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Articles about book / author promotion and marketing, and author platform.

Quick Links: 5 Signs It May Be Time to Publish a Print Book from a Kindle Version

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Have you ever wondered if you should create a print book, now that your eBook is doing well? Shelly from ShelleyHitz.com  walks us through some of the flags that will let you know that it is time.

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5 Signs It May Be Time to Publish a Print Book from a Kindle Version

April 18, 2016

Woman sitting at the table with laptop and booksWhen is it the right time to publish a print book from a Kindle version?

When you publish a book I typically recommend you publish a Kindle book first. Why? Because it is so much easier. It’s an easier process, it’s less expensive, and it just simply gets you used to the process of publishing, getting something out there, testing the market, see how it does, and then see if you want to invest in a print book. But, what do you do then when you do want to publish a print book?

Sign #1: Your Book is Selling Well

The first thing you want to look at is, what are the sales for your Kindle book? Is it selling well? So that’s the first sign you may want to publish it as a print book, it is selling well.

We love sales right? Woo-Hoo!

One of the biggest things that authors write me and ask me about, “how can I sell more books?” One of the things is, if your Kindle book is selling well, if you then repurpose it into a print book guess what? You’re most likely going to increase the sales of that book because there’s going to be people that want both versions. So, that’s the first sign.

Sign #2: Your Customers Are Asking For It

The second sign is customers are asking you for it. I have customers that will write me.

As a matter of fact, just this week I had somebody email me and say, “is your book, Marketing Your Book on Amazon, available in print?”

Currently it’s not, but if you’re starting to get a lot of customers and a lot of people asking you, “is this book available in print?” Guess what you should do? You should probably make it available in print.

Read the full post on ShelleyHitz.com

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Why You Need To Brand Yourself As An Author, And Exactly How To Do It

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Branding and marketing. Ugh! Writing can be an introverts dream, but if you want success you have to be able to deal with both marketing and branding. What is the difference? Stephen King has a brand. You know what to expect when you see a title with his name underneath. Marketing is what you do to promote yourself.  At Standout Books, has a great post about both. Oh and “bête noire” means something you don’t like doing. I had to look it up.

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Why You Need To Brand Yourself As An Author, And Exactly How To Do It

by Robert Wood

Branding is the bête noire of the modern author, an often frightening necessity that can mean the difference between worldwide recognition and total obscurity. It’s an aspect of business that has grown more and more important as social media has become the norm, and the days where it was a possible route to success rather than an outright necessity have ended.

If you think that all sounds a bit gloomy, you’re not alone. This is the attitude with which most authors approach their branding and marketing. Cultural norms can take a long time to catch up to economic realities, and many authors long for a time when they didn’t need to deal with the marketing side of publication. It can feel like a difficult job that you shouldn’t have to do, but there is another way to look at it.

Building a brand doesn’t have to be an awful task, in fact it can be an incredibly creative endeavor. Not only that, but it can put you in total control of your financial future. There are a lot of advantages to establishing your own brand, but this is perhaps the most immediate: you become the boss.

How brands work

A brand is more than a mark of quality; it’s a simple, direct expression of the many things customers can expect from a product. Eugene Yiga put it fantastically when he said:

Broadly speaking, a brand is a set of hooks the mind uses to organize its experience of a commercial offering.

These ‘hooks’ are the concepts that customers associate with your brand, and they’re surprisingly varied. Stephen King has one of the strongest, most effective author brands in the world; the hooks on which readers hang his work include ‘high quality’ and ‘horror’, but also include less definable features such as his individual style and the specific feelings readers experience when they engage with his work.

Read the full post on Standout Books

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: How to Sell More Books with Great Book Cover Design

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

You can have the best story in the world, but if your cover isn’t good not many people will pick it up. So it should come as no surprise that I agree with at The Creative Penn that investing in a fabulous cover is a must. In one of my paying jobs, I see a lot of covers that should have never made it to Amazon. What is your best tip for getting a great cover?

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How to Sell More Books with Great Book Cover Design

bookshelf-with-books_fJDBXRLu_LJoanna Penn

Investing in professional book cover design is non-negotiable for indie authors who want to make a living with their writing. Readers DO judge a book by its cover, and they won’t read your blurb, download a sample or buy now without connecting to your cover somehow.  In short, you’re unlikely to sell many books unless you have a great cover design.

In this article, JD Smith outlines her tips for book cover design. Her new book is The Importance of Book Cover Design and Formatting for Self-Published Authors. Jane is also my book cover designer and I highly recommend her.

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There’s a constant debate about the relevance and importance of cover design, whether you’re a self-published author, part of a collective group of authors, an independent press, or even a large publishing house. If you are publishing your book to give away as Christmas presents, or you only expect a few members of your family to buy them, then the cover is as important as you consider it to be.

But if you are a professional writer and you intend to earn a living or be taken seriously in the literary world, then the book cover is as important as the copy editing, the proofreading, the story and the characters.

It is a part of your marketing … and it’s there to attract the right kind of readers.

So let’s assume you already deem a book cover to be important and I don’t need to convert you. How can you make your cover work for you and sell more books?

(1) Target your audience

Your book cover MUST be targeted at the right audience. How do you find out who that audience is?

Research.

Check out the bestselling lists in your genre, whether that’s crime fiction, women’s fiction, young adult etc. Pick out books by authors who you feel write similarly to you, whose readers you know will enjoy the genre you write in, your style, tone, characters.

This is really important. Do you write like Mark Billingham? Then you want to attract his fans. Do you write like Philippa Gregory? Then you want to attract her fans. That’s not to say you want to copy their covers, but you need to have a similar feel, and to present your book with visual clues that scream ‘you enjoyed this bestselling author’s book so you’ll enjoy mine’.

Read the full post on The Creative Penn

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: How to Talk About Your Book

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I like posting from Books & Such as they give the perspective from an agents point of view. Today Janet Kobobel Grant talks about how to come up with the infamous elevator speech about your book. In one of my paying jobs (as opposed to this blog which is a labor of love) I often have to summarize a book and it drives me bonkers when authors don’t have a one or two sentence synopsis of their story that I can use. Go check the article out and let me know what you think.

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How to Talk About Your Book

Emergency jobMar 13, 2016

By

I hear from authors that writing a book proposal is, like, the worst part of looking for a slot on a traditional publisher’s author roster. (Coming in at a close second is writing a novel’s synopsis for submission to a publisher.) But, hey, guess what? I know something else authors struggle with: figuring out how to talk about their books.

Oh, sure, they can whip off the details of a specific scene they have in mind or explain to you what they hope the reader gains from the book. But don’t ask the author this seemingly straightforward question: Tell me what your book is about in one sentence.

I recently read an article, which you can check out here, in which a fellow novelist asked that very question of authors with new books. Here are their responses:

Daniel Dutton: It’s a little like “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” if Stephen were a woman living at a time when women weren’t allowed to be artists.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: My book is about language, family and the reverberations of the past.

Jon Methven: The immensity of the end—be it a career, or relationship, or faith, or mortgage, or life, or all of them—and then deciding to survive, no matter the obstacle. It’s a book about survival. 

Karan Mahajan: Bombs.

Okay, our author friends could use a little help. When someone asks you that question, and they do all the time when they find out you’re an author, know what you want to say. Here are a few crucial elements to include:

  1. Give the listener an instant reference point: WWII Germany; 17th-century Sweden; dypstopian America in 2116. Or if you’re writing nonfiction: food memoir; historical biography; environmental degradation; faith and doubt.

Read the full post on Books & Such

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Can Traditional and Indie Publication Live as Friendly Neighbors?

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Author Jody Hedlund speaks from experience; she has successful books through both traditional and self-publishing.  Jody brings her unique perspective to the traditional vs self-publishing debate with an attitude of perhaps we can all just get along. What are your views on the two, and do you think they can co-exist?

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Can Traditional and Indie Publication Live as Friendly Neighbors?

friendship-day_10062663-031914By Jody Hedlund

This year in 2016, I have FOUR books slated for publication. Three of them are being published through three different publishers:

Undaunted Hope, a historical romance through Bethany House Publishers (Jan. 1)

A Daring Sacrifice, a young adult medieval romance through Harper Collins (Mar. 1)

Newton and Polly: A Novel of Amazing Grace, a historical through Random House (Oct. 1)

I’m super thrilled about all three of the books. While each of them targets a slightly different audience, my readers seem to be enjoying them regardless of the differences.

