Let's Talk About Amazon

Plus I've got post cards for you!

So FAT TALK is one day old and whew, what a good day it was! I was on NPR’s Fresh Air (the dream!!!) and had a wonderful event with Kelsey Miller at McNally Jackson in New York City. So many of you came and asked amazing questions! Here I am with Kelsey, who is not only brilliant but also an icon of shoulder season fashion. (Why are we not all wearing black tights with our summer dresses?! Obsessed!)

The other thing that’s happening, even though I very much wish it wasn’t, is me somewhat continuously refreshing Amazon to see what’s happening with my sales rank.

It started with Emily Oster emailing me at 6am yesterday (Emily is always up early to run, I am up early to drink coffee in silence and stare at my garden) to say “Top 500!!” Of course I hopped right over and indeed, FAT TALK debuted at #465 in overall Amazon sales rankings, which may not sound spectacularly high but please remember there are literally millions of books on Amazon. This means that sales rankings change constantly, even hourly, so I could then also see that after Fresh Air came out, we rose all the way to #280. I mean. YOU CAN SEE HOW THIS BECOMES A DANGEROUS GAME. (Don’t worry, I do have people in my life who will throw my phone into the sea.)

Amazon also ranks new releases, and FAT TALK landed on that list at #66 — above Don Winslow, which blew Dan’s mind! It’s now up to 59. And the algorithm ranks titles within various book categories, and also ranks each version of the book (hardcover, e-book, audiobook) separately. This niches down your competition in seemingly random but ego-boosting ways. The hardcover is #1 in “Children’s Eating Disorders,” the e-book has held the #1 slot in both “Parenting” and “Child Development,” and the audiobook is #1 in “Child Psychology.” Do these categories mean anything? Yes and no.

Okay, so look. Being an Amazon Bestseller is nice, but not the reason I wrote this book. There are so many reasons not to support Amazon, especially in book publishing. They give publishers and authors lower percentages of sales than independent bookstores. They’ve been the biggest threat to independent bookstores (which serve as vibrant community hubs!) for decades. They’re also terrible on workers’ rights across the board.

And: Amazon is a necessary evil if you’re an author selling a book. Those sales rankings matter because the higher a book goes on any given list, the more prominently Amazon will feature it, and the more readers it will find. We don’t know a lot about how the Amazon algorithm works, but one thing we do know: Customer reviews are gold.

So that’s where Team FAT TALK comes in.

Even if you didn’t buy the book on Amazon, you can leave a review for it. Obviously 5 stars are preferred. You don’t have to write a ton (but you can! You can also include photos!).

Here’s the other reason I’m asking:

I am very sure that this book will get a bunch of negative reviews as the trolls (who have already dominated the comments sections on its press coverage, and are flooding my DMs and email) make their way over here. Negative reviews can tank a book in the Amazon algorithm, not to mention just scare off normal good humans shopping for books. Getting in a bunch of positive reviews will help with that. And marking the other positive reviews as “helpful” (you’ll see the button below each one) will help them rise higher in the list than the negative stuff.

I would of course also love it if you want to copy and paste your Amazon review and go stick it on GoodReads, Barnes & Noble, Target, Kobo, and anywhere else you buy books. (Some places require you to have purchased it with them but not all!) You can also share it on the social media platform of your choice (pictures with the book greatly encouraged!!). Use the hashtag #fattalklovenote and tag me (@v_solesmith on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok) so I can share it! Trust me, this matters even if you have a private account with 12 followers.

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Speaking of Love Notes

Now that the preorder giveaways are closed (we’ll be announcing the winners soon!), I have a giant stack of FAT TALK post cards that I would LOVE to send out to all of you. Dan and I wrote a bunch with our 5-year-old Beatrix last weekend and it was so much fun and really helped her grasp what the book is about in a way that me just talking hasn’t. If you aren’t sure what you’d do with them, this reel has a few ideas.

You can write them or draw on them with your kids, you can mail them to someone who would love one, you can use them as private journal prompts… or you can post what you write on social media with #fattalklovenotes, which yes, helps spread the word about the book but is also just fun and puts a ton of fat positive energy into the world. Trust me, we need that right now.

I’d love to mail you the cards as a thank you for preordering/reviewing/generally being awesome. Just drop your address here. (I’ll mail these out this weekend!)

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Join Us Tonight!

My Book Birthday Twin

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD

and I are celebrating with a virtual event at 7PM Central (8PM Eastern!) TONIGHT. Register here to join us!

The rest of the book tour schedule is here.

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ICYMI

There’s a great excerpt from Chapter 11 (on anti-fatness in youth sports!) on Literary Hub today.

Romper excerpted Chapter 8 on moms trying to raise “normal” eaters after a lifetime of diet culture.

Anne Helen Petersen

interviewed me for Culture Study.

Melinda Wenner Moyer

interviewed me for Is My Kid The Asshole?

Dr. Becky interviewed me for her podcast.

The UK’s iNews reviewed the book here.