How to Promote Your Kindle Book on Amazon
So you’ve done it: you’ve written a Kindle ebook. You did all the research, edited and re-edited, finally hit publish, and . . . crickets. No sales. So what now? How do you make the leap from being an author to being an author whose book is selling like hotcakes? You need to learn how to promote and market your book on Amazon! Here are a few easy steps you can take to promote your Kindle book on Amazon like a pro and increase your sales.
Create Great Ebook Content
The first step to successfully promoting and marketing your book on Amazon happens long before you hit that publish button. First, you need to write a book that will sell well—that means writing clear, compelling content that will add value to your readers’ lives.
Quality writing
Whether you’re publishing a novel for young adults or a business how-to book, it needs to be well written. Get clear on the story you want to tell before you start writing so you avoid redundancy and rambling sentences. Once you’ve finished your first draft, edit and proofread your book carefully. Remember, misspellings and grammatical mistakes can make your writing appear amateur and could cause some readers to leave you negative reviews—a stumbling block when it comes to successfully promoting your book on Amazon. If grammar and spelling are not your strong suits, it may be worth your while to hire a professional copy editor or proofreader or to use a ghostwriting service specializing in ebooks, such as The Urban Writers.
Attention-grabbing title
Choosing the right title plays a large role in attracting the attention of potential readers. You want your title to be snappy, to the point, and reflective of your message and your voice. You should also think about your title in terms of SEO. What keywords or phrases might your target audience be searching for on Amazon and how can you work those into your title? Any opportunity to hit your target keywords is a good one!
Professional cover design
Your cover gives readers a first impression of your book, so make it a good one. If you don’t feel confident in your graphic design abilities, you might want to consider hiring a professional to work on your cover. You’ll also want to choose a design that looks good as both a full-size image and a thumbnail. To learn more about what goes into a good ebook cover design, check out this blog.
Metadata and book description
When you publish your Kindle book, you’ll have the chance to write your book description and set up the book metadata. Doing both of these things correctly will help drive people to your book more organically. Take the time to think about your target audience and generate some strong keywords to help capture those readers. You’ll also have the opportunity to select which categories your book appears in on Amazon. Amazon’s Kindle publishing policy lets you select two categories yourself, so think about which categories will most interest your target audience.
When it comes to writing your book description, you’ll want to make sure that it’s not too short—this is your opportunity to entice people to buy! Aim for a minimum of a couple hundred words so you give readers a clear idea of what your book is about.
Start Promoting Your Kindle Book on Amazon
Once you’ve created a great ebook, it’s time to think about your Amazon Kindle promotion strategy. Luckily, there are a lot of simple, fast ways to promote your book on Amazon. Amazon has even created a webinar on how to promote your book. You can use these strategies to boost your book’s Amazon ranking, both in your selected categories and in the Kindle bookstore overall. In a nutshell, higher rankings mean more visibility. Your book will appear higher up in Amazon searches and could even be suggested to readers through Amazon’s Also Bought lists and recommendation emails. Take advantage of all of these strategies effectively, and you’ll be on your way to more book sales!
Social media and web promotion
One of the simplest ways to start promoting your Kindle book on Amazon is to use your existing social media and web platforms. Schedule regular posts with the link to your Amazon order or pre-order page and tag people or accounts you think might be interested in your topic. Create an account on Goodreads and start connecting to readers and other authors. If you have a website, set up a landing page for your book and write a couple of blog posts highlighting the value the book will give to your readers. Utilize your email marketing list and blast out a book launch announcement; you could even include a free sample to grab readers’ attention (more on that below). There’s tremendous strength in your personal networks, so don’t be afraid to use them! If you’re afraid of coming off too sales-y, just remember to be yourself. Share why the book and its message is important to you and what you hope your readers will take from it.
Reviews
Positive reviews are like little jumper cables for your Amazon rankings. In addition to boosting your rankings, positive reviews also make your book more appealing to potential readers; after all, people like to see that other consumers have enjoyed a product. So getting positive reviews should form an important part of your Amazon Kindle promotion strategy. When you announce your book launch to your social media channels, your website, or your email list, be sure to ask people to leave a review if they find your book valuable or enjoyable. You can also send people an advance copy of your book and ask them to write a review; just remember, you are not allowed to pay people for a review or require a review in return for reading.
Amazon Author’s Pages
Your Amazon Author’s Page is quite literally your face as a Kindle author. This page gives you the chance to let your readers get to know you on a more personal level. Why is this important? People are more likely to purchase products from someone they know and like! You can include your bio and photo, as well as links to your personal or business blog. You can also use your Author’s Page in your Amazon Kindle promotion strategy by posting a video announcement or teaser about your upcoming book.
Kindle instant previews and Kindle Select promotions
With these two tools, you’re giving away your book, or a sample of it, for free. This might seem counterintuitive—after all, you’re trying to sell books, right? As it turns out, providing freebies can be a powerful tool if you do it correctly.
With the Kindle instant book preview tool, you can embed a few sample pages from your book on your own website or blog or in an email. This is a great way to hook your readers and leave them wanting more so they head on over to Amazon to purchase the full book.
Kindle Select, on the other hand, lets you offer your full book for free for up to five days. Let’s face it—people like free stuff. Readers who might not necessarily choose to purchase your book may be more willing to take advantage of a free download. This will boost your Amazon rankings, making your book more visible even after your free promotion is over. You also might get reviews from these readers, which will mean more good news for your rankings.
Advertising on Amazon
If you have the budget for it, you can also buy ads directly on Amazon to promote your Kindle book. Using the keywords you identified for your metadata, you can use these ads to reach your target readers based on their order and search histories. Of course, you can also consider advertising on other platforms as well, such as Facebook or Instagram.
Review Your Amazon Kindle Promotion Strategy
Once you begin to experiment with how to promote your book on Amazon, you’ll likely find that some strategies are more effective for you than others. You’ll also likely find that what works and what doesn’t will shift over time. So it’s important to check in on your promotion strategy regularly to make sure you’re still seeing growth rather than trailing sales. Don’t be afraid to try out new strategies as you go along. For example, once you hit a certain level in Amazon’s rankings, you can change the categories associated with your book; this will let you test out new market niches. Remember, sales and marketing are not a one-and-done proposition, so it’s important to keep learning and be willing to tweak your strategy as needed.
