Interview with Aggie Villanueva, author of "Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers"

With the exception of five days, Aggie Villanueva’s new book Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers hit immediate Kindle bestseller in three categories, and held steady in 1-3 categories for over 13 weeks. I'm delighted to have Aggie as a guest on the blog today to share tips from her book about how to make YOUR book an Amazon Best Seller!

What was your inspiration/motivation behind this book? 

I’m so glad to be back visiting here again, Dallas. I always enjoy it so much.

When I tell people about my book, Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers: But That’s Not All They Do, I often get two responses, which are what prompted me to write the book to begin with. Some shrug, “So what? Categories are like Tags. Everywhere I place my book requires choosing categories. They are basically just another search engine assistant.” Categories are nothing like search engine tags. 

The second response I often get is from authors with a bit more experience selling books at Amazon, who know a book is tallied for category bestseller by outselling others within the same category. Unfortunately some have been taught that a smart strategy for ranking in this top-100 bestseller list is to pick the smallest category you can find, even if it’s not absolutely relevant to your book’s topic. 

Yes, I’ve heard of those kinds of classes about getting a quick best seller by just choosing the smallest category possible. Could you explain what is wrong with this teaching? 

These authors may have been taught (in a nutshell): “Close is good enough. Bestseller status at all costs.” This is very short-sighted, because category bestsellers are not the be-all and end-all purpose of categories, and worse, these actions can doom your Amazon book sales permanently. 

How can choosing the wrong category doom book sales? 

When we understand the true function of Amazon’s categories it’s a whole new world. My book delves further into this fascinating system, but right now we’ll suffice with the end result: It’s a world where Amazon becomes your personal book publicist. And it all starts with choosing the RIGHT category, not the smallest. 

Gaining a bestseller is wonderful, it truly is, but that is only part of what Amazon can do for you, and specifically it’s only part of the purpose of categories. Amazon uses categories as the pool from which to draw almost every promotion throughout their site and beyond (pushes such as direct emailings). This publicity is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Categories are your first step in taking advantage of Amazon’s targeted system. Tight targeting of your categories is the goal. Never choose a category based on lack of competition. If your book is not in the most targeted category, Amazon cannot successfully sell the book for you. 

So, what happens if you choose the not-so-right category?

Though you may get category bestseller status for a while, your sales may stop there. Try to sucker your audience and you may pay with poor sales and losing out on all of Amazon’s free publicity. For example, let’s say you placed your humorous novel in the category “Comic books” because there are only 91 other books to compete with. Humorous novel, graphic novel, comic book – close enough, right? You have already doomed your book’s success on several levels. 

In just one of the many possible scenarios, imagine you are a young graphic novel lover who receives email updates about his favorite categories, and Amazon’s algorithms have deduced “Comic books” is one of them. Your humorous novel is prominently featured in his email, an email that is supposed to inform him of the newest comic book bestsellers. When he clicks on yours he will be angry that you wasted his time, and his money if he purchased it with one click without checking it out. You may become a blacklisted author. 

Don’t scoff. Though this is a worst case scenario, it is not an exaggeration. E-device-savvy-readers are so demanding of and involved with their online world that, without a second lost, he may leave a scathing review on your sales page, talk about you in the discussion boards, report you to Amazon, and blacklist you in ways and places you and I have never heard of. The damage may even be irreparable. 

But let’s not forget that those readers who would have loved your humorous novel will never see it because you listed it in the wrong category. You will not be featured in email promotions to those looking for precisely your subject; and you will not be eligible for any other top-100 lists such as Top Rated. These are all Amazon promotions meant to sell your books, and they do their jobs well. So, the goal is NOT just to be included in a category bestseller list at all costs. Bestsellers come from sales. And your tightly targeted categories catapult your book into a publicity campaign like you’ve never dreamed of, courtesy (and cost) of Amazon.com.  

What is your biggest tip for authors who want to become Amazon best-sellers? 

Use Amazon.com heavily to promote your book, but approach it with integrity. Let’s not make the same mistakes as in the example above, making illegitimate use of the amazing mega-publicity engine that is Amazon.com. There is a lot of controversy still raging about Amazon’s deletion of thousands of reviews. I think it might be a combination of understandable over-reaction on Amazon’s part and our ignorance of their rules (knowledge of these rules is covered in the book). But it is mostly we authors who are honest and work with integrity who suffer because of those who illegitimately used the system. For more great tips and info about my reader exclusive companion site see my bio below. The knowledge contained there amounts to several more books and includes advice from some of the best book marketing experts in the field. And I add to it continually. 

What is your biggest advice for young people reaching for their dreams? 

My favorite advice is various versions of the same saying I was taught as a child. “Always shoot for everything the universe offers. If you don’t quite make it you will still have reached the stars.” 

Thank you so much for being a guest on the blog today, Aggie! I have learned a lot from your insightful answers!

Aggie has generously offered to give an ebook copy of Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers to one lucky blog reader! To enter for your chance to win, all you need to do is write a comment below!

BIO: Below are a few sentences from reviews, and a link back to the book’s reader-exclusive companion site. Aggie Villanueva’s full bio and anything else can be found there. It’s a fountain of learning, contests and appearance from experts for her readers, but there are also many pages of public information. 

Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers Book Companion Site 

Purchase Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers: But That’s Not All They Do

“…Aggie Villanueva’s how-to changes your perspective of Amazon from that of an online book store to that of an author publicity machine.” -Vikram Narayan, CEO of BookBuzzr.com 

 “…I also already had a basic understanding about Amazon categories - but Villanueva has obviously been combing through Amazons methods and policies -- analyzing everything in critical detail, and what she has discovered is significant and important.” -Ken Korczak, Reviewer. Read full review at Amazon