So far, I’ve had a very positive experience working with traditional publishers. I’ve learned a LOT about the ins and outs of how the whole process of publication works and varies between houses.

Since I’m in a super busy life stage (raising 5 kids), having a traditional publisher’s help with cover designing, editing, and marketing has really freed up my time to focus on writing. To be completely honest, I appreciate being able to hand something over to my publishers and know that the project is in good hands. It takes a great deal of stress off me.

Not only that, but working with a variety of traditional publishers has helped to get my books in front of different readers. Each of my publishers has different marketing strategies which has allowed my books a wider audience than if I’d attempted to publish them on my own. I’ve also appreciated the relative ease of getting into brick and mortar stores, libraries/library conferences, foreign print, large print editions, wide-scale blogger and reviewer programs, and many other venues.

However, as beneficial as traditional publication has been for my writing career, I’ve been itching to try my hand at indie publishing. I’ve heard so many positive things about it, that I wanted to experience it for myself.

Read the full post on Jody Hedlund

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Surviving Submissions: Donning Your Chain Mail

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I know that no one likes rejection, but some people bounce back from it better than others.  I don’t. I am one of those horrible people who wants everyone to like them, although I am trying to grow out of this. has a great post on dealing with submission rejection.  The post goes beyond the whole “X number of famous people got rejected so you should feel fine” fluff and gives some really good points. Head on over to Writer Unboxed and check it out. If you feel like it, leave a comment on your best tip for dealing with rejection, I promise not to judge.

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Surviving Submissions: Donning Your Chain Mail

Crusader Knight With Sword Front Crestby

In the late 1990s, I wrote a short story—my first ever—and submitted it to The New Yorker. It was a really amazing piece of fiction, one that reflected dozens of minutes of toil and revision. I do not remember the plot (which suggests there was none) except for one detail: the female character sits on a therapist’s couch, and, wrapped in a blanket like a burrito, floats into the air and–poof!–vanishes.

I am certain this 7,000-word work of art was roughly 7,000 words too long.

More than fifteen years later, I see how many things were wrong with that experience. First, the piece was a piece of garbage. I did not know how to write a story, and I had no one guiding me through the process. I should have sought advice from someone, if not another writer, than at least a friendly barista or the wine guy with the radio voice at the Safeway where I buy cheap Riesling.

Wrong thing #2: I had the gall to submit to The New Yorker. Sure, I had read The New Yorker, usually while waiting for my dental appointments, usually looking at the pretty cover or the cartoons because the stories were, well, a little uppity in my opinion. Perhaps I thought that the inclusion of my story would endear me to the other works of fiction. But certainly, even if my story had been an actual work of art, I was not familiar enough with the publication to know whether it would be a good fit.

These days I am a better writer with a better understanding of story structure, and yes, I carry around suitcases of humility. I have given up trying to like The New Yorker’s fiction and instead peruse People while waiting for my dental checkups. And when I submit an essay or a story, a grant proposal or retreat application, I do so in a much smarter way.

Read the full post on Writer Unboxed

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

The One Small Detail That Can Derail Your Kindle Countdown Deal

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Not everyone does Kindle Countdown Deals, or KDP Select. But if you are among those who do, there’s one little thing that could make a big difference in your efforts to get the most out of a Kindle Countdown Deal.

When you set up a Kindle Countdown deal, the KDP system allows you to set a beginning date on a screen that looks like this one:

Screen Shot 2015-05-02 at 7.42.56 PM

It’s easy to miss the fact that this screen’s default starting time is 8 am Pacific Standard Time.

And if you are trying to coordinate a promotion campaign that starts on the same day as your Kindle Countdown Deal, that 8 am Pacific time could be a disaster. As an example, promotions at BookGorilla and Kindle Nation generally have a copy and pricing deadline of 6 am Eastern, which translates (for the time-zone challenged) to 3 am Pacific Standard Time. (And we’ve heard that the folks at BookBub try to get up early, too.)

One thing you can do, of course, is to have coordinate your promotion so that it starts on the second day of your Kindle Countdown Deal. But you may feel like you’re giving up critical promotional time if you delay your promotion that way.

