I thought I want to do something a little bit different! I want to share some kindle-tastic kindle publishing tips with you!
Everday I receive emails and messages asking me how I build my website, publish books, create magazines, run my Instagram, Pinterest etc
Truthfully, I’m not that confident that everything I do actually works for you. But I learned a lot over the last 4 years of self-publishing online. Which allow me to quit my day job to work from home full time.
Now I can do what I love doing because I have a passive income stream and I don’t have to rely on a month-to-month paycheck.
But don’t quit your job tomorrow. I didn’t quit my job until I had my side hustle going for 31 months.
Be responsible. You have to work on it over time but every day move closer towards this goal.
So, for the next 12 days, I’m going to share some self-publishing tips and guides to help you start your Kindle publishing, building a passive income and ultimately quit your day job!
Day 1: 5 Things Beginners Need to Know About Kindle Publishing
Day 2: 7 Reasons Why You Should Create an eBook for Your Business
Day 3: How to Write and Publish an eBook
Day 4: How To Find Profitable Niches To Publish Online
Day 5: The Biggest Mistake I Made In Self-Publishing and How You Can Avoid It
Day 6: 6 Steps To Sell More Books on Amazon
Day 7: Designing Book Covers That Sell
Day 8: 7 Most Common Self-Publishing Mistakes You Should Avoid
Day 9: 40 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book
Day 10: 49 Inspirational Marketing Tips From Top Authors
Day 11: Top 10 Best Tools for Self-Publishing Authors
Day 12: 12 Best Platforms to Self-Publish Your eBook and Make Money
Today, I’m going to talk about 6 Proven Steps To Sell More Books on Amazon.
There are over millions of titles on Amazon and every 5 minutes there is one new book published. Your primary goal in Kindle Publishing is to sell more books.
So, the question is “How can you make your book stand out from the many other competing books and turn shoppers into buyers?”
Believe it or not, it’s all about optimizing for Amazon algorithm if you want to make more sales on Amazon. In this post, I’ll share with you 6 easy to follow steps to make the most of Amazon algorithm. By following this steps you can maximize your book’s exposure, boost your book sales and profits.
1. Optimize your Keywords
Before we talk more about Amazon categories and keywords optimization, you need to know that Amazon is more like a search engine than an online store.
Although SEO keywords don’t work the same way on Amazon like they do on Google, get your books rank highly on Amazon will definitely boost your sale.
Just like ranking on Google, there’s no magic formula for ranking a book on Amazon. Plus, the algorithm is constantly being changed and updated by Amazon.
That being said, you still can rank your books on page one or even claim the bestseller titles over 1 billion eBooks and 3 million paperback books on Amazon. It’s simply because many people still don’t understand that Amazon is its own search engine.
The more searchable your book is, the easier it is to find your book when customers browse on Amazon and thus, the more books you will sell.
The key to making your book more searchable and discoverable is to understand how to optimize your keywords and categories on Amazon.
Amazon love keywords! By using the keywords properly, you can achieve higher ranking and generate more sales.
You’ll want to use certain keywords that reflect search terms used by customers and accurately portray your book’s subject.
How to Research Keyword
Go to Amazon Kindle store and click “Kindle eBook” on the left side of your screen. Then, select your book category.
Here’s an example of “Parenting & Relationships” category. On the left side bar, you’ll see more subgenre options, such as “Adoption”, “Family health”. Select one from the list that most suitable for your book genre.
Once you’ve clicked on the category, type your keywords/phrases slowly into Amazon’s search bar. You want to get Amazon suggested keywords that appear in the “Search” field drop down. Write down those relevant keywords or phrases.
Additionally, you also want to make sure that you include some of the keywords or phrases in your book titles, subtitles and descriptions.
2. Optimize your Browse Categories
For the browse category, you’ll need to select at least one category that you could possibly rank in.
First, check out the sale rank of the top books in that category. For example, a book with ranking #109 is selling very well. It’d be very hard for you to compete and rank higher in this category. So you might want to skip and continue looking for other categories.
Check the total number of books in each category too. Instead of going into a highly competitive category Fiction (with over 2 millions of eBooks) you would want to choose something more specific like Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Terrorism.
Don’t worry your book will show in the main categories Fiction, Mystery, Thriller and Suspense. By choosing a narrow subcategory, not only you can increase your book visibility, there’s a higher chance to appear on the top 100 lists, and ultimately drive more book sales.
By choosing the right 7 keywords and best 2 categories, it’ll help Amazon search engine to direct interested customers to your book.
3. Publish On a Regular Basis
The key to sustainable sales in Kindle publishing is to publish books regularly. Well, how often should you publish a book?
