Amazon, as in Amazon.com, is the world’s largest online retailer and prominent cloud services provider. Originally, their focus was selling books, but as most people know, it has evolved into an online outlet where you can purchase just about anything you can image. Today, I’m talking book sales and how you can make Amazon work for you to sell your book.
In a previous blog, I shared tips on setting up your Amazon Author Page through Amazon Author Central. Today, I’m going to share my three tips to make your amazon account work for you for increased book sales:
- Keep information current
- Ask for reviews
- Run ads on Amazon
Amazon Sales Are Possible
Keep Amazon Author and Book Pages Current
When you’re logged into your Author Central account, go to your Amazon Author Page and make sure you’re updating it with recent information. Is your blog feed current? When people click the blog link does it direct them to your blog? Do a quick check and click the link yourself. Or, have you updated your website and you forgot to include the new link in Author Central?
Better yet, are you writing blogs so folks can stay in touch with what’s going on in your world? When was the last time you wrote a blog. What’s a new event you have coming up you can write about? Do you have a new podcast you’re going to be on talking about your book? Do you have a new book launch coming up soon? Staying front and center of people letting them know what’s going on in your life and in your business keeps you on their radar, especially when they connect with you.
Have you checked your author and book page to make sure everything is listed correctly? If you have a print book for sale and an e-book version are they both listed on your page? We noticed one of our client’s book formats was not listed the book’s product page so potential buyers didn’t realize they had an option to purchase a print or e-book version. With a call to Amazon the issue was rectified. Make it easy for your potential buyers to find your books.
When you have a new book coming out update your bibliography so people know it’s ready. Once you’ve completed this process it should show up in Amazon within a few days.
Ask for reviews before selling
There is a period in the writing/publishing process when it’s time to ask for reviews from colleagues, mentors, and people who are familiar with your genre of book. Why? Because your book is a business and reviews add credibility and can encourage new readers (customers) to purchase. People are doing a lot of due diligence research before purchasing anything. Book reviews provide proof and help readers know if your book is well written and if it’s a good story. They can then make an informed decision if the book is worth their money.
Once you receive reviews back from your list of readers, you can input those reviews into your Author Central Pages and potential customers will see them when looking to purchase your book.
Book reviews can also move your book up the search ranking for Amazon and Goodreads.
Create an e-book promotion on Amazon Marketing Services.
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is a platform where you tell Amazon you want your book to show up in certain search results, or on the sales page of other books on Amazon, and you are willing to pay them some money for each click on your ad. There are two types of AMS ads:
- Sponsored Product Ads which use specific keywords so if someone plugs in the keyword “clergy abuse” your ad will show up in the search results.
- Product Display Ads which display results for products. This type of advertisement shows buyers they have an option to purchase your book rather than, or at the same time, they purchase a book similar to yours.
In order to setup your Kindle ads with AMS, it is required for the author to have a published book through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Login to your KDP account dashboard and click on the book you want to create an ad for and click advertise. From here you can choose which ad you want to create, sponsored or product, and KDP will take you through the steps.
In summary
Because your book is a business, your goal is to make sales. Today, I discussed three (of many) tips on how to make Amazon work for you to create book sales: keep information current, ask for reviews, and run ads on Amazon. What’s one action step you’re going to take to increase your sales on Amazon?
As an author in business, your task is to write. If you’d like help creating action steps in your marketing plan, schedule a complementary strategy session with us and let’s chat!
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