Tips I used to help kindle sales.

[Hicks]

Hi.
I have published 4 books so far (basically it's only two but with semi-translated versions (they are EFL guides)).
Anyhow the first 3 I did nothing re: trying to make them attractive. The last one however I tried a few techniques. I don't know exactly what worked but it was probably a mixture of everything....and I definitely noticed a (big) pick up in pace of the sales.

1) give a lot away. This gets you on the also bought list and you will have a lot more potential reviewers.

2) tell a story in the description (there is a thread about this somewhere on this forum from zen*******: Thanks). I basically just told the story of why I wrote it.

The next tips were from these books: (there is a ton more in these books regarding getting sales): Kindle Publishing Package: How to Discover Best-Selling eBook Ideas + How to Write a Nonfiction eBook in 21 Days + 61 Ways to Sell More Nonfiction Kindle Books eBook: Steve Scott: Amazon.co.uk: Books

3) Be exclusive. This book was 99.99% in English (unlike my other translated one) which is intimidating for the market I was going for, so I made sure I excluded anyone who wasn't up for the challenge. Apparently this discourages bad reviews.

4) Format the description box. This makes the description look like the rest of the Amazon page...so it looks a bit more 'official'. Here's what I used: A Little Kindle Secret That Has Boosted My Book Sales

5) Tell people to buy the book. Yup, I actually told people 'buy this book by pressing the button on the right'. I don't know if I would do this for a novel ..But maybe.

6) I asked for reviews. Within the book I asked people to review my book (another reason to give a load away). This worked and my sales went up after I got my first review. My other books have not been reviewed so I'm guessing that asking for reviews works.


Hope that helps.

 

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[DennisD]

Good stuff.
I'm releasing a kindle version of my ebook shortly and you gave me some great ideas.

3) Be exclusive. This book was 99.99% in English (unlike my other translated one) which is intimidating for the market I was going for, so I made sure I excluded anyone who wasn't up for the challenge. Apparently this discourages bad reviews.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here. You "made sure you excluded anyone who wasn't up for the challenge?"
Did you say "Listen, if you can't read English, don't bother with this book, you won't understand it"?

 

[Hicks]

Hi.
Basically yes.

The market for learning English in Japan is basically: everyone, but the books are full of Japanese explaining everything. I have a book a bit like that but it's a lot of work and while people in general like it it's not that effective to learn a language. So with this one I just translated the cover/product description/intro page and then incorporated the fact that its 'using English to learn English' into the sales pitch story and that if your are will to try this technique the rewards will be big etc etc.

I figured that if I said "This book is for everyone" then I'd get bad reviews from people who were focused on the difficulty rather than it's merits as a leaning tool.

Pretty sure it worked as the review i've had so far pretty much says that he thinks it's great for some people but not everyone.

Also, just for some reference points. The most I've sold of a single title before in one day is 3, whereas this one has sold WAY WAY more and the day is not over yet. lots of difference but you get the idea.

hope this helps

 

[AndrewNC]

Heres an idea that came to mind while reading the 'also bought' part of your post.

It would benefit you to be listed in the 'also bought' section of the top ranked books for your keywords. What are your thoughts on purchasing paid advertisements on Facebook/Google/etc. targeting the keywords of the top rated books during your free give-away. This way the people who probably bought that book are the ones that might buy yours and this would ultimately open up another link to you.

 

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[Hicks]

that's a pretty good idea,
i'm going to look into that
thanks

 

[Hicks]

Ok.
I'm now 100% convinced that at least some of this works.

So basically I'm going to start implementing the changes on my other book bit by bit to see which method has the biggest impact. I'll keep you posted. If someone uses one or more of these techniques and sees some impact could you let us know. Thanks

 

[Hicks]

Update:
As I mentioned I'm changing a previous title bit by bit to see what works.

I changed the description box formatting. The change in sales volume has been very slight but it has been there. It is of note that I didn't change the actual text...I may do that later.

I'll keep you posted

 

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[EvanOkanagan]

Would you mind sharing the link to your amazon page?

 

[Hicks]

pm sent

 

[Hicks]

Ok.
I have made a bit of progress and found that the following may be true!

1) Use of the large black headline font in the Amazon description box works better than the orange one....maybe. ( you can find the link to how to do this in an above post).

2) Headlines work much better as questions....for non-fiction books.

3) KDP select WORKS. For non-fiction I can expect 50% of the sales figure in borrows ...so if I sell 100 books I will also get 50 borrows.

4) Borrows can be worth more than the sales on a per book basis.

5) Reviews matter. If your book is good no one will complain (even if they don't like it ...i think) but they will tear you apart if the formatting is bad. I received a one star review because the 'look inside' function was not working properly. Obviously not my fault, but they didn't know that. So make sure you sort that stuff out pronto as initial sales to some extent seem to dictate future ones.

There are a few more things but I'll get back to you on that.

 

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[COSenior]

4) Format the description box. This makes the description look like the rest of the Amazon page...so it looks a bit more 'official'. Here's what I used: A Little Kindle Secret That Has Boosted My Book Sales

I've been looking for this post! When I couldn't find it, tried straight html, what a mess, lol.

 

[letmein]

Is the book about learning to speak English in American Accent? Or is it for someone who doesn't know how to cummunicate in English and wants to learn English as their second language? I would be interested in seeing the Amazon link to the book? Good luