So How DO You Get Your Book on Amazon When Your Publisher Forgets?

Sometimes I include questions and letters I get in the Letters-to-the-Editor feature of my #SharingwithWriters newsletter so that all my subscribers can benefit from others. Sometimes--when the question comes from an author who wants me to link their question to their book or online bookstore page, I do that. Sometimes--like this one--they're anonymous.

QUESTION

Carolyn:

"How do I get the book posted on Amazon.com? My other books just magically appeared there."

ANSWER: 

I get this question in one form another from my newsletter subscribers, my clients, and my blog visitors but almost never from those who have (and read!) my The Frugal Book Promoter. That's because I believe in the power of Amazon so thoroughly that I included an entire section of the magical things that Amazon.com does for books and authors. Still, I don't mind answering the question many times:

Dear Rebecca:

One of the beauties of having a publisher is that one doesn't have to worry about this--publishers, including subsidy publishers--do this for you--or should do this for you!

 However, I happen to know the secret. I learned it by joining e-groups and talking to fellow authors.  It is my belief that the more any author knows about publishing, the better off she is--the better partner she makes for her editor, publisher, or going it on her own (sort of the best partner you can be for yourself). 

Also know that when your book starts selling well on Amazon, other online bookstores begin to pick it up without you doing a thing.

But right now, in this minute, you can get help by going to the AuthorConnect (along with some other names like AuthorCentral) program on Amazon and/or the Advantage program and use the contact links to get help directly from Amazon. When you Google “Amazon” you get a list of links that take you to specific places. One of the above is sure to be right for your particular needs.

At one point the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter was on Harvard University's online bookstore! Yep, just like magic. But there is a whole list of things you can do to help get that kind of exposure on Amazon and I share those secrets in second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo) and share the new things they do (like Kindle's new pre-sale program) on this blog and in my newsletter as they are introduced. 

And here's the best thing: Those resources are all free for starving (or frugal!) authors.

Best,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi award-winning novelist, poet, and author's advocate.
http://howtodoitfrugally.com

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 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Q&A a la Ann Landers: Kindle or Not to Kindle

Those of you who receive to my Sharing with Writers newsletter know that I enjoy answering questions for my subscribers. Here is one that echoes one of my favorite mantras from my retailing days. It's a variation on "The customer is always right." It is, "Give the customer what he or she wants." If you'd like more information like this, please subscribe by sending an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews @ aol.com.


QUESTION:

What's your feeling about Kindle? I have two friends who have and love it. One is an author of a book about caring for horses...not a popular topic. She is self published, offered it on Kindle and was shocked and delighted to receive three responses from readers who bought it. The other friend is not a writer but swears by Kindle. He says he's never without it. Apparently the only real negatives are that you can't dog-ear or underscore pages and you can't pass the book on to friend to read. Are any of your books on it?

Thanks for your take on this.
Laverne, Columns & Poems


ANSWER:

Readers who have Kindle may go elsewhere for reading material if they can't get what they want the way they want it. You won't sell a lot of books on Kindle. I sell my Frugal books on Kindle but those sales probably make up less than 1 percent of my sales. Many say that's not enough. I ask, why not? One of those people might pass the good word about my book to someone else. Another might be a Hollywood producer looking for a good story. Good retailers give their customers the products they want. And they let them buy them the way they want--credit card? Cash? Check? They don't cram their own needs and preferences down their customers' throats. Guess what? We authors are retailers, like it or not.

By the way, thank you for this question. It prompted me to get my latest how-to release, A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques, on Kindle. If Kindle serves your readers better, why not? Besides, it doesn’t cost anything but your time to do it. Check out The Frugal Editor’s Kindle sales page as an example. It is only $7.20 on Kindle so it also appeals to those who may not want to pay full price for a book (but you do get to set your own price). The Kindle page for the FRUGAL retailing book is at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0021AEXU0/

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

Your Book's Subtitle: Or How to Get Free Ad Space on Amazon

In Aaron Shepherd's book, Aiming at Amazon, he recommends a two-tiered subtitle. It's something I suggest in The Frugal Book Promoter, too. In that book, I suggest having two different subtitles because it gives a book a marketing edge in a bookstore where people turn books over to read the blurbs on the back. An additional subtitle header on that back cover is a second chance at letting a prospective reader know what is inside the book or how the book might fit their needs.

When Aaron makes that suggestion, though, he is thinking more about how to get enough keywords into online bookstore's search engines to benefit that book's sales. In fact, he advocates getting the right keywords in at the expense of a literate or extremely memorable title, if it comes down to that kind of a choice for the author. As an example, if the book is about writing, he'd like to see the title and subtitle include the different forms of that word. "Write." "Writer." "Publish." "Publishing." Maybe even "Publisher" if that version of the word applies. If the book is for children, one might try to include both the search words "children" and "kids" so the book will come up regardless of which the prospective book buyer searches for.

He tells us Amazon's computers will "accept subtitles of up to 300 characters, including all letters, punctuation, and spaces. But Amazon will truncate the title if the main title and subtitle together come to over 200 characters and the characters won't get cut off the end but out of the middle, replaced by an ellipsis!" That means that authors will want to limit the complete title to 200 characters, if possible. He also notes that longer titles take up more space in the prime field of visitors' vision when they are on the book's sales page and other places on Amazon. So, with a great title and one that is long, too, an author has literally "purchased" a great ad online without spending an extra penny to do so. Very frugal, no?

Aaron also advises that other listings have shorter limits. Ingram and Lightning Source won't accept more than 116 characters in the subtitle. Baker & Taylor will take only about 113. So, authors might want to decide on two versions of the subtitle. A big one for Amazon and a smaller one with about 110 characters when the full one won't fit. Or, you could do a shorter one for wherever you need one that is more literate or jazzier. You would just decide which one to submit for each specific venue.

In any case, most authors will see that having some well-considered choices will be an advantage in marketing their book both online and in bookstores.

CHJ

PS: You'll find more resources on publishing at Aaron's publishing page at www.aaronshep.com/publishing and more resources on promotion on the Resources for Writers pages at my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.