Amazon is the ultimate sales machine and Kindle is a publishing powerhouse. Some businesses use the platform to sell physical items, others go digital – that is, they harness the power of (e)Books thus adding an additional stream of income to their business. A very smart move indeed.
Many people mistakenly believe that you have to be an outstanding writer, or some sort of a marketing wizard to get your book published on Amazon. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Kindle can be very effective for authority positioning and obviously, for making sales. The eBook business gives you leverage and helps you build new sales funnels faster. Therefore, I do recommend using Kindle’s free tools to help grow your sales.
Yes, there’s iBooks and Barnes and Nobles, however, if you want to dominate this space from the get-go, you need to start with Amazon aka Kindle first.
Kindle Marketing Made Easy
The following 10-step checklist will help you publish your book on Kindle to position yourself as an expert authority, draw in quality prospects and make more sales.
1. Pick a great title.
Start by having a look at the bestseller lists in different categories. Research bestselling titles such as
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, or
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Look for patterns and commonalities. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
A key to business success is to model what’s proven and tested to work. The exact same rules apply to marketing on Kindle too. Come up with a click-worthy title to differentiate yourself from other authors.
2. Include a well-written description.
By the time I’m writing this, Kindle allows you to use 4,000 characters to describe your book.
A well-written description gives your readers a short glimpse into the content of your book. It’s basically the very first time your readers experience your style, humor and writing approach. You want this experience to be a great one thus leading people to act fast and purchase your book.
Therefore use those characters wisely. Maximize your impact.
3. Place your book in two highly relevant and less crowded categories.
To get this step right, you’ll need to do a bit of research. The last thing you want is to place your book into a super crowded category with tens of bestsellers. Obviously, once your book gets traction and has good sales, moving it into a broader category could be a possible Kindle marketing strategy. However, if you’re just starting out, I suggest you do the opposite.
Place your book into subcategories that are less crowded. Leverage different marketing channels and promote your book both online and offline. Get good reviews, improve rankings and increase sales.
4. Use seven relevant long tail keywords that best describe your book.
Buyers search on Amazon just like browsers do on Google. So, if you want your book to be found, use all the options Kindle provides you with. You can include seven keywords – both short and long tail keywords.
5. Upload an enticing cover image.
The idiom “A picture is worth a thousand words” applies to Kindle as well.
Make your image stand out but don’t clutter it with text. Use bright colors and big fonts to catch the readers attention.
The cool thing about Kindle is that it let’s you test different cover photos without needing to go through the entire publishing process from anew.
6. Make use of Kindle’s pre-order option.
The next thing you can do is to capitalize on Amazon’s pre-order option. Basically what this does is, it allows customers to pre-order your book 90 days before the actual release date. Once you release your book, those who pre-ordered will automatically have it delivered to their Kindle.
This allows you to toot the horn for 90 days aka promote your upcoming book on all marketing channels prior to launching it. It’s a great feature. Use it to your advantage.
7. Upload your book file in the right format.
A lot of eBook marketing gurus recommend you upload a Word document or a PDF. That’s not what I recommend, unless of course you want your readers to have a terrible reading experience.
If your file includes complex formatting, images, tables, graphics and what not, it will not convert well. Actually it will look like crap on any eReader.
Therefore, I suggest you upload ePub files. Prior to uploading, validate your files with Kindle Previewer. This will ensure that your book looks professional and ultimately, provides an awesome reading experience.
8. Preview your book prior to publishing.
I already mentioned the Kindle Previewer in the previous step. Once you uploaded your file, go ahead and check the layout one more time within the online previewer. Make it a habit to always preview your book online prior to hitting the publish now button.
9. Test different prices and royalties.
You can choose between two royalty options: 35% or 70%.
If you select the 70% royalty, you’ll need to price your book at $2.99 or more. The next thing you can do is automatically set prices based on your Amazon.com list price.
Test until you find your sweet spot.
10. Review your Kindle marketing activities.
Just because you published your book on Kindle doesn’t mean you’re done.
If you want to be a successful author, you need to revisit your settings on a regular basis. For example, to find out whether there’s a better category, or subcategory for your book. You’ll also be well advised to setup an Author Central Page on Amazon and add a compelling bio.
The next thing you’ll want to do is promote your book to your ideal audience. Share your book on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. Publish a long-form post on LinkedIn and include the book URL at the end. Talk about your book at workshops, seminars and other live events. Attend different fairs and trade shows to get the word out.
To start your eBook journey on Amazon login to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
Wrapping It Up
There is so much to say about self publishing on Amazon or elsewhere… Just like every other journey, it has a starting point. Follow the checklist to prepare yourself as best as possible.
You will learn a lot during the process as well as further developing your eBook aka Kindle marketing skills. Implement, test, review, and repeat. Be on the lookout for improvement. Nothing beats experience.
What Kindle marketing tips would you add to the list?
