Thinking of independent publishing on Amazon? Make sure you follow these simple tips for Amazon Self Publishing to give your book the best chance.
1. Categories
Amazon has lots of book categories, and independent publishers can choose two per book. Some categories, like ‘romance’, are enormous. Others, like ‘comedy horror’ are very small.
If your book sells well enough, it will be listed in the top 100 of your chosen category. This means more readers will see your book. If it goes to number 1 in your category, you’ll even get a fancy banner.
All this is free advertising. But the larger the category, the more difficult it is to get to the top. Conversely, the more obscure the category, the fewer readers will be searching in it. So choose your categories well. Go as big as possible, whilst giving yourself a chance to get into the charts.
2.Make the most of your blurb
Amazon stats show that shorter blurbs are better for sales. Keep it snappy, and make the most of formatting. KDP allows you to use bold, heading, and italic tags to format your text. Use these and your book will stand out as more professional.
3.Get reviews
The single most effective way to sell books, is to have a lot of reviews. These work in two ways. Firstly, (assuming you’ve got enough good ones) they make your book look good, and compel readers to buy. Secondly, reviews mean your books appear more in ‘readers also bought’.
At the end of your ebook, make a friendly heartfelt plea for a review, and provide a link, so readers don’t have to search themselves.
4.Use your giveaways
It seems counterintuitive, that giving away your book will increase sales. But it will. Amazon adds more weight to ebooks with lots of downloads – even free downloads – and it helps categorise your book in the ‘readers also bought’ section.
Use your KDP free promo period, and upload your book on as many websites as possible to advertise your freebie. Go on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter, and tell people your book is free.
5.Do your homework
Amazon has lots of great (and short!) books on how to self publish effectively. These are full of invaluable tips, on how to make the most of the Amazon self publishing platform. Reading books such as ‘How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks’ by John Locke, and ‘Amazon Analytics’ by Tom Colson-Knowles, and ‘How To Make a Killing on Kindle’ by Michael Alvear, are all great reads to get you started.
6.Hire a professional book cover designer
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