Amazon has 310 million active buyers. It is the biggest bookstore on earth, so most writers will sell and market their books on Amazon. Amazon also makes it very easy to self-publish, and they will pay your royalty within 60 days of your first sale and every month after that.
Amazon is an online business but thinks of it as a search engine like Google. Like any search engine, Amazon connects buyers with the items that they’re looking for. But Amazon goes one step further. It also uses customer data to make recommendations based on past behavior.
Every time you use Amazon, it updates your data. It then uses this information to show you products you might otherwise have known nothing about. Read on as we cover some of the best tips to make more sales with your kindle book.
Making a Start with Your Kindle Book
The best way to ensure that you sell large numbers of books is to write a great book. Know who your target market is. Choose your genre and know what sells.
Before you even start writing, you should conduct some market research. Find out what sells and how much books in your category sell.
Once you understand the market and decided to write, you can follow a few simple steps.
Write the Book
Writing an engaging book that grabs the attention of the reader is an essential part of the process.
The format in the Amazon Style
Read the Amazon guide to understand what formatting is required. It really is quite simple because the reader manages the fonts.
Choose a Title
This, in itself, is an important marketing decision.
Create an Eye-Catching Cover
If you’re not very arty, outsource the work or buy the cover off the internet. Don’t underestimate the appeal of a well-designed cover
Create an Author Page
Tell the world about yourself.
Choose a Category
The Kindle publishing policy will allow you to choose two types for your book. Choose carefully to ensure that you connect with the right audience.
Make a Pricing Decision
It is always good to do competitor research when deciding what price to charge. Encourage people to buy by starting off at a low price like $0.99. You can always increase the price slowly as you grow your following.
Promoting Your Kindle Book
Start promoting your book even before it hits the virtual shelves, and then intensify your efforts after you have published it. Think of your book as a product of your online business. By using a multi-faceted approach to promoting your e-book, you will broaden your reach. As long as your book delivers on your promise, you should succeed in selling large numbers.
Make no mistake, Amazon is a fierce challenge, with millions of books vying for readers' attention. So, monitor the outcome of your promotional efforts and adapt your strategy to match.
Use Your Website and Social Media Pages
One of the easiest ways to promote your book and drive your book sales is through your current website and social media pages. The Kindle instant book pre-review allows you to embed parts of your book on your website so that you can give visitors an idea of how well your book is written.
Link all your books together so that if a reader enjoys one book, they can quickly connect with another.
Promoting Your Kindle Book on Amazon
Promoting a book on Amazon is often quite different from marketing elsewhere because Amazon sets some very clear rules on what you may or may not do. Make sure that you understand the rules, as Amazon will penalize your online business for any breach.
Amazon Ads
If you don’t mind spending to promote your book, consider buying ads on Amazon to increase your book sales. Use identified keywords to find your readership based on their previous purchase history and their search criteria.
Take advantage of Amazon's powerful advertising tools to reach a wider audience. The Amazon Ads dashboard allows you to create targeted advertising campaigns that put your book in front of readers searching for relevant content. With a variety of campaign types and bidding options available, you can tailor your advertising strategy to fit your specific goals and budget.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Select Explained
If you’ve chosen to sell your book exclusively on Amazon, you can benefit from their promotional opportunities.
How KDP Works
- Publishing authors give Amazon exclusive rights for 90 days. You can opt-in for another 90 days at the end of the term
- Subscribing members can borrow books
- Books sell as usual over Amazon
- Authors are permitted to give books away for 5 days in every 90 as a promotion
Giving books away may seem counterintuitive, but it provides newly published authors an opportunity to impress readers and glean reviews. Giving your book away may help you hook readers who may recommend your book to family and friends.
It also gives your book more chance of popping up when Amazon users buy other books. Amazon offers buyers suggested offers under the ‘recommended for you’ and ‘people who bought this also bought’ recommendations.
Clever publishers use the giveaway to have people sign onto their email list. Then they can use the information to alert readers to the publication of newly published e-books.
Forerunners using the KDP feature did very well from the giveaway feature, but as more and more writers have joined, the competition closed in. Readers download many free books on Amazon and may never read nor write a review.
Amazon also no longer gives full credit for free downloads when it comes to recommending books.
The KDP feature may not be as effective as when it first came out, but it should still form an essential part of a well-rounded promotional strategy.
Make the Most of Your Free Days
On KDP, you only have five days to give your book away. Make the most of those days. Use your social media pages to inform people of the promotion. Email friends, family, and any customers you have on your email list to know about the promotion.
The more people who download your book, the more they will tell others. Let people know that you would really appreciate honest reviews of your book.
Use Metadata to Sell Your Book
Make good use of your metadata through the KDP interface. Crafty metadata will get your books on the screens of buyers and increase your book sales. It contains all the information about your books, such as the title, ISBN number, publication date, and author.
Metadata offers you an opportunity to describe the contents of your book. Use it to write a compelling description, and be sure to include the relevant keywords. Make the most of the book summary opportunity. Use at least 200 words to entice your audience to buy your book. Use genre-specific words to lead the readers to your book.
That All-Important Positive Review
Online business owners know how important reviews are. It is one of the few ways for buyers to evaluate your product. Online books are no different, and getting those first reviews can be really difficult. Without a positive review, people are far less likely to buy your book.
When publishing on Amazon, you can ask people to give you reviews, but you may not pay them to do so. One tried and tested way of getting reviews is to give copies of your book away and then ask for a review.
FAQ
Is Amazon KDP Worth It?
When you decide to self-publish on Kindle Direct Publishing, you have to offer Amazon exclusive rights to your book for 90 days. Amazon is the biggest bookstore on earth, so this may not represent a considerable sacrifice. You will have to weigh up whether it is worth closing all other sales avenues.
Publishing on KDP will allow you to grow your readership through free book promotions for up to 5 days over the 90-day KDP term. Though counterintuitive, giving books away can help you to increase your book sales and allow you to collect reviews for your work. With the right strategy, Amazon KDP is definitely worth it.
What is the Best Strategy for Promoting Your Book?
Like any online business, your book promotion strategy should be multi-faceted. Your book must be saleable, interesting, and targeted at the right market. A competitive price and attractive cover will also help to sell your e-book. If you’re using Amazon KDP, choose your promotion days well. Use your website and social media presence to alert people to your book and catch their interest.
How Much Money Can You Make on Kindle Direct Publishing?
If you’re using KDP Select, you will receive a 30% royalty on the sale price of your book if it is priced between $0.99 and $2.99. If you charge more than $2.99, the royalty is 70% of the book's price. What you can make on Kindle Direct Publishing depends on the price and the number of books you sell.
Conclusion
Publishing a book has never been easier. Everything that you need is available online. But nobody wants to go through the time and effort of writing a book that never gets read. No matter how good your story, if you don’t have a clear and well-crafted promotional strategy, you are unlikely to find buyers for your book.