But here’s how to fix it:

There’s an easy to miss time-of-day pulldown menu on that same screen that we showed you above. Just click on the default time and the pulldown will appear, as in the screenshot below. Select 12 am Pacific and you should be fine for all purposes … as long as the KDP gremlins cooperate!

Screen Shot 2015-05-02 at 7.43.16 PM

Editor’s Desk: Kindle Instant Previews – Allow readers to preview your book on your site. Plus FREE book giveaway!

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You may have used Amazon’s previewer tool in the past, where you were able to embed a preview link on your website or blog post. If you had, you will have realized that the widget was starting to show it’s age, didn’t always work the way it was suppose to, or at all.

That has all changed.

Amazon has updated its Kindle Instant Preview tool and it is wonderful. See below for a sample.

BookGorilla is giving away 50 free copies of
by Anne Hillerman!

 Click here to enter for your chance to win!

Normally $9.99
On sale now $0.99

Beautiful, right?

covers_exampleThere is so much to love. The look has been updated and the embed is mobile ready. Now, people can easily share your book! Add your Amazon affiliate ID during set up, and when they do share your preview, your affiliate link goes along with it. All while on your author site.

At the top of the embed you have the “Buy” button which opens a new window on Amazon to purchase the book. The “Share” button allows people to either email your preview, post on Facebook,  or tweet on Twitter. They even have a short link that can be shared anywhere, which includes your affiliate link. The bottom section lets you know how much of the free sample is left and will allow you to adjust the font size. Very helpful for small screens!  On computer or tablets, if you click on the “Preview” link, the sample is opened as the same size as the image. However, if you click on the text, it will toggle the bottom options and allow you to view the sample full screen.

Amazon_reader_3The best part is that Amazon has made this so very easy to set up. First find your book on Amazon. On the right side of the screen, by the share buttons is the <embed> link. Click on that embed link and customize.  You have a choice to create a link that will go to the opened preview pane on Amazon, or the ability to “Embed on your site (HTML)”. Here is where you add your Amazon affiliate tag, and make other customizations such as the size of the image.

Not every book may be available, but so far I haven’t found one that isn’t. If you are already selling the your book(s) directly yourself,  this may not be an ideal option for you. But for many authors, the pain of having to deal with setting up a store to deal with purchases makes this a wonderful alternative. See Amazon for more details.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

 

Publishing Advice – Practices & Principles

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Today’s post is a bunch of helpful publishing tidbits offered by  on The World’s Greatest Book. While a hodgepodge offering, each bit of wisdom offered is worth the read. What publishing advice would you give a new author?

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Publishing Advice – Practices & Principles

Posted on by

Ready to get publishedThe following publishing advice is based on my own experiences and those of my clients. I hope you find it valuable and encouraging, even if it changes your expectations.

I’ve written and published 6 books, and I’m working on my seventh. I’ve guided many remarkable people through the process of telling their remarkable stories, and served as editor, typesetter, cover designer, web developer, and marketer. I love writing, publishing, and book design, but the least pleasant part of my work involves delivering “straight talk” that has popped many a shiny bubble. My experiences in publishing have been overwhelmingly positive, but I routinely hear from writers who have made expensive mistakes. Others are frustrated and stuck in the writing process. The good news is that with a bit of research, the right resources, and a few reality checks, problems can be avoided. You probably can’t do it yourself, and you probably can’t do it for free, but you can publish an excellent book and find the process rewarding.

Here are few snippets of writing, book design, and publishing advice:

Of course it sucks; that’s why it’s called a “rough” draft. Keep writing.

Many great books are terrible products. Many terrible books are great products. Write for the marketplace or write because you have something to say, but know where your book lies on the spectrum between art and business. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Read the full post on The World’s Greatest Book

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Editor’s Desk – A Cover Is Worth 1,000 Words. 10 Tips To Make Your eBook Cover Awesome.

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Please note that while this article is targeting eBooks, there are still some great tips for print covers. However, print covers are more complicated and will be addressed in a future post.

You are not suppose to judge a book by it’s cover, but that is exactly what people do. In the post Categories, keywords, Amazon, and you. How to get the most out of your choices  I showed you how to use categories and keywords to help your book rank higher in Amazon’s search. Now that your book is showing up in front of more potential buyers, you need to make sure you grab their attention. How? With an awesome cover.

