Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites – Success Guide for Authors & Publishers (WriteZero)

This is part of the WriteZero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

This Top 10 List covers the best book promotion sites for promoting Thriller Books

The Top 10 – Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites

BookBub
1. The largest and most effective book promotion site for Thriller Novels
  1. You want to get the Featured Deal package which is what works very well
  2. Bookbub has 10 to 15 million total readers, with 2 to 4 million readers for the various Thriller Categories
  3. Has dedicated lists for Thriller Categories
2. Strong in all Thriller Categories
3. Accepts only 10% to 20% of submissions
  1. A book must have good reviews, a professionally designed book cover, and must be well edited
Books Butterfly
1. The 2nd largest book promotion site for Thriller Books
  1. Books Butterfly has 4 million readers, with over one million readers for Thrillers
2. Strong in many Thriller categories
  1. Very Strong: Suspense Thriller, Crime Thriller, Historical Thriller, Spy Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Survival Thriller
  2. Strong: Legal Thriller, Supernatural Thriller, Assassination Thriller, Prepper Thriller, Horror Thriller, Terrorism Thriller, most other Thriller categories
  3. Decently Strong: Technothriller, Christian Thriller, Medical Thriller
  4. Weak: Climate Thriller, Gay & Lesbian Thriller
3. Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our Sister Company which has successful run $1.9 million of book promotion packages
eReader News Today
1. Very large book promotion site which has been helping authors since 2010
2. Very Strong for Most Thriller Categories
3. Very reasonably priced
Robin Reads
1. A very good new site, which is growing very fast and delivers good results
2. Strong in most Thriller Categories
3. Accepts only 10% of books submitted
4. Usually has 2 weeks or longer waiting times
Free Booksy & Bargain Booksy
1. Free Booksy promotes free books and is a Top 5 book promotion site to promote free thriller novels
2. Bargain Booksy promotes discounted ebooks ($0.99 to $4.99) and is a Top 10 book promotion site to promote discounted thriller novels
3. They are sister sites and have been around since 2012
4. They have over half a million readers
Book Sends
1. A large and trusted book promotion site helping authors since 2012
2. Founded and Run by an author
3. Strong in most Thriller categories
4. Works well for most books
5. Has some specific requirements. For example: You must have a professionally designed book cover
Fussy Librarian
1. A good book promotion site that has very good category organization and is very reasonably priced
2. Decent for some Thriller categories
3. This is a very good choice as prices are low and you can easily check if it works for your Thriller book or not
To Be Finalized
1. We are evaluating additional Thriller book promotion sites and will be updating spots #8 to #10 in the near future
To Be Finalized
To Be Finalized

These Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites are all effective, trusted, and have been helping authors for 5 to 10 years. We recommend all of them strongly

Please Note: For any given author, most of these sites will work and a few will not work. That is the nature of book promotion and marketing. Some sets of readers work for your Thriller novel and some don’t

Honorable Mentions – Thriller Book Promotion Sites that just missed the Top 10

FKBT – Free Kindle Books & Tips
Kindle Nation Daily
1. The first Kindle Book Promotion Site
2. Helping authors since 2009
3. Has worked with over 10,000 authors
4. Please note that they have a higher quality bar. If your book is not professionally edited and does not have a professional book cover it will not do well here
Book Gorilla
1. Sister Site to Kindle Nation Daily
2. This has more of a 1 Book per Category per Day type of format
OHFB – One Hundred Free Books
Genre Pulse
1. A good book promotion site that focuses on both Email Lists and Android Apps
2. It has a different readership than most other book promotion sites (very few book promotion sites have Android Apps) and is a good choice
3. Prices are pretty low so you can test it easily

These are all good sites. Again, your book will work with some of them and will not work with some of them. That’s how book promotion usually works. Your aim should be to find 5 to 10 good thriller book promotion sites which work well for your books

Detailed Insights on the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites

To Be Updated

We will, later on, add detailed insights for the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites

Increasing Your Chances of Getting Accepted for a Thriller Book Promotion with the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites

The main 7 factors book promotion sites look at, when deciding whether or not to accept a book from an author, are

Reviews and Review Rating
1. Good Reviews are the biggest factor
  1. If readers are saying the book is good and worth reading, it usually is
  2. It also helps that readers trust other readers more than anyone else
  3. The better the reviews a book has, the more it usually sells
  4. Most Thriller Book Promotion Sites will not take a book without reviews, unless the writing and book cover are exceptional
  5. Even when they take a book without reviews, the author should be prepared for the possibility of lower sales as reviews are a critical part of selling a book
2. Review Rating is also a critical factor
  1. A review rating above 4 stars really helps
  2. A review rating below 4 stars can really hurt sales
  3. Most Thriller Book Promotion Sites will not take a book with a review rating under 4 stars
Quality of the Book Cover
1. If you read through the requirement pages of the book promotion sites, nearly all of them list – Must have a professionally designed book cover
2. That is for a very good reason
3. Books with professionally designed book covers sell
4. Books with self made covers and $5 covers do not sell
5. People judge your book by its cover
  1. If you spent 2 weekends hastily putting together a book, then by all means make a quick book cover in Photoshop
  2. However, if you’ve spent a lot of time and effort and written a good book, it is critical to REFLECT THAT by putting love into selecting a very good professional book cover designer and creating a very strong book cover
Quality of the Writing
1. This works in two ways
  1. Firstly, if your writing is exceptionally strong, most of the top thriller book promotion sites will accept your book
    1. They might even waive requirements such as reviews
  2. Secondly, if your writing is weak or careless, none of the top thriller book promotion sites will accept your book
    1. Regardless of reviews and other factors
  3. You must make sure your writing is as good as possible
    1. Improving your writing also increases the number of good reviews you will get
    2. That is the biggest factor that leads to long term sales
Quality of Editing and Proof Reading
1. Your book absolutely must be professionally edited
  1. Professionally Edited means edited by an experienced professional book editor who has 10+ years of experience in your book’s genres (Thriller)
  2. It is very easy to tell when a good editor has worked on a book
  3. It makes the book much better
2. Your book must be professionally proof read
  1. Professionally proof read means proof read by a professional proof reader and not by you or by a piece of software like Spell Check
  2. If your book has any mistakes on the first page (you would not believe how often that happens), it will get rejected by all the top Thriller Book Promotion Sites
  3. Ideally, you want to have ZERO errors in the first chapter and less than 20 errors in the entire book
    1. If that is not possible, at least keep errors to less than 2 per chapter
Is the book a good fit for the promotion site’s readers?
1. This depends on each individual Thriller book promotion site
2. Each site has their experience of what books do well and what books don’t do well
3. There is not much you can do here except make sure your book is submitted to the right category
  1. Please Note: Most of the book promotion sites have multiple people, and there are sometimes different people approving books in different categories
    1. If you submit for the wrong book category they won’t be able to figure out that you submitted for the wrong book category and will just reject your book
    2. It is up to you to submit it for the right book category and make sure the book categories at Amazon match your book’s actual book categories
Is the book in the right category and sub categories?
1. This is absolutely crucial
2. You think – it’s just a small mistake and what does it matter if my Thriller book is listed in Men’s Health and Knitting in the Kindle Store
3. The Book Promotion Site knows – readers will look at that and think
  1. This Author can’t even be bothered to put the book in the right categories
  2. Perhaps this lack of care is also present in the story of the book, in the writing, in the editing, and in the proof reading
  3. Should I spend my hard earned money on this book?
  4. Should I spend my precious, irreplaceable time reading this book, taking the risk that the author doesn’t care about the quality of the book?
Is the book good value for money?
1. The reader must feel – I got good value for my money
2. Not according to YOUR criteria of value for money
3. According to the readers’ criteria for value for money
4. Generally speaking, most book promotion sites will work only with authors who are offering a compelling value proposition to the reader

