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How Australian book self-publishers can market their book on Amazon

How Australian book self-publishers can market their book on Amazon

clock - estimated reading time  Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Contents

1. Amazon Author Central
2. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
3. Kindle Unlimited
4. Amazon Advertising
5. Book Reviews and Ratings
6. Book Launch
7. Book Covers
8. Retail Book Pricing

There are over 200,000 books listed on Amazon.com.au. It is a great opportunity to self-publish your book on online. Marketing an Australian, self-published book on Amazon can be straightforward. Self-published authors can market their books on Amazon by utilizing several key features provided by the platform.

1. Amazon Author Central

This is a free tool that allows authors to create a profile, list their books, and provide information about themselves and their works. Amazon Author Central is a free platform for authors to manage their presence on Amazon.com. It allows authors to create a profile, list their books, and share information about themselves and their work with readers. Through Author Central, authors can also access sales data for their books, track their rankings, and receive notifications about customer reviews. The platform is available to any author with a book listed on Amazon.com.

2. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a self-publishing platform created by Amazon that allows authors and publishers to publish their books in digital format and make them available for sale on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and other devices. KDP offers a range of tools and resources to help authors format their books, set prices, and promote their work, as well as access to a global audience of readers. KDP is a free service, and authors can choose to make their books available for free or for a price, and will receive a percentage of the sale.

3. Kindle Unlimited

This is a subscription service that allows readers to read as many e-books as they want for a monthly fee. Self-published authors can opt-in to have their books included in this program, which can help increase visibility and sales.

 

4. Amazon Advertising

Self-published authors can use Amazon Advertising to promote their books on Amazon.com and other websites across the internet.

There are several ways to advertise your book on Amazon:

  1. Amazon Advertising: Amazon offers various advertising options, including sponsored product ads, sponsored brand ads, and sponsored display ads. These ads are targeted to specific audiences and appear on various Amazon pages, such as search results and product detail pages.
  2. KDP Select: This program allows authors to offer their book for free for a limited time and also participate in the Kindle Countdown Deals program, where authors can offer their book at a discounted price for a limited time.
  3. Giveaways: Amazon allows authors to run giveaways for their book. This is a great way to generate buzz and increase visibility for your book.
  4. Product Listing Ads: These ads are targeted to specific audiences and appear on various Amazon pages, such as search results and product detail pages.
  5. Amazon Author Central: This is a free service that allows authors to claim their author page on Amazon and customise it with information about their books, author bio, and photos. This is a great way to increase visibility for your book and establish yourself as an author on Amazon.
  6. Amazon Influencer Program: This program allows authors to work with Amazon Influencers to promote their books. Influencers have a large following on social media and can help to increase visibility for your book.
  7. BookBub: This is a platform that allows authors to promote their books to a large audience of readers. BookBub sends out daily emails to its subscribers with a list of discounted and free books in various genres.

5. Book Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings help to build credibility for your book and can encourage potential buyers to purchase, to leave reviews, and to respond to the reviews that you receive. Positive reviews and high ratings can greatly impact sales.

Amazon lets customers to rate books on a five-star scale, one star being the lowest. Customers can also leave written reviews with their rating. These ratings and reviews can be found on the book’s page on Amazon. They are a very helpful tool for buyers to determine if a book is worth purchasing and ultimately reading.

6. Book Launch

Planning a book launch event or a virtual event is a great way to generate buzz around your book.

When you conduct a book launch—while those attending will be eager to purchase your book in-person—you can also announce that the book will be available online (on Amazon) for ongoing referral purchases.

A book launch can be a simple format:

  • Master of Ceremonies (MC) welcomes guests and outlines what will happen, including an invite for guests to partake of refreshments, etc.
  • MC welcomes author to the stage.
  • Author thanks guests for attending and says a few words about  the book and why they wrote it.
  • Author reads a portion of  the book.
  • MC thanks author and invites guests to purchase a copy of the book.

7. Book Covers

To say that book cover design is very important is an understatement. Self-published authors might find it easy to establish a presence on Amazon, but the laws of book marketing are immutable.

Book covers, when they present on Amazon, can be the difference between a purchase and the reader moving on to something that looks more attractive to them.

Your book cover needs to be professionally designed. Even an average cover design can be fatal. Poor cover designs are usually dictated by the author—the author’s requirements are so specific that the publisher’s book designer cannot deploy their expertise. Green Hill’s lead designer has designed almost 1,000 books. She understands the requirements for a book cover that will help in marketing.

With online book retailers such as Amazon, cover design is critical because a potential reader may only be on your Amazon page for as little as 5 seconds. That 5 seconds is critical. A poor cover design might be dismissed by a potential reader in that time.

8. Retail Book Pricing

The price of your book on Amazon is critical to its success. Book retail prices are often dependant on the cost of print. As a rough rule of thumb, you should price your book on Amazon at about 300% of the printing price.

