This article isn't about how your book should be properly formatted, free of grammatical errors or of unique and original quality. You're an indie author and a serious professional - you know the importance of a polished book.
Instead, let's focus on the top 4 components involved in obtaining a higher ranking for your book.
This includes:
1: Book Title
2: Book Cover
3: Book Tags
4: Book Category
Your book title is one of the most important components, because it identifies what your book is about and who your audience is. You want to make sure to incorporate keywords, if possible as it will help your book rank on the marketplace.
That being said, it's not always possible to use your primary keywords in your book title. You need your title to make sense and appeal to your audience so in the event you are unable to integrate keywords into the title - you simply add them in as tags. More on that in a moment.
Your book cover
Your cover offers a visual of what your book is about and people will judge the quality of your content on the quality of your cover. If you upload an unprofessional, grainy cover, you can expect lower sales.
Make sure that your cover targets your demographic as well. If you're a Romance writer you want your book cover to represent your main character. If you're writing Paranormal, make sure that your cover illustrates the main setting, or vibe of your book. Most of us indie authors choose an image for our book before writing the story, because then we can easily build a storyline around what the image or picture is saying to us.
After all, a picture paints a thousand words!
You can choose to create your own cover or outsource it to a professional graphic designer, the choice is yours (and is of course, dependent on your budget). Just run a quick Google search for "Ebook Cover Designers" and you'll quickly find many different artists to choose from.
Book Tags
Your assigned tags help your readers find your story, so you want to make sure to choose appropriate tags for your book. Don't make the mistake of choosing tags based only on popularity, but instead make sure that they are relevant to the genre and topic of your story.
Choosing A Category
Amazon allows you to choose only one category for your book, so you want to make sure that you select the best one for your genre or audience.
With SmashWords, you are able to select more than one category, giving you the opportunity to feature your book in different genres and sub-genres. Choose wisely!
Friday, September 9
Finding Hot Topics For Your Books
If you aren't sure what genre you're interested in, or you really don't know what is likely to sell, there are a few quick things that you can do to evaluate potential niches and then choose a topic for your book that stands a good chance at selling.
One of the ways that I evaluate potential topics is by looking what ebooks are already selling well on both Amazon and places like Barnes & Noble and SmashWords.
Check out the "Top 100" sellers in many different genres and categories, and jot down any ideas that come to mind. Make sure to also check out the "Amazon Best Sellers" as well at: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store/zgbs/digital-text
Another easy way to generate new ideas on potentially profitable topics is by browsing through the ClickBank marketplace at http://www.Clickbank.com
ClickBank is the one of the largest digital marketplaces for books relating to everything from business to specialized niche topics, and it's also a great resource for new authors when it comes to market evaluation. You can come up with a ton of ideas for your next book just by browsing categories and reviewing stats based around current sales.
You can review products that are featured within the marketplace at http://www.ClickBank.com/featured as well. This area of Clickbank provides you with a quick snapshot of current hot sellers, so you can get a good idea as to what topics are in demand.
One of the ways that I evaluate potential topics is by looking what ebooks are already selling well on both Amazon and places like Barnes & Noble and SmashWords.
Check out the "Top 100" sellers in many different genres and categories, and jot down any ideas that come to mind. Make sure to also check out the "Amazon Best Sellers" as well at: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store/zgbs/digital-text
Another easy way to generate new ideas on potentially profitable topics is by browsing through the ClickBank marketplace at http://www.Clickbank.com
ClickBank is the one of the largest digital marketplaces for books relating to everything from business to specialized niche topics, and it's also a great resource for new authors when it comes to market evaluation. You can come up with a ton of ideas for your next book just by browsing categories and reviewing stats based around current sales.
You can review products that are featured within the marketplace at http://www.ClickBank.com/featured as well. This area of Clickbank provides you with a quick snapshot of current hot sellers, so you can get a good idea as to what topics are in demand.
Publishing On SmashWords
I'm a new Indie author and so I'm always looking for ways that I can maximize my books exposure. One of the most valuable resources I've stumbled across so far is SmashWords.
