Marketing Checklist to sell more books

Marketing Checklist to sell more...

When was the last time you looked at your site on Amazon? You know, the first place a reader views your work. Does it generate the buying impulse? How about updating your product description? If you’re like me it’s been a while.

I release a new novel last week, First to Die. Realized my Amazon book pages need work.

I Googled. Found a blog. Read something that stuck with me.

Awareness: The most important marketing advice.

You have to get your name out there. Everything else is important. But you have to get your name out there and that’s means devoting time to blogging, Kindle Boards, Facebook, Twitter, you know the list…well I’m working that. So what else can an author do? Here’s where the checklist comes in.

Your Cover: We’ve all heard people judge a book by its cover. Does any body really know what a good cover is and does it make a difference. I tried Googling but didn’t hit on anything that gave me stats. I wanted to know is there a color, font size artwork, something that triggers buying based on the design of the book cover, didn’t find it. Must be an industry secret. Here’s what I believe: The book cover needs to look good as a thumbnail (learning that mistake from experience). Red is exciting, blue is pretty good too. The best color combination for a pay here button on a website is navy blue font on an orange rectangle background bordered by a red line? Doesn’t sound good but I’m trying it out on my website, let you know if that works.

Your Product Description: I’m in the process of updating mine. It feels good. I’ve improved as a writer over the years so has my ability to write something that’s short, quick catchy. So update your book descriptions. This helped me, if you go Amazon.com and look up your blog. You have created a blog in Amazon right? Go to Author Central. The header begins with Home. Select Books. Pulls up a list of your books. Select a book and an editing page opens up where you can update your product description, post reviews, add the back cover description all kinds of stuff.

Your Reviews: I need more reviews. That’s in line with awareness. Makes sense. Good reviews have got to help.

Your Writing: How does a buyer know about your writing? Free download of the first chapters might help. I’m doing that in Goodreads. Have the first chapter of three of my books posted so far.

Price: Talked about this the other day. I’ve seen my sales double by dropping the price to $0.99. Maybe that’s just an impulse purchase. But we want people to read our books, get the word out there. My latest novel I priced at $2.99. We’ll see how that works out.

In summary:

Look at your sites, Amazon, Smashwords your website and work the checklist:

Awareness

Your Cover

Your Product Description

Your Reviews

Your Writing

Price