Written by: Mags Thomson, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Are you one of the many people who would just LOVE to publish a book? Maybe your manuscript has been gathering dust on a digital shelf for ages, waiting to see the light of day? Is the prospect of self-publishing too daunting?
Take a breath and let me talk you through it!
One of the questions I am asked most often is what the best place is to self-publish. My answer is that every way has its pros and cons, and that the best place probably depends on what you want to achieve with the publication of your book.
If you want your book to enhance your online credibility, give you sales leads and help shore up your business without you having to do all the legwork? In that case Amazon is the best platform to offer your book.
Unlike Other Platforms, Amazon Is a Search Engine
There are other places you can publish your book, but one of the biggest differences is that Amazon is not just an online shop, it’s a search engine. For you as an author that means that—if you play your cards right—you don’t have to do all the marketing work by yourself.
You don’t need to constantly get people to your website to purchase your book, you just have to make sure your Amazon SEO is in good shape and then create enough traffic to keep your book ranking in the search results.
It’s all a question about playing with the algorithms and getting your book in front of as many qualified leads as possible, just like when you try to rank your website in Google or get your social media content to go viral.
Why Becoming a Best-Selling Author Is a Good Strategy
I am sure many of you have come across the offer to contribute to a co-authored book to become a best-seller? It is a service I offer at House of Hives too. For me, becoming a best-selling author really is only the start of the story and it is more a means to an end than anything else.
I launched two books last month, one by a single author and one with a group of authors. Both became best-sellers in multiple territories and categories. The latter made it all the way to the number one spot in the entire Netherlands Kindle store! Yeah, it felt kind of epic to knock Stephen King off the top spot! Of course, it feels great to see the book rise through the ranks, but there are other reasons this is important.
I’ve spoken before about the traction and credibility your book can create for your business in 5 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Should Write a Book – Now. Those effects are multiplied when you can call yourself a best-selling author, regardless if you did it with a solo book or as part of a group of authors.
There are other reasons too though, and they have to do with the continued sales of your book. That’s because the Amazon algorithm learns from how many people click, look at and buy the book. You see, Amazon earns off your sales too, so they WANT your book to do well.
When your book shows up high in categories and searches, it means that more people are likely to discover your title and that means more sales potential. With more sales, come more recommendations from Amazon to other users who have similar interests to your readers. That’s how you can get the ball rolling on your book sales, and how you can introduce more people to your amazing business.
Making the Algorithm Happy
Of course, the book needs to be good for it to sell continuously. Nothing beats valuable content and a positive experience for your readers. Reviews are an important factor in how the algorithm judges your book, and you will only get those from people enjoying READING the book.
There are some tricks though to make sure that it stands the best chance of success in the Amazon marketplace. More sales and therewith more readers means more reviews, which means an increasingly happy Amazon algorithm.
The Book Page
Your book page doesn’t just have to grab your potential reader’s attention, it also needs to tell Amazon that the content of your book and the keywords you are trying to be listed for are connected. You do that by using your keywords in your book description.
Keyword padding is a bit of an art. You want these words and phrases to be present in your description and even in your title and subtitle. However, you want the text to read well and feel natural to your readers. Just sticking on a bunch of keywords stands out like a sore thumb. People don’t like scammy sales techniques, generally. So, being obvious about keyword stuffing can put your potential customers off.
The Keywords
So, how do you know what keywords we wanted to use? There are three important characteristics of the keywords you want to select:
Keywords people actually use
Keywords people use to buy
Keywords that are not too competitive
You can rank as high as you like with a specific keyword, but if no one ever types it into the Amazon search bar, well then you might as well not be ranked at all! The same goes for searches that do not generate any sales or where you would be buried under a mountain of famous authors who are pushing your book to page 10 of the search results.
For your non-fiction business book, you want to look at keywords that describe the pain point your reader is experiencing and the results they hope to gain from your book. You will also want to define your specific niche in your keywording. Create a list of some very specific key phrases and some more general keywords. Start with your brainstorm and then use the Amazon suggestions in the dropdown.
These choices depend on the numbers, but also on the content of your book. As with your keyword padding in the description, you want the book to show up in the right searches. This is about the right buyers finding your book, and about building trust with both your audience and the algorithm.
The Categories
Finding the right categories to list your book in, is very similar to finding the right keywords. In picking the categories, you need to look at the relevance and the competition for each. Sales figures for categories (and keywords) of course change from one day to the next, depending on new releases and buyer behaviour, but you can look at the trends and find out which would be good choices.
It’s important to realise that the categories that you can pick when listing your book, do not reflect ALL of the Amazon categories. In fact, Amazon has almost three times as many categories as you are offered when setting up your book. You can request you book to be listed in alternative categories though, once you have it all uploaded and ready to go.
When checking out categories, check out the first three books in the category and check their overall Amazon best-seller status. This can tell you a lot about how much competition you might have in the category and if it will be a good choice for your book. If you’d like to know how much an author is actually selling—and therewith how many you’d need to sell to compete—by adding their best-selling rank to this Kindle Best Seller Calculator by The Kindlepreneur.
Keeping the Algorithm Happy
Amazon Optimisation helps your book gain traction from the launch date and makes for a happy algorithm that will happily recommend your book to new readers. To keep that momentum going, it’s important to get reviews and make sure you continue to send a steady stream of buyers to your book.
A book is a great way for people to get to know you, your business and feel a connection to who you are and how you work. So, when you are doing podcast interviews, magazine features or guest blogs using your book as the Call To Action is an amazing way to deepen your bound with your audience and keep that Amazon algorithm purring.
The happier the algorithm is, the happier the algorithm becomes… it’s like the law of attraction, but for computers!
Not Sure Where to Start?
Is all this talk of SEO, algorithms, and optimisation feeling overwhelming? No worries! Amazon Optimisation is one of the services I offer at House of Hives! Check it out on the website and let’s see if we can work together!
Mags Thomson, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine Mags is a story coach, impact co-creator, and the founder of House of Hives. She helps female entrepreneurs and change-makers use their personal stories in their business, bridging the gap between emotive storytelling and strategic marketing. Together with developmental editor Karina Asti and event strategist Ana Gallo, she helps women co-create books and collaborative online summits to empower themselves and their brands.
