doing.” Whatever those activities are, she says, they should not take time away from your writing, your family, or whatever else is important to you.
• As far as needing an author brand, Marshall thinks it’s helpful, but not 100 percent necessary. “The words can stand on their own, the brand can just be a book. Not every author is a speaker or social media star. It works in either respect.” However, Marshall strongly advised authors to carefully cultivate their Amazon author profile. She said all titles shown on the profile page should reflect the author’s current branding and readership, and that authors should remove titles on that page that don’t fit the readership they’re attempting to attract.

Bottom line: If we had to summarize the key message from this panel, it would be: low pricing and promotional offers are a debut novelist’s best friend. But even low pricing won’t turn a so-so novel into a bestseller. At some point, the readers themselves have to evangelize and spread the word for the book if it is to continue selling; visibility alone (whether through Amazon or elsewhere) isn’t enough. Lonsdale has been open about her path to success and how many rejections it took to gain an acceptance, and in a separate interview she’s said she used the teachings in Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maass and Wired for Story by Lisa Cron to pick apart and then polish her novel before Amazon picked it up.