Book Proms: why you can’t be a “best-seller” without a number
So yeah, i’m quiet lately, and expecting to release my next book in fall of 2018, but I feel the need to blog about book proms, and so you get this. Saying you are a best-seller is useless unless you add a quantitative number and location to your best-selling book.
What do I mean by book proms? I mean popularity contests, not based on sales rankings from retailers that actually produce the book. These contests have nothing to do with actual book sales by retailer. The contests are usually taken from a small pool of participants and often award likes or sales from genre. On facebook, polls are opened.
What do virtual book proms do for a book? I don’t know, really. Do you see more success if you change your profile picture to a golden seal of book prom? I have no clue. What I do know is that author events and takeovers online have seen a decline in participation. Could needless contests be why? Is it worth it for bloggers to hold book proms? Are we so over-saturated with polls and proms that we’re sick of scrolling?
Book fair book prom
Real life events can also resemble prom. At some book events, sales from a book are reported to find the bestseller in each genre. Book prom.
I was at a book fair that did this. The book that won in my genre did not have legible text on the book jacket (though it could have been a really awesome book in all fairness!). The organizers told us that if our buyers reported the sale and we won, that we would now be a best-selling author! I was taken aback. Book proms are like cheating. You’re taking a small amount of sales from a small pool of books, and all of a sudden you’re a best-seller just like that, 5 books later?
When I see that a book is a best-seller, I don’t even blink anymore. The word best-seller means nothing, unless it says #1 and lists a retailer, I’m not interested, and I’m sure it’s confusing readers as much as it’s confusing me.
The only right you have to being a best-seller, is if the retail producer or seller of your book can validate it, and don’t bother stating anything unless your a top 10 because you look a little desperate.
Top 500 best-selling author on amazon
In another instance, I ran across an author turned publisher (I have read something represented by her publishing company that was poorly edited and constructed.) who was proclaimed best-selling, and looking at her ranking, the highest she got on amazon was #465. While that is impressive, I think we can all agree that it’s best stated if you can say top 10. Top 500 best-seller on amazon is great for you, but is it suitable for your bio? No, that’s why most people just say “best-seller” and completely leave out the rank. That sounds great for my troll bio. Again, I think top 500 is great, however, do people read 500 books a year? Probably not, so they are reading the 499 that rank above yours. Ouch, truth, ouch.
I don’t think book proms should grant you any titles such “best seller”. “Most popular” would be acceptable. better yet, just crown the book prom king or queen. If I had more time, perhaps I would organize an awesome book prom for you.
Gee, what won’t you bitch about, Romarin?
I do approve of contests that list the organization or giver as part of their award. “Buzzy’s Book Blog genre winner 2017” is ay okay.
If you don’t have a place and number before your best-selling title, then sit down, you don’t even go here. You need to cut it out, guys.