You need awesome, because there are a lot of other books competing with yours. You have about 6 seconds to grab potential customer’s attention, and let them know that their next great read is your book.

There is a lot of information that goes into a great cover: color theory, font choices, layout flow, and more. If you can, you should hire a professional. If you can’t hire a professional, don’t use MS Word to create your cover. Use a better program such as Canva, which is free, and will at least give you an option of professional layouts. Either way the tips below will help you.

  1. Goodreads ScreenshotSize – A good cover will look great even in thumbnail size. Readers should still be able to get the gist of the book and at minimum be able to read the title. A lot of dedicated eReaders are in grayscale, so make sure you check that your cover works for them.  The ideal height/width ratio is  8:5 (1.6). See the screen capture of the recent book list I got from Goodreads on the right for some examples.
  2. KISS (Keep it simple silly) –  Simple is better, especially if you are designing your own cover. A simple design sizes better and is easier to convey information to the reader. This doesn’t mean your cover needs to be boring, far from it. A simple design can be very powerful. Covers with more details need careful handling, and are best managed by a professional. You don’t want to overpower your reader or loose the essence of your story with too many details.
  3. Title – Make it stand out. This means good space around the title, a readable font, and a good size.If you have a long title, take the best part and make it the focus. Have the less important parts be, well, less important. For example:
    THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF BELA LUGOSI AND HIS WONDER RACING LLAMAS: PART ONE – BELA LUGOSI IS ALMOST KILLED AS A CHILD BY A RUNAWAY RACING LLAMA (PART 1 IN THE RACING LLAMAS SERIES!)

    It is a bit much for a cover. The eye is overwhelmed. Try instead:

    The Amazing True Story Of Bela Lugosi
    And His Wonder Racing Llamas
    Part One –  Bela Lugosi Is Almost Killed As A Child By A Runaway Racing Llama
    (Part 1 In The Racing Llamas Series!)

    The bold part is still long, but it gets the title and general story across. The rest can be moved to other areas of the cover, breaking up the text into nice bite size bits. Notice the natural breaks, which happen where there is punctuation. Each section can stand on it’s own.

  4. Story – Does your cover convey a general sense of what your story is about and the genre? Your graphics should match the mood and fit your story. If your story is a regency romance then having a woman on the cover in a modern slip dress doesn’t fit, no matter how breathless and heaving her bosoms are.
  5. Invest – Resist the temptation to be cheap. It is OK to want the best value for your dollar, but I guarantee I can spot your MS Word clip-art a mile away and so can potential readers. If you go to a site where you can hire someone cheaply, be aware that they are probably working off a template. Your cover will look a lot like a bunch of other ones. There are places where you can get good images or artwork for a decent price. A true professional will take time to understand your story and make the cover match.
  6. Image Effects – There are a lot of fun tools you can play with to create rainbow gradients, text outlines, and embossing effects. Go nuts and have fun! Then delete all the effects and put those tools away.
  7. Color – Most website’s backgrounds are white. So if your background color is white, you will fade away. Even using a few shades different from white will make a big difference. Don’t use a big black frame to fix this.
    Your cover will look better if you use color judiciously. This doesn’t mean that you have to use boring colors. If you use colors that are harmonious with each through color theory, it will be more pleasing to the reader’s eye. There are tools that will help you pick out a palette of colors that looks good together. I like the one at Adobe. It is free.
  8. Fonts – Fonts are like spices. A few mixed together is yummy, too many a disaster. Pick two or at most three that look good together and stay with them. Google Fonts are free and offer a wide variety of choices. Make sure you pick one that matches the mood of your story, but is not so fancy it can’t be read. If you have one “decorative” font, pick a simpler one to match. Avoid Comic Sans or Papyrus like the plague. No seriously, don’t use them – ever.
  9. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MLd2DZYwL._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgFlow – The eyes can only look at so many things at once. Your layout should be set up to guide the reader to the main points you want to convey. You can use position, size of elements, and even your graphics to lead the your reader down the path that communicates your story.
    Symbolism can be very powerful. Instead of using a literal part of your story as the cover, use symbols to convey the main point or mood. This attracts your reader but can also leave a little mystery to the reader. No matter how you feel about the story, The Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer, have wonderful covers that use symbolism in a very powerful way.
  10. Review – Have someone you trust look at your cover. Someone who will tell you the truth. Then get a second opinion. Get lots of opinions, lots of eyes, to look at your cover fresh. Be open to feedback, but don’t start changing everything based on what individual people say. If you can manage it, get a couple of different covers and hold a contest where people can vote on the best.
    Look for unintended consequences. I recently came across a wonderful story, very well written about the power of family and a group of sisters. The cover was well done with one exception. The graphic was a pair of shoes, positioned on the top, with the title below. They symbolized the need to see other people’s perspective. Very nice. Except, they still had legs in them. Dangling from the top, with no body. Like one of the sisters made the mistake of using the Comic Sans font and couldn’t face the consequences any more. How more powerful would it have been to just have a pair of shoes, waiting to be stepped into, so that the reader could figuratively walk in the characters footsteps?

Brainstorm what emotion, concept, key thing about your book you want to get across to your readers. Take a look at the screenshot above from Goodreads. What books stand out to you and why? Go to Amazon and do a search on your genre and ask the same questions. While you can’t copy another person’s cover you can see what elements seem to work for them and apply those elements to get your own awesome cover. A great cover is the next step in connecting with your ideal reader.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

What Is The Best Price For An Ebook?

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BooksGoSocial has a great post about pricing for self publishing authors. Please note that this a business blog. I have no affiliation with them and am not endorsing their services since I have no experience with them, but agree with ‘s take on optimal pricing. It is a really good read and matches my experience. If you have ever done business with BooksGoSocial please let us know how you liked their services in the comments below.

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What Is The Best Price For An Ebook?

Price targetAt BooksGoSocial we have promoted over three thousand books in the past three years.

2016 is likely to be a year of real growth for indie authors and for trad published authors who gain some control over their pricing. Ebook sales for indies (what used to be known as self published authors) are up, and traditional publishers are pricing their ebooks high to stop Amazon becoming their number one channel and then eating them for lunch.

By pricing ebooks high (above $10) traditional publishers are leaving a gap in the market for indies to fill.

Here’s our recommendation on how you should price your Kindle/ebook to take advantage of this gap:

Free

Only if you have a closely linked series and book number one can be priced at free to get readers started on your series.

.99c

If you are a new author and you want make it easy for people to buy your book, and you want to increase your total earnings. This price can be used for a short period to get your book onto a best seller list and then you can move the price up. When deciding a price do not consider the effort put in to write and produce it, consider what total earnings you want. By pricing at .99c, and then increasing the price you can achieve higher earnings. I have seen this working.

Read the full post on BooksGoSocial

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Categories, keywords, Amazon, and you. How to get the most out of your choices.

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Site searchPart of uploading your title to the Amazon marketplace includes filling out a lot of “metadata”, you know, all that information you have to input into the fields for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to accept your book.  Each bit of information can help get your title in front of viewers and boost sales. So it is important to make careful choices. Today we will focus on Categories and Keywords.

Readers use categories and keywords to find new books. The goal is to figure out what your ideal reader will do to search for new titles. This might seem like an easy task at first, because your book might be clearly romance, science fiction, or some other genre. By doing a little research and tweaking your choices, you will be able to get your book in front of more people and improve your ranking.

This doesn’t mean you should go for keywords or categories that don’t match your story in an effort to boost your ranking. People will complain and Amazon takes this very seriously. You can get blacklisted. Carefully matching your keywords and categories to your story allows you to get your story in front of an audience who is most likely to appreciate your work and become true fans. Everyone wins!

Categories

categories
Amazon Categories

Categories are basically the genre of your book. Amazon allows you to have two categories, which you should take advantage of.  For your research, start off by going to Amazon Kindle Books, and on the left hand side you will see a list of categories.

Select the one that you think matches your book closely. For example let’s select the “romance” category. Now you will find two good pieces of information. At the top left side you will see “Popular Romance Categories”. Continue down and you will see that the original category of “romance” has expanded to many subcategories.

Explore the different subcategories. Again you are looking for the best fit. So if your hot new romance is about two military people who find love in a foxhole, you really are not going to be a good fit for paranormal romance. Unless one of those foxhole loving people also transforms into a werewolf.

