Is the eBook revolution just a fad? Are headlines such as “Amazon selling over 1 million Kindles a week” a thing of the past? What category is responsible for the decline of the publishing industry? Still worth joining the Kindle game?
Loads of questions… and loads of answers presented as Kindle marketing tidbits coming up to help you better understand the eBook marketplace.
The debate is heating up between eBook supporters and those looking forward to seeing people move back to hard and soft covers, or paperback versions. Whether this “war” makes sense or not… well, I’ll leave that question to you.
I prefer to focus on the positive side of the story and provide you with some actionable eBook AKA Kindle marketing tips that you can implement right away to become a leading authority in your industry, increase brand awareness and make money at the same time.
Sounds good?
In today’s article I’ll provide you with a list of seven proven Kindle marketing tips to help you launch your book on the world’s leading eCommerce site Amazon and finally earn some money on the side — at least in the beginning, until you find your sweet spot.
Before I share these tips with you, I’d like to point out two things:
1. First of all, I’m sharing my personal experience with you. This is NOT something that I read in some fancy magazine or heard about while attending some weird happy-clappy seminar. I’m sharing with you the real deal here. I’m providing you with solid eBook and Kindle marketing strategies.
So far, I have published seventeen books on Amazon — both Kindle and CreateSpace. Furthermore, I’ve helped my clients publish numerous books in the following industries: health and fitness, real estate, brokerage, investment banking, social media, children’s books, physical science and more.
Yes, I’ve done a ton of mistakes during the past five years since I launched my very first book, however, I also learned a ton of awesome strategies and techniques. Among the numerous valuable lessons that I learned, is also how to turn a book into a bestseller on Amazon.
I accomplished this with my German book “Die Podcasting-Goldgrube”. Feel free to check it out on Kindle or CreateSpace if you speak German.
2. Second, I’d like to share with you a recent Slideshare presentation on “The Changing Mix of What Sells in Print: How eBooks Have Changed the Book Marketplace”.
The following charts and graphs published by Nielsen offer some interesting insights.
For example, sales of eBooks seem to peak in the first two quarters of the year. Why is that so? The obvious explanation that comes to mind, is that people load content on their Kindles, smartphones and tablets they received as a Christmas gift during the festive season.
Quite interesting to see categories such as Religion/Bibles and Juvenile Non-Fiction continue their double-digit growth while Fantasy, General Fiction, Mystery/Detectives, Travel and Craft/Hobbies/Game decrease 33% and more.
Enjoy the Slideshare presentation provided by Publishers Launch Conferences.
Actionable Kindle Marketing Tips That Will Consolidate Your Brand and Authority Online
1. Create a Killer Author Page.
Let’s start this Kindle marketing journey with YOU first — the author.
Yes, it might seem unusual and obscure to start with the author and not the consumer, but you’ll understand in a bit why I focus on you first.
Often times when you search a book on Amazon you’ll find a hyperlink on the author’s name. If linked correctly, this will bring you to a new page. It’s the author’s profile page.
Here’s what you want to include on your Kindle profile page:
- A description of who you are and what you do.
- The URL of your website so people can read your blog or contact you if they have questions.
- Link all your books (Kindle and CreateSpace) to your author page.
- Link your Twitter account to your profile page. Amazon will automatically pull your latest tweets. Sweet, right?
Before we move to Kindle marketing tip two, here’s one more suggestion:
There are currently thirteen Marketplaces — as in Amazon Partners. Obviously, you can go ahead and create your profile page on all these platforms. However, if you don’t want to mess around with all these different partners, at least create a compelling profile page on the major platforms COM, UK, and DE.
You can create your author page by accessing Amazon Central.
And here’s what my Author Page on Amazon looks like.
2. Start With Kindle First, Add Paperback Version Second.
Why publish your book in this precise order?
Because it’s easier to test and change things on Kindle. Changes to the paperback version you upload to CreateSpace require way more energy and time. Plus you have to start the whole process from scratch. For example, you’ll need a new ISBN number and loads more.
However, don’t just stick to Kindle. Have an integrated eBook marketing approach and use the power of both platforms to maximize your results. Harness the power of integration.
3. Don’t Assume Anything. Test Everything.
Test different cover layouts.
Test different images and color schemes.
Test different titles and subtitles. Make your headlines catchy and click-worthy.
Test different categories. Some categories are more crowded than others.
Keep tweaking and testing until you get the outcomes you want.
“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.” – David Ogilvy
Replace the word “advertising” with the word “Kindle book” or “book” in the above quote and you’ll understand the importance of testing everything.
4. Include Keywords in Your Title and Subtitle.
Browsers go to Google. Buyers go to Amazon.
However, both parties search based on keywords. And at this point in time, it’s irrelevant whether they search based on short or long-tail keywords — fact is, they insert a keyword into the search box and wait for the items, books, videos, magazines etc. to show up.
Therefore include keywords into your title that apply to the content but don’t stuff them. Your title and subtitle should read naturally.
You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to perform some basic keyword research. For a more in-depth analysis, checkout this list of free keywords tools that I provided in one of my previous blog posts.
5. Include Keywords When Uploading Your Book.
Let’s stick to keywords for a second longer…
Once you’re on Kindle (or CreateSpace) and you start entering your book details, ensure you fill out the section where it says “Search keywords (up to 7 optional)”.
You’ll notice that I used the long tail keyword “how to grow a company” for one of my books. Just so you know, this counts as one single keyword. So, you’re free to use both short and long tail keywords.
6. Publish in Different Languages.
Obviously, if you publish a book in English you will reach a lot more people.
What if you translate your book into Spanish or German? Would this allow you to reach even more people?
Absolutely.
Have a look at bestselling authors such as Paulo Coelho, Jules Verne, Robert Kiyosaki or Eckhart Tolle. Their books have been translated into 30+ languages. And it’s a reason for that. One of them is, reaching more people, and the other one is ultimately, generating more sales and money.
One more thing that I’d like to point out when it comes to publishing in foreign languages:
It’s less competition — especially if you pick a nifty niche.
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Nichy.
Yes, that’s right. Don’t be afraid to pick a nichy niche.
One of the most common mistakes in marketing – it applies to eBook and Kindle marketing as well, is to go broad. That’s the worse thing you can do. This approach makes it very hard to reach your ideal audience.
Instead, the question you should ponder upon is:
Is the niche that I picked nichy enough?
At the same time, make sure it is a profitable niche people are interested in, and more importantly, a niche in which people are willing to invest their money in.
You want to make money, not just upload your book to Amazon and consider it to be the end of the journey…
Here’s an example:
Have a look at my bestseller “Die Podcasting-Goldgrube”.
It’s in German. So, less competition.
It’s about Podcasting. A pretty narrow niche, don’t you think?
And, it’s for Beginners. Within the niche podcasting, the book is targeted explicitly towards people who want (or are thinking about) to join the podcasting community by creating their own show.
Wrapping It Up
Self-publishing has opened doors for so many people to express their insights, dreams, experiences thus enabling us to share our valuable message with the world.
You can join the amazing community of self-published authors anytime. Both Kindle and CreateSpace are great platforms to get the word out and start making passive income.
So, what are you waiting for?
Over to you…
There has never been a better time to harness Amazon’s free technology and platforms to publish your books. And we all know by now, that everyone has at least one good book in them.
What other book and Kindle marketing tips would you add to this list?
