Amazon Bestseller Genie
Introduction to Amazon
Bestseller Genie..............................................................3
Overall Plan ..........................................................................................................5
Proper Categorization &
Keywords.......................................................................7
Reviews ................................................................................................................8
Ways to Get
Reviews........................................................................................8
Ways NOT to Get Reviews
...............................................................................9
Social Marketing .................................................................................................11
Facebook ........................................................................................................11
Twitter .............................................................................................................12
Pinterest..........................................................................................................12
YouTube..........................................................................................................13
Good Reads & LibraryThing.............................................................................13
Book Blogs..........................................................................................................14
Giveaways ..........................................................................................................15
Email Marketing..................................................................................................16
Book Cover.........................................................................................................17
Editing.................................................................................................................18
Final Thoughts....................................................................................................19
Resources...........................................................................................................20
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 2
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Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 3
Everyone would like to have a bestselling book, but very few people will ever
achieve it. Have you ever wondered
why that is? Is it because some people are
better writers
than others? Possibly. But have you ever wondered why some
people who aren’t great writers end up on the bestseller lists
while fantastic
writers often struggle
to sell a handful of copies?
The answer,
of course, is promotion!
Most writers, especially self-published ones, upload
their book and just sit back
waiting for the magic to happen.
Then they wonder why no one is buying
their
book.
Would you expect to start a website and get a ton of traffic without
any
promotion? Would you expect to start a restaurant
and get a ton of diners without
any promotion? Then why expect to write a book and sell a ton of copies without
any promotion?
Promotion is the key to almost every bestseller
you can think of. Very few books
have taken off without some kind
of promotion behind
them.
In this guide,
you’re going to learn about
some of the key things you can do to
promote your book on Amazon and increase
sales. You’ll learn about reviews,
mailing lists, social marketing and much more.
So let’s get started.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 4
The overall plan for marketing your book has one main purpose… to make your
book shoot up the bestseller lists on Amazon to gain the most visibility possible.
Once your book makes it onto the various bestseller lists on the Amazon
site,
your sales will really take off.
But just like it takes money to make money, it takes sales to make sales. You
need enough sales to propel your book up those lists, and then your book will
take off on its own.
So how does the Amazon system work, anyway?
There are two main built-in
promotional tools on the Amazon
website that can
help market your book:
1. Also Bought – If you visit a fairly popular product
on Amazon, you’ll
notice a section
that says “Customers Who Bought This Item Also
Bought”. Then you’ll see a number of different
products listed that people
who bought that item also bought. Usually,
the items are fairly closely
related. For books, it’s usually other books in the same genre. Once
several people buy your book along with some other book, your book will
start appearing in the list of stuff people bought on the page of that other
book, thus sending you more
potential buyers.
2. Bestseller Lists – The bestseller lists are invaluable for book marketing.
There is a main bestseller
list for all of Amazon,
plus individual bestseller
lists for different categories. Your book could end up on several bestseller
lists if you list it in multiple categories. Additionally, there’s a list for new
stuff that only features products
released recently, so it’s important to
market your book right from day one!
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 5
onto various bestseller lists in order to give you the huge boost
in sales
associated with being on these
lists
If you don’t make it onto any bestseller lists,
don’t fret. Not everyone does.
Sometimes there’s just too much competition in your category,
and sometimes
your book just isn’t quite what buyers are looking for.
Even if you don’t make it onto the bestseller lists,
you will still
be able to take
advantage of the “Also Bought” lists. This will happen naturally as people
purchase your
book along with others.
These two things are the ultimate
goal of all other promotion, as they are usually
going to be much more powerful
than any other single promotion method alone.
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One thing a lot of people
miss when uploading
their book is to use proper
categorization and keywords. If you miss this critical step, your book is going to
be very difficult for readers
to locate.
Amazon actually makes it relatively simple for your book to be found. You don’t
even have that much competition in most niches, because the majority of people
don’t know how to do this properly.
When you submit your book to KDP, you’re allowed to choose two categories
for
your book. Depending on your keywords, you could also show up in other
categories, especially sub-categories of the one you choose.