There has long been talk of a 90-Day Cliff and the latest is 30-Day Cliff among many experts. This means your book is less likely to sell after 30 days you release a book. It’s especially true for smaller profile authors on Amazon. So in order to get into the waves of Amazon algorithm, you’ll need to publish another book within 30days of the previous book release.
It doesn’t mean that you have to publish a full-length novel or writing hundreds of thousands of words manuscripts every 30days. While some authors can churn out a whole novel that quickly, some would work on short stories, novella or short guidebooks.
Plus, you can sell more books by creating a series of novels, short stories or box set.
For example, this is the 3-month sale report for one of my books (eBook and paperback versions). I don’t spend any money on book marketing and promotion. All I do is making sure that I publish at least a book into this series every month. It still generates sale every day even after the 30days or 90days window.
4. Perma free
If you’ve a series of books or multiple books, making your first book permanently free on Amazon (also known as Perma Free) will help to boost your sales in the long run.
When readers get hooked on your book and yearn to know more, you’ve securely confirmed a sale of your second book.
While no one would like the idea of giving away their hard work for free, this tactic is often referred to as fish bait (in a good way). Make sure you’ve a good cover design and the content is well edited.
Statistics also show that free books get about 100 times more downloads than paid ebooks. By making your book permanently free on Amazon, you’ll be able to reach a broader audience and sell more copies in the series. Remember to link your free book to other books, your website, social media, course or anything relevant that you want to promote.
However, you can’t set a book’s price as $0.00 on Amazon directly. But if you make a book free on other retailer websites like Smashwords or Draft2digital, Amazon will price match your book and you’ll have your book permanently free on Amazon. This will take weeks for Amazon to process and eventually make it perma free on Amazon.
5. Book reviews
Would you buy a book with 5-star reviews or the one with no review at all? The odds are in favor of the ones with reviews. Book reviews play an important role in getting your book known.
Relying solely on your sales page isn’t enough. You need to have some social proof to convince them to buy your book.
According to some experts, you’ll need to get at least 50 reviews before Amazon starts noticing your book and feeds into the book site algorithms. Books with 50 positive reviews will rank much higher in search results for related phrases, keywords and topics.
One of the best ways to get book reviews is giving out free copies of your book to people who might be interested in your genre and ask them to leave an honest review after reading it.
But not everyone will like your book and you can’t expect everyone will leave a review or a good review. Anyway, it’s still a great way to start and build your own reviewer list.
You can also contact book bloggers and Amazon reviewers. Be sure to read their reading policy, send a request for a book review and provide them free copies of your book.
Besides that, you can host giveaways or contests and provide winners with a free copy of your book. Ask them politely to leave a review on Amazon.
In short, you’ll want to have positive reviews for your book because it will make a huge difference when readers browse through your listing on Amazon search.
6. Enroll in KDP select
KDP select is an optional exclusive loyalty program for authors. It provides a new way to reach a wider audience and earn more royalties.
By enrolling your book in KDP select, you’ll have the access to use promotional tools like Kindle Free Days and Kindle Countdown Deals. Your book will also be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) and Kindle Unlimited (KU).
However, there is no guarantee of success by joining this KDP select program.
In fact, many authors reported earning less on Amazon because of the new change in payment method, from paying based on qualified borrows to the number of pages read since July 2015.
And this change has affected my monthly royalty income too. In order to take advantage of this program, I set my first book in a series as Perma free, and enroll the subsequent books in the series in KDP select. This helps me to boost my sale rankings and build my readership for my subsequent books.
Bonus: Use Professional 3D book mockup designs.
Why cut corners when you can attain premium-like quality designs with little to no extra-added cost?
Here are some other types of book mockups you can use today!
- Hardcover book mockup
- Matte Covered Books mockup
- Glossy Covered Books mockup
- Metallic Covered Books mockup
- Textured Leather Covered Books
- Book with Fabric Cover mockup
- Open Book Mockup
- Landscape Book Mockup
- Opened Matte Book Mockup
- Hardcover book in a Hand Mockup
- Hardcover Novel Book Mockup
Steal the Designs. Instantly Download your first 3D book mockup on Yellow Images for $4.99. (Use Promo Code YMG for 10% Off) If you want unlimited 3D Mockup Blueprints, become a Yellow Image Member. You can save more! Get 90% Off. Premium Members are getting Mockups for just $1.5.
Well, there you go!
Do you have any problem or question following this tutorial to sell more books on Amazon? Feel free to comment below
This is day 6 of 12 Days of Self-Publishing Tips to make passive income online! Tomorrow I will talk about getting Great Designs done cheaply.
Coming Up Next