A few additional factors book promotion sites look at are

Is the author an award winning author?
1. Only BIG Awards count
2. A BIG Award is an almost automatic approval
Is the author a bestselling author?
1. Only New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists count
2. Being a bestseller on one of these lists makes an approval quite likely
Is the cover exceptional?
1. The Book Cover is so important that a really beautiful cover will almost get you instant acceptance
  1. Really Beautiful according to people who have been designing book covers that sell for 10+ years
  2. Really Beautiful according to people who have been promoting books for 5 to 10 years
  3. Not according to you
    1. Every author thinks their cover is really beautiful
    2. Therein lies the rub
Is the writing exceptional?
1. If the writing is very, very good, most of the top thriller book promotion sites will take your book
2. Please Note: If your writing is exceptional you are doing yourself a major disservice by ignoring the other aspects
Are the reviews very strong or are there are a ton of reviews?
1. Very strong reviews will greatly increase your chances of getting accepted
2. You also have a very good chance of getting accepted if you have a lot of reviews
  1. For some thriller book promotion sites over 20 reviews means almost guaranteed acceptance if there are no red flags
  2. For other thriller book promotion sites over 50 reviews means a very high acceptance chance
Is the book page and author profile and book description written properly and without mistakes
1. It’s a big red flag if a book looks good and then the book description has mistakes and there is no author profile
2. Why? Because readers are going to make a decision based on what is on the book page
3. You have to make sure the book description and author profile are well written out, and have no mistakes
Number of errors in the first chapter of the book
1. Errors in the first paragraph (yes, it happens) – automatic rejection at most of the top thriller book promotion sites
2. Errors in the first page (this is surprisingly frequent) – automatic rejection
3. Errors in the first chapter – considered a red flag, though book might still get approved if the number of errors is just 2 or 3
Does the author cut corners?
1. This is a bit hard to explain
2. If a thriller book promotion site sees a consistent pattern
  1. The Book Cover is good but not great
  2. The Book Title is nice but not very good
  3. The Book Description is rushed
  4. The Author profile is not properly done
  5. The editing is good but not great
  6. That book will not be accepted
3. Why?
  1. Because it will usually mean the author also cut corners when writing the book
  2. Because it will usually mean the author did not rewrite the book to improve the reading pleasure and the flow of the story

Please do note that these acceptance criteria are EXACTLY what lead to good book sales

The Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites are filtering for Exactly the type of qualities that lead to a book selling well

The more of these improvements you make, the more your book will sell. It’s not just going to help you get accepted into the top book promotion sites, it will also help you to sell more books even after the book promotion has ended