Be sure to choose your two categories carefully. Find the two that are closest to
your book, even if it doesn’t fit perfectly into any one
category.
You can choose up to seven (7) keywords
for your book. This includes keyword
phrases. Choose carefully!
If your book is about weight loss
with a low calorie
diet, you might use:
Weight loss, lose weight,
losing weight, low calorie diet, low calorie weight loss,
quick weight loss, lose weight fast
Separate the keyword phrases
with commas when you add them. The system
will tell you when you have 0 keywords
left.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 7
Reviews don’t bring actual
sales to your book, because
those reviews are from
people who have already
read the book. But what reviews do is to encourage
those people who come across your book to buy it.
Many people aren’t even willing to buy a book from an author they’ve never
heard of unless there are good reviews
for the book,
so reviews are critical
if
you’re a relatively unknown author.
There are many ways to get reviews
for your book, but be sure you do it in an
ethical way that won’t upset Amazon. First, we’ll take a look at a few good ways
to get reviews.
Then, we’ll look at some ways you should never use to get
reviews.
Ways to Get Reviews
There are a few ways you can get reviews without being dishonest
or resorting to
tactics that could get you banned from
KDP forever.
1. Review Copies – Giving away free copies of your book in exchange
for
reviews is a great idea, but make sure you tell people
they are not
required to leave a review, and that if they do, their review should
be
completely honest. If you require a review, or if you ask for only 4-star and
5-star reviews, it is considered a paid review. Just state that honest
reviews are appreciated. You can find people who want review copies at a
variety of different places
such as Kboards.com, GoodReads.com and
various Facebook pages
that relate to your book’s genre.
2. Giveaways – In addition to giving copies to people specifically for review
purposes, you can also hold giveaways
in order to get more people to
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 8
only allow giveaways of printed
copies of your book, but others allow
eBooks.
3. Inside the Book – Don’t forget a very simple way to get people to leave
reviews of your book. At the end of your book, simply
include a note
asking people to leave a review if they liked the book. Many people simply
don’t think about doing this, so a friendly reminder
doesn’t hurt.
4. Bloggers – We’ll have an entire section on this later,
but for now, just
remember that many book bloggers
will also leave their review on
Amazon
and other book selling websites after they post it on their blog.
Ways NOT to Get Reviews
Don’t ever be tempted
to do any of these things in an attempt to get reviews. To
do so would not only risk getting the reviews
deleted, but could even potentially
cause you to lose your
Amazon account forever!
Don’t risk it!
1. Paid Reviews – Some people sell reviews
on sites such as
Fiverr or other
similar websites. Don’t ever do this! If Amazon finds
out you’ve paid
someone to review your book, you could definitely lose your entire
account! Paid reviews
are the biggest no-no as far as reviews
are
concerned.
2. Good Reviews in Exchange for a Copy – It’s fine to give away copies of
your book and ask
people to please give you an honest review on Amazon
after they’ve read it. However, it is not okay to ask for or demand positive
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 9
honest reviews.
3. Exchanging Reviews – One popular method is for authors to give each
other’s books 5-star reviews in exchange for the other author
doing the
same for them. This is not a good practice! If Amazon
discovers this
happening, your reviews are likely to be deleted, and they could even ban
your account from KDP!
4. Friends and Family
– Many new authors ask their friends and family to
leave reviews. This could
backfire in a big way if Amazon
ever finds out.
Not only that, but if another author or buyer finds out, they will potentially
destroy your name by telling
everyone they know. This has happened
to
many authors. Don’t risk it!
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 10
Social marketing is especially effective
for marketing books, because
people
naturally love to talk about
books they enjoy, and there are plenty of different
avenues available for promotion.
If you’re marketing something
else, such as socks or
DVDs, there aren’t as many
avenues open for promotion through social media. There aren’t fan pages
devoted to them, and if there are, they don’t allow blatant promotion.
With books, it’s greatly different. There are many different groups and pages on
Facebook alone that allow promotion of your books as long as you follow their
rules, and not only do
they allow promotion, they often encourage
it!
Even if you can’t find any Facebook fan pages
that are devoted to your genre,
you can create one! Creating
and maintaining a fan page is quick and easy, and
it can be used for more than just promoting your book. You can also use it to
promote affiliate products and other products you produce, as well.
