When you look at your Amazon strategy, the question you need to ask yourself is “how can I make a shopper click the ‘buy’ button?”
This isn’t always easy or straightforward, but what isn’t going to help is putting your book on Amazon and hoping for the best. The reality is that Amazon isn’t going to do the heavy lifting for you. The platform has little to no incentive to promote your book.
It comes down to you doing the research and putting in the work. Here are seven things you can do on Amazon to reach more potential readers and, hopefully, sell more books.
You’re Targeting the Wrong Keywords and Categories
The process of uploading a book for sale on Amazon (whether you’re uploading it via another platform, or via KDP) can be an involved process. And then you get to the “pick your keywords and categories” question on the form, and you plug in some ideas that make sense. Maybe you pop in “mystery” or “romantic suspense” or “self-help”.
The issue with those keywords, or any type of singular keyword is it causes your book to get lost in the thousands of books being added to Amazon daily.
Manual market research involving consumer trends can give you the organic ways readers are finding books like yours or, better yet, find holes in searches that the current supply of books isn’t filling but that you can. There’s software out there that can help with this, but manual research can supply the truest, most organic results.
So how do you do this? Start by typing in your keyword into the Amazon search bar and see what drops down. Amazon uses intuitive search, much like Google does. It’ll give you some keyword strings to start doing some research on.
When researching and adding them to Amazon, always use keyword strings and not singular keywords. Several years ago, Google did a study and found that the more keywords a consumer types into Google, the closer they are to making a purchase. Amazon is much the same in this regard.
Also, you’ll want to identify the benefits your book has to the reader. Specifically, what do they gain by reading your book? All these benefits should become part of your book description (which we’ll talk about in a minute) but should also be reflected in your keywords.
Your book categories are next up. You can have 10 categories for your eBook and the more narrow you can get, the better your book will sell.I know “narrow” may not seem appealing, but trust me when I say, consumers are hyper-focused on what they want. This is regardless of genre.
A romance reader isn’t going to buy just any romance. They’re probably looking for something specific to what they enjoy reading, whether that’s time travel romance, royal romance, second chance romance, the list goes on.
The point is, the more you can zero in on your book’s content, the better pathways you’ll start creating for your book and the more you’ll sell.
Your Book Description is Lackluster
Much like your keywords and categories, book descriptions often get jammed into the upload process with little to no thought about how they actually appeal to the reader.
Take a note or two from the keyword and category discussion and zero in on the benefits to your reader.I recommend reviewing some book descriptions of bestselling books in your genre to get a sense of what’s selling.
One of the best things you can do is lead with a standout review! This can be a review on the book page itself, or an early review you got for the book that hasn’t appeared on Amazon yet. This will give you and your book some credibility with potential readers.
Next, think of how you would sell your book in one or two sentences and lead with that. Buyers don’t spend too long deciding if they want to read a book or not. For most buyers, there are only a few tenths of a second for you to make a good impression.
A last tip here is to give your book description room to breathe. Make sure that you aren’t cramming your entire book description into one paragraph of text. Use short sentences and short paragraphs, bold things that you want to stand out. And try using bullets to identify your book benefits!
Your book description should be enticing, enlightening and make the reader want to know more.
If your book description isn’t doing that, you’re not going to sell books on Amazon.
Your Books Are Disconnected
Of all the things I’ve discussed up to this point, this one is the easiest and often forgotten. Your books should all be connected to you on Amazon and under the umbrella of your Amazon Author Page.
I can tell you that having all of your books connected under your author name is not only helpful to your brand, but it’ll help you come up better in search on Amazon — meaning readers will find your book faster!
Your Bio Isn’t Selling Your Book
Have you added an author photo or bio to your Amazon book page? I’m always amazed at how many authors are satisfied being just a generic, grey box on Amazon.
Always add your bio and picture. Your bio needs to make sense for who your reader market is. If you write fiction, how can you sound interesting and in tune with genre fans? If you write non-fiction, don’t just post your resume, be more creative and likable than that.
Your Book Pricing Isn’t Competitive
Underpricing your book can be just as detrimental to your book sales as overpricing. I’ve talked to authors over the years who want to sell their book for a high price so they can “make back their investment,” but this honestly never works.
By the same token, the days of launching a book for .99 are gone. The market for super cheap books is saturated. Instead, find a book price that fits your market. Every genre is different, and some markets can tolerate a higher-priced book.
Do some research on Amazon before you decide.
Your Book Cover Isn’t Up to Par
Ask anyone in the book industry and they’ll tell you how vitally important a solid book cover is to sell books on Amazon. A book cover can make or break your success.
We don’t like to judge things based on their appearance, but a quality cover can potentially be taken as an indicator of a quality book. A book with a cheaper cover that lacks detail and thought might indicate to the reader that the writing within isn’t worth their time.
This isn’t always true, but when you have seconds (not even) to make a good impression, don’t take the risk.
Your Author Central Isn’t Optimized
There’s a lot of stuff you can add to your book page via Author Central. For example, you could add reviews that never made it onto your Amazon page, or you could do a fun author interview and add it to your book page. Or videos introducing yourself or other areas of your business.
And all that extra content creates opportunities to include more of your keywords. There are lots of enhancements available to you, for free.
It will take time, work, and patience, but Amazon is a limitless opportunity for exposure that’s incredibly difficult to attain anywhere else. These easy tweaks can have a huge impact on your visibility and, more importantly, your book sales!
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Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine.
Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon visibility campaigns as well offering national media pitching, online book marketing, author events, and other strategies designed to build the author/book visibility.
She is the author of 18 books, including How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon, Revise and Re-Release Your Book, 5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors, and From Book to Bestseller. She also hosts the top ranking podcast Book Marketing Tips and Author Success.
AME has had dozens of books on top bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal.
To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, visit www.amarketingexpert.com.