Confused About Official Best Seller label

[KayBratt]

I've seen some authors put either on their book or their book details the term "Best Seller". What constitutes being able to use that term? Best seller in a category? What does it mean, actually? I've held many #1 slots of various categories, but the best overall ranking I've ever had is #22, so I've never considered my titles as best sellers.

So as we know, most indie books may never see their books on the New York Times Best Seller list, so when do they get to coin their book as a best seller?

[Elizabeth Ann West]

From what I can tell, there is some contention. Especially with free.

before KDP Select it was if you make the top 100 in a category, generally you used the Bestseller moniker. Problem is not all of those categories are equal. For example, I was in the #1200s in Paid Kindle and #74 on the Women's Fiction Best Seller list. A good friend of mine made #1 of the Political Thrillers best seller list with a much higher overall Paid Kindle Rank (I think in the #2,000s).

Now, Amazon contends that are over 1 million ebooks. That means, when I was ranked #1200 something, I was in the top 99% of all kindle ebooks available for sale. Even if you go with a more modest 500,000 total ebook available, that's the top 3% of all ebooks available. Now the NYT bestseller list is even harder, because there are MILLIONS of print books in contention, hypothetically (in reality, probably not that many in print)...

The easy rule is if you make a category best seller list (paid, not the free one) then it's a best seller. When I made the tops of the free charts (and didn't expect to make it to any of the paid categories as my genres are VERY competitive. Don't even think about getting ranked in contemporary romance unless you are <#700 in Paid Kindle overall) I called my book a Top Downloaded title on Amazon. I think this is probably more accurate as it's hard to quantify best seller status. I was only ranked in a category for less than 24 hours.

[KayBratt]

So, three of mine have been in the Top 100 Paid Kindle Titles for at least 5 days. Does that mean I could call them best sellers? Or would someone throw a pie in my face?

[Millard]

So, three of mine have been in the Top 100 Paid Kindle Titles for at least 5 days. Does that mean I could call them best sellers? Or would someone throw a pie in my face?

Free pie, you say?

Stuart Millard - BEST SELLING AUTHOR

*opens mouth, waits*

[KayBratt]

Free pie, you say?

Stuart Millard - BEST SELLING AUTHOR

*opens mouth, waits*

Cow pie...coming right up...

[CosmicHerb]

Mmmm. Pie. Banoffee pie, apple pie, steak and kidney pie....

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Best sellers... My Dubai book has been top of its category (#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Travel > Middle East) pretty much constantly since just after release in July. Can I legitimately call it a Best seller? Can I? I don't know if I'd feel right doing that. It's only sold 2,590 copies, after all.

[JohnsonJoshuaK]

I would say that #1 paid in a category  for more than 5 days would warrant a "Best Selling X Category" book.

From there I would personally use Top 10, Top 100 milestones short of #1.

And for free I would use "Top (Milestone) (Category) Downloads" (example "Top 100 Epic Fantasy Downloads")

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[LisaGraceBooks]

Mmmm. Pie. Banoffee pie, apple pie, steak and kidney pie....

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Best sellers... My Dubai book has been top of its category (#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Travel > Middle East) pretty much constantly since just after release in July. Can I legitimately call it a Best seller? Can I? I don't know if I'd feel right doing that. It's only sold 2,590 copies, after all.

Why not? Just clarify in Middle East fiction. If you don't toot your horn to potential readers, no one else will. This is the kind of thing publishers would take advantage of and publicize. You're looking for readers of your niche--and face it--there may not ever be enough of them to propel you into the top 100 of the paid store. So work with what you've got to find your readers.

[BrianKittrell]

I think it's more important to consider the question of "will anyone care?" The "bestseller" title means very little to me as a single term, and even with the New York Times modifier, I don't equate that with quality or must-read status. Sales numbers are not an indicator of quality, and they are not an indicator of "Will Brian like this book?" in any way.

It's better to state things specifically. For instance, my fantasy novel hit the Top 10 Hot New Releases for November, 2011. On my product page, I state that verbatim. I could say, "Bestseller in new Fantasy", but that would cloud the issue behind markety language. It was a Top 10 of Hot New Epic Fantasy releases for that month, so that's what I state. It's not overblown and cannot be misconstrued.

I think when you post things like that, it should be verifiable by fact and should not rely on consensual thinking. Rather than simply "Bestseller", I could put, "Brian has sold nearly 9,000 copies of his books, making him a successful, bestselling author in the independent writing world." I'd probably still leave the "bestselling" part out, though, because it's not necessary to sell the point and, to me, damages the statement more than helps it. "Successful" is far less markety and implies the pride in accomplishment instead of the avarice of making a bunch of money.

YMMV

[Monique]

Unless it says New York Times Best Seller I not only ignore it, but am actually a little put off by it. It's been so abused, it's moved beyond meaningless and into negative territory as a marketing tool for me.

[LisaGraceBooks]

I have to agree with Brian to be as specific as possible, but if the title of the list says "Best Seller"  then you should use it, because of the way search engines use key words. If someone was looking for the "best sellers in teen horror", my book would have been suggested to them.

If the term is used, it's okay for you to use it in your marketing. Discoverability is the name of the game.

[CosmicHerb]

Why not? Just clarify in Middle East fiction. If you don't toot your horn to potential readers, no one else will. This is the kind of thing publishers would take advantage of and publicize. You're looking for readers of your niche--and face it--there may not ever be enough of them to propel you into the top 100 of the paid store. So work with what you've got to find your readers.

I peaked in the top 300 (about 260) of all paid back in October 2011, but only for a day, but did hover around the top 500 to 700 for a while. Since Christmas my ranking has suffered a lot.

[Emma Daniels]

If it means having been in the top 100 of your catagory then I've been a bestseller too.

Cottage pie followed by Apple pie please?