Thriller Book Promotion Sites – Biggest Mistakes to Avoid

Please avoid as many of these mistakes as possible

Picking the Wrong Market Mistakes
1. Not doing Market Research
  1. If you’re going to sell a product (your book) in a market (the Publishing and Books marketplace), then you need to do a lot of market research
  2. If you do your due diligence then you can find The Right Market
  3. If you don’t do proper market research, then you are basically throwing a dart with a blindfold on
    1. Except that dart is 3 to 6 years of your life
2. Writing for a Market that does not Exist
  1. By far the biggest reason authors fail to sell their books is that they write a book for a market that does not exist
  2. Before you start writing your book, please check and make sure there is An Actual Market for your book
3. Writing the Wrong Product for the Right Market
  1. Let’s say you do all the hard work required and find A Great Market
  2. Now, you have to capitalize on this great opportunity by creating The Right Product for this Great Market
  3. You must make 100% sure that you are writing what the readers in this Great Market are buying and will buy
Biggest Financial Mistakes to Avoid
1. Putting your Entire Marketing Budget into your First Book
  1. Your first book is not going to be your best
    1. In fact, it is probably going to be one of your lesser works
  2. At the beginning, you will know next to nothing about book marketing and promotion
  3. Spending your entire marketing budget on your first book is a bad idea
2. Spending your Entire Marketing Budget at the very start
  1. At the start of your career as an author, you tend to be optimistic and hopeful
  2. It seems like all you have to do is market your book a lot and you will succeed
  3. In reality, the worst time to spend your marketing budget is at the start
    1. When you know nothing
    2. When you have just taken your first steps as an Author
    3. When your writing and your books are still taking proper form
3. Not Measuring which Marketing and Promotion Methods Work for Your Book
  1. For any given author, even from among the best and proven marketing methods, roughly half will work and the other half will not work
  2. The focus in the beginning should be to find out what works for you and what doesn’t
  3. To do this you must use a small part of your marketing budget (no more than 20%) and test what works and what doesn’t work for your book
    1. A nice bonus is if that nothing works, then you know you have to go back to the drawing board and improve your book
    2. You still have 80% of your marketing budget left
Being Impatient Mistakes
1. Promoting a Book that is Not Ready
  1. This is a very common mistake because most people equate
    1. Anyone can Publish a Book
    2. WITH
    3. Anyone can Sell a Book
  2. Marketing & Selling Books is still very hard
  3. The most important thing is that you have to have a POLISHED PRODUCT that is SELLABLE
2. Thinking Your First Book is Perfect
  1. When we are starting off, we have this Beginner’s Blindness where we think the first product we make is perfect
    1. It happens to all creators – musicians, artists, authors, programmers, sculptors
    2. They all think their first sculpture/painting/song/book is a masterpiece
    3. That the world has been waiting for a glimpse
    4. It is only with experience that we realize our first work is NEVER a masterpiece
3. Thinking Publishing Books & Selling Books is Easy
  1. As lots of people make money from authors creating and publishing books
  2. As the book stores benefit from millions of authors sending them traffic
  3. Everyone’s economic interests are aligned with making authors believe
    1. It’s all easy
    2. Write and they will buy
    3. It’s easy to succeed as an author
  4. In reality, it’s just as tough as any other line of work
  5. Perhaps tougher because there are so many people jumping in thinking it’s easy to make money from books
Biggest Book Genre Related Mistakes
1. Not knowing what Genres your book is in
  1. You, as the author, must be 100% sure what Book Genres and Sub Genres your book is in
  2. If you do things right, and do market research BEFORE you start writing your book
    1. Then you have written The Right Book for The Right Market
    2. Then you know PRECISELY which book genres and sub genres your book fits into
  3. If you didn’t do things perfectly, and just wrote a book without thinking about WHO you are writing it for and WHO WILL BUY YOUR BOOK
    1. Then you start doing market research after writing the book and hope you got lucky
    2. Make sure you find out exactly what genres your book fits into
2. Getting the Book Genres wrong on the Book Page
  1. It’s not enough to know who the book is written for
  2. You have to classify and categorize the book correctly
  3. The book categories you choose in the book stores must match EXACTLY who the book is written for
  4. The book page must clearly state what the book categories are
3. Promoting the Book as the Wrong Book Genre
  1. When you get down to book marketing and promotion
  2. Whether you are using Thriller Book Promotion Sites or Facebook Ads or some other marketing channel
  3. You must promote them as the Right Book Sub Genres
    1. For Facebook Ads – Put Thriller in the Ad, target people who read thriller books
    2. For the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites – make sure they are going out to the Thriller list
      1. Make sure the right thriller genres and sub genres are listed
Quality Related Mistakes
1. Not getting a professional book cover designer
  1. You must get the best professional book cover designer you can afford
  2. No other option is acceptable
2. Not getting a professional editor
  1. For your book to be a polished product worth buying, it needs a professional book editor
3. Not getting a professional proof reader
  1. Again, you can’t sell a book which has not been professionally proof read by a professional proof reader
4. Messing up the Pricing of Your Book Pricing during your Marketing Push
Falling in Love with Your Book Mistakes
1. Thinking Your First Book is a Masterpiece
  1. It is not
  2. The less we argue about this the better
2. Falling in Love with your Book Cover
  1. Your Book Cover is the OUTER SHELL of your book
  2. It is the EXTERNAL PACKAGING
  3. While it is very important, it is not part of your book, and it is not part of you
  4. You should under no circumstances do any of the following
    1. Start thinking it is your Baby
    2. Fall in love with it
    3. Get attached to it
    4. Start thinking it is an integral part of your book
    5. Attach it to your sense of happiness and identity
  5. It is an OUTER COVERING
  6. If it is selling your book well – keep it
  7. It it is not selling your book well – get rid of it
3. Thinking your Book is Very Polished just because you wrote it
  1. It is human nature to think that we do everything much better than how good we actually do it
  2. The only authors who don’t think their book is one of the best books ever written, are the ones actually writing very good books
  3. Authors tend to love their book inversely proportional to the amount of effort they have put into it
    1. The author who has written a book in 3 weeks thinks Victor Hugo should be jealous
    2. The author who has written a book in 3 months thinks Dean Koontz should be jealous
    3. It is only the authors who have taken a proper 3 years to write a book that realize they have only scratched the surface of what makes a book great
      1. That they have only tapped into a fraction of their writing ability
  4. If you are falling prey to ‘I wrote it so it must be perfect’, please let go of that misconception
‘Lack of Respect for Readers’ Mistakes
1. Not caring about Readers’ Time
  1. Think back to when you had to wait in line for an extra 15 minutes
  2. Wasn’t it frustrating?
  3. Now imagine how a reader feels if after giving 2 hours of their precious reading time to your book, they find out that the book is in the wrong category or there are too many mistakes or you wrote a half baked story
    1. They are human, just like you
    2. They will feel just as frustrated as you would if someone wasted 2 hours of your life
  4. Please have respect for your readers’ time
2. Not caring about Readers’ Money
  1. It might be a small amount
  2. Just $0.99 or $2.99 or $4.99
  3. It is still someone’s hard earned money
3. Thinking readers are stupid and will fall for your tricks
  1. The less said the better
  2. Please try and follow the Golden Rule – do unto other as you would have done unto you
4. Thinking Readers should not enjoy books they read
Lack of Focus Mistakes
1. Trying to do EVERYTHING yourself
  1. Firstly, you can’t possible be an expert at everything. So it will create an imperfect Frankenstein of a book if you try to do the editing, proofreading, typesetting, book cover all yourself
  2. Secondly, it’s too much work
2. Trying to do too many things
  1. Please focus on doing one or two things very very well
  2. Firstly, finding The Right Market
  3. Secondly, writing a very high quality book which is a Good Fit for This Right Market
3. Not having one clear goal
  1. Your book promotion and marketing efforts must have One Main Goal
  2. Something that is Crystal Clear to you
  3. Something easy to understand and explain

We’ve covered nearly all the big mistakes that can prevent an Author from doing well. Please read the list carefully and avoid as many of them as you can

Thriller Book Promotion Sites – Improving the Results of Your Thriller Book Promotion with the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites

The 9 things that will most help improve the results of your Thriller Book Promotion are

Sell the Right Product
1. It must be The Right Product for The Right Market
2. The Right Market means a Thriller category or sub category that has high demand and low competition
  1. It must also be a market that actually exists – there must be authors already selling books in that category
3. The Right Product means the EXACT product that readers in that market are already buying
  1. Do not create a product that is not being bought in the market
4. Please remember – Product Market Fit (writing the right book for the right market) always trumps everything else
Sell to the Right Readers
1. Sell to readers who read Thriller Books in your Thriller Categories
Sell a High Quality Product
1. The difference between a well written book can be 3 to 4 times more sales
2. The difference between a self-edited and self-proof read book Versus a professionally edited and professionally proof read book can be 1 star reviews for the former and 5 star reviews for the latter
3. The difference between a professionally designed book cover and a home brewed book cover can be lots of readers clicking on the cover and visiting the book page for the former and people not even clicking on the book cover for the latter
  1. Readers who do not even visit your book page cannot possibly buy your book
  2. THAT is why a beautiful professionally designed cover is the single most important determinant of success (after choosing The Right Market)
Ask for Reviews
1. Reviews are even more important than sales
2. Your book (inside the book itself) should ask for reviews from the readers buying the book
3. Your book page and author website should also ask for reviews
Collect Reader Emails
1. People who buy your book – ask for reviews and ask for their email
2. People who buy your book and finish it – most definitely ask for reviews and ask for their email
3. People who visit your book page and don’t buy – even ask them for their email
Gather Lots of Data on What Works and What Doesn’t
1. The beginning part of your career is all about finding out what works and what doesn’t
2. Which Thriller book categories work for your book and which don’t?
3. Which marketing methods work for your book and which don’t?
4. Which of the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites work for your book and which don’t?
5. Which marketing methods lead to reviews and email signups and which don’t?
Market Carefully and Be Prepared for Things to Go Wrong
1. You should have a good plan
2. You should be prepared for emergencies and things going wrong
3. You should have mitigation strategies for everything that can go wrong
4. From our 12 years of experience in ebooks we can reassure you – there is always something that doesn’t go according to plan
5. There are so many moving parts, and the ebook stores are such unwieldy, messy creatures, you must be prepared
Make things as Clear to Readers as You Can
1. Don’t assume anything
2. Assume your reader does not know anything
  1. That if your book is a Thriller but the cover looks like a Romance cover, 50% of readers will just close the page
    1. Because they will
  2. That if you don’t make it clear that the book is discounted from $5 to $0.99, 99% of readers won’t realize it is discount
    1. Because they won’t
  3. That if you don’t specifically ask for reviews, readers won’t even realize that you would greatly appreciate a review
    1. Because most readers have no idea that a review helps the author
    2. There are readers who will love your book so much they will email you, and yet they will never write a review
      1. Until and unless you ask them
3. We are so involved in our product, we don’t realize that people outside of our bubble can not and will not read our minds
  1. You must make it clear to the reader how the reader can help you
  2. It’s perfectly OK to ask for help
  3. PROVIDED you are giving readers a very high quality, well written book
Learn as much about yourself and your book as you can
1. A good salesman must understand their product
2. A good salesman must understand the key benefits and key disadvantages of their product
3. A good salesman must understand their client’s needs and how the salesman’s product satisfies client needs
4. You are a salesman
5. We will repeat this because authors HATE having to sell. You are a Marketer and a Salesman now
  1. Whether you like it or not
  2. Your success will 100% depend on how well you embrace these new roles of being a Marketer and being a Salesman

