Amazon KDP is known as Kindle Direct Publishing and is Amazon’s e-book self-publishing platform, it launched in November 2007. Amazon allows authors to self-publish their books via their website, allowing them to reach a huge audience without the hassle of going through a traditional publishing company. KDP permits authors to create e-books, paperbacks, audios, and most recently hardback books without any upfront costs for the author. Amazon is classified as a “store” and a seller of books if you publish via KDP this will only sell these books via Amazon, whereas Ingram sparks is a distributor of books, should you wish your books to be sold via stores such as Barnes and Nobel or Waterstones you must use a distributor and not just KDP. Amazon is currently one of the top self-publishing companies and dominates the market selling a huge 80% of all e-books.
Some authors can struggle when selling via Amazon Kindle and really fail to make any kind of impact when it comes to selling their novels. So here at Wingfield Designs, we are going to take a look at some of the top tips when publishing via amazon to get your book noticed.
1. Utilise your Author Central
If you don’t already use Amazon Author Central I highly recommend signing up. This allows you to take control of your author profile on Amazon, Audible, and kindle books. It enables you to have all your books in one place on amazon as well as your author bio. It gives readers the ability to follow you via amazon, this will notify them of your latest release. Another advantage to using Author Central is the ability to give author updates in the form of images and videos.
2. Have a cover that stands out
Obviously being a cover designer this is bound to be high up on my list of recommendations. It really is important; you want your novel to stand out amongst the crowd but also be what the reader expects. You wouldn't want a cover that showcases your book as sci-fi if your book is a young adult romance, consider market trends and your author branding. You can check out our blog post on Top Tips To Cover Design.
Here at Wingfield Designs, we have a huge selection of premade covers available to purchase as well as creating custom designs.
3. Keywords
Your keywords are vital and I highly recommend using Publisher Rocket to assist you with your keyword research. Maximise the use of your keywords, amazon allows you to have 50 characters on Amazon Keywords so make sure you use these, you can even use phrases. Another important tip when it comes to using Keywords is to ensure that you are also using them within your description of the book not just on keywords, this helps with ranking as they are consistently linked.
4. A+ content
What is A+ Content on Amazon? This basically enables you to display your product effectively using a well-written description, videos, and images. This allows your customer to have a much better understanding of what you are offering them. By adding A+ content you can increase sales by an average of 5.6%. These can showcase your book as a 3D image and take into account your complete author branding.
Not sure where to start I found a Youtube Video on how to add A+ Content.
*Credit for the below video to New Shelves Books*
5. Utilise your Social Media
Make the most of your social media upon the launch of your new book. By sharing your release with your fans you are increasing traffic to your Amazon Page. The idea of using your social media is to drive traffic to your amazon page which in turn will help with rankings and visuals.
Another way of using social media is to have a release blitz, this is where a number of bloggers share the release on their own blogs as well as their associated social media pages. ". This obviously helps with exposure to your novel. There are a number of different promotional services you can use on social media fitting all budgets. You can read more about these types of promotions on my recent bog post "Book Promotions and How They Increase Sales". You can also check out our recommended services where you will find two promotional companies who offer release blitzes, cover reveals, and blog tours. I have also personally used Sian Claven from Book Blitz Bonanza who shares your releases in over 200 book groups.
6. Mailing List
If you have a mailing list you can also leverage this as part of your launch strategy. You can email all of those currently on your mailing list to inform them of your latest release. Be sure to include captivating material which jumps out and tells them why they “need” this book in their lives. Share teasers, promotional images, and maybe even a little snippet into your book.
If you are yet to have a mailing list take a look at our recent blog post on Top Tips For Building an Author Mailing List.
7. Look Inside feature
Amazon has this wonderful ability to show the inside of your novel to potential readers. This feature is only available about 10 days after release but many have found that it can be highly successful in converting people to purchase your novel.
As a default, the novel will be set to show only 10% but you can increase this yourself, if you increase the Look Inside feature on amazon from 10% to 20% you can increase your sales. This allows people to read more of your novel for free and allows them to determine if this captivates them. Ensuring that they are captivated means that they are more likely to purchase the rest of the novel as they are already invested. If you read our post on the Top Ten Marketing Tips for new authors you will note number 8. GIVE GIVE GIVE.
You can follow our blog posts via My Wix or feel free to sign up for our Newsletter, where we are now giving away a FREE book launch checklist! Wingfield Designs are also launching The Creative writing Corner which is a service for authors whereby you will get a workshop/expert talk each month as well as writing sprints and coffee mornings. This will help you stay accountable and in control of your writing career.