I love Amazon. Seriously. Though I’ve heard
grumbling for years about Amazon sweeping other booksellers into oblivion, it
seems clear to me that Amazon might just be a writer’s best friend—the website
that attracts and informs millions, offers writers opportunity to publish their
work through a variety of companies, and has a ton of tools to help invisible
writers become visible.
I talk about this last point often, and I’m
always surprised that writers aren’t aware of it. Do you realize you can promote yourself on Amazon FOR FREE (which Amazon
not only approves of, but provides tools for)?
How about:
1) Your Customer Name. I’m
not suggesting that if your name is John Smith you start calling yourself
Carmen Miranda. BUT... if you’re a writer, why just say John Smith? My customer
name on Amazon is not ‘Susan Sloate’. It’s ‘Susan Sloate, Author, Forward to Camelot’.
Why? Because EVERY SINGLE PLACE where my name appears on Amazon, it’s a free
advertisement for me and my book.
How do you use it?
WRITE REVIEWS. Book reviews, music reviews,
movie reviews—whatever products you like and want to voice an opinion about.
You don’t even need to buy it on Amazon!! If you got a good book at a yard sale
for 50 cents, you can still write an honest review about its merits, and your
name shows up on the review. Pick items you like, so your review is positive.
If you write a snarling review, it might make you feel better, but will
potential readers reading your review want to check out your book, given your
attitude? Doubtful. And try if possible to pick stuff that’s ALREADY GETTING A
LOT OF TRAFFIC and is in the same genre as your book. Recent bestsellers are
good, or books by authors who are already popular. You’re getting YOUR NAME AND
TITLE on THEIR PAGE—for nothing! Isn’t that worth a few minutes of your time to
write a review? I think it is. Besides, I like boosting other writers. It’s
fun. Remember to write a review long enough to get some attention. Two
sentences won’t impress other customers. A thoughtfully-written paragraph will.
2) Listmania. Hard to believe
more writers don’t take advantage of this one. Listmania allows you to create a
list of items that have something in common—in the case of books, often books
with the same subject or in the same genre. The list shows up on the page of
EVERY ITEM that’s listed.
Example: I co-wrote a time-travel thriller, FORWARD
TO CAMELOT, and created a Listmania list titled “Best Time-Travel Novels Ever”.
I listed THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, at that time a New York Times bestseller and
#2 on Amazon, along with Jack Finney’s famous TIME & AGAIN and a few
others. I also listed FORWARD TO CAMELOT. You as the list creator can make a
comment on each item you list. Under CAMELOT, I wrote, “Best time-travel book
ever”. Hey, it was an honest opinion. That list appeared on ALL the pages of
ALL the items I’d mentioned—and customers look at them. You can put the same
item on more than one list. I also listed CAMELOT with “Best JFK Assassination
Books Ever”. You can create multiple lists using the same book, to take
advantage of the buzz around OTHER books—why not? It’s a free and very simple
way to leverage the power of others’ popularity to help yourself. Try it and
see.
3) Author Central. Amazon
WANTS you to have an author’s page where you can post your published books (and
Amazon will have all of them!), your photo, your blog URL (and if you don’t
have a blog, shame on you!), your bio, and many other items of interest. Keep
it up to date. Give people a chance to find you. That page has its own simple
URL you can promote on Facebook, Google +, etc.
Amazon has created a host of wonderful tools
(these are just a few) to help you get noticed—if you take the time to learn
them and use them. Amazon is by far the world’s biggest bookseller, so why not
devote some effort to using it well? I guarantee you’ll sell more books on
Amazon than anywhere else online. See it as a friend.
When my new novel, STEALING FIRE, went live on
Amazon, it went live ONLY in the Kindle edition, and it was not available
anywhere else on the web. After I mentioned it on my Facebook page (and I don’t
have that many friends), the book went to #2 in its category and was listed as
a ‘Hot New Release’. Without doing ANY of my planned promotion, I had an Amazon
bestseller WITHIN 12 HOURS.
That’s the power of Amazon. Take advantage!
