One of the favorite criticisms I hear of the KDP low content and medium content
book business is that it's saturated, finished, too hard.
It was easier 2, 3, 4 years ago. Well,
in this video I'm going to show you why I think this is incorrect.
Tell you the three types of books that appear on the first page of Amazon Book
listings,
and I'll give you some valuable advice that helped me and I think will help you
if you want to succeed in this business. So,
this whole concept of KDP being saturated.
I've heard this about virtually every online business there is,
whether it's YouTube blogging, Amazon FBA, eBay, whatever. And yet,
as I'll show you in a moment, there are newcomers all the time that come in,
publish books and start making money and start building a business.
So if this business and all the niches,
those are the different types of KDP books, are saturated,
it would imply that it's finished and there are no opportunities or
it's impossible for newly published books to rank on the first page of
the Amazon listings and make money. So let's have a look to see if this is the
case and to make my job harder,
let's have a look at the most competitive KDP niches there are on Amazon.
And if it is truly saturated,
we shouldn't expect to see any newly published books on the first page.
So here we have the adult coloring book niche,
probably the most competitive niche there is.
And we can see here there are 50,000 search results and we're only going to look
at KDP books.
So we can remove that argument that a book belongs to a big publishing brand
where their big marketing budget,
and we're not looking at those books in the sponsored listings either.
So if we scroll down the listings,
we can hover over each book and see when it was published.
Now I do have a free chrome plugin installed here called DS Amazon
Quick View,
which gives me this information. So straight away we can see here we've got one
book, says independently published. That means KDP,
and it was published in 2023. And we can continue to scroll down.
And here we have another book published again in 2023 and
independently published. Now,
I'm not going to waste your time by just scrolling through the whole page and
looking at all the results, but you'll find, as we scroll down,
there are actually 10 newly published books on this first
page that were published this year.
And I went along and looked at kids' puzzle books,
10,000 search results, scrolled down again, looked at the results.
This one, June, 2023, but it's not a KDP book,
so we'll continue scrolling. And again,
I went through the whole list and in total this time I found 9 books
on the first page that were published this year.
I did the same with kids coloring book,
a bit more competitive at 40,000 search results. Scroll down. And this.
Time I found 11 books on the first page that were published this year,
and I even went and had a look at the mileage logbook niche,
which has 1000 search results.
The reason I'm looking at this is that I remember some time ago I did a
video on this niche and I had a few comments saying, oh,
I've gone and ruined this niche now I've told everyone about it,
there'll be thousands of books published,
you won't be able to get on that first page, et cetera. Well, I scrolled down,
and in this case there were nine newly published books on the first
page. So, this is interesting. In the examples I've shown you,
we have 9, 10, 11,
9 books on the first page for these
different niches all published this year within the last six months.
Is that a coincidence all around that 10 number?
Or is it possible that Amazon reserves around 10 spaces allocated for
newly published books? Now, before you all scream at me in the comments,
it's because they're running ads.
I'll address this in a moment because that's not the case. Well,
at least not for all of them anyway.
So I found on the first page of the Amazon listings,
which is where you want to be if you want to make good consistent sales,
there are basically three types of books that appear on the first page.
First of all, you have the first type of books.
Those books that are always there and have been there for some time,
even for a number of years, they are sticky.
They stick there on the first page.
Here's an example of a typical sales graph for one of these types of
books. To get this information, I'm using the Helium 10 Chrome plugin.
Now the free version of the plugin should give you the information,
but I'm not 100% sure because I have the platinum subscription,
but you could give it a try. The link is in the video description below.
This is the typical pattern.
The best sellers rank remains consistently low over a long period of time.
In this particular case since 2017, and remember,
the lower the best sellers rank, the more sales a book is getting.
So this book is stuck on the first page and getting consistent
sales and lots of them. Then you have the second type of book.
Those books that appear on the first page, stay there for a period of time,
could be three to six weeks,
and then they disappear or go to the second or third page of the listings and
you can see this on their sales grasp,
the best sellers rank oscillates up and down,
slowly getting lower until it gets that consistent or constant
lower best sellers rank.
And it eventually gets one of those more sticky spots on the first page and
it stays there for longer periods of time and starts ranking well for other
keywords. Then you have the third type of new books,
which is what we are interested in.
Some of them are purely from someone spending money on an ad campaign and
getting sales. For these books the sales graph looks like this.
You'll often see nothing,
a high best sellers rank and then a sudden short drop as the ad campaign
is started and sales start to come in.
Now compare this to a new book that doesn't run ads,
you'll often see this pattern instead.
The best sellers rank swings up and down over a longer period of time and
eventually the best sellers rank drops and becomes more
stable if the book continues to make sales.
This is because a book appears on the first page for a short period of time,
disappears, then comes back, disappears again, and so on.
How do I know this?
Because it's the exact same pattern that my books get. This is my best seller
that has never run an ad campaign.
And it started off with these big swings in the best sellers rank,
as you can see here. So looking at the sales graphs,
we can see that there are new books here on the first page that haven't
run any ads even for these very competitive niches.
And these books appear spontaneously and are often only there for a day or two.
Amazon appears to test out newly published books,
gives them a trial period on the first page and looks at the sales metrics,
the click through rate, conversion rate, et cetera,
to see if it makes the grade.
So that book has to make an impact and in a short window of time,
and if you regularly watch the first page listings,
you'll see this happens consistently.
A new book appears and then disappears,
and a new book can work its way up to the second and first type of book that
I've just mentioned. If the sales metrics are good or look promising,
it will make it to those second tier books that is appearing on the first page
this time for a few weeks and then disappearing until making it into that
first sticky group where they do that regular stint on the first page for
longer periods of time. And again, you can see this in a typical sales graph,
the best sellers rank oscillates in these big swings,
which gets smaller and smaller until eventually the best sellers rank settles
down at a low level. So basically Amazon is testing out new books,
testing which ones get good clicks and sell. But why would Amazon do this?
Why not just have a static page of best sellers that no one could get onto?
Well, think about it for a moment.
Amazon wants to keep the page looking fresh for both new customers
and returning customers.
Imagine going into a shopping mall or high street and seeing a store with the
same window display as it had the year before. It would look pretty stale.
And so it is with Amazon.
So it's testing out new books and at the same time keeping the page fresh.
So how do these books get that initial trial on the first page? Well,
and this is my theory, there are a few factors. First of all, at manual review,
after you hit that publish button, if a book looks attractive and all the.
Attributes are in place, for example, title, spelling, grammar, pricing,
et cetera,
it may get flagged as a good book and to receive attention from the Amazon
algorithm. Remember, this is speculation,
but there is one thing these books all have in common,
which does suggest this is the case. They look great,
they are well designed,
text is easy to read and is in keeping with the overall niche.
You rarely see poorly designed books in these spots. Secondly,
if it is in a lower competitive niche, just by keywords alone,
it may get an initial showing on the first page because you've essentially told
Amazon what the book is about.
But you would still need a decent looking book for it to
remain on that first page or to keep oscillating back and forth until it gets a
more of a sticky spot. And lastly,
there's seller history. And this is a difficult one because it's a bit like the
chicken and the egg situation. If you're a publisher with a good seller history,
then this gives you some seller authority and will help your books get favorable
treatment and give it a better chance of ranking on that first page.
It's the same with the ranking of posts on a website. Over time,
a website gets domain authority and so it becomes easier to rank posts on a
search engine like Google, but it does take time. However,
once you do make that initial breakthrough and start making sales,
this will increase for you.
So what are the takeaway points? Well,
it is possible to get on that first page and make sales with a new book.
It's not saturated, but a book has to be good from the start.
No errors.
You only get that one chance. Does that mean to say if you miss that chance,
that's it, your book is finished? Well, no. If the niche is lower competition,
a book can still work its way up there. However,
if it is a very high competition niche,
then you may need indeed to run a short ad campaign if it doesn't get
that initial boost.
But this book still has to be a good book or you'll be wasting your money on ad
spend. And remember, after you've published a book,
you can still make changes to it. You know the keywords, cover,
interior and pricing,
but you need to make sure your book looks the best it can be with the skills
you've got and that there are no glaring errors.
And this is going to take time to learn.
Publishing your first book and you know,
expecting it's suddenly to appear on the first page is unrealistic unless the
niche is extremely low competition.
I've published around 2,400 books on Amazon. Why?
Because my design skills were terrible.
I didn't know how to use software properly,
and there wasn't much in the way of teaching this business back then.
So it took me about a year of learning and experimenting before I
made a real breakthrough and started to make significant sales.
But I became obsessed with it and just created books. So you need to be.
Constantly improving your skills, studying,
learning about things like keyword use, and especially good cover design.
You can find information like that on YouTube,
Skillshare or something like Udemy.
And you need to be constantly creating and improving each it iteration of
your designs. And suddenly you'll find a book gets traction.
And from my experience with KDP YouTube building websites,
it will be the book you most least expect.
And also be a realistic about your skills. If you're new and learning,
then jumping straight into a high competition niche,
say like the coloring book niche,
that's going to need a really well-designed cover, then this may be unrealistic.
Instead, work your way up through simpler books in less competitive niches.
Now, if you are one of those that thinks this business is saturated,
that's fine. There are so many other online businesses,
different models that you can try out. But I think saying this is just a cop
out. It's often easier to, you know, look at something, dip your toe in,
or not even give it a try and just wave it off as being saturated.
It's too hard.
No longer any opportunities or ruined by other publishers on Amazon.
It's just an excuse for not trying. It's not an easy business.
It's not fast money,
but will reward those that do put in the effort and more importantly,
do persist. There will be publishers today,
in the future who will be creating new books and getting them on the first page
and making those sales publishers like yourselves.
So there is no reason why it can't be you. So that's it.
I hope you found this video useful. Thank you much for your time.
It is very much appreciated. And until next time, goodbye.