chatGPT for editorial reviews & bestseller lists: 3 secrets, 2 links, 1 quote

You walk into a house that’s been around since the Great Depression.

The air is thick with history, like a cedar chest cracked open after decades.

You get to the wooden stairs that take you up into the personal library of an old man.

From the floor to ceiling, books line every inch of every wall, packed so tightly together you avoid touching anything in fear of getting buried by books set free from this literary crypt.

That room belongs to my grandfather.

That’s where my appreciation and love for books began.
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3 Secrets​
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1. 50 Free Audiobooks: Don’t forget that Amazon gives you 25 free audiobook promo codes for the US and UK market that you can use for marketing promotions and to get early reviews. Want an audiobook code for my new book Before The Bestseller? Feel free to email me back asking for one of them (first come, first serve).​
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2. Drafting an editorial review for a big name: It’s common for the big-time author’s who blurb your book to ask if you can send them a draft to review. Impress them by asking chatGPT to write one in their voice. If there’s enough public information, chatGPT writes an impressively them blurb. Then when you send them their blurb, they might be impressed you got their tone right and everything. Also saves you some time.
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3. Making “Bestseller” Lists: I entered the book marketing world by falling for a scam. Now, I’m grateful for it, as ShelfLife wouldn’t exist if that never happened. That scam was thinking that becoming a “bestseller” would mean I had real people reading and learning from my book. It turns out that all you need is to be falsely listed in an obscure category like “keyboarding” and have 10 people purchase your book on the same day to become an Amazon bestseller.
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   A lot of the people (not all) that offer bestseller packages use fake accounts and email lists of non-serious readers who will download a book for free. Luckily, Amazon has cracked down on people listing themselves in unrelated categories.
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   It doesn’t stop there.
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   You name the list, and there is someone out there who has figured out how to hack the numbers and get you on lists from USA Today to the NYT.
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   These packages can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000.
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   Now, if your goal is to increase your speaking fees or leverage that “bestseller title” to get interviews and media placements, then sure, it might be worth it.
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   My warning is simply not to expect paying for one of these packages to mean that real people are reading your book.

2 Links

1. I’ve releasing the entire audiobook for Before The Bestseller in 2 episodes per week over the next 9 weeks. Listen along here.
2. Did you know Spotify has it’s own self-serve ad platform? We’re looking into this for audiobooks.

1 Quote

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
— Zig Ziglar

with love and sincere appreciation,

Alex
​BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife​
​alex@getshelflife.com