Facebook
Facebook is perhaps
the single most powerful social website for authors.
You
should have a fan page specifically for you, as an author. You may also want to
have one for your book
or book series.
To take advantage of other fan pages, search for groups and fan pages devoted
to your niche or genre, especially those that focus specifically on books. Check
their rules, and if they allow self-promotion, do so!
If they don’t allow self-promotion, contact the page’s owner privately and ask if
there is a way to promote
your book on their page. They may be open to paid
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 11
give them a free copy or allow
them to do a giveaway
on their page.
Additionally, many official bookseller fan pages
allow promotion. Amazon’s
Kindle page allows authors to self-promote once each week, so take advantage
of all those Kindle
owners!
Twitter
Twitter is another great tool for authors if you use it properly. You can’t just tweet
your books over and over an expect people to pay attention. Instead, use it to
interact with fans. They can become your “book ambassadors”, promoting the
books for you!
If you become personal
friends with some of your fans, all you’ll have to do is
post a tweet and ask people to “re-tweet” it for you and you’ll potentially reach
thousands of people very quickly!
Pinterest
Pinterest is a growing social platform which mostly focuses on sharing
images.
You create “pin boards” on which you “pin” various images.
You can create lists
of books in your genre and pin your own book to it. You can also ask other
people to “re-pin” your book. If you re-pin some of their things,
they’ll be more
willing to re-pin yours.
In addition to making lists of books, you can also create
pin boards that feature
things people who might read your book would like. For example, if your book is
about weight loss, you could
have pin boards such as:
• Cool running shoes
• Best workout wear
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 12
• Low calorie soup recipes
• Best workout DVDs
You could link to your book in the description of every pin board, getting you a lot
more exposure than you would otherwise get.
Don’t forget to share your pins and pin boards on Facebook, Twitter
and
elsewhere in order to
get as much exposure as possible
to all of them.
YouTube
YouTube is a great platform
for promotion. You’ll need to have a “book trailer”
created for your book. This doesn’t have to be extremely complex. A simple
video with some music, a synopsis
of your book, and some images that go along
with it will work fine.
Don’t forget to share your book trailer video on Facebook, Twitter
and other
social sites for more exposure!
GoodReads & LibraryThing
GoodReads.com and LibraryThing.com are two social networks
that focus
specifically on books. These sites are great for promotion.
In addition to holding
giveaways there, you can visit the various
groups and participate. Just be sure to
read the rules in each individual
group to find out what their rules are regarding
author participation. Since groups are individually managed, each one has
specific rules.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 13
One of the most valuable methods of book promotion
is giving free copies to
bloggers in exchange for their reviews. Most bloggers will only post the review on
their blog, but
Keep in mind that many book bloggers
only review fiction, so if you have a non-
fiction title you may not be able to find too many people to review
it for you.
Bloggers typically review the books
they are interested in and nothing else.
Another thing to remember
is that some book bloggers
only review printed books.
If your book is only available in eBook format,
you may not be able to submit to
certain blogs.
Do not send unsolicited eBooks to
bloggers! Most of them do not want this, and it
will make some of them mad at you. Be sure to read their rules carefully before
you submit. Most of them want you to send them a message first, usually with a
synopsis of your book,
and if they want to read it they will
ask for it.
It may take quite a while before a reviewer can get around
to reading and
reviewing your book. Many of them have long queues of people waiting to have
their books
reviewed, so be patient.
One last thing to keep in mind about book bloggers is that they are not required
to give you a specific review. Their review
could be good or bad.
To find book bloggers in your
genre, search for things like “book blog +niche” and
“book reviews +niche”. There are also lists of book
review blogs online.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 14
Book giveaways were mentioned earlier,
but they aren’t the only thing you can
give away that will get traffic to your books. If you contact various Facebook fan
page owners and book bloggers,
you can offer them “swag” to give away that
features your book. This benefits
them, because it gets “shares” of their page,
and it benefits you because your book will be brought
to the attention of all of
their fans.
