Designing Your Book's Title With Amazon In Mind

You only have a few seconds to grab a potential book buyer's attention in a book store with your cover. The cover is also important in attempting to obtain a book buyer's attention on Amazon. It has long been established that the cover is important and it must look good not only when enlarged to book store size when viewed on Amazon, the cover must look good in its thumbnail version.

Not only must the cover be well thought out, but so must the title. Amazon's computers use proprietary logarithms to produce books Amazon thinks best suit the customer's search query, increasing the likelihood of a sale.

This makes the title even more important. The main title must be catchy, informative and make the appeal to the potential buyer that the book will either be entertaining if a work of fiction or solve a problem for the buyer if it is a non-fiction work. Long titles are usually to be avoided.

It is the sub-title that can make a difference in the world of selling books on Amazon. Let's take one of the best known books in the field of self-publishing, Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon. A common sub-title using traditional methods of creating a title would be as follows: Aiming at Amazon: How to Sell Your Book on Amazon.

Let's compare the title Mr. Shepard actually uses in the book's Amazon listing: Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self-Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com.

Wow! That's a mouthful and hardly fits the traditional model for crafting a book title. It does however, fit the model for crafting a title for a book sold on Amazon. Because Amazon's site is essential a search engine, the use of keywords in the title can go a long way in helping the book rise in the search results.

Let's look at the keywords used in the sub-title: self-publishing, publish, print on demand, online book marketing, business (of self-publishing) and finally Marketing on Amazon.com.

All of these keywords are common words used in searches related to numerous aspects of the business of self-publishing. An author interested in learning more about print-on-demand would find this book useful as would an author interested in learning about book marketing, both online and on Amazon.

The carefully crafted subtitle has increased the possible number of ways the book can come up in search results, increasing the chances Mr. Shepard has of grabbing the potential buyer's attention.

Note, the subtitle that appears on Amazon does not have to be the actual sub-title printed inside the book. Amazon allows the author to enter the sub-title in the product description when entering title information. This allows for the opportunity to craft a search friendly sub-title.

Self-Publishing As Your Real Job? You Are Not Alone If This Is Your Dream!

There are days when I really don't want to go to my "real" job. I would rather earn my living by sharing the knowledge I have acquired in my nearly 30 years as a coach and teacher. Mainly, I just want to coach a basketball team and not have to deal with all the endless, mindless stuff teachers have to deal with today. 

I still love history (what I teach) and the students themselves. There is nothing like the look on a student's face when the light bulb of understanding lights up or the fun of interacting with your students over an interesting topic. It's just all the other stuff that has robbed the joy of the profession.

My part-time job, self-publishing, has become engaging, interesting and fun. It is even helping to pay a few of the family's bills, something that was not even on the radar when I started this venture.

The thought now goes through my mind at least once a week, "can I make a living as an author selling non-fiction to a niche market?" Should I give up the security of a profession I have performed for nearly 30 years and have learned a great deal about how to perform for one I have just taken up in the last few years?

Scary question.

I don't know what I will do in the future. What I do know is this is something worth investigating.

Can I develop a business model that will allow me to not only pull off being a self-supporting author but be successful enough that I can honestly say I was as good at being an author as I was a teacher and coach? Satisfaction is a big part of the equation to me at this stage of my life.

I look at individuals in the field of self-publishing who have shared the benefit of their trials and tribulations as they made a living via self-publishing and take heart. These individuals have done it and were willing to share their hard earned knowledge with the rest of us who would like to make it as self-publishing authors as well.

Time will tell whether or not I make the decision to take the big chance.

In the mean time, I am writing more books to sell, researching and learning everything I can about the business of self-publishing and anything related to that business endeavor.

So long as I am learning, even if it is by the time honored method of learning from my mistakes, I will share what I learn here on The Self-Publisher's Notebook.

If you are considering making this life-change, let's call it a career change to make it sound safer, please share your comments about this post in the comments section!

Developing a Business Plan for Your Self-Publishing Empire - Part I Three Questions To Ask

If you are like me, when you decided to self-publish your book, you did not stop to think self-publishing is a business. You just wanted to see your book in print. Hopefully you would sell enough copies to at least break even. Secretly you hoped your book would become an international best seller and make you rich and famous!

I wish when made the decision to self-publish my first book I had realized, and accepted the fact, self-publishing is a business and must be approached that way. I would have invested a lot more time and effort in planning to develop my business than I did in writing my first book. I would be much further along than I am now and much closer to my business goals as a self-published author.

As part of my learning curve, I have been researching how to develop a strategic business plan for a small business. There is lots of conflicting advice from the experts wielding MBA's who write about this sort of thing. Still, I have been able to find there are three questions most of these experts agree must be asked and researched, if not actually definitively answered, before launching a small business. These questions are:

• Where am I/we now?
• Where do I/we want to go?
• How do I/we get there?

These simple questions actually are the ones you need to ask yourself. As simple as these questions are, the answers are essential in order to create a road map to lead you to success as a self-publishing author.

As you work through each of these questions, you will unearth more questions, requiring more research, learning and planning. Undoubtedly you will go down the wrong path from time to time. Better to make that mistake now where the price you pay is some time lost and the cost of a used paperback or a Kindle ebook. Trust me, the time and money saved will be considerable.

You want your book to succeed. Part of that success means people have to know about your book so they can buy it and read it. As simple as that sounds, it won't happen with out marketing on your part. How do you plan to go from where you are right now? All you might have is an idea for a book or a finished manuscript.

How will you get the book into print, either paper or ebook, and get it to market? 

Who do you want to sell the book to? Do you even have a potential audience/market for the book?

What is my goal for my book one year from now? Two years? Three years?

What do I have to do to arrive at my hoped for destination three years from now?

Am I going to publish just one book, or several?

Do I hope to make this a full time career and support myself and my family with writing and self-publishing?

You can see how the three simple questions spawn more questions and in the process of answer each question, you ask more and more questions as you unearth the answers.

Take notes. Lots of notes. After time, take a break from brainstorming and researching and organize the information you have collected so far. By now, you should have learned enough to realize self-publishing is indeed a business and you are the company and all the employees! 

At this stage it should be obvious an organized plan is essential to keep costs manageable, to know how you plan to bring your book to market and what work you will do yourself and what work you will hire out. This is all just the tip of the iceberg too!

Don't let all of this discourage you. Learning new things is fun with the right outlook and when it is all said and done, it is a great feeling when you sell the first copy of your book!

Sites for New and Veteran Self-Publishers to Visit

I really appreciate every author, or individual considering taking the leap and becoming an author, who visit this blog. It has been an uphill struggle to learn everything I need to know to make this a successful business and like any endeavor worth engaging in, you can never afford to stop learning.

Many individuals have taken the time to share their experiences, both good and bad, in the field of self-publishing with the intent of helping me along and to shorten the learning curve for me. I feel an obligation to do the same.

There are certainly readers of this blog who probably get a chuckle out of my mistakes as they are more experienced in the field of self-publishing. Then there are the authors who are new to the game and I hope they learn information of value from reading this blog. The third group are probably authors who are at about the same state I am in the learning process.

So, in an effort to share sources of information, here are a few sites I visit regularly and I have learned a great deal from.

Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog

Aaron is the author of Aiming at Amazon and the guru of self-publishing when it comes to the business model of selling self-published books via Amazon. He is also the author of POD for Profit and the creator of "Plan B" since Amazon has revised its dealings with Lightning Source. Aaron is just a treasure trove of information and views it as both a creative endeavor and a business.

Aaron has a realistic view of Amazon, how it works and what truly drives this company. In other words, he sees Amazon's good and bad points, of which there are both.

Morris Rosenthal's Self-publishing Blog

Morris is another of the leaders of the self-publishing movement and the use of print-on-demand as a business model for self-publishing. His book Print-on-Demand Book Publishing is another book self-publishing authors should read, even with the rise of the ebook. It describes the business model of POD for self-publishing. Remember, self-publishing is a business!

Morris writes about a lot of things on his self-publishing blog, ranging from understanding Amazon Sales Rankings, dealing with copyright violations, building an author platform and some just off the wall stuff that is really funny if you get his sense of humor. I have learned a lot by reading his blog and the archived posts.

Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer

This site is a great source of information about the design end of self-publishing as well as a wide range of topics that deal with self-publishing and publishing. Joel constantly provides new blog postings addressing topics both of interest and importance to authors who self-publish. Like Aaron and Morris, Joel views self-publishing as a both a creative and a business endeavor.

Joel also provides courses designed to teach new authors and veteran authors venturing into self-publishing learn the process and business of self-publishing. Joel also designs books as a service to self-publishing authors.

J.A. Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Konrath is a leader among the fiction authors who have become successful financially through self-publishing, primarily via Kindle ebook sales.

I don't always agree with his worldview on a range of topics, but I always come away from visiting his blog having learned something about the publishing industry. I write non-fiction and doubt I could ever write anything fictional worth publishing.

I have learned a great deal about the ebook explosion from his blog. Like the other three bloggers I have listed, Konrath views self-publishing as a business, and this from a very creative author. I have read many of his thrillers, particularly the Jack Daniels detective thrillers, and can attest Mr. Konrath knows how to spin a thrilling tale.

Michael Marcus's Book Making

I don't quite know how to describe this blog.  Sometimes I visit and exit the blog with my blood pressure about to come out my ears telling myself I will never visit again. I always do though and I am pretty sure if Marcus could see me turn red in the face he would get a good chuckle out of it. If you already read this blog, you know exactly what I mean. Marcus loves to yank a chain, anyone's chain.

Why do I go back time after time? Because as mad as Marcus can make me, he also makes me laugh and often he writes about issues that are both important and informative for authors who self-publish.  Perhaps I just need thicker skin.

Like the other sites, I learn from the information Marcus shares and that is what makes the site worth putting on your list of self-publishing blogs to read.

In all fairness, if you wind up on the sharp end of Marcus' wit, you might have done something to deserve it. Just as quickly has he can take a poke at you, if you have done something praiseworthy, Marcus will be one of the first to point it out. He will also take a poke at himself from time-to-time.

Also, Marcus likes The Rolling Stones, The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. So do I.

Kindle Nation Daily

All things Kindle. If you plan on making ebooks, Kindle in particular, part of your business plan, this site needs to be on your list of blogs and sites to visit. 

The focus of late is largely on books selling well on Kindle and the technology itself. While I am not trying to compete with best selling authors, it is a way to track what is going on with different topics and niches as well as changes in the technology. Something we all need to be aware of as authors who sell Kindle books.

If anyone knows of a site or blog that would be a good addition to this short list, please share it via the comment sections for this post.

Aiming at Amazon versus Social Media?

Social Media seems to be the latest buzzword in business for marketing. I have read no less than a dozen Kindle books on how to use Facebook, Twitter and Social Media in general to sell books. I am fully aware some authors have had huge success in using Twitter or Facebook to promote their books. 

John Locke, one of the best selling authors in the Kindle world, is a big advocate of this approach and details his system for marketing and selling his books in the book How I Sold a Million eBooks in 5 Months.

I have both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I don't think I have sold a single book as a result. I can't prove it, but I am pretty sure that is a reasonable statement. I have reconnected with a lot of my old students and players through Facebook, which is great! I have a decent sized network of fellow coaches on Twitter which is also great. But no sales.

I can say following the advice of Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon has generated a lot of sales for me and I need to get back to working harder at that approach to selling my books.

Amazon (and Barnes and Noble) are where we sell books as self-publishing authors. Not Facebook and Twitter. Focusing our sales and marketing efforts at Amazon will pay-off.

Then why have the seemingly mandatory Social Media sites as part of an author's platform? 

I have come to believe the value of Social Media for a self-publishing author is not in building a base of fans to buy books, but to create a positive brand the author's niche, or broad, market can identify.

Social Media is not what sells your books. It is part of the branding process. There is where the value of using Facebook and Twitter lies.

Once you have developed a brand and sold enough books to create a market for your work, Social Media sites will help with sales when a new book is announced. Not before you have created a market and a brand, afterwards.

Heresy I am sure to many who will read this.

I still plan to work hard at my Facebook page (I really need to find a way to get the youngest daughter to take that over) and to try to "tweet" on a regular basis. I certainly do not have as large a market as I would like (back to working at aiming and Amazon again) and I certainly need to further my efforts in creating an identifiable brand (more to learn about).

Maybe I am just tired and want to be like our oldest Italian Greyhound Al, a grumpy, but loveable, mature dog and resist change.

Feel free to disagree and comment. Just remember, whether I am right or wrong, self-publishing is a business.

Kindle Books and the QED Logo - Making Sure Your Self-published Kindle Book is Quaity

Self-publishing has come a long way in a short time. One of the ways self-publishing authors can overcome the stigma of self-publishing is to offer the best possible quality books.

Professional editing of our work is just one way we as authors can make sure the book we launch into the market is the best quality possible. You can read countless "how to" guides about selling lots of books.  The steps always seem to include at least the following:

• write a great book
• hire a professional editor
• use a professional interior designer
• hire a professional cover designer

I want to add a fifth step. Make sure the company who does your Kindle and ePub conversions provides a Quality Excellence Design guarantee.

This logo, which you as the author will be entitled to use on your cover, book product details and in promoting your book, is proof that your Kindle and ePub files have passed a 13-point quality inspection test. 

Your book may not be well written, but it will work as it should with no problems on any ebook reading device. 

There will be no fears of the dreaded one-star reviews on Amazon due to the quality of production of your ebook. There are no guarantees about the quality of your writing.

The QED Seal is the result of the efforts of the Publishing Innovation Awards. Below is the list of the 13-points the book must pass in order to receive the QED seal (taken from the PIA website).

Having had some issues with the conversion process with a couple of my Kindle books, I am now a fan of this process. My future Kindle and Nook books will all go through this and I hope to be able to integrate the seal into my cover artwork somehow so knowledgeable readers on Amazon and Barnes and Noble will have more confidence in the quality of my ebooks before purchasing.

The company I use for my conversions is ebook Architects. Christi Pinheiro, who used to run the Self-publishing Maven blog was kind enough to provide a very positive recommendation to use this company and I have not regretted it once.

It costs money to self-publish. For authors who are struggling or self-publishing as a second job, the funds needed to pay for services to improve their book can be hard to come by. Remember, self-publishing is a business. The hardest book to a reader is the first one. If they like (love) the book, they will purchase more of your books. Quality sells itself.

I need help with an experiment on Amazon!

In my ongoing efforts to learn how to make my tiny publishing empire more profitable (so I can quit my "real job" if the wife will let me), I plan on conducting an experiment with the Amazon internal computer marketing machine that nobody outside the employ of Amazon understands.

Why conduct an experiment? The more I read about promoting books, marketing books and finding the exact best price point to maximize revenue, I read the phrase "experiment by..." So, it would seem an experiment is in order.

The experiment is simple enough but I will need help to achieve it.  I want to see what happens when a book receives a reasonable number of "likes" from visitors to the books product page.  I am not really looking to increase sales immediately, I just want to see what will, or might, happen with the different Amazon promotional/marketing tools that promote books and authors seem to have no ability to propel their books into these magical tools.

The image above shows the little Like button. I have picked three of my books that I want to experiment with. Two have just been published in their POD and Kindle versions and the other has been out in both versions for awhile.

If you are willing to participate in the experiment, please click on the links to the three books that are listed below and "Like" the book. I am not asking anyone to buy anything. Just take a minute to click on some links and then "like" a book.

I plan to track the three books and record data on a daily basis for 30 days starting on July 19th and stopping on August 18th.  I will be looking at total likes, total recommended by others, Customers Bought and any other item that I come across that I think might be associated with or influenced by the total number of "likes" a book has.

The choice of July and early August as the time frame is because for my niche topic, this is the slowest time period of the year for sales. I am not looking to boost sales. I want to see what happens with the internal Amazon marketing machine.

Shortly after August 18th I will share what I have learned here. Hopefully there will be something positive that happens and the results will be of use to all the readers of this blog.

Here are the three book links:

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Tuning-Your-Teams-Position/dp/1475043139/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1342671329&sr=8-10&keywords=Kevin+Sivils

http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Tuning-Your-Three-Point-Attack/dp/1469919168/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1342671329&sr=8-9&keywords=Kevin+Sivils

http://www.amazon.com/The-Game-Basketball-Fundamentals-ebook/dp/B004DNWLBG/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1342690989&sr=8-13&keywords=Kevin+Sivils

Let me thank in advance everyone who takes the time to participate in this experiment.