Book Promotion Articles | Self-Publishing Review

How Indie Authors Can Make Two Categories Count On Amazon

Amazon made a decision sometime in the last two months or so to cut off new indie books to the five plus two categories allowed to all indie/self-published authors who had both paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon. Why could this decision have been made, and how can authors make the most of the measly two categories now allowed when publishing on Kindle?

Spoiling It For The Rest Of Us

What happened? Maybe the mounting problems for authors who had trad-published, or had genre books in the last couple of years with categories forced a change. Publishing companies and […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:36:19+02:00May 20th, 2015|Categories: Features|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

What Should You Charge for an Indie eBook?

The short answer to the question in the title is there’s no set answer. Indie book pricing is a tough matter because each book and each genre will sell differently at different price points. A 10,000-word erotica short can actually get away with charging $3.99. A first (non-erotica) novel by a new author generally can’t.

On Reddit, this was a comment on a post by a new author who was struggling how to set price. I argued that he should lower his book to $.99 from $1.99, as he wasn’t selling any books. This was a response:

99c essentially

[…]

Henry Baum2019-02-03T09:35:00+02:00March 25th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|

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 News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

The Truth About FTC Guidelines For Paid Book Reviews

A flurry of nervous blog posts about “the dangers of paid book reviews!” and “Google Penalties!” drove me to dig deeper into exactly what FTC guidelines mean for sites like SPR. Here’s the upshot of three months of advice and research.

I contacted the FTC, and spoke to an officer about paid book reviews. It is about time we all had it from the horse’s mouth.

Here’s the take-home:

The FTC Guidelines that the doom-n-gloom bloggers have been banging on about (with Matt Cutts of Google quotes akimbo PENALTIES! BOOKS BEING REMOVED! SHOCK! HORROR! SIX-FIGURE FINES! YIKES! END OF THE […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:30:11+02:00February 19th, 2015|Categories: Resources|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|

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 News and Tips, Book Marketing Advice and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

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 News and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

Self-Publishing Starter Kit

We get a lot of questions here from writers just beginning to self-publish who have little to no idea about the process. They’re all asking about the most basic nuts and bolts: how do I self-publish? We’ve gathered together the best services currently running (and have been running for a while) to publish a book quickly and professionally.

There’s still a fair bit of DIY involved with the services listed below, but you’ll have a more professional book and keep a larger share of the royalties.

So here’s a basic starter pack for the novice self-publisher who wants more of […]

Henry Baum2024-07-25T16:45:56+02:00January 28th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Cover Design Tips, Book Formatting Tips, Book Marketing Advice and Tips, Book Promotion Articles|

Ten Ways To Get Your Book “Review Ready”

As the owner and editor of Self-Publishing Review, I deal with hundreds of self-published and indie books every year. People ask me, “How do I get a good review?” Apart from actually writing a good book (snort) there are a few other things you can do to make sure you get your readers to invest and feel they can sing your praises on Amazon, Goodreads or Barnes and Noble.

1. Get a professional edit for your manuscript. This is 101 stuff, but still I see authors saying they are doing it themselves, or have let it loose on a friend. […]

Cate Baum2019-02-03T09:33:04+02:00January 23rd, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|