Paid Promos

Results will vary depending on genre, time of the year, if you're marketing a standalone vs series or full price, discounted, or freebie. I've covered some of my favorite resources for finding paid promos like this post by Kindlepreneur about sites to use to promote your free Amazon books. https://kindlepreneur.com/list-sites-promote-free-amazon-books/ The options listed there are…

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Look Inside Feature

Most sites feature a "look inside" option. This is similar to browsing in a physical store except it is limited to 10% of the entire book. You've snagged a potential reader with the title/cover. They read the blurb, they've looked at reviews, and they just haven't made that decision to click away or click buy.…

Retrieving Your Cover Template

For indies, we want to make our team's jobs easier, and the best way to help out our cover designers is to have the cover template available for them. IngramSpark For IngramSpark, you'll go to this link—https://myaccount.ingramspark.com/Portal/Tools/CoverTemplateGenerator Fill in the information. IngramSpark Cover Template ISBN is the ISBN. Publisher Reference Number—If you have a lot…

Trim Size

Physical books come in a variety of sizes. Some are tall. Some are short. Some fit in the back pocket, and others lounge in bags. But what size should your paperbacks be? Typical Sizes The typical books I format fall under these sizes: 4 x 6” (154 x 102mm)4 x 7” (178 x 102mm)4.25 x…

Updating Your Files on Amazon

I think there's a misconception with Amazon and updating ebooks. Yes, it is rather easy to update the file through the KDP dashboard, but that doesn't send out a corrected version to the countless buyers who bought it until that newest version went "live." When you update an eBook on Amazon, only the buyers who…

Free On Amazon

Whatever the path led you here, there's only 2 ways to get a book listed as free on Amazon. Your Book Is In Kindle Select (KU) If your story is in Kindle Unlimited, you'll have access to the Promote and Advertise option for the story. Click it and you'll see the time you have left…

Magical Number of Reviews

We’ve seen posts like this circulating on Facebook and Twitter. Authors holding hard to the line that there is a magical number of reviews when Amazon does these magical things. “Also Bought” and “You Might Like” lists These aren’t determined by a magical review count. When your book has enough sales, Amazon’s AI determines, based…

Is Kindle Select Good For Me?

Kindle Select gets confused with the Kindle program. They are not mutually exclusive. Your book can be in the Kindle program but not be in Kindle Select. Until recently (Autumn 2018), to enroll the book into Kindle Select, you had a check box on the third page of the book set up. They have now…

ISBN

No catchy title on this one. The ISBN debate is as great or more enduring than the KDP vs CS vs IS and the Traditional vs Indie publishing path dilemmas. This topic makes the rounds in writer groups, especially larger groups who can't use a search feature, that many of the knowledgeable writers have stopped…

Stocking Shelves—Getting Your Book into Brick and Mortar Stores

This post is USA orientated. I have no first-hand knowledge of UK, CA, AU practices on this subject. Let's go ahead and draw a distinction between a store like Books A Million (BAM) being able to order your books for a customer and being able and willing to order copies to sit on a shelf…