Publish on Kindle

© Cheryl Wright - All Rights Reserved

Congratulations on your book being published and now your book is available on the Kindle Store.  This is the time to be proactive in acquiring sales for your hard work.  After you perform your victory ritual, it will be time to kick off the marketing of your book.  “Any author with a book on sale at Amazon.com can claim a free page at Amazon Author Central to promote themselves” (KindleKash page 86) that is the starting point of the marketing campaign.

There are methods both online and offline that can add to the marketing arsenal. The more information that you can gather and plan out a variable marketing strategy the better you will be. It is better to put your eggs in more than one basket than in a single one. Some of these techniques are harder than others, while some are simple and often overlooked by nearly everyone.

Before we dive further into the details of self-marketing, let us examine Amazon’s Author Central. The website is similar to Facebook or MySpace, you can build up a resume of books, biography and other useful tools to help aid your book. So do make sure to add some photos and info to the profile. “If you add a photo, be sure it is of good, professional quality” (KindleKash, page 87). Remember if you use Amazon Central as resource, the effort put into creating and establishing your book’s online presence is determined by your effort.
 

Now we can dive into the waters of online marketing. Online efforts are taking over the traditional means due to the instant reach that the internet offers over traditional formats. This frontier is expanding and technology is increasing the value every day. Some techniques include sending emails out to friends and family, incorporating social media into the marketing plan, building and maintaining a website and there are tons of other online methods that KindleKash covers.

Traditional methods may not be as quick as online marketing but they can be more effective in the long run. People tire of seeing the same ads online and will quickly ignore the ads. Some traditional methods include word of mouth, print, book signing (physical copy of book) ads in the local paper and a few other tips that can be found in KindleKash. A simple gathering at the home with friends and family could be the right boost for your book, a party to celebrate the release and maybe offer a small discount.
 

The most popular method of generating book sales both online and offline is reviews.

“You should therefore aim to get three or four good reviews up on the site” (KindleKash page 92). A positive review will generate more sales than a well-placed advertisement. People want to know if the book is great or not, they will seek reviews on the book. A good review will expand into the content of your book and list the best aspects for the readers. A good tool to use in the marketing is Amazon’s “Look Inside” function that is available on Kindle as well.
 

A negative review is going to happen no matter how good your book, and there are ways to combat the effectiveness of them. A negative review should be taken as constructive criticism and nothing more. The quality of the review depends on how detailed and professional it appears.

There are two types of negative reviews, a helpful one and a hateful one. The helpful review points out any problem areas and is not attacking the author or content in a direct matter but looks at the “threads” of the book that includes spelling, grammar and facts. The hateful review is the opposite of the constructive criticism.

"Reviewing your own book is definitely NOT recommended” (KindleKash page 95) There are plenty of websites that you could contact to ask for reviews in exchange for your book. KindleKash covers this subject in the most excellent manner. Positive reviews will counter the negative ones in every way, unless you have more negative reviews and if that's the case, it’s suggested that you take a good look at the book and make changes where necessary.

As you can see, there are several marketing techniques available to you and each one will have a different impact on the sales of your book.

If you’d like to learn more, I suggest you take a look at this comprehensive course that will show you everything you need to get started earning an income with Amazon Kindle.