SmashWords is free and easy to use, and with their service you can publish your book on their marketplace as well as through a variety of other book merchants, including Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Apple's iBookStore!
Here are a few reasons why SmashWords is such a valuable resource to indie authors:
1: Affiliate Program
SmashWords offers a built-in affiliate program giving you the opportunity to recruit affiliates to promote your book! You can assign your own commission percentage to each book, providing affiliates with up to 50% commissions.
2: Upgrade For Free To Publisher Account
If you plan to publish multiple books under different pen names, you can instantly upgrade your SmashWords account for free. Doing this will give you the opportunity to publish as many different books under as many different names, as you wish - all easily managed from one admin center!
3: Instant Updates
Unlike Amazon, whenever you make any changes to your book on SmashWords, it's updated instantly, and is automatically available within their marketplace. While SmashWords doesn't have the same outreach as Amazon or Barnes & Noble in terms of traffic, it's extra exposure for your book for free!
4: Higher Payouts
SmashWords offers up to 85% royalty payments, so you can actually earn more per unit sold than with any other marketplace!
5: Extended Distribution
Normally, Canadian authors can't publish on Barnes & Noble but with SmashWords, you finally can! SmashWords will help all authors get their books into places that aren't always so easy, including Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Diesel Ebook Store and more!
If you're a new author and you'd like to give your book sales a quick boost, head on over to SmashWords and create your free account.
SmashWords is free and easy to use, and with their service you can publish your book on their marketplace as well as through a variety of other book merchants, including Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Apple's iBookStore!
Here are a few reasons why SmashWords is such a valuable resource to indie authors:
1: Affiliate Program
SmashWords offers a built-in affiliate program giving you the opportunity to recruit affiliates to promote your book! You can assign your own commission percentage to each book, providing affiliates with up to 50% commissions.
2: Upgrade For Free To Publisher Account
If you plan to publish multiple books under different pen names, you can instantly upgrade your SmashWords account for free. Doing this will give you the opportunity to publish as many different books under as many different names, as you wish - all easily managed from one admin center!
3: Instant Updates
Unlike Amazon, whenever you make any changes to your book on SmashWords, it's updated instantly, and is automatically available within their marketplace. While SmashWords doesn't have the same outreach as Amazon or Barnes & Noble in terms of traffic, it's extra exposure for your book for free!
4: Higher Payouts
SmashWords offers up to 85% royalty payments, so you can actually earn more per unit sold than with any other marketplace!
5: Extended Distribution
Normally, Canadian authors can't publish on Barnes & Noble but with SmashWords, you finally can! SmashWords will help all authors get their books into places that aren't always so easy, including Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Diesel Ebook Store and more!
If you're a new author and you'd like to give your book sales a quick boost, head on over to SmashWords and create your free account.
Wednesday, February 9
Loss Leaders For Profit
As a new author, I'm exploring many different strategies to increase sales and exposure of my books. During a recent online Webinar, I was introduced to the concept of "Loss Leaders".
I've heard the term before in marketing, but I never thought about it in terms of self publishing.
Here's what a loss leader is:
You create 2-3 books. The first one is your lost leader, which means that you price it lower than your other published books. In my example, I priced my first book at only $0.99, with my follow up books priced at $2.99.
A Loss Leader is designed to attract attention and recruit new customers by giving them a lower priced version of your book. In other words, you're providing a sample of your written work at a low cost, minimizing your buyers risk. If you've done your job at producing high quality content, it's likely that your buyer will purchase additional books from you, all of which are priced higher.
This works exceptionally well if you are creating a series, where you price Book #1 at only $0.99 and all follow up books in the series at a higher rate, but it can work just as well if you have individual books that are focused on the same genre but are not part of a series.
It's important to play with price points when selling books online, because you want to split test different prices to determine the level of resistance in your market. Don't just price your books at the same rate that all other authors are pricing theirs at - be active in testing out different pricing strategies to determine what works best for your audience.
I've heard the term before in marketing, but I never thought about it in terms of self publishing.
Here's what a loss leader is:
You create 2-3 books. The first one is your lost leader, which means that you price it lower than your other published books. In my example, I priced my first book at only $0.99, with my follow up books priced at $2.99.
A Loss Leader is designed to attract attention and recruit new customers by giving them a lower priced version of your book. In other words, you're providing a sample of your written work at a low cost, minimizing your buyers risk. If you've done your job at producing high quality content, it's likely that your buyer will purchase additional books from you, all of which are priced higher.
This works exceptionally well if you are creating a series, where you price Book #1 at only $0.99 and all follow up books in the series at a higher rate, but it can work just as well if you have individual books that are focused on the same genre but are not part of a series.
It's important to play with price points when selling books online, because you want to split test different prices to determine the level of resistance in your market. Don't just price your books at the same rate that all other authors are pricing theirs at - be active in testing out different pricing strategies to determine what works best for your audience.
Sunday, January 9
Self Publishing On Kindle
There's never been a more exciting time to publish your own books, especially with so many self publishing options available to you.
To begin, you will want to set up 2 accounts with Amazon:
1: https://kdp.amazon.com
This is where you create your Kindle publisher account, and it's where you will later log in to submit your ebooks for publication.
2: https://authorcentral.amazon.com
You can only create an Author account once you have at least one book available within the Amazon marketplace. Author Central will give you the opportunity to create an author profile, bio, as well as add the RSS feed from your blogs and twitter account.
Creating a Kindle version of your book is relatively easy. All you need to do is make sure that it's properly formatted inside of your doc editor and then save out as .HTML
One thing to keep in mind is that when you export your book in HTML format, the files will be saved on your desktop in two different ways. You will see a folder that contains any images that you've included in your book as well as the HTML file itself. You need to zip up both of these into one file before uploading to Kindle.
When you submit your first book into Kindle, it can take up to 48 hours to be approved. You will see your book go through various stages, including:
In Review: This means that your book is being reviewed by Amazon to ensure that it's compliant with their guidelines.
Publishing: The tab inside of your Author account will be greyed out during publishing, which means that you will be unable to make any changes, either to the content, title or price until it has been completely published. One thing to keep in mind however is that your book will actually become available on Amazon before you actually see the update within your Author account. So, keep checking the Amazon marketplace for your book while you are waiting for your account to update.
Blocked: If Amazon finds that your book is unacceptable for publication, it will be "Blocked". If you have a book that ends up Blocked by Amazon, you will not be able to re-submit it for publication, even if you make changes. Instead, edit the book as necessary and then re-submit it as a new book. Most times it will be accepted on the second attempt (Just depends on the reviewer!).
To begin, you will want to set up 2 accounts with Amazon:
1: https://kdp.amazon.com
This is where you create your Kindle publisher account, and it's where you will later log in to submit your ebooks for publication.
2: https://authorcentral.amazon.com
You can only create an Author account once you have at least one book available within the Amazon marketplace. Author Central will give you the opportunity to create an author profile, bio, as well as add the RSS feed from your blogs and twitter account.
Creating a Kindle version of your book is relatively easy. All you need to do is make sure that it's properly formatted inside of your doc editor and then save out as .HTML
One thing to keep in mind is that when you export your book in HTML format, the files will be saved on your desktop in two different ways. You will see a folder that contains any images that you've included in your book as well as the HTML file itself. You need to zip up both of these into one file before uploading to Kindle.
When you submit your first book into Kindle, it can take up to 48 hours to be approved. You will see your book go through various stages, including:
In Review: This means that your book is being reviewed by Amazon to ensure that it's compliant with their guidelines.
Publishing: The tab inside of your Author account will be greyed out during publishing, which means that you will be unable to make any changes, either to the content, title or price until it has been completely published. One thing to keep in mind however is that your book will actually become available on Amazon before you actually see the update within your Author account. So, keep checking the Amazon marketplace for your book while you are waiting for your account to update.
Blocked: If Amazon finds that your book is unacceptable for publication, it will be "Blocked". If you have a book that ends up Blocked by Amazon, you will not be able to re-submit it for publication, even if you make changes. Instead, edit the book as necessary and then re-submit it as a new book. Most times it will be accepted on the second attempt (Just depends on the reviewer!).
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