Typical swag
includes:
• Bookmarks
• Posters
• Cloth bags printed
with your book’s title, logo or cover
• T-shirts
• Printed pencil cases
• Jewelry related
to your book’s theme
• Other items related to your
book’s niche or genre
• Autographed copies of your
book
in print
You may want to create a graphic for the fan page to display
that tells people
when the giveaway
ends, what the prizes are, and to “share” the post to enter
the
giveaway. Be sure to include a picture of your book in the graphic,
and ideally a
picture of the prizes, too.
You may want to include items for several
winners in order to increase
interest so
people think
they have a better chance of winning.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 15
As with any online marketing, you absolutely must build an email list in order to
market as effectively as possible. This is especially true if you’ll be releasing
more books in the same niche or genre. However, even if you have only a single
book, email marketing can be beneficial for you.
It takes, on average,
three times of seeing
an advertisement for something
before someone buys. Thus, if you manage
to get them on your list, you have
more chances to encourage them to
buy your book.
You can get people to opt-in to your list by simply including an opt-in box on your
blog or website, but if you give something
related to your niche or genre
away,
(such as a book excerpt, a short story or a report)
you will get more people
to
subscribe.
Once people are on your list, you can not only market your own book, but books
by other authors in the same genre as well as related
products. For example, if
your book is about
weight loss, you could market affiliate products like diet
supplements and exercise equipment.
Here are some services to manage your email
list:
>> http://www.mailchimp.com
>> http://www.getresponse.com
>> http://www.icontact.com
>> http://www.constantcontact.com
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 16
They say people shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the fact is people
definitely do. The cover is the very first thing people usually notice,
other than
perhaps the title.
The right book cover can really make or break sales, so it’s important to get the
right one. An unprofessional cover will scream “self-published”, and like it or not,
many readers are still wary of self-published titles.
Don’t think it’s enough to download a photo and write some text on it with a free
photo editor. Unless you can really create
a stunning cover yourself, it’s best to
get a professional to handle it.
Fortunately, book covers are remarkably
inexpensive. They can be purchased for
as little as $20 from many different places,
and you can even get pre-made
covers that will let you start using your cover in a few hours instead of waiting for
custom work to be done.
Here are a few places to get a pre-made or
custom book cover:
>> http://www.getabookcover.com
>> http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com
>> http://www.premadebookcovers.com
>> http://www.dreamscapebookcovers.com/pre-made-covers.html
>> http://www.damonza.com
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 17
Most self-published authors seem to think they can handle editing on their own.
That may be true in a small percent of cases, however
almost everyone needs a
little help in this department.
Ideally, you’ll want to hire a professional to edit your work. If you don’t and you
miss major mistakes, people
will likely tear you apart in reviews and your sales
will suffer badly.
If you truly can’t afford professional editing services, you should at least get some
beta readers to look over your book in exchange for a free copy. Just tell them to
email you a list of any errors they find in facts,
spelling, grammar, etc. This will
catch a lot of mistakes you miss yourself.
Another tip that will help you when editing your own book is to print the book and
use a highlighter to mark mistakes.
It’s easier to catch mistakes
in print than it is
on a computer screen.
Also, try editing
one sentence at a time and reading each sentence backwards.
This way you are more likely to catch mistakes that you might skip over, because
when you read a sentence with a mistake, your brain will sometimes
automatically correct it.
Amazon Bestseller Genie Page 18
If you are ready to hit the bestseller lists on Amazon and really
see your book
sales take off, these tips and tricks
will do the trick. Depending on your book’s
theme, you could even hit the main bestseller list and watch your book take off
like a shot!
Even if you don’t make the main bestseller list, there are many other lists you
have the potential to show up on, which will increase your visibility significantly.
You could show up on the bestseller lists for your categories, as well as new
releases in your categories.
Additionally, you’ll start showing up on the book pages of other books in the
genre as people buy your book along with others.
Remember: it takes sales to make sales!
Using this system,
you’ll be able to pull in enough sales to rocket
yourself onto
the bestseller lists and get onto the “Also Bought” lists quickly.
Don’t delay this plan! The longer you wait, the harder it will be to gain traction,
because Amazon greatly
favors new books.
Get started today!