Please do as many of these as you can

Perhaps the most important are picking The Right Market and writing The Right Book for This Right Market

Almost as important are – Becoming a Very Good Marketer and Becoming a Very Good Salesman

The Critical Importance of Picking the Right Thriller Genres & Sub Genres

Thriller Books are a very big category. At the same time, they are divided into a lot of sub categories and you have to make sure you know which Thriller sub category you are writing for, and that you make sure to readers what Thriller Sub Category (or Sub Categories) the book is in

Thriller Categories and Sub Categories include –

Suspense Thriller
Psychological Thriller
Crime Thriller
Conspiracy Thriller
Historical Thriller
Legal Thriller
Spy Thriller
Forensic Thriller
Serial Killer Thriller
Post Apocalyptic Thriller
Supernatural Thriller
Assassination Thriller
Political Thriller
Apocalyptic Thriller
1. As opposed to the previous category (Post Apocalyptic) which deals with an Earth after an Apocalypse, with Apocalyptic Thrillers we are in a world which is experiencing an Apocalypse, or is facing an impending Apocalypse, or is in the immediate aftermath of an Apocalypse
Dystopian Thriller
1. As opposed to Apocalyptic and Post Apocalyptic Thrillers, a Dystopian Thriller deals with a world that is stable. However, it is stable under a Dystopia (usually a Dystopian Government or a Dystopian Dictatorship)
Technothriller
Terrorism Thriller
Artificial Intelligence Thriller
Adventure Thriller
Military Thriller
Romantic Thriller
1. This usually falls under Romantic Suspense, a very well established and large Romance sub category
2. Romance themed books DO NOT do well with Thriller audiences
Prepper/Survivalist Thriller
Survival Thriller
1. As opposed to Prepper/Survivalist Thrillers, which focus on a Prepper/Survivalist family dealing with an Apocalyptic event, with Survival Thrillers the story is simply focused on the survival of an individual or a family, usually in the midst of an attack on them
  1. It will usually involve an individual or a family running away from a Serial Killer or a Mafia organization, a crazy EX, or another corrupt organization
  2. It can also involve a crisis like War or a Natural Disaster
Disaster Thriller
Medical Thriller
Religious Thriller
Christian Thriller
Heist Thriller
Kidnapping Thriller
Creature Thriller
Horror Thriller
Mystery Thriller
Space Thriller
Climate Thriller
1. A sub category of CliFi (Climate Fiction) this usually involves dangerous situations caused due to man made global warming, and escaping those
2. You definitely want to be careful what categories you put this into
Dramatic Thriller
Police Thriller
Noir Thriller

Thanks to Wikipedia for its discussion of Thriller Genres

That Wikipedia page is well worth reading for its nuanced and concise definition of the Thriller book category (such as the fact that Thriller must mix suspense/thrills with hope; such as the fact that a thriller must emphasize the danger the protagonist faces)

Please note that many of these categories as so large that becoming a Top 100 author in even one Thriller Category is more than enough to have a very good career as an author

You must make sure to stick to the actual Thriller Category or Sub Category your book is in. There is absolutely no need to try and ‘game the system’

There are three main reasons you should put your Book in ONLY the Thriller Sub Categories & Categories which your book ACTUALLY BELONGS TO

The BEST readers for your Thriller Book are the ones in its CORRECT Thriller Genres & Sub Genres
1. Those are the ones who will actually buy it
2. Those are the ones who will add good reviews
3. Those are the ones who will buy your other books
Every category is very unique in what it expects and in genre conventions. You must meet them
1. If you put it in the right category, everything is good
2. If you put it in the wrong category, readers are unlikely to buy the book as it is quite apparent your book is in the wrong category to most experienced readers
  1. Not only are you wasting your advertising money by promoting to the wrong readers
  2. Even if you somehow mistakenly get people in the wrong category to buy your book
    1. They might leave a negative review
    2. They will definitely not buy your other books
    3. They will definitely not leave a 4 star or 5 star review
Readers from one Thriller sub category will only rarely read books in a different Thriller sub category
1. In your mind you are thinking – A reader who likes Prepper/Survivalist Thrillers and a reader who likes Survival Thrillers (escaping someone trying to kill you) must also like End of the World Climate Thrillers
  1. All three types of Thrillers are about surviving. It’s a slam dunk – let me promote to all three sets of readers
  2. HOWEVER
    1. The Prepper Thriller reader doesn’t even believe in Climate Change
    2. The Survival Thriller reader (escaping someone trying to kill you) has ZERO desire to read about how bad Global Warming is and usually doesn’t want any part of a story about environment conscious heroic people saving the Earth from disaster
  3. It’s the same with the other Thriller categories
    1. People love to read a category for very specific reasons
    2. You are wasting their time and money by putting your book into the wrong Thriller Categories
      1. They are not going to be happy campers if they spent $3 and 2 hours of their time reading something that is NOT the type of book they love
    3. What is worse – you are wasting your own money
    4. What is perhaps worst of all – you are losing out on the Readers who will actually LOVE your book and become life long readers

Putting your book in the wrong Thriller categories (or even worse, in a non Thriller Category) is usually the #1 reason Authors miss out on succeeding with their books

Avoid this mistake and you are well on your way to taking a REAL SHOT at success

Thriller Book Promotion Sites Insights – Thriller is not the same as Mystery or Romance or Suspense or Adventure

There are certain Thriller Sub Categories which overlap other Categories i.e.

