Amazon | Self-Publishing Review

Amazon’s Age Restrictions, Look Inside, And All These Pesky X-Rated Titles

I made a pretty shocking discovery on Amazon the other day.

Anyone, including your kid, can use the Look Inside feature, without logging in, to access books containing violent rape, incest, animal torture, pornographic scenes, erotica, terrorism, and murder.

Your kid doesn’t even need an account to read the first 10% of any book on Amazon. Here’s my (fictional) 9-year-old kid, looking at Amazon (not logged into an account), curiously typing in the word “porn”:

Now let’s see what happens if he or she clicks “Look Inside” – Oh, great! They can read the book! Not logged in, not trying […]

Cate Baum2015-04-20T07:40:35+02:00April 20th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon|

Amazon Adds New Review Options Via Drop Down Menus

If you’ve tried to review a book on Amazon recently, Amazon has added a few options for users when reviewing a book via drop-down menus.

Here are the choices:

At the bottom of the page it says: “Write your reviews using the traditional review authoring page” so this is a beta system. Time will tell if this will be helpful and/or abused. It could potentially lead to a more reviews, as it caters to people who might have trouble articulating themselves. Perhaps it will lessen the number of reviews saying “Loved it” or “Hated it” as the total review. […]

Henry Baum2015-03-22T10:46:51+02:00March 22nd, 2015|Categories: Features, News|Tags: Amazon|

How To Stop Worrying About Google and SEO And Still Sell Your Book

The Internet is throbbing with “SEO Social Media Marketing Specialists” bursting to tell you how you messed up your author website by adding a link! Google penalties are coming to get you! You’ll be excommunicated from the INTERNET if you DO NOT ADHERE TO SEO GUIDELINES! Oh my god, the FTC are coming for you too? Six-figures fines? And don’t get me started on Amazon. If you don’t do the ten thousand things here listed, you will be PENALIZED by Amazon, and your book will become nothing, NOTHING I tell you! You may also find that you are hounded via […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:35:08+02:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon, Book Promotion|

Six Reasons Why Some Books Will Never Be Bestsellers

Often authors ask, “Why am I not selling any books?” after spending time, and often money, on pushing their books like crazy on self-publishing them. Here, we take a look at why that happens, and what you can do about it if you are in that exact situation.

1. Niche means niche, and if it’s niche…

Issue: A niche subject has a finite market, whatever you do.

Solution: Think of a new angle to market your book to a broader market. But accept that if you wrote a book about a real niche interest, such as coin collecting, corset making, […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:01:26+02:00February 18th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon, Book Marketing, Book Promotion|

How to Choose Kindle Keywords

One of the more confusing aspects of publishing to KDP is selecting keywords. For many writers, finding that sweet spot for the right keywords has been the difference between sales and obscurity. Like Google SEO, there’s a bit of an art to it and it’s important to experiment if your sales are currently flat.

First, Amazon makes it somewhat easy. They list the keywords that you have to have in order to list in certain categories. For example, take a look at the Young Adult category. Some of the keywords are obvious but the “Angels & Demons” category needs the […]

Henry Baum2019-02-03T09:36:35+02:00February 12th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Amazon, Book Promotion|

Amazon Adds Advertising for KDP Select Authors

Amazon has sweetened the KDP Select pot by allowing for pay-per-click advertising on titles. From KDP:

Advertising for KDP Select

With advertising for KDP Select, you can use Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to purchase advertising to promote your KDP-Select-enrolled books on Amazon.com. To get started, you can create an Amazon Marketing Services account directly on the KDP website. You set the budget you want to spend and the maximum amount you are willing to pay when a customer clicks your ad. Customers who click your ad will go to your book’s product detail page. You’ll only be charged when your

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Henry Baum2020-02-21T03:44:27+02:00January 29th, 2015|Categories: News|Tags: Amazon|

Five Ways To Sell More Books On Amazon

While there are other sales options open to you as an indie author, Amazon sales will feel like they count the most to most writers. Here are five quick ways to help you sell more books on Amazon.

Research Bestseller Keywords And Apply Them To Your Subtitle

Use the same keywords as bestsellers in your categories so that when customers search by keyword “Customers with Similar Searches Purchased” will then show your book in the search results for higher ranking but similar books.

As I have mentioned before, keywords on Google don’t really make sense in the same way […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:35:17+02:00January 22nd, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Amazon, Book Promotion|

Self-Publishing is Self-Correcting

With all the uproar about Kindle Unlimited (SPR included), there is one other major deciding factor that may be driving the self-published sales downturn. Publishers have finally gotten wise to lower prices, thereby eliminating a major tool used by indie writers. Russell Blake writes in The New Landscape:

I just looked at the Amazon top 100. #1 is a trad pub title at $2.99. #2 is a trad pub title at .99. #3 is an Amazon imprint pre-order at $4.99. #4 is Baldacci’s latest at $10.99, #5 is Michael Connolly’s latest at $3.99, #6 is Gone Girl

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Henry Baum2020-02-21T06:01:38+02:00December 15th, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon|