Making money from your writing does not involve any hidden gimmicks or secret formulas. It also doesn't require you to be an expert marketer.
Is it easy to learn? It takes a lot of work to achieve anything worthwhile in life. To achieve long-term sales, we need to do things right. Self-published authors should know as much about marketing their books as they do about writing them. Getting your book published is one thing; getting sales and readers is another.
If you want to sell a lot of books via print or an ebook, you have to focus on two areas: your book launch strategy and your book production.
From the beginning, every decision you make about your book is made to reach your audience and bring new readers into your brand. This post can help you navigate the trenches of bookselling if you're a writer trying to figure out how to increase book sales on Amazon.
How to Increase Book Sales on Amazon
There are several ways that you can increase your book sales on Amazon. Many of which focus on the overall package of your book. This can range from ensuring your book cover is on-brand to ensuring your content fits the market. There are several methods you can use to help get your book flying out of the stores. However, the 6 top things you need to check are:
- Make sure you have a great cover
- Create a strong book title and subtitle
- See what your book reviews are like, you want to gather decent book reviews
- Make your book description stand out
- Make effective use of Amazon keywords
- Edit your book professionally if you haven't yet done so.
Without a doubt, there are other steps you can look into as well, but for this article, we will focus on the top 6. So let's dive right in.
Top 6 Ways To Increase Book Sales On Amazon
Make Sure You Have a Great Cover
It is always said that "You can never judge a book by its cover." That might have been true back in 1946, but today, readers DO judge your book by its cover, and they will use your cover to determine if they want to buy it or not.
The concept behind this is if an author spends the effort and time to create a beautiful cover, then the content inside should match the level of effort and value.
Your book has three seconds to grab the reader's attention when they first see it. Have a cover that gets your buyer's attention and makes them click through to the next step.
Create a Strong Book Title and Subtitle
The cover grabs the reader's attention, but the title is what sells the book. Spend the additional effort and time to come up with an effective title/subtitle for your book. This, in many cases, will be a determining factor for target readers when choosing whether to buy your book or not.
Using the title as your hook and the subtitle as your elevator pitch tells the reader what they will gain from reading this book.
Try to come up with as many possible titles for both the main title and subtitle as you can. While the title can hint at what the book is about, the subtitle is what sells the book. Often, good books that sell are accompanied by great subtitles that help browsers understand what is inside.
Examine Your Reviews - Reviews Equals Credibility
In most cases, a quick glance at the book reviews will seal the deal for most book browsers if they're attracted to the cover, and the theme of the book resonates with the subject matter that interests them.
A book with fewer than ten reviews, or no reviews at all, may be passed over in favor of another book with a higher rating. You should always strive to get reviews for your books. Even one-star reviews can tell a potential buyer something about your book that one person may have disliked, but they may enjoy.
Remember: Reviews give you credibility, and credibility sells more books.
There is a strong link between Amazon's algorithm and book sales and reviews. Your book will be promoted higher in the sales ranks of new releases if it does well within the first two weeks, coupled with a set of high-ranking reviews.
A long-term strategy is also set up in this way. Focus everything you have on the first 2-3 weeks of your book's lifespan if you want to maximize sales. Your book will perform better than most competitors if you receive lots of sales and reviews during this critical period.
How Do You Get More Reviews When Your Book Is Just Launching?
Even brand new authors can potentially get reviews using ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies). Build a strong launch team of early reviewers who will receive a free copy of your book before it is released in exchange for an honest review when your book goes live for sale.
If you want to stack up on reviews during your launch, you can:
- Include a review request page at the end of your ebook with a direct link to your book's Amazon review page.
- Offer early reviewers a copy of your book to review at least two weeks before you publish, and send them a reminder when your book is about to go live.
- Reach out to Amazon's Top Reviewers in your genre and request reviews from them in exchange for a free copy of the book.
Make Your Book Description Stand Out
Don't ignore the option to add a lengthy book description to Amazon's author page. A solid book description adds that "heft" factor to the quality of your product, even though your book cover, title, and reviews are enough to sell your work.
The book description will be a sales page outlining the benefits of the book if it's non-fiction or a small synopsis or teaser of your book if it's fiction. Your book description should combine various font styles and structures to create a clean, attractive look.
Make Effective Use of Amazon Keywords
What is the point of writing a book if nobody can find it? Keywords help people find your book so they can buy it. To drive traffic towards your book, researching and implementing the right keywords is essential.
How Do We Know What Keywords Are the Right Ones? Where Do We Find These Keywords?
Finding the right keywords will help your book rank in the top search results so that customers will see it when they search for those keywords. Higher rankings result in greater visibility, which increases sales.
You can use these three tools to research relevant keywords for your book. These are:
With the right software, you can find out how many times your keyword has been searched. Google will also show you related searches and how competitive a keyword is. You want a word that has good search volume and isn't too competitive.
You can also use Amazon's search bar to look up your book's title and keywords. Look under the dropdown menu. Think about what your readers will search for when they are looking for your book.
When listing your book on Amazon, you can use up to seven short-tail phrases or keywords. When searching on Amazon, most people prefer to type in a short tail phrase rather than a single keyword. By being specific, you make your book more searchable.
Get A Professional Edit If You Have Not Yet Done So
Negative reviews are inevitable for a book that was poorly edited. Having negative reviews on your book is perfectly fine, but you don't want those reviews to be about the quality of the writing. That instantly turns off potential buyers.
When we talk about poor quality of writing, we're don't mean the occasional error or typo (which is easily rectified); rather, we're talking about an entire book filled with typos, misspellings, and a sloppy appearance. A reader will not read a poorly edited book. The last thing you want is for your book to become a trending DNF (Did Not Finish). Remember the quality of each book will determine future sales of your entire catalog.
Conclusion
I hope this has been useful and you now have some more insight on how to get your book noticed on amazon
