The Amazon Lesson Most Newpub Authors Still Haven't Learned

When newpub authors talk about Amazon, their conversations usually revolve around KDP marketing. Whether it’s the algorithm, rankings, categories, keywords, or ad campaigns, every indie author wants to know which mysterious force determines visibility this week.

Don’t misunderstand, those tools have their place. But they also distract authors from the key lesson that propelled Amazon from online bookstore to trillion-dollar megacorp.

Jeff Bezos once explained Amazon’s success in a single sentence:

“The number one thing, by far, that has made us successful is obsessive compulsive focus on the customer, as opposed to the competitor.”

Notice what he didn’t say. Bezos did not credit superior advertising. Neither did he praise clever branding or brilliant marketing campaigns. Nor did he attribute Amazon’s rise to chasing every passing trend.

Instead, Bezos argued that Amazon succeeded because it relentlessly asked one question:

Read the full post on Substack.

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