As an author and self-publisher it is absolutely essential that you have a presence on Amazon. And luckily for us, Amazon provides many powerful ways to connect with potential readers and buyers. Even if you use a regular book-publishing company to publish your book, you will still need to have a presence on Amazon. Especially if you expect to sell any books. Amazon is the largest book retailer in the world. Amazon has more market presence, and more marketing power than even the biggest publishers. So to get you started, here is a quick look at some of the best book marketing tools on Amazon to help make your book a financial and critical success.
1. Author Central
This is the main page for authors in which Amazon allows you to provide your profile, add videos, link to your blog, a build a list of your favorite books. This powerful tool is like having an entire webpage devoted to you and your books. Here you will also be able to track your book sales and trends. Using Author Central in conjunction with you blog will create a very powerful way to market yourself and your books.
2. Affiliate Program
This is an easy way to monetize your website. You provide a link on your website back to your book on Amazon’s website. If they buy your book through this link, you collect a small commission from Amazon. This commission also applies to any Amazon product that you link to from your website.
3. Listmania!
With Listmania you create lists of books relevant to a particular topic. This is a great way for you to connect with readers and buyers. This is especially a good way to show your readers, and those interested in your genre, that you are a source of information that can help them in their search for information about a particular topic. You don’t need to have purchased these items from Amazon. And, you can include your book within your lists. But don’t overdue it. Only include books that you truly believe will help those reading your lists.
4. Search-Inside-The-Book
You can dramatically improve your book sales by using this feature. It allows buyers to read parts of your book, as well as search through your book by typing in a search term. The reader can see your table of contents, index, foreword, introduction, and parts of different chapters. By allowing this feature, a buyer can feel more comfortable when choosing to buy your book over another.
5. Book Tags
Start tagging your books with appropriate keywords. You can easily come up with helpful tags if you put yourself into the shoes of your readers. What tags, or keywords, would a person searching for a book like yours be thinking of? You can easily tag your book by visiting your books product page. You should also ask others to also tag your book.
6. “So You’d Like To… ” Guides
With this tool you build a guide around a particular topic that is helpful to Amazon shoppers. By doing this you can position yourself as an expert in a particular subject. Your guide will help shoppers find books, or items, and give them information relevant to a specific topic. You can easily build a guide around the topic that your book covers.
7. Connect Your Blog Feed
As an author, it is essential that you have a blog. This is where you can discuss your books, and anything related to them and your particular topic. You simply type in your blog’s feed, also known as an RSS. Amazon will display a short portion of your most recent blog postings.
