The Profit Is in the Details of Book Marketing

    Amazon had changed the landscape of my Author Central page a week or so ago, and my sales had gradually taken a nosedive. I called customer service twice and asked for a reason why the layout and theme of my author page changed, and of course, neither rep could give me a clear-cut answer. I did, however, notice that the blog teasers from my blog feed were missing from the author page, and I wondered if that was the reason for the decline in sales because every other important detail was still intact. I also noticed when I click on the links that direct customers to the sale pages of my books, they're led to the eBook pages only and not the paperback, which is my bread and butter.

    I then took it upon myself to randomly check other authors’ pages to see if their layouts and themes had been changed, and the vast majority of them still had the original format as I was only able to find a handful of authors whose pages were changed like mine. The second rep did tell me to delete the link to the blog feed on my page and insert it again, and the blog teasers should reappear within a twenty-four-hour period. I’ll check back later to see if the changes have taken effect.

    It was then that I realized one small detail in book marketing can drastically make a world of difference. One example of a minor detail that can make a major difference is the AddToAny share button on a blog―backlink building is virtually impossible without this feature being added to a given website. Other examples of details that can reduce sales are poor keyword choices on the Amazon advertising platform, not including an excerpt with a description on the book page of your blog or setting the default bid of the keywords too high or low, for example. Details in book marketing matter a great deal, and if one or more steps are overlooked or missing altogether, it can ultimately be the difference-maker between making a profit or losing your shirt.