If you want to sell thousands of books in a week to reach best-seller status on a big list, the best way to do so is through bulk sales.

Do the math. You can sell books singly, and add up the numbers,1 +1 +1, or you can sell in bulk and see sales multiply, 1000 X 10, or 10+10+100+1000+1500.

Gary Vaynerchuk skillfully demonstrates this concept on the landing page for his new book, Jab Jab Right Hook. He ramped up his offer of bulk buy incentives during a live spreecast, An Epic Day of Book Talk, which has received nearly forty thousand views. And though his pub date isn’t until November 26, the book is already ranked in two categories on Amazon and is six thousand overall.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Thank You Economy and I’m excited to read Gary’s new book, so I ordered 7 copies, to share with my team and clients.

If you market each of your books effectively, you will gather readers who are excited to buy your next book, as Gary has. When people are confident that your work adds value, they may be compelled to buy in bulk, especially if your work offers value to their team or organization.

Here are a few ideas about how to leverage bulk buy incentives to increase sales of your book:

Identify incentives that will compel your audience. Whatever offer you make must be congruent with your book’s content and value. Look for offers you can make that fit your audience’s needs and interests.

Be creative! Look for ways to offer unique incentives that compel people to buy more books.

Make sure your offers will scale. If you are offering your time in exchange for bulk sales, make sure the numbers add up. You have a limited number of hours available and don’t want to over-promise your time. Look for incentives that do not require your time, when possible.

Use bulk sales as a negotiation tool. While most authors can’t afford to trade keynotes for book sales, you can use the purchase of a bulk order of your books as a negotiating tool in closing a keynote sale by offering your keynote for a price and allowing part of the price to be applied toward a bulk book purchase.

Ask for bulk purchases. Many authors sell thousands of books to clients of their consulting practices. Your book brings your best thinking and learning to your clients in a convenient package, which can be read, re-read, and shared. If clients already pay top dollar for your knowledge and expertise, they will likely be willing to invest in buying multiple copies of your book. Consider the price of a day of training with you vs. the cost of bulk purchases of your book.

Create a landing page that makes your offer clear and promote it widely. Don’t assume that people who want to purchase in bulk will know about your incentive offers. Proactively share your offers. Make sure people can easily find them. Be open to possibilities beyond the offer. Gary Vaynerchuk’s offer includes the opportunity to barter.

Time these bulk buys proactively. By sending bulk sales to a site like 800 CEO Read, which reports to the Wall Street list and feeds to the NY Times, you can increase your chances of landing one of the big lists. If possible, time your bulk sales through CEO Read to land within a certain week or month. Another bulk sales resource is BulkBooks.

When you incentivize and promote the bulk sales of your book, you will multiply your success and see your sales grow exponentially.

Tell me something! What other ideas do you have about how to leverage bulk sales? What has worked for you?

Becky Robinson

I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.