When Free Isn’t Really Free – Guest Post by, Jaq D Hawkins…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

One of my pet peeves in marketing is when someone offers something for free, but it isn’t really free. For example, recently I clicked on a free sample for a cosmetic, only to find that after getting your address details, they ask for a credit card because to get the free sample you have to subscribe to receiving a jar of cream every month and according to reviews, trying to cancel it is a nightmare! I closed the window and moved on.

In the realm of book sales, giving away free books has been a legitimate tactic since the indie publishing culture started. In the early days, free sales on Amazon would bump your sales figures and bring your book into that coveted top 100 where full price sales would follow. Amazon changed that so that the free books don’t affect the paid sales figures, but many authors still do…

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“I should have had nothing to do with those accursed Angevins. I should have run like hell in the opposite direction.”

Giles de Soutenay can scarcely be blamed for his disappointment. Promised an heiress by Queen Eleanor, he is dismayed to discover that, although young and attractive, his bride has all the warmth of a stone effigy.

For the newly widowed Isabella, the reality of a new husband is no cause for celebration. She will do her duty but no more. She will give de Soutenay no reason to complain but he will not have her heart, for any belief in love and tenderness died during those brief years of her first marriage. However, she has reckoned without Giles’ perseverance.

After the snows of winter, spring brings hope, until the arrival of a stranger threatens Giles and Isabella’s blossoming happiness…

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Are Your Amazon Books Merged On Your Book Sales Page? – by Derek Haines…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Just Publishing Advice:

A trap to avoid for new authors on Amazon Books

Publishing a new book is an exciting time for any author.

There are so many things you have to do, and it is sometimes easy to overlook a few important things.

When you publish different versions of your book, such as in Kindle ebook and paperback, you should always check your book sales page.

It is not unusual for Amazon to take quite some time on occasions to merge both versions. When you have separate sales pages, it is difficult for potential readers to find your book in their preferred format.

Another problem is that because you have two separate book sales pages with different URLs, it makes it impossible for you to promote your book with one link.

Continue reading HERE

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Amazon Reviews, an Update

Nicholas C. Rossis

Image: dailyfinance.com

I often write about Amazon reviews, as it is one of the most important aspects of marketing for many people and Amazon seems to keep changing the rules!

Now, Amy Collins of The Book Designer published an update in the form of Frequently Asked Questions. I’m sharing here the most common ones:

Can Anyone post a review on Amazon?

To contribute to Customer Reviews, you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card in the past 12 months. Promotional discounts don’t qualify towards the $50 minimum.

May I ask people to write a review of my book?

Book authors and publishers may provide free or discounted copies of their books to readers, as long as the author or publisher does not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review. Also, you are allowed to discount your…

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Understanding the Current “Dos” and “Don’ts” of Amazon Book Reviews – by Amy Collins…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on The Book Designer:

Amazon and Amazon’s rules are changing so fast!

We would like to bring you up to date on the current rules and share some guidelines we have found most helpful when trying to get reviews for your book on Amazon.

Here you will find the most frequently asked questions around the Amazon review process and Amazon’s answers. I have gone right to the source and given you the Amazon rules right from the horse’s mouth.

Continue reading HERE

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How to Optimize your Book Page on Amazon

Nicholas C. Rossis

This post is based on an article I helped write for SearchNurture titled How to Hit Your Target ACoS on Amazon.

Optimizing your Book Page

Amazon is, in effect, a giant search engine of products. To ensure that your book shows up first, you must target specific keywords both organically (i.e. based on your product description) and through Ads. However, no matter how successful your Ad is, all it can accomplish is lead shoppers to your product page. It is up to that to convince them to buy your book.

Ideally, everything on your book page will be tailored for your target audience. Let’s take, for example, my book, A Heaven for Toasters. I want shoppers searching for “sci-fi crime romance” to buy my book. What can I do to make sure they do so?

Title

Start with your page title. Think of it as a hook. Let…

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Don’t throw out the baby! Why #Amazon doesn’t want your #BookReviews

Barb Taub

An open letter to Amazon:

Dear Amazon,

I should be your Holy Grail. I’m the real deal, an actual reader who goes through books carefully, thinks about what they mean and how they’re written, and then writes a considered, thoughtful, and hopefully helpful analysis—in other words, I’m a book reviewer.

Writers, potential customers, publishers, and oh yes—you, Amazon—should be jumping for joy and giving thanks that I’ve taken hours to read and yet more hours to craft reviews for hundreds of books. Instead, Amazon, you’ve decided to punish reviewers like me.

In the name of discouraging “fake” reviews, your new policy requires reviewers like me to spend $50 on Amazon’s US site and even more, £40 on Amazon UK before I can share my review. Have you thought about other solutions, or the effect this will have on legitimate reviewers?

Amazon has figured out how to conduct millions of legitimate…

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An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos…

Have We Had Help?

… asking Jeff Bezos to help himself and his contributing authors.

Dear Jeff,

We all know that the only thing you fear is the loss of income. I wonder if you are aware how much you are losing from non sales of ebooks in your literary section? Currently you have several million books of ours consigned to the literary equivalent of purgatory. Why? Because of your company’s ridiculous rating system, designed to consign a book to oblivion in a couple of days after it goes live on Amazon if it isn’t instantly bought in its thousands by the general public worldwide.

Someone close to you who you trust needs to make you aware of how much lost profit is currently sitting on your electronic shelves! It’s bad enough that you allowed your minions to come up with ways of saving money by changing the rules regarding the pittance paid out…

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How Does Amazon.com Sales Rank Work?

chrismcmullen

AMAZON.COM SALES RANK

Amazon assigns a sales rank to every product that has sold at least one time.

The lower the number, the better the product is selling.

For example, a sales rank of 2500 is better than a sales rank of 375,000.

The product that sells the best in its category has a sales rank of 1.

CATEGORY RANKS

Amazon has different ranks for different types of products.

Books are ranked independently from sports equipment and video games, for example.

For a given type of product, there are also category ranks.

For example, a few Books categories include Romance, Children’s, and Science.

A great overall rank is more impressive than a category rank.

For example, a book has to sell quite frequently to rank 500 overall in Books, but can sell much less frequently and still rank 500 in Romance.

A good rank in a broad category is more…

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Book Metadata? What The Heck Is Book Metadata?

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

by Derek Haines  on Just Publishing Advice site:

Book metadata is in the end, what really sells ebooks, so you need to know about it.

If you are an author and self-publishing on Amazon, Kindle, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, Apple, B&N or anywhere else, you need to know what book metadata is, and how to use it to help sell more books.

Take it from me, as an author who has been chronically lazy and left many of my long list of previously published books unchanged from the day they were published; times have changed. And how!

I have been booted into action, however, by this book metadata stuff because, well, um, here comes my admission. Because my book sales were falling, and I know why.

I have not made it easy for readers to find my books. No matter how many great reviews my books may have, if readers can’t search and find…

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