The difference between what your book will cost to print and what the retail price might be will be integral to your success if profit is one of your goals.

Amazon has a retail shop and also a print arrangement. This is a common source of confusion for self-published authors.

Amazon’s book print pricing varies depending on the book, its format, and the quantity ordered. On average, Amazon’s prices for print books are competitive with other retailers and online bookstores. They also offer discounted bulk ordering for businesses and organisations. Additionally, Amazon offers a self-publishing platform for authors to print and sell their own books at a lower cost. Overall, Amazon’s book print pricing compares favorably with other retailers and online bookstores.

Print pricing on Amazon will not always be the best option—always check with Green Hill to see if there is a lower cost option for book printing.

To set the price of your book on Amazon, you will first need to create an account with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and upload your book. Once your book is live on the Amazon store, you can log into your KDP account and navigate to the “Bookshelf” section. From there, you will see an option to “Edit Pricing.” You can then set your book’s price and choose the territories in which it will be available for purchase. Keep in mind that Amazon will take a percentage of the sale as commission, sometimes as high as 55% of the retail price, so you should factor that into your pricing strategy.

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Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

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Naming your book.

Naming your book.

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What’s in a book name?

People judge a book by its cover and that includes the book’s title. A good name will be highly influential in helping your book succeed.

Its easy to compare a book cover to advertising. It certainly is critical to your book’s success. If the cover (including the book title) isn’t right then readership will suffer.

Advertising headlines anre a little like book titles.A book title is a little like an advertisement headline, or a sign.

What’s wrong  with this sign? Is the word “Koala” a proper noun/brand name or a common noun? The rendering in all-capitals makes it even more confusing. No wonder the Mexican Shop has gone out of business. Not only aren’t there many Mexicans in Australia but the thought of cooking those cute Koalas in a specialised oven is repulsive to 99.9% of Australia’s population. I’ve taken this to the extreme, but I’m sure most will get my point.

Authors need to think their book titles through.

Some simple suggestions include:

  • Simplicity /brevity (you can have a one word title or just the name of the main protagonist) e.g. Wilf
  • Use literary devices like alliteration e.g. The Good Food Cook Book or use  double entendre (but be careful with this device because for some a double entendre is hard to decode)
  • Involving – your can involve the reader by asking a question e.g. Can you fly?
  • Solving a problem e.g. How to fix a credit card problem
  • Evocative – not telling the whole story but evoking a feeling, emotion or  generating intrigue e.g. Smoking Gun

Having said all this if you have an Amazon book marketing strategy, then some of the advice above doesn’t apply.

Amazon for books (like websites) is driven by keywords. Keywords are more than “king”. They are also queen, prince and princess – they are everything! If you have an Amazon-first book marketing strategy then you’ll ideally have a book title that contains category relevant keywords. We can provide an Amazon strategy consultancy that will give your book real hope of being an Amazon book-marketing champion.

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Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

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The economics of selling your book

The economics of selling your book

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It’s the dream for most authors to profit from the sales of their book.

Choosing the self-publishing route may make this seem like a daunting task, but through proper self-marketing and passion for your book it can be achieved.

Self-published authors take control of their sales and can sell their own books themselves. This is called self-selling. If you self-sell, you get the most profit from the sales of your books as you cut out the retailer’s margin. You can self-sell through avenues such as author websites, your personal business, on social media marketplaces, or through author events like launches and readings. Self-published authors can also easily sell through bookstores—both online and brick-and-mortar—by enabling their books for online distribution and pitching to bookstores to stock their books.

On the other hand, traditional book publishing companies will take your book under stringent legal conditions, then print and distribute your work through the industry’s established channels, including retail stores and online outlets. For all your hard work as the author, you might only get a small percentage (royalty) of the retail price.

So, how much more could you be making if you self-publish rather than using a traditional publisher? Have a look at the figures below:

If you get royalties through a traditional publishing deal:

  • Print cost: $4.95
  • Retail price: $14.99
  • Your profit: 74 cents

 

If you self-sell:

  • Print cost: $4.95
  • Retail price: $14.99
  • Your profit: $10.04

There’s a huge difference, as you can see. If you sell 200 copies of your book as a self-published author you can breakeven with your production costs, leaving any extra sales as pure profit.

The key to success when marketing as a self-published author is your network. Personal and author dedicated social media profiles are an excellent place to start. If you are a trainer, public speaker, consultant, or have any sort of profile within your potential readership target, you also have the capability of selling hundreds and hundreds of copies of your book at events, meetings, and seminars.

Green Hill can also help you out with marketing. We can write professional press releases, create stunning graphics, organise reviewers, and give you advice on how to best market your book. If this interests you, head over to our Marketing your book page to read more and get in touch!

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Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:

 

The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.

 

In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.

The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.

submit your project details