10 Tips on Amazon Ads for Authors

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Laurence O’Bryan’s of Books Go Social post on Amazon ads has some helpful information. Most notably the link to kindlepreneur and a free book description tool. A good book description is very important!

Laurence mentions that it’s important to have some good reviews – I’d suggest at least 10, but more is better. If you’re going to spend money on advertising, having reviews will help you spend your money more wisely. Remember, all reviews don’t need to be 4 or 5 stars. In fact, I think the reviews look more legitimate if there are a few 3 star reviews, not that you have any control over this. I just mention it because not everyone who reads your book will LOVE it and potential readers know this, so don’t worry when you get a few 3 star reviews. Hopefully your average is 4/5 or above.

I also agree that you shouldn’t spend more than you can afford. Pay attention to the ads – what they are charging and what money are you making. Keep in mind, the money they say you are making doesn’t take into account the discount – the 70% or 30% that Laurence mentions (item #5).

Note: I am not endorsing Books Go Social or the things they want to sell you in this post, but I know they are a good company and I do think they have author’s interests at heart – just below staying solvent (as all companies). I have not tried their free AMS ad course, so I can’t speak on that, but I think your keyword choice and your ad copy are two things that are very important with AMS ads. Those that can use computer-generated ad key words have an advantage. Unfortunately, that is not most of us, so we have to do our best.

Anyone who tries BGS free course, please share what you think. If I eek out some time to do it myself. I’ll also share what think.

Keep on Keeping on!

https://services4authors.com/2018/07/27/10-critical-things-to-know-before-you-spend-big-on-your-amazon-ads/

52 Sources For Free Music

Aug3

Photo by Juan Pablo Arenas on Pexels.com

Have you thought of putting together a video of your book?

It’s a creative way to advertise the story you want to share. It’s something I have yet to try, but with my new book: Chakra Magic (a fun grade school book about chakras), I’m probably going to give it a try, with a bit of help from my college-age daughter, who knows a lot more about Youtube than her mother, even though she is an engineer. (Just graduated as a biomedical engineer, I’m happy to say! Now onto grad school 🙂 ) I’ll need a bit of upbeat music so this list will come in handy. I thought it might come in handy to you too – if not now, maybe in the near future?!

Paul Carr has put together a very long list of 52 places to find music for your video.

Thanks Paul!

https://paulspagestoo.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/52-cool-places-to-find-music-and-sound-effects-for-your-videos-one-for-each-week-of-the-year/

Fast Track Guide To Fixing Your Book Description

Jun13

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Laurence O’Brien of BooksGoSocial reminds us how to create good book description copy – one of the key elements to book marketing.

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Step One: Watch this short 1 minute 21 seconds video. Step Two: Use strong active verbs instead of passive ones. If you’re describing a romance novel, for example, use words like: hot, steamy, spicy, scorching, passionate, burning. Use of…

Source: Fast Track Guide To Fixing Your Book Description | BooksGoSocial Resources

Book Awards (and Reviews!) – Readers’ Favorite

May29

There is still time to enter the 2018
Readers’ Favorite Book Award Contest

Only 3 days left to enter your book – FINAL DEADLINE

Enter your manuscript, published or unpublished book, eBook, audiobook, comic book, poetry book or short story. We offer 4 award levels in each of our 140+ categories, allowing you to only compete against books in your particular genre for a more fair and accurate contest, giving you the greatest chance of becoming an award-winning author!

Chance to win one of $50,000 in free prizes just for entering.
Chance to have your book made into a movie or TV show.
Chance to be published by an award winning traditional publisher.
Chance to be represented by a leading author marketing and PR firm.
Chance to be represented by a leading literary management company.
More features including a book review, award ceremony, and publicity.

When you enter, you automatically get a free review that they post for you on facebook, twitter, google+, Barnes & Nobel, Instagram and Pinterest. They also ask the reviewer to put it on their personal Goodreads account (if they have an account there) and you are able to put excerpts on your Amazon author central page (Amazon won’t let them post a review).

I entered my second Agnes Kelly Series book “Narrow Escape in Norway” this year and already received a 5 Star review! I won’t know if I’ve won anything until September.

“…This story is for all those readers who enjoy suspense, mystery, and adventure. I like the way the author creates secrecy and intrigue around the disappearance of Agnes’ father and pulls readers in to learn what exactly has happened to him. The fluidity in writing gives a good pace and movement to the story and the adventure, suspense, and laughs make the book fascinating to young readers. There is a sense of excitement and curiosity that builds up while trying to find out about Agnes’ father, which will keep readers glued to the book till the very last page. I am sure that, like me, young readers will be waiting for the next book.”

~ Mamta Madhavan

6 Top Tips for SEO on Amazon

May9

This is a post on ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) by Jyolsna Ramacham dran that every author should read. It’s is a step-by-step process of how to pick your best key words on Amazon using Google keyword planner and Amazon’s search engine and how to use those words in your title, subtitle and description (or “About” section on Amazon). Plus she gives you a few “ideas on sales conversion.

Great post, Jyolsna!

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“Here’s a handy checklist of pointers to help you optimise your book’s visibility on Amazon – make sure you’re not missing out on any of these valuable tips to help you make your book more discoverable and to sell more books!”…

Source: 6 Top Tips for SEO on Amazon | Alliance of Independent Authors: Self-Publishing Advice Center

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Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Shady Writing Contest Rules – from the ALA? | Valerie Biel

Apr30

Very important information from Valerie Biel and her wonderful writer’s blog about book contests. It’s a must read or listen to (youtube video/voiceover) for any author thinking of entering any contest.