Another way of finding categories for your book is to browse until you find a similar book in terms of subject matter and genre. Scroll down the book details page until you find “Look for Similar Items by Category”

Remember you have two instances for categories, so keep that in mind. In the example above, one choice could be military, another paranormal.  You want to dig deep. If I click on the “Military” category, there are no more subcategories. The “Paranormal” category does have a bunch of subcategories, which makes it a better choice.

You want to go as deep as you can, and still have the categories makes sense. So try and pick the most specific subcategory you can.  The cool thing about finding a more specific category is that you will be searchable in all the parent categories. So “Romance -> Paranormal -> Werewolves & Shifters” will show your book if someone searches for “Romance”, “Paranormal”, or “Werewolves & Shifters”.

Then you can head on over to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and start entering the two categories that you want for you book along with your other information. Depending on what you choose, you might find that there are some categories on the main Amazon site that you don’t see available on KDP. That is because some categories require you to enter keywords to be available.

From the Amazon KDP Help section:

Categories with Keyword Requirements

To list your title in certain sub-categories for Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, you’ll need to add Search Keywords in addition to the categories you choose for your title. Click a category below to see the keyword requirements.

Amazon.com (US)

Biographies & Memoirs LGBT
Business & Money Literature & Fiction
Children’s eBooks Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense
Comics & Graphic Novels Religion & Spirituality
Erotica Romance
Health, Fitness, & Dieting Science Fiction & Fantasy
History Teen & Young Adult

See Amazon KDP Help for other countries keywords

By finding a good fit and utilizing more specific categories with special keywords, your can place your book in categories that have less overall titles. Why is that important? Because a category with less total titles means the odds of your book becoming a top 100 listing increases. This increases the chances of how many people will see it and Amazon promoting your title.

cat2
Romance subcategories

You can tell how many books are in a category, by typing the category in the search bar. Make sure you are searching in the Kindle store, under the title category, for our example “romance”. This way you can see how many books are being sold under each sub-subcategory.

So in our example above, if one soldier was a werewolf but the other was an angel trapped in soldier’s body, then you could choose “Romance -> Paranormal ->Angels”. Then your book would show up under “Romance”, “Paranormal”, and “Angels” and your book is only competing with 3,102 other titles. If you choose “Romance -> Paranormal ->Werewolves & Shifters” then you would be competing against 13,606 other titles. Both searches fit your book, but the “Angels” subcategory allows you the best option for a top 100 listing.

Keywords

Keywords are what a reader might type into the search bar to find your book. The goal with categories was to find the most specific category type with the least of amount of titles. The goal with keywords is to find the broadest.

You are allowed seven keywords, separated by commas. But did you know you can also use phrases? The total number of characters allowed in the keyword text field must be 399 characters or less. Keywords are hidden, so the only people who know what keywords you pick are Amazon and you. This makes it a little more difficult to find out what others are using.

The first step is to brainstorm. What main words or phrases would you use to find your book? Try and step into your ideal customer’s head and ask what would they type to find your book?

Some other ways to brainstorm keywords per Amazon

Useful keyword types

  • Setting (Colonial America)
  • Character types (single dad, veteran)
  • Character roles (strong female lead)
  • Plot themes (coming of age, forgiveness)
  • Story tone (dystopian, feel-good)

If you are using a phrase make sure to use a natural order. “Sword & Sorcery” is a common phrase but “Sorcery & Sword” is not. Again you are trying to guess what people might type to find your book, so use common phrases that are well established.

When you think you have a good list, go test your keywords one at a time on Amazon, in the Kindle store, and look at the results. With keywords you want more results, the higher the number the better. If your keyword doesn’t have a lot of results, then that means it isn’t a word that users type very often.

As you start to type in your keywords, watch to see what auto-prompts Amazon suggests. Those auto-prompts are the ones that people use most often to search Amazon. For example, when I type in the letter “p”, one of the auto-prompt suggestions is the phrase “paranormal romance.”  You want to make sure though that you don’t waste a keyword by using one of your category selections.

Also don’t waste keywords on information or metadata you have already entered, such as your title or any of your information that you have entered on any of the other KDP form fields. Don’t worry about punctuation either, Amazon’s got you covered.

Also you can’t use as keywords

  • Reference to other authors
  • Reference to books by other authors
  • Reference to sales rank (e.g., “bestselling”)
  • Reference to advertisements or promotions (e.g., “free”)
  • Reference to anything that is unrelated to your book’s content

You can always go back and change your categories and keywords after you have given them a chance to work. By doing your research and trying out different options, you can optimize your chances of getting your book in front of more readers who are looking for you.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Opportunities for Writers: February and March 2016

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Hey there are opportunities for just about everyone at Aerogramme Writers’ Studio.  Apply for American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship because who wouldn’t want money to go to PARIS!!! and write, along with more down to earth opportunities from Readers Digest. So if you are looking to expand your horizons or earn a little cold cash head on over and apply for these openings, cause if you don’t, someone else will.

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Money conceptEach month we aim provide a helpful round-up of writing competitions, fellowships, publication opportunities and more for writers at all stages of their careers. 

For new writers, or for anyone seeking a refresher, we highly recommend reading How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines.

Deadlines and details do sometimes change, so please check the relevant websites (linked in bold) for all the latest details. For more opportunities and regular updates follow Aerogramme Writers’ Studio on Facebook and Twitter.

Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing
at Bucknell University offers up to four months of unfettered writing time for a writer working on a first or second book. The residency provides lodging in Bucknell’s “Poets’ Cottage” and a stipend of $5000. The application deadline is 1 February.

Bustle
is seeking to a appoint a new Books Editor. Bustle.com caters to millennial women aged 18 to 35. Experience in and passion for books coverage is essential. The role is based in New York City.

Read the full post on Aerogramme Writers’ Studio

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Get Your First 10 Pages Critiqued by an Agent — Next Agent One-on-One Boot Camp Starts February 18, 2016

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Hey the next Agent One-on-One Boot Camp called “Your First 10 Pages.”  is coming up! You have until February 18, 2016 to sign up. Head on over to the Writer’s Digest site and get the details from This is a good resource even if you don’t plan on looking for a literary agent. The goal is to make your first 10 pages to make an impact on an agent or a reader, and that is a good thing.  Have any of you attended the camp before? If so let us know your opinion and if it is worth it in the comments below!

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Get Your First 10 Pages Critiqued by an Agent — Next Agent One-on-One Boot Camp Starts February 18, 2016

Feedback Puzzle Shows Satisfaction SurveysAs many writers know, agents and editors won’t give your work more than ten pages or so to make an impact. If you haven’t got them hooked by then, it’s a safe bet you won’t be asked for more material. Make sure you’ve got the kind of opening they’re looking for! In this invaluable weekend event, you’ll get to work with an agent online to review and refine the first ten pages of your novel. You’ll learn what keeps an agent reading, what are the most common mistakes that make them stop, and the steps you need to take to correct them. The best part is that you’ll be working directly with an agent, who will provide feedback specific to your work.

It’s all part of the recurring popular Agent One-on-One Boot Camp called “Your First 10 Pages.” Sign up by the end of the day, February 18, 2016, if seats don’t sell out beforehand. It’s taught by the agents at Talcott Notch Literary.

Read the full post on Writer’s Digest

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Your ISBN: Answers To Frequently Asked Questions

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Today’s featured link is from the Bookbaby Blog by Steven Spatz who provides answers to a lot of common questions about the International Standard Book Number or ISBN numbers.  It is a pretty comprehensive offering and helps demystify the topic.

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Of all the mysteries surrounding the process of self publishing, the book ISBN ranks among the most intimidating to many new authors. We’re here to allay your concerns and give you answers.

magnifying glass scanning bar code made in 2d software
magnifying glass scanning bar code made in 2d software

The ISBN. Seldom have thirteen little digits been so misunderstood. Our BookBaby publishing specialists field calls all day long about the International Standard Book Number – also known as the ISBN. Let me take this opportunity to field a few of the most common questions.

  • What is an ISBN? The ISBN is a numeric identifier that is used around the globe by book stores, publishers, and just about everyone in the publishing industry. ISBNs have either 10 or 13 digits (all ISBNs assigned after January 1, 2007 have 13 digits).

Read the full post on Bookbaby Blog

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.