Romantic Thriller
1. Romantic Thriller novels are almost always better off in Romantic Suspense
2. Romantic Thriller novels are almost always more suited to Romance readers
3. Unless you have an exceptionally good reason, please don’t promote Romantic Thrillers to main stream Thriller readers
Mystery Thriller
1. Perhaps 1% out of books that are put as ‘This is both a Mystery and a Thriller
  1. Are actually both Mystery and Thriller
2. 49% of the time the book fits very neatly into one (and only one) out of Mystery or Thriller
3. 50% of the time, the author has made a mish mash of Mystery and Thriller conventions and the end result is a book that satisfies no one
4. If you are considering putting your book into both Mystery and Thriller, and calling it a Mystery Thriller
5. Please reconsider
  1. Perhaps even rewrite
Suspense Thriller
1. In this case, there can be quite a bit of overlap
2. Half the time a book classified as a Suspense Thriller is actually a Suspense Thriller
  1. Then it can be promoted to both Thriller and Suspense categories
3. The other half of the time the book is a Suspense novel and not appropriate for Thriller readers
Adventure Thriller
1. Adventure is almost always better suited to Adventure readers
2. Adventure Thrillers are almost always better suited to Thriller readers
3. Figure out whether the main focus of the book is
  1. ‘thrills, suspense, danger’ – in which case it’s an Adventure Thriller
  2. ‘adventure and action’ – in which case it’s an Adventure Novel

Romantic Thrillers and Mystery Thrillers are almost never right for Thriller audiences

Suspense Thrillers are right half the time

Adventure Thrillers may or may not be suited to Thriller audiences, depending on what the main thrust of the novel is

Please do keep in mind that these 5 categories (Thriller Vs Mystery Vs Suspense Vs Romance Vs Adventure) are VERY different categories and it is very rare for your book to be in 2 or 3 of them. It is usually best suited to ONE out of the 5

Becoming a Bestseller – Leveraging the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites to Become a Bestseller

There are three key points to keep in mind when aiming for Bestseller Status with a Thriller Novel

Thriller is a very big category and very competitive
1. Becoming a Bestseller in Thriller main categories is very difficult
2. If you are new to the category, or if it is your first Thriller Novel, it is almost impossible
Thriller has a lot of Sub Categories which are less competitive
1. In these categories you can definitely aim to Become a Bestseller
2. It still requires planning and a decently big marketing budget
Your Book should be READY for book promotion and marketing if you want to Become a Bestseller
1. That requires things such as reviews, a professionally designed book cover, professional editing

Next, let’s look at the three types of Bestseller Status you can aim for

Category Bestseller
1. This requires between 30 to 1,000 sales in a week
2. You must have your Thriller Categories & Sub Categories absolutely right
3. You must get as many of the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites as you can afford
  1. If you can get Bookbub, then Bookbub alone will take you to Category Bestseller
  2. If you can’t get Bookbub, then you need to get 2 or more out of – eReader News Today, Books Butterfly, Robin Reads
    1. AND ALSO a few out of the remaining Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites
4. As becoming Category Bestseller is not that difficult, you can attempt this even with your first book
5. However, please be sure that your book has reviews, is very well done, and is professionally edited and proof read
Amazon Top 100 Bestseller
1. This requires between 1,000 to 2,000 sales in a week
2. Again, your Thriller categories must be perfect
3. For this you need to get as many of the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites as possible
  1. One Safe combination is – Bookbub and at least 2 out of Books Butterfly, Robin Reads, and eReader News Today
  2. Another safe combination is – Bookbub and 1 out of Robin Reads, Books Butterfly, and eReader New Today, and as many of the remaining Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites as you can
4. You cannot go for this without Bookbub
New York Times Bestseller or USA Today Bestseller
1. This requires between 5,000 to 10,000 sales in a week
  1. At least 500 should be from outside Amazon and Amazon Kindle
2. This is almost impossible if it’s your first book, or if you don’t have a reader base
3. This requires a lot of work and planning
4. This also requires a very, very well done book, and lots of reviews
5. You need to have
  1. As many of the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites as possible
    1. Ideally All
  2. Facebook Ads
  3. Whatever marketing methods you can find which work for your book
6. Please scroll down to the section on ‘Becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author’ for one possible strategy

Becoming a Bestseller adds a lot of value to your Author Brand. It’s very important to be patient and go for Bestseller Status when you are actually ready. The biggest two components are

Having a book that is Good Enough to Become a Bestseller
Having enough experience of the market
1. Especially important is to know what marketing channels work for your book and what don’t

Let’s take a more in-depth look at each type of Bestseller Status you can go for

Becoming a Category Bestseller

The most important thing, by far, is to pick the right Thriller Categories & Sub Categories to put your book in. By choosing smartly, you can ensure you become a Thriller Category Bestseller in a quite straightforward manner

You want a combination of

3 Large Thriller Categories
1. Categories such as Suspense Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Historical Thriller
2. Please make sure to only pick Thriller Categories that match your Book’s actual categories
4 Medium Sized Categories
1. Categories such as Heist Thriller, Medical Thriller, Military Thriller, Domestic Thriller, International Thriller
2. Again, please pick only Thriller Categories that match your book exactly
3 Small Sized Categories
1. There are a lot of Sub Categories and Sub Sub Categories
2. Pick 3 Sub Sub Categories that match your book very well
3. Make sure they are SMALL categories and easy to rank in
The purpose of the Big Categories is
1. When you start promoting your book and it starts getting sales, it starts showing up in the lower ranks of the Top 100 Bestsellers list for these categories
2. As a lot of people check these lists for the Big Thriller categories, you will attract a good number of readers and get more sales
The purpose of the small categories is
1. To quickly become a bestseller in these small categories
2. To hopefully hit #1 in one or more of these small categories and become a #1 Thriller Category bestseller in that category or sub category
3. To also get some sales from readers who find you on these lists
  1. While these get fewer readers than the big categories, being at a high spot in these smaller Thriller categories will still get you some reader traffic and a few sales

Number of Sales Required to Become a Category Bestseller

An approximate estimate of the number of sales required to become a Thriller Category Bestseller are

Large Thriller Category – 500 to 1,500 sales over a week
Large Thriller Sub Category or a Medium Sized Thriller Category – 250 to 750 sales over a week
Medium Thriller Sub Category or a Small Thriller Category – 100 to 300 sales over a week
Small Thriller Sub Category – 50 to 150 sales over a week
Very Small Thriller Sub Category – 10 to 40 sales over a week

These are approximations. To ensure you become a Thriller Category Bestseller, always aims to get comfortably more sales than we have specified here

Becoming an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller

To Become an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller you definitely need

