The Small Changes That Can Amp up your Book Promotion on Amazon

by Penny Sansevieri | Jul 6, 2021 | Amazon Updates & Marketing Tips, Book Marketing Basics

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When it comes book marketing, nothing seems more complicated than book promotion on Amazon – but it doesn’t have to be. When it comes to Amazon, details really matter to your reader, and I’m always surprised at how many book pages that I see where the author has clearly glossed over these details.

When a reader lands on a book page that is messy, has typos in the book description, or doesn’t have an author photo, it looks unattended to. Like you don’t care about your own book, which I know isn’t true.

So, let’s look at some small modifications you can make to your Amazon Book page and your overall book promotion on Amazon success:

Is your book description ready for book marketing?

While it’s tempting to just throw something up there, it’s often the most overlooked aspect of your Amazon book page by authors for book marketing.

How is the formatting? Is your book description easy to scan, or are the paragraphs all jammed together? Remember, consumers don’t read, they scan. Making sure that your book description is scannable can go a long way in converting shoppers to buyers.

Did you bold words when necessary, or (if your book is non-fiction) did you bullet point your book benefits?

Is your book description too short, or is it too long? Did you lead with an awesome book teaser (like an elevator pitch), or did you add a stand-out review to the top of your book description? Adding a standout review – even if it’s a portion of an existing Amazon review – is a great way to drive more attention to your book and keep potential readers engaged in what your book is about.

All of these things make a difference to your reader. So, spending some time on your book description is extremely helpful when it comes to making sure that your potential reader is able to decern what your book is about and if it’s right for them.

Do you have an intriguing author bio?

We just did a podcast on this! Your author bio may seem like a small thing, but it’s really so important. Does your bio match your book topic? Meaning, if you wrote a romance novel, does your bio reflect the passion for writing fiction? Or do you talk about the degrees you have, where you studied, etc.? While there’s nothing wrong with bragging about your education and such, it really does not matter to the genre fiction reader.

When you write your author bio, it should share the flavor of your book. Did you write a humorous parenting guide? Then don’t put up a dry bio that doesn’t reflect the humor in your book.

And how about your author photo, you do have one, right? Make sure your picture matches your genre. I’ve seen authors get really creative with this. Like fantasy authors with a picture of themselves wearing a wizard’s hat! Readers absolutely love these small details. And they do, in fact, look at your author picture, so make it count!

But back to your bio for a minute. How long/short is it? Is it inviting to the reader? Do you seem like the engaging sort that your reader may want to get to know? And by engaging, I mean this: readers love connecting with authors, and being approachable is part of a good author bio. If your bio seems off-putting with a lot of starchy details that don’t really matter to your reader, it could discourage them from buying your book.

Is your Author Central optimized for book promotion on Amazon?

Did you know that Amazon Author Central pages get 1 billion hits a year? Yes, it’s absolutely true. Author Central is a great place to add details to your book page, like videos, or your blog RSS feed (but only if you post to your blog on a regular basis).

You can also update your book description on this page or add in that stand-out review, as I mentioned earlier.

Taking the time to optimize your Author Central to help amp up your overall Amazon profile is really time well-spent. And Amazon keeps adding fun new additions to Author Central, too, so it’s absolutely worth your time to get in there and poke around.

Consider adding: your blog RSS feed, pictures and videos, which show up on your Author page, too!

Are you using video shorts?

While you can add video to your Author Central page, you can also add video shorts to your Amazon book page, which is super fun!

Create a short video on your phone about your book or pop up a portion of your book trailer (if you have one). Maybe post a snippet of a speaking gig you did. You can really have fun with video shorts!

Are your Amazon Ads working for your book promotion on Amazon?

Maybe you’re running these, or maybe you’ve thought about it. But keep in mind that if you haven’t done the work previously suggested for book marketing, your ads may not be converting.

One sure sign of a book that’s in a wrong market, or has a neglected book page, are your Amazon ads. Spending time here is great, but make sure that you fix your book page, first and foremost, because otherwise you’re paying for clicks that aren’t getting you buys.

Amazon ads will also help “show” your book to new audiences (which is sort of the point), so be sure that you’re using the right keywords and that these keywords and/or categories accurately reflect what your book is about.

Much like the other elements of your Amazon book page, I can’t emphasize that thoughtful details matter to your ad conversion as well. It’s easy to get frustrated and just want to toss up a bunch of keywords and see what happens. But if you keep sending traffic to a page that isn’t converting, it’ll hurt your overall Amazon algorithm.

And here’s a final note: When an author tells me that their Amazon ads or Facebook ads aren’t doing well, meaning they seem to be getting a lot of traffic to their book page with very few buys, I can almost guarantee something is wrong with their Amazon book page. The page isn’t engaging enough to get the person landing on it to make a buy.

Amping Up Your Book Promotion on Amazon isn’t Hard, it’s Thoughtful

Your takeaway from this should be that thoughtful details matter. Make small tweaks to your book page and see what happens. As things begin to improve, you may get more creative with your various additions – like tying your book into a particular holiday or something going on in the news – and you can make these modifications in your book description.

Elements like that, and the other points mentioned above, really show your reader that you’re paying attention and that you care about them. And in the end, that’s what it’s all about.