Guest Post by Talli Roland

When Talli Took On Amazon....

A Guest post by Talli Roland

In December 2010 Talli Roland attempted something quite remarkable on the e-book release day of her debut novel, The Hating Game. Here, Talli explains the ins and outs of her Amazon Splash, and proves that you don't need a huge budget to make an impact on your sales figures.

When independent press Prospera Publishing decided to release my debut novel The Hating Game as an ebook ahead of its paperback launch next year, immediately I started thinking what I could do to generate buzz. Like most debut novelists, I didn't have big marketing bucks to hire a publicist. But I did have time – and an extensive network of online friends on blogs, Facebook and Twitter that I'd developed.

With over two thousand contacts, I had a small army available to help me spread the word about my December 1 launch. If I could get even fifty people out of those two thousand to buy on that day, my Amazon Kindle rank would shoot up, potentially helping my book break into the top 100 Bestsellers on the day of its release. All I needed to do was let people know about my mission to take on Amazon.

I wasn't comfortable requesting people buy my book outright, so instead I asked them all to post about my quest on the same day: December 1. By splashing my news across the Internet in a co-ordinated campaign, not only would I be generating word of mouth but also (hopefully) sales. From September through to the day before my launch, a steady stream of bloggers, Facebookers and Tweeters signed up to let their contacts know my mission by posting a blog, Facebook status or Twitter status – all linking to my novel on Amazon.

Early morning on release day, I checked my sales rank on Amazon: number 806 on Amazon.co.uk and 7,192 on Amazon.com. I hoped The Hating Game might break into the top 200 in the UK and maybe, if I was lucky, the top 100. Over the next few hours, more and more people began tweeting about my Take On Amazon quest using #TheHatingGame hash tag, posting links to their blogs, reviews and more. People started to retweet, I could barely keep up with the hash tag and blogs being posted, and my Amazon rank began to rise. By 10 a.m., I was at number 149 in the UK Paid Kindle Store. Before 11 a.m., I'd hit number 86. I was now on the Amazon Top 100 Bestseller list!

The tweets, blog posts and reviews kept coming and my rank continued to rise. At 11 a.m., The Hating Game was the top book on Amazon UK's Movers and Shakers, a whopping 17,829 per cent increase in sales rank from the previous day. By 2:30 p.m. it reached number 25 in the UK and was starting to creep upwards on Amazon.com, too.

By the end of the day, The Hating Game had reached number 24 on Amazon UK and 460 on Amazon.com, with hundreds of blogs, tweets and shared Facebook links from friends and strangers alike. My debut novel was now an Amazon Kindle Bestseller on the day of its release – with no marketing money spent and masses of social media power. Who needs a big budget when you can rely on the help from your virtual friends around the world?

Talli Roland blogs at http://talliroland.blogspot.com and tweets @TalliRoland on Twitter. The Hating Game is out now as an ebook on Amazon for £1.71 and will be released next year in paperback. Her next title, Watching Willow Watts, is due out in late 2011.