Bookbub, which is the largest Thriller Book Promotion Site
2 or more of Books Butterfly, Robin Reads, and eReader News Today, which are the #2 to #4 Thriller Book Promotion Sites
Support via either Facebook Ads, or some of the other Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites

If you cannot get Bookbub, then you can’t really get to the Amazon Top 100 without spending crazy amounts of money on things such as Facebook Ads and we definitely don’t recommend that

Set up a structure that looks something like

Facebook Ads starting on Day 1 and running every day
Smaller Thriller Book Promotion Sites starting on Day 1 and running for at least the first 3 days
Books Butterfly (as it has week long promotions) starting on Day 3
A Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Site on Day 4
Bookbub on Day 5
1. Supplement this with one or both of Robin Reads and eReader News Today
1 or 2 more Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites on Day 6

This is one strategy (not the only strategy, just one of the best strategies). This should work for most Thriller authors

Please Note: It is critical to set up everything 2 or 3 months in advance. It is critical to only start the heavy hitters on Day 3 or 4 because if there is a pricing issue on Day 1 you will lose the entire promotion impact if you set all your heavy hitters on Day 1 (most sites do not allow for date changes). Start the Big Thriller Book Promotion Sites only on Day 3 or later

Becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author

This is the Big Kahuna

To become a New York Times Bestselling Author or a USA Today Bestselling Author means for the rest of your life as an Author you will instantly have the kind of recognition and respect that authors die for

You will have more sales, more success, and things will be easier. All things being equal, a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author will see DOUBLE the book sales for the same amount of marketing

HOWEVER, it is not easy. It’s very hard. You should only embark on this if you are ready

You need a very good book
1. If it has not been written and rewritten it is not ready
2. If it has not been rewritten for flow and storytelling impact it is not ready
You need a professionally edited and proof read book
1. Excellent Fit and Finish
2. Absolutely no big errors or typographical mistakes
You need Excellent Packaging
1. A professionally designed book cover
2. It must be Beautiful and Catch the Eye
3. It must COMPEL readers to purchase it
You need a good number of well written out reviews
You need a review rating over 4 stars out of 5 stars
You will need to get 5,000 to 10,000 sales within a one week period
1. That means you should have an idea of what marketing works for your book and what marketing doesn’t
2. You should be able to line up marketing that works for your book, all in a one week period
You need to get at least 500 sales from Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple iBooks, and paperback stores
1. This is another reason Bookbub is invaluable as it can sometimes generate that many sales by itself
2. This is another reason Books Butterfly is valuable, as it has over 100,000 email subscribers for Apple Books and over 20,000 for Barnes & Noble Nook
3. Please do not ignore these stores. Without these 500+ sales you cannot become a New York Times or USA Today Bestseller
You need a LOT of money
1. There will be some marketing channels such as Bookbub and Facebook Ads that will give you a good cost per sale
2. There will be other marketing channels such as eReader News Today, Robin Reads, Books Butterfly which will give you a decent cost per sale
  1. Please Note: For some authors, Facebook Ads will fall into this category
3. After that you will have to spend a lot of money to get the remaining sales required

It’s not an easy Endeavor

There are 5 things you can do to increase your chances

Promote a Box Set discounted to $0.99
1. A Box Set is a collection of 3 or more full length books
2. Box Sets at $0.99 sell 2 to 4 times more than standalone books at $0.99
3. Obviously, when you need 5,000 to 10,000 sales in a week, a Box Set is a priceless marketing technique
Go with $0.99
1. We’ve seen hardly any self published authors hit the Bestseller charts with a $4.99 or $2.99 ebook
2. You have to go with $0.99
Create a Multi Author Box Set
1. This greatly increases your marketing budget
2. One downside is that some book promotion sites won’t accept multi author box sets
  1. You will just have to find additional marketing venues
3. You can appeal to the reader bases of all of the authors
Create a world class cover
1. If you get a world class professional book cover designer
2. If you let him do his best work
3. You can get a huge edge if you get a world class cover for your book
Get very good, authentic reviews
1. No reviews just won’t work
2. Fake reviews won’t work either
3. While it is incredibly difficult, you have to make sure you have
  1. Good Reviews
  2. A decent number of Reviews
  3. 100% authentic reviews
  4. A review rating over 4 stars out of 5 stars

Perhaps the most critical aspect is that you have to get 5,000 to 10,000 sales within a tight one week period. You must structure EVERYTHING you do for marketing and promotion within that one week period

How to Increase the Number of Reviews you get after Promoting Your Thriller Book

Thriller is not only a very big book category with a lot of readers, it is also a book category where readers will give reviews quite frequently PROVIDED

Your book is well written
Your book is well polished
You’ve promoted and sold your book to The Right Readers

Firstly, let’s get two things out of the way, even though they are very painful

You need to sell a good number of books to get reviews
1. For a very well written book, you will get 5 to 15 reviews for every 1000 sales
2. For a well written book, you will get 1 to 3 reviews for every 1000 sales
3. If you are not getting a lot of sales, you are not going to get reviews
Your book needs to be very well written and very well polished to get reviews
1. You ever go out of your way to write a review for a movie that you thought was ‘Decent’
2. What about a restaurant?
3. What about a product you bought?
4. No body writes reviews for things they think are ‘barely good enough’ or ‘decentish’
5. To get reviews your book has to be GREAT

That brings us to the FIVE main things you need to do to increase the number of reviews you get

Sell a Lot of Books
1. If
  1. A very well written book gets only 5 to 15 reviews for every 1,000 books sold
  2. A well written book gets only 1 to 3 reviews for every 1,000 books sold
  3. A decent book gets 0 to 3 reviews for every 1,000 book sold
    1. And some of them negative
2. Then
  1. The best solution to get more reviews is to sell more books
  2. Of course, it also helps to keep improving the quality of your book
Ask for Reviews
1. Most readers are completely unaware that the author would love a review
2. Most readers will only write reviews for a book they think is ‘book of the year’ unless specifically asked for a review
3. If asked for a review, readers not only realize the Author values their review, they also lower the quality bar
  1. They will gladly leave a 4 or 5 star review for a good book
  2. When, under normal circumstances, they would only review an amazing book
Improve the Quality of Your Writing
1. How well your book is written
  1. Is something you control 100%
2. How well your book flows and how easy it is to read and enjoy
  1. Is something you control 100%
3. How much the reader enjoys your book
  1. Is something you control almost 100%
Promote and Market your Book to the EXACT Right Set of Readers
1. Promote and Market only to the Thriller Readers that exactly match your Thriller Book Categories & Sub Categories
2. The closer the fit between
  1. What Thriller categories your book is in
  2. What Thriller Categories those readers love
3. The higher the chance you get a review
4. The higher the chance you get a good review
Improve the Polish and Finish of the Book
1. Make sure it is a professionally edited book
2. Make sure it is proofread by a professional proof reader
3. Make sure the book flows well

The Biggest Mindset Shift is that getting reviews for your book is IDENTICAL to a product manufacturer getting reviews for their product

Have a Very High Quality Product
Sell a Lot of the Product
Ask for Reviews

That is why companies are constantly asking for Feedback and requesting you to Review their Products. Asking for Reviews Works!

