Optimize Your Amazon Book Page: 7 Tips

If you're self publishing, Amazon matters a lot. So paying attention to what Amazon wants and giving it to them is pretty important. I already talked about the five things to do when your book is listed on Amazon. Today I'm going to go much deeper into what you need to do to create your awesome Amazon author page and why it matters. Hey, I'm Julie Broad, award winning author and founder of Book Launchers, a company that helps entrepreneurs and professionals write, publish and sell a fantastic nonfiction book. If you're self publishing a nonfiction book, Amazon is likely going to be your biggest source of book buyers. So standing out on Amazon really matters. The numbers are telling. 69% of adult nonfiction books are bought online and that number goes up, way up. Even more when you're talking self published books, largely because that's where the main place that they're available in many cases and one of the most crucial pages for marketing and sales success is your Amazon page. As a Book Launcher platinum level client, we make sure you're covered there. But if you're not, here's the essential elements to ensure your Amazon page markets your book in the absolute best possible way. Number one, your book title and subtitle are essential to the success on Amazon. I've talked about this in another video, so check out that video to make sure you've got a great title. The one thing we didn't discuss in that video extensively is your subtitle and it really needs to hook your reader and answer this super important question. What's in it for me? Always be thinking. How will your reader benefit? Will your book make them more beautiful, richer, fitter, more successful? And bonus points if you tell them how long it will take to alleviate their biggest concerns. A couple of my faves the four Hour Work Week Escape Skate nine to five Live anywhere and join the new rich. The perennial seller the art of making and marketing work that lasts the dip. A little book that teaches you when to quit and when to stick. Those are great titles with fantastic subtitles. Starting with a great title and subtitle. Perfect thing for your Amazon page. Number two is your cover. Think in thumbnails. You need a cover that creates visual curiosity. It's the number one reason templates for book covers are a terrible idea. You must stand out. And if you're going to stand out, you can't look like a people's books. Too many people cheap out and don't work with a professional who will create a unique and targeted book cover. Visual creatures A colorful explosive in your face cover is a perfect way to capture your readers visual curiosity. Number three make your book available in more than one format. When I launched the new brand you'd I posted an important question on my Facebook page. Do you think books printed in hardcover are more credible than those printed only in softcover? The answer's surprised me. When people see that it's available in an ebook, a softcover, a hardcover or an audio, people automatically think real professional product. This is a really important thing. If you're self publishing, you want it to look professional. And if it's only available in Kindle you could be losing readers because they're gonna go hmm, cheap or not professional. Number four Keywords I'm gonna do a video on keywords real soon, so make sure you've subscribed to Book Launcher's channel so that you catch that video. But most importantly, you wanna know what your competitors books have for and use that too. So figure out which keywords are important for your book. Write a fantastic description that will utilize those keywords. Bonus points for getting those keywords into your subtitle. That takes work, but Amazon does give you some good guidance on keywords in its catalog. What's in its catalog is all it's going to search for and it's going to personalize that to each person. So the best way to get seen is by keeping your words generic and broad for the most part on this list. Tada. You will see search engine will serve up results much more effectively when you use categories that have keyword requirements and then you stick to those requirements. Here's the link to the list and it'll be down below in the YouTube description as well. Number five description A mistake that I made with my books that I'm actually fixing right now is using the back cover description for this spot on Amazon. Why is this a mistake? Well, a couple of reasons. The back of my book has a lot more restrictions on it in terms of size and copy and visual designs. And the back of my book didn't have to be written with keywords in mind. Your Amazon description must be this description has to sell your book so you need to kick it off with your hook. Share what's in it for your reader with the promise of what they're going to get when they read your book and include proof and even your author hook. This is a great opportunity to use those keywords again. By the way, Number six endorsements and reviews. They're not the same thing, but they're equally important. Endorsements are those quotes from well known people, media and other authors. Check out my other video on the three types you need for your book cover. These three should appear here. Then you need reviews for your book. The most important is the stars, then the content. The most liked review and most recent will be the most important because those are going to be shown first. So make sure you have recent reviews and that the average overall stars is four out of five or better. If they aren't, take a look at what reviewers are criticizing and see if you can fix it. You may want to relaunch your book Number seven Categories this is a big subject first. You only have a little bit of control over this, but the strategy is to start in the smallest category possible, itty bitty category, and then have Amazon keep moving you up within that overall category. This way, becoming a number one bestseller is quicker and easier. And more importantly, Amazon will pull your book up into the mother category. So to speak. Amazon will just keep pulling it up and up. But here's the thing that many authors may not realize they Canadian categories aren't the same as American categories. Amazon print categories are not equal to Kindle, so it takes research and setting yourself up in different categories for different accounts. Ugh, right. That's what Book Launchers is for. We do a lot of that hard grunt work for you. There's more on the page, including also bots and recommendations, but if you're focusing your marketing on your ideal reader, then that should sort itself out. Okay, so there's lots of things to cover in your Amazon page, but they're essential to save selling your book. If you like this video, hit that thumbs up button. And of course, if you have questions. You want me to film a video to answer one of your questions, type it in the comments below and subscribe to the channel so you catch all the tips. I'll see you on the next video.