Award contests can be a good way to promote and market yourself and your work!

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At the University of Wisconsin Writers’ Institute in April of 2018, I presented a session called “The Winner’s Circle: Are Writing Contests Worth the Fees?”. I discussed the ways to check if a contest is reputable, which ones are good to enter, and what to do if you win. Later, I took my PowerPoint and narrated it before uploading it to YouTube. You can watch it here.

Source: Shady Writing Contest Rules – from the ALA? | Valerie Biel

CKBooks Publishing
Were Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Giving Away Your Ebook – Yes or No

Apr19

The ongoing debate goes on – and for good reason. Like everything in life, the book market changes and so do the companies that service that market.

In the post link below, David Kudler explains various reason to go the free route and various reasons not to. As with most things, it really depends on what works for you at this moment in time. He also explains how to get Amazon to set your book for free, even though they don’t want to. But I wouldn’t go to that effort unless you’re going with perma-free. If you want free on Amazon and you’re not part of their Select program – just do an Amazon giveaway.

Personally, I think the perma-free thing only works if you have A LOT of good reviews for the first book in a book series before you even set it at FREE. (How much is A LOT? – not sure there is a magic number. How many reviews would it take you to pick up a book from an author you didn’t know?)

There are so many ways for readers to get books for free now a days, a free book from a completely unknown (and unread – if you don’t have many reviews) does very little to make a shopper click that button and pick up your book.

That is not to say free for a week or free for a day or book giveaways aren’t a good thing. I think short-term giveaways associated with some other promotion you might be doing aimed at readers you know is a good idea. You do want to get more reviews. But keep in mind, just because you give a book away doesn’t mean you’ll get a review. I’ve given away a lot of books on Amazon and Goodreads and the Fussy Librarian but gotten very few reviews from those. Hopefully I’ve gotten a new reader or two. And it only takes one or two people who read your book to decide they like you and will tell others about you and your book to help get your name out there.

What you can do is set the price for the first book in a series (or a first book in a collection of books you have) at a lower price than the rest. If someone really wants to try your book, $.99 or $1.99 or maybe $2.99 isn’t going to stop them.

And remember, pricing also depends on the length of the book and the genre your book is in. So check out what other unknown authors are charging in your genre to help you decide what to do.

Source: To Free or Not to Free: Giving Away Your Ebook – The Book Designer

Want To Be Interviewed

Mar29

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Writers tend to be shy people (not all, of course), but being interviewed for a broadcast of some kind might be just the things for a shy person.

Getting on a local radio station, podcast, association website… There are various places to get yourself and your writing in front of others. Tom Corson-Knowles offers writers a step-by-step process to getting interviewed.

I was interviewed once on a local radio program and had a great time doing it. Did I see any change in sales after? It was quite a while ago but I don’t remember any changes in my sales, but then the station broadcast reach was quite small. I still enjoyed it and would do it again.

CKBooks Publishing
Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Book Reviews and How to Get Them

Mar20

cat with gun

Short of getting your cat to persuade your readers to leave a review of your book, how do you get people to review your book?

Ask
Of course, this is the first step. Anyone who buys your book in front of you, or someone you hand your book to, you need to sincerely ask for a review. Look the person in the eye and let them know how helpful it is to you if they can leave you a review. If you are mailing a book to someone, put a personal note inside the book asking for a review.
Of course, you have that same request (and easy link in your ebooks) in the back of your book. That’s a given.
It’s important not to get upset when these people forget or they just aren’t comfortable leaving you a review. It may not even be about you or your book. Just be happy when reviews show up.
Book Giveaways
I think these things are good to do, but not for getting reviews. I don’t find people who get free books automatically leave reviews. I think book giveaways are better for connecting to readers. And this can eventually lead to word of mouth sales or at minimal, word of mouth reads. Maybe it will lead to a review, but don’t hold your breath.

So what is a author to do?

from spaceplace.nasa.gove

We can help each other!

I am aware of two facebook groups of writers through BooksGoSocial where authors read and review other authors.

BooksGoSocial Book Buying Review Club

This group requires you buy a book on Amazon and post the official review before you can ask for a review for your book. This is because Amazon will post reviews that are verified purchases. They don’t always post reviews that are not verified purchases. They will only allow a certain percent of non-purchased reviews.
In this group, you pick a book with the same price point as the book you will want a review for yourself (and you are only allowed to pick the last on the post list) – books that cost e.g. $.01 -.99 or $1.00 – 2.99 etc.
There is also a post for shorter books.

Then there is the BooksGoSocial Book Review Club

In this group, you are not required to buy a book, but you are required to prove you have reviewed another author’s book on Amazon.

Both of these groups require you to be accepted into the group and that you participate in the group, plus you can’t do review swaps – you review my book and I’ll review yours. Amazon can find these and they will take down these types of reviews.

Both of these groups are for middle grade through adult novels – fiction and non-fiction.

BooksGoSocial also has a group for children’s authors. Though this is not specific for reviews.

Hopefully all authors review any book they read, but these are 2 ways to guarantee you get reviews that are so helpful to you.