CreateSpace Improves Sales Tracking!

CreateSpace continues to work to improve the ease with which its authors can use its various services, in this case, tracking monthly sales. In the past, tracking sales meant going to the author's Member Dashboard, logging in, clicking on the View Sales for the Month of... link. This would show the sales for just that title. 

In order to view sales for every title an author published with CreateSpace, it was necessary to jump through several more hoops in order to see all the sales of the author's list. Now, merely logging in to the Member Dashboard will pull up accurate, up to date sales records for all of an author's list.

Kudos to CreateSpace for making tracking sales easier for its authors!

Amazon and Blogger Now Integrated!

Blogger has announced new features allowing easier integration with Amazon Associates. This new addition to Blogger allows users direct integration with Amazon Associates and the ability to search the Amazon product catalog and add links to products, allowing commissions to be earned when readers purchase products linked to or advertised on the blogger's page.

This new feature allows bloggers to search Amazon directly from the Blogger editor and add pictures and links to Amazon products directly from the blogger's post (Bloggers have always had this capability but had to use Amazon's product links or widgets to do so). Items purchased from Amazon by using a product link from the blogger's website earn the blogger commissions provided the author has signed up to be an Amazon Associate.

The following was taken from the Blogger Buzz site and was posted there by Rick Klau:

To get started, click on the Monetize tab for your blog and click “Amazon Associates”. Walk through the setup wizard, and add the Product Finder once you’re done.

Now for the fun part: when you are writing a post on Blogger, you’ll see an Amazon gadget to the right of your post editor (the “Product Finder”). You can search the Amazon product catalog from within Blogger — type in the name of the product you are writing about, and insert a link to the product, an image of the product, or an iframe containing the image, price details and a “buy it now” button. Every link that’s created contains your unique Associates ID, ensuring that Amazon will credit you for any purchases that result from readers clicking the link on your blog.

If you’re an existing Amazon Associate, completing this setup simply makes the Product Finder available on Blogger for you — you continue to earn the same referral rate from Amazon. New Associates receive the same referral rate from Amazon that they would have received if they signed up directly. If you’re not interested in earning a referral, you can still install the Product Finder: from the “Amazon Associates” page under the Monetize tab, click “I'll do this later — show me more Amazon options” and then click “Add the Product Finder” button.

A quick note about trust: affiliate programs work well when readers trust you. You should avoid promoting products simply because of the referral fee you might earn — readers may lose some of that trust if they sense your posts exist solely to make you money. You may also want to disclose to your readers that you will earn a commission on their purchase — some readers even prefer knowing that you benefit from their business.

There’s more information about this integration at Amazon.com, and the Amazon Associates blog has some more details. This integration is the result of months of collaboration between the engineers at both companies, and we’re very excited to share the results of this collaboration with you.

Can You Really Do Anything To Promote Sales On Amazon?!

In corresponding with Aaron Shepard, the guru of book marketing on Amazon, I picked up the concept that one of the things that gets authors in trouble trying to promote their book on Amazon is the desire to DO SOMETHING to promote their book and generate sales. Having had my books listed on Amazon for some time now, I agree with Mr. Shepard. About all you can do ON Amazon to promote your books is make sure all of your book's information is correct. Go to the trouble to do a few of the promotional things suggested by the gurus but limit them to making one or two Listmania's, etc.

When you use Amazon features to essentially SPAM potential buyers, you are entering shady territory ethically. You are also not making good use of your book promotion time. For example, how many people have really purchased a book from a Listmania list?

Does this mean you should not use Amazon's many features to market your books? No! But once you have invested the time to use all of these features and the information is correct and up to date, that is all you can really do. Resist the temptation to do more.

What you can do is use other means of marketing and promotions to DRIVE sales to Amazon. The advantage of this approach is the long tail of Amazon will be the best tool you can use. The more sales you have on Amazon, the more Amazon will do for you to promote your book.

How do you drive sales to Amazon? There are probably as many ways to do this as there are authors. I publish an e-newsletter for basketball coaches. I send it out twice a month during the season and once a month during the off-season (most of my books are for basketball coaches). There is always a jump in Amazon sales for my books after a newsletter has gone out.

There are several books I strongly recommend to learn more about book promotions. These include Mr. Shepard's Aiming at Amazon, POD for Profit and The Frugal Book Promoter. I also strongly suggest you regularly visit Morris Rosenthal's blog on self-publishing, the link to which can be found in the upper right and corner of this blog.

My own book, Self-Publishing with Amazon's CreateSpace also has information on promoting books.

On thing is certain, promoting your book takes time and effort. Do you homework and develop a well thought out plan. Execute the plan, collect as much valid data as you can, make adjustments and stick with it.

Youtube, video and selling books!

There is clearly nothing new about the concept of using Youtube to promote products. In fact, self-publishing authors have been doing it for awhile. I first came across the idea when visiting Morris Rosenthal's blog on self-publishing.

Rosenthal is an advocate of selling non-fiction books by giving away valuable content. One of the ways he engages in this practice is through the use of homemade videos on a specific topic that he films and then posts on Youtube and embeds on his website.

The majority of my book sales are related to coaching basketball and video is a medium that lends itself to sharing information with other coaches. However, writing, scripting, filming, editing and producing a film can be a daunting task. It does not have to be though.

