by Sherrie Wilkolaski
Author’s it’s that time of year when you should be paying extra close attention to your
Amazon Author Central. Amazon provides a FREE author page to each and every author who has an ISBN and listed on their site. It’s true! It’s a great marketing tool to help authors, better market their books. Get your account set-up as soon as your book is listed on their site, as it can take 5-7 days (or more) for your new page to go live.
Amazon Forums. Online discussions can be a driving force to exposing your book to a new audience. Amazon has such a variety of forum discussions, you’re sure to find one (or start one) that you can use to mention your book title. The people hanging out in Amazon’s forums are typically readers and authors. Be polite and don’t just push your book, join the discussions. Quick tool you can post instantly.
Amazon Keyword Tags. Make your book more discoverable by using Amazon’s tagging feature. It can deliver almost immediate results if you do it properly. Look at what tags (i.e. historical fiction, vegan cookbook, etc.) other books in your genre are using and then tweak yours to compete. Put yourself in a readers shoes, what words would they use to find a book of your genre on Amazon. Get your book into the running. The more keyword tags you have, the better. Quick tool can be done immediately.
Amazon’s Listmania! Another book discovery tool is Amazon’s Listmania! This gizmo will position your book amongst other books in your genre, simply by making a list and including your book in the mix. Be selective and true to the books you include on your list, it must make sense. It’s easy to assemble your list, spend your time doing the research on which books you want to include on your list.
Amazon Search Inside the Book Readers looking for a new book to read want to be a able to flip through the first few pages of a book to see what it’s all about. Be sure you utilize the search inside the book feature to give your potential readers a sneak peak of what is inside. This tool does take time to get approval from Amazon and you should have your personal Amazon page set-up as a first step. It can take several weeks before you get approval for you to upload your file and then you’ll have to go through the submission process. It will be worth the wait.
These are just a few free marketing tools that Amazon has to offer. Use them wisely. Best of luck to you!