Amazon Offers Great Opportunities to Build Your Book Sales

By Charles Jacobs

Every new writer's dream is to have his/her book listed on Amazon. There is no question the site is one of our top bookstores and the online leader in book sales. When you simply place your book on the site, it will generate purchases. But with a modest amount of effort, you'll find yourself really building sales.

You can increase your numbers substantially by taking advantage of the promo programs Amazon offers its authors. Begin the process by providing a good photo of your book cover. Amazon will place it on your Listing Page, the basic page that every visitor sees first. A page without a cover photo immediately loses sales strength.

Write a description of the book that will excite potential buyers, and submit it with your book cover. It will appear under "Product Description." This is your chance to express whatever you wish about the book you've written.

Click on to Amazon's "Author Central" site and discover the simple process required to add "Search Inside." This is a special program the site offers that allows potential readers to view limited segments of your book at no charge. It has proved to be a very effective sales tool, and more than 50% of the books Amazon lists now offer it.

Editorial Reviews

Very often publications review a book and will not take the time and effort to post it. Smart authors then extract several sentences from the review and post them as an endorsement which is allowed on the site under "Editorial Reviews."

In addition to extracts from publication reviews, you should reach out for as many endorsements of your book as possible. These are shorter blurbs written by well known people that praise the book. They too are placed in the "Editorial Reviews" section of your listing page

Book Reviews Enrich Your Listing

Build the power of your listing by including reviews by a good cross section of reviewers. Include members of Amazon 1,000 top reviewers, experts in the subject your book is about and well known people in the writing/publishing industry.

A list of top Amazon reviewers can be found at rel=nofollow [http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/top-reviewers.html]www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/top-reviewers.html. Make sure your friends and acquaintances submit reviews as well. The more the merrier.

You are probably familiar with the Amazon rating system of one to five gold stars. The better the book in the opinion of the reviewer, the higher the number of stars.

The site will allow only the person writing the review to post it, and that person must be a customer of Amazon's.

Author's Page

Amazon urges its writers to create an "Author's Page." The company will do the basic design, but you must supply photographs or yourself and your book cover, as well as some of the text involved such as the author's bio.

The Author Central program that was required to create Search Inside for your book is also the tool for adding, deleting or altering text or artwork on the Author's Page. Click on to it, and you can add the elements we are talking of here.

When you create the bio, be certain to stress the professional aspect of your life, your accomplishments, books you've written and published, awards you've received and so forth. This is not a personal bio; it is designed to assist in the sales of your book.

Amazon also relies on you to provide a bibliography, if you have written more than one book. This too is done through Author Central.

One of the newer and more exciting additions to the page is the segment called "Latest Blog Posts." Amazon allows you to create an RSS feed from your blog to the page. If you don't have a blog, you can create a simple one and post directly to the page.

Other Amazon Programs

For those of you who enjoy writing short stories and essays, Amazon has provided a "Amazon Shorts" in which your selected pieces will appear in e-book form and sell at 49cents. You receive a percentage of the sale. I know this sounds like nothing, but consider the volume of this bookseller, and realize there is some healthy income to be derived from the program.

Another money-making program available to you is to become an "Amazon Affiliate." You advertise a book or other product from the Amazon list on your own web site. A link is established to Amazon where the actual sale is consummated. You receive 15% percent of the list price of the item sold. Amazon will provide banners to place on your site advertising the arrangement.

There are other tie-ins with this master retailer that you can investigate on your own. You can find many of them in the excellent book "Sell Your Book on Amazon." But be certain at the very least to follow through on the suggestions in this article and watch your book sales boom.

About the Author:

Charles Jacobs is an author, book coach and writing instructor. His latest book, "The Writer Within You," has been named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR seven times. It has won gold and bronze medals. The book can be purchased at http://www.retireandwrite.com.