My goal in creating short videos to link to my coaching website is not to sell the videos to other coaches. These videos are not meant to be 75-90 minute instructional videos complete with game footage, practice footage, staged demonstrations and video of my talking about the specifics of the content being shown.

Rather, the videos I have created are meant to be stand alone 4-8 minute segments of me discussing a single topic of interest to basketball coaches. They are not for sale and I am much more interested in providing coaches with information that is valuable to them than I am in producing a short film that is worthy of technical praise for its quality. I am sure that with time my little films will be of better quality because, for me, anything involving technology has a learning curve involved.

Thankfully, I have a Macbook laptop computer which comes with its own camera and in my case, the software for the film editing program iMovie came with the laptop. You can film directly into the program via your computer camera or you can film with a conventional digital camera and download the footage onto your computer. The software is fairly easy to learn and I am sure the more I use it the better videos I will be able to produce.

Each of my videos will end with a short commercial for one of my coaching books. I figure the information I am providing entitles me to include the commercial! This is worth experimenting with and if you have iMovie on your computer, it might be a valuable marketing tool for your book. I encourage you to think about the possibilities!

Predicting Book Sales on Amazon

No, this is not an explanation of a special formula on how to forecast future sales on Amazon. In fact, I have no clue on how to predict anything on Amazon. This is a bit frustrating as the inability to forecast sales in a predictable manner makes it difficult to plan effective marketing/promotional strategies to drive sales on Amazon.

The quandary is in measuring sales as they relate to marketing efforts. Time might be the best ally in this process as over a period of several years, with careful record keeping, it might be possible to recognize trends in sales on Amazon for a specific title.

The sales of my own books have been maddeningly erratic. The only trend I have been able to track is one really good month will be followed by a horrible month in terms of sales. The other months level out and have a consistent level of sales. I have yet to be able to determine any connection with a single marketing strategy with a measurable boost in sales.

I have been able to see an overall average increase in sales since adopting Morris Rosenthal's strategy of providing free information, or content, to readers from my website. Since I have made the effort and invested the time to create and make available files with free content, there has been an overall increase in sales over time. But no sudden jump to pinpoint what free content drove sales so more content of a similar nature could be provided in an effort to generate more interest in my site and expose more potential customers to my books, thereby increasing sales.

I have also noticed that sales of my books are seasonal. Most of my books are about coaching basketball. Sales increase prior to the start of practice in the fall, level off and increase again late in the spring semester as coaches start to plan for the coming season the next school year. How to take advantage of these seasonal peaks is something I need to get a handle on.

Why all the mental worry about predicting sales on Amazon? In the words of the late great P.T. Barnum, "If you don't promote a terrible thing happens. Nothing." Like all self-publishing authors I want my books to sell. If they are going to sell, I am the one responsible to promote them. Since I am a one man shop and have a "real" job, my time is valuable. I need to spend my time and energy on marketing efforts that produce real results in terms of sales. 

For the foreseeable future I will still be collecting data on my monthly sales figures, keeping records of my marketing and promotional efforts and trying to see if there is a connection between the two, positive or negative, in terms of my Amazon sales.

I would love to hear from other self-publishing authors on this topic and would share any useful information that is brought to my attention. Comments can be posted on this blog or e-mail me at info@kcsbasketball.com.

Free e-copy of 301 Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Publishing

Well, sort of free. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of my latest project prior to publication, 301 Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Publishing Answers to Common Questions About Self-Publishing, Print-on-Demand, Book Marketing, Using CreateSpace and More, please e-mail me at info@kcsbasketball.com and I will send you a PDF of my latest book for individuals interested in self-publishing.

In return, I would appreciate feedback about the book and its contents. It has not been edited yet and before I go through that process, I want the book to be as close as possible to its final form.

Also, I am in the stage of collecting blurbs to use to market and promote the book. So, if you are willing to write me a blurb for the book, I would appreciate that as well.

This offer is only good for a limited time, ending on April 20th. So, if you would like a copy, contact me before that date.  Thanks!

Sales, profits and time

If every author, self-published or not, were to tell the truth it would be no secret the dream of being a best selling author is universal. Best selling status of course is somewhat relative. A best selling history book probably does not sell the same number of copies as the latest block buster trashy vacation novel or spy thriller. It sells well in its niche.

The truth is most books are never best sellers. To be honest, for self-publishers, it is probably not wise to attempt to jump through the hoops the experts suggest jumping through to create a best seller. I will go one step further, it is very wise to not pay large sums of money for marketing programs designed to create best sellers such as the scheme to rig a brief peak in sales on Amazon to generate a quasi-truthful claim of Amazon best seller status.

Don't get me wrong. I would love to have a best seller, even a best seller in a niche market. But for me, a more successful long term strategy is to generate steady sales each month for each title I have in print. Adding titles to my catalog and working to build steady sales each month that are sustainable is more realistic and creates a steady cash flow for my business. I also believe that as my sales increase and my catalog expands, satisfied customers will purchase other books in my catalog, generating additional sales.

I do believe an author must work hard to promote and market his or her books in order to generate those initial sales that help generate word of mouth, and for authors who guide sales to Amazon, to engage the Long Tail of Amazon. Self-publishing expert Aaron Shepard estimates it takes one full year for a book to hit its stride on Amazon if it is a book worth buying.

Steady sales figures, sustained over time by a well thought out, sustainable marketing efforts preferably with low to no cost, should be a major goal for self-publishing authors. 

Patience helps too.