Thriller Book Promotion Sites vs Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are very effective to promote Thriller Novels. As Facebook allows you to narrow down to very precise sets of people, you can target extremely specific sets of people

Facebook Ads are good for reaching a slow and steady stream of readers and generating a steady trickle of sales. As they are a competitive environment (with lots of advertisers targeting the same set of people), it is very difficult to create a huge flow of readers or a quick spike. However, Facebook Ads are second to none for creating a slow and steady flow of readers to your book page

Thriller Book Promotion Sites are good for creating spikes in sales. They, however, cannot create a steady flow of sales over a longer period of time (like a month) because even the largest Thriller book promotion sites have only 4 to 10 million readers (1 to 2 million monthly active readers). Facebook has 2 billion monthly active users

Given their strengths and weaknesses, it is best to combine Thriller Book Promotion Sites with Facebook Ads

First use Thriller Book Promotion Sites to create a spike in sales and increase your sales rank
Then use Facebook Ads to support this higher sales rank with steady sales
Keep adding on Thriller Book Promotion Sites to keep creating further spikes in sales
1. Please Note: Most of the Top 10 Thriller Book Promotion Sites will not let you promote more than once every 3 to 6 months
2. Therefore you can only use this strategy to a limited extent
Keep using Facebook Ads to support sales

They are a very powerful combination as they are very complementary book marketing channels. They can be used together. They should be used together

Thriller Book Promotion Sites vs Amazon Marketing Services Ads

Amazon Marketing Services is a tricky kettle of fish

The positives are

You can promote your book right on the book pages of popular books and popular authors
The most important criteria is to focus on popular authors whose books are very similar to your own
1. Getting your book ad on those book pages is the key to making Amazon Marketing Services Ads work
If you can figure out the system you can find some lucrative opportunities and make back significantly more than you spend
If you can get it to work it gives you another valuable marketing channel to use alongside the Top Thriller Book Promotion Sites and Facebook Ads

The negatives are

It is quite complicated. As it is a bidding system it fluctuates and changes quite often
1. At times it will seem like you need a PhD to make it work
2. At times it won’t work no matter what you do
Unlike Facebook Ads, Amazon Marketing Services Ads will only work well for 25% of Authors
1. Facebook Ads are definitely better than Amazon Marketing Services Ads
2. As each takes time to understand and master, it is better to first focus on Facebook Ads
3. Facebook Ads will work for 50% to 60% of authors
  1. If they don’t work for you, then you can look at Amazon Marketing Services Ads
It is impossible to create a large spike
1. Amazon Marketing Services Ads work best for creating a slow trickle of sales

The key thing is to quickly figure out

Whether Amazon Marketing Services Ads work for your book(s)
Whether you can generate a positive Return on Investment

Generally speaking

25% to 50% of authors should be able to get sales from Amazon Marketing Services Ads
Roughly half of those (12.5% to 25%) should be able to generate positive Return on Investment from Amazon Marketing Services Ads

If you fall into the latter category, then you’ve found yourself a good marketing channel to add to other marketing channels you have

The 3 Core Skills for Authors

The 3 Core Skills for Authors are the three most important skills an Author needs to know to succeed

Becoming very good at all three ensures you have a good career as an author

Mastering one or more, and becoming very good at all of the others, ensures you are very successful as an author

These three are not easy Skills to learn. However, they are essential. The 3 Core Skills for Authors are

Knowing What to Write
1. Doing the market research to find The Right Markets to write in
2. Doing the due diligence to figure out what product to make for these Markets i.e. What book to write
3. Developing the experience and instincts to be able to figure out What to Write
Writing Very Well
1. This Skill is basically becoming a very good writer who writes high quality books that SPEAK to readers and CONNECT with readers at a very deep level
  1. Or just entertain them very well
2. This involves writing well, writing a powerful story, having a good flow in the book, rewriting to make the book better
3. This is a very hard skill
  1. It is the skill authors most often consider ‘the one essential skill to succeed’
  2. In reality it is only one of the 3 Core Skills
  3. It might even, arguably, be the least most important core skill
Marketing Very Well
1. This is Marketing and Sales
2. You have identified a Great Market
3. You’ve written the Right Product for this Great Market
4. You have polished and improved this Right Product until it is EXCELLENT
5. Now comes the absolutely critical skill of Marketing & Sales
  1. Marketing – making readers in this Market aware that you have a great product for them, and that it will satisfy your needs
  2. Sales – actually closing the deal

These 3 Skills are absolutely essential and the FOUNDATION for any author (or, for that matter, for any business or entrepreneur)

Please also read this post on Levels of Mastery of The 3 Core Skills to better understand the 3 Core Skills for Authors

How the 3 Core Skills apply to Thriller Book Promotion

The 3 Core Skills apply to Thriller Book Promotion in the following ways

Knowing What to Write
1. If you’ve chosen to write a Thriller Book – it’s a great choice. It’s a very good market
2. However, you must figure out what Thriller Categories and Sub Categories you are going to focus on
3. Pick something you are passionate about, can write very well in, and can market very well in
4. Pick something that is not too competitive
5. Pick a large market, or a fast growing market that will soon become a large market
Writing Very Well
1. Thriller is very competitive
2. You have to have a very well written book
3. You have to polish it well
  1. The Fit and Finish must be exemplary
4. You must get into the habit of writing and rewriting until the story really flows
5. You must establish a very high quality bar with professional editing and professional proof reading so your writing shines
Marketing Very Well
1. Firstly, you must market to the exact right Thriller categories and sub categories
2. Secondly, while Thriller is a very big book category and there are lots of marketing options, what will work for your book(s) will vary
  1. You have to figure out what works for your books
3. Thirdly, you have to figure out how to get the sale
  1. There are lots of authors writing Thriller books
  2. Some of them can write very well
  3. A few of them can market well
  4. Very few authors can sell well
  5. If you can be one of the 1% of authors who has learnt how to market and sell very well, you are at an immense advantage

The 3 Core Skills apply to ALL authors. They are especially relevant to Thriller Authors because the competition in Thriller Books is immense and the prizes for succeeding are exceedingly sweet

The 12 Golden Rules of Thriller Book Promotion

There are some Golden Rules of book promotion which also apply to Thriller Book Promotion. Sticking to these Golden Rules will greatly increase your chances of doing well as a Thriller Author

