Self-Publishing on Amazon #5 With Over a Million Titles in the Kindle Bookstore Are the Odds Against You?

I have limited experience when it comes to Amazon’s e-book marketing (or any other kind of book marketing) but I am sure of two things:  (1) The numbers are daunting.                 (2)Visibility and placement are key to success. Fortunately, there are authors who have been down this road and most are willing to share how they’ve increased their visibility and found success.

Amazon uses algorithms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm to determine where your book will be placed amongst those million+ titles. No one but Amazon knows exactly how this works, but author David Gaughran of Let’s Get Digital shed some light on the subject in his post Popularity, Visibility & KDP Select  He always offers practical, well-thought out advice, so if you’re considering e-publishing, put him on your must-read list. His posts tend to be sporadic so it’s best to sign up for them.

Another post that I found valuable is Louisa Locke’s  http://mlouisalocke.com/2012/10/18/update-on-categories-and-keywords-why-authors-should-still-care/  She gives great advice on picking the keywords and categories that help readers find you. Another must-read.

If you’re planning on doing a free promotion on KDP Select check out http://ebook-reader-vergleich.org/promoting-ebooks-with-kdpselect.html

Blogs I highly reccommend: 

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/

http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/

Each of the following books on e-publishing offer something slightly different:

 Joe Konrath’s Be the Monkey — Ebooks and Self-Publishing: A Dialogue Between Authors Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath http://www.amazon.com/Be-Monkey-Self-Publishing-Between-ebook/

Michael Alvear puts a different  spin on the industry with Make a Killing on Kindle (Without Blogging, Facebook or Twitter) http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Facebook-Guerilla-Marketers-ebook/

James Scott Bell’s Self-Publishing Attack http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publishing-Absolutely-Unbreakable-Publishing-ebook/

David Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital  http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Digital-Self-Publish-ebook/ You can also buy it at http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/lets-get-digital/

If you’ve noticed my page has suddenly turned green, it’s because I’m finally working on a new look. I put it off because I tend to panic when attempting anything more difficult than inserting a link. For the moment, I’m using one of the stock WordPress headers, but my inner-control-freakishness creative soul won’t allow that to continue for very long.

I won’t be posting Thanksgiving week. Stay safe and have a fantastic holiday!

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