The Game is Won or Lost in the Selection of Thriller Book Genres to Write In & Promote In
1. The extent of your success will almost completely be determined by whether or not you write for the Right Thriller Categories & Sub Categories
  1. Are there lots of readers in those Thriller categories and sub categories?
  2. Do they buy lots of books?
  3. Is the competition low?
2. After writing in the right Thriller Categories you also must make sure to market to those right Thriller categories
  1. Your book must be placed in the right categories
  2. Your book must be promoted at marketing places and thriller book promotion sites that are strong for those thriller categories specifically
  3. When promoting it must be clearly stated what Thriller categories your book is in
3. Lots of the other Golden Rules you can break and still survive. However, this Golden Rule cannot be broken if you want to succeed
Product Market Fit is more important than Product Quality and Marketing combined
1. Writing the Right Product for The Right Market is far more important than
  1. How well written your book is
  2. How well marketed your book is
2. When a product meets a need, it flies off the shelf
  1. It does not matter whether it is an A+ quality product, or a B quality product
  2. It does not matter whether you market and promote it a lot, or very little
  3. When you are meeting what the Market is demanding, everything becomes Automatic
The Market Always Wins
1. It’s the old song – I fought the Law and the Law won
2. The Market Always Wins
3. If you give the market what it is asking for, it runs after you to purchase
4. If you try to force the market to buy what you want it to buy, the market runs away from you
5. Just give people what they want
  1. Even world class psychiatrists can’t change people unless people are ready to change themselves
  2. Do you really think you can convince readers to not buy what they want to buy, and instead purchase what you think they should purchase?
  3. Just write what they are dying to buy
Product Market Fit Always Wins – You Must Write The Right Product for The Right Market
1. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking – write a great book and they will come
  1. No, they won’t
  2. Not unless you have written what they are asking you to write
2. Even worse is to fall into the trap of – all you need is good marketing. Look at all these bestselling books that are poorly written and just marketing alone turned them into bestsellers
  1. Marketing only works when the product being marketed MATCHES what customers want
    1. When it satisfies some need or want of the customer
  2. Most of the time marketing magic involves selling a product to a customer who has come to the store looking to buy
    1. Hopefully we can get the point across to you
    2. All the Great Marketing and Great Sales talk you hear, usually involves a person who has already decided they want a product
    3. There are hardly any instances of marketing and sales specialists convincing people to buy a product they don’t want to buy
3. Focus on Product Market Fit, because getting people to purchase what they already want to buy, is 100 times easier than convincing them to purchase something they do not want to buy
Thriller Book Promotion only works if you have a Thriller
1. Thriller is a really big category, which works only if you have written a thriller
2. It’s not that readers in Thriller think – Oh, this author put his book which is NOT a thriller, into Thriller
  1. So might as well purchase it because we’ve seen it
3. If you don’t have a thriller, you are burning your money by promoting your book as a Thriller
It is Easier to Succeed in The Right Market than it is to Fail in The Wrong Market
1. If you pick The Right Market
  1. Provided you write The Right Book, it is very straightforward to sell decently well
  2. If you put in effort and do good marketing and write a very good book, it is straightforward to sell very well
2. If you pick The Wrong Market
  1. Whether you work super hard, or not, you will most likely fail
  2. You might do every thing right (write a great book, do great marketing, work very hard) and still fail miserably
  3. Because the Market buys only what the market wants to buy. If you pick the wrong market it will not buy your product, no matter what you do
AFTER finding Product Market Fit and AFTER doing Marketing, Product Quality becomes PARAMOUNT
1. This is an interesting paradox
  1. If you don’t find the right market
  2. If you don’t write the right book for this right market
  3. If you don’t do proper marketing
  4. Then it does not matter how well written your book is
  5. It does not matter whether you are a great writer or a terrible writer
2. However, if you have found the right market, and written the right book for it
  1. Then you start selling decently well
  2. At that point the quality of your marketing becomes critical
    1. Can you reach a lot of readers in this market
    2. You know they will buy the book, so it is just a question of reaching them
  3. After that point, the quality of your book becomes Paramount
    1. If it is well written, you have a reader for life
    2. If it is well written, they will buy all your other books
    3. If it is very well written, they will leave reviews
      1. Which will help even more with sales
3. Basically, what we are trying to say is
  1. If you can’t find the right market, it does not matter how good of a writer you are
  2. If you can find the right market, then the better you are as a writer, the more successful you will be
Don’t Fall in Love with Your Book Before it Becomes Commercially Successful
1. Perhaps the #1 reason authors don’t succeed is that they fall in love with their book and refuse to improve it
2. Perhaps the #1 reason authors become unhappy is that they view their book as Perfect a long time before it is even close to Perfect
3. Perhaps the #1 reason authors don’t improve their book, their marketing, their ability to find the right market, is that they think their book should already be successful and some mysterious supernatural entity is preventing them from succeeding
Your Book is a Product. Your Book is Not You. Your Book is Not Your Story
1. Your Book is a Product
2. If the product meets the needs of the customer it will sell
3. If it does not meet the needs of the customer, it will not sell
4. That is ALL there is to it
5. It does not say anything about you as a person. It does not say anything about your life story
6. If a book does not sell, it just means that you have created a product that does not meet the customer’s needs and wants
Readers trust other Readers more than anyone else
1. Reviews are absolutely critical for short term and long term success
2. Most authors undervalue reviews or hide from reviews
3. In reality, Reviews are readers vouching for you and vouching for your book
4. You have to understand how to get reviews and how to get good reviews and how to get lots of good reviews
5. Ignoring Reviews is very dangerous to your long term success
Picking a Market you are Passionate About greatly increases the Chances of Success
1. Writing Books is a challenging endeavor
2. Selling Books is tough
3. If you are working in an area you are passionate about and enjoy
  1. It is much easier to get through the rough patches
  2. It is much more enjoyable when there are good days
4. Perhaps most important is that you will only give 110% if you really enjoy what you are doing
5. 70% of your best is not enough to succeed
6. If you love what you do you will give your 90%, your 100%, your 110% and create a truly excellent product
7. THAT (a truly excellent product that has brought out your very best) is what leads to success
You will have to Sacrifice
1. Lots of people trying to tell you about 4 hour work week and become a bestseller in 30 days
  1. That’s all fairy tales, designed to make them money because who wants to believe
    1. In addition to 40 hours at your day job, you will have to give 30 to 50 hours a week to your author career
    2. Much better to listen to the dream that one day a week you come back from work, write for 4 hours, and in a couple of years Hollywood and Netflix are knocking at your door and offering you $10 million to make a movie out of your book
2. The reality is that you will have to work very hard and make a lot of sacrifices to succeed as a Thriller author (or any other type of author)
3. Take solace in the fact that you could be in a category where no matter how hard you worked you would never see financial success (poetry comes to mind)
  1. Instead you are in Thriller books where succeeding will mean decent to good to great financial success

We wish you the best of luck. Thriller Books are a massive category and they are an evergreen category. Provided you give readers EXACTLY what they are asking for, you can have a very viable career as a Thriller author. The more you follow the Golden Rules of Success the higher the level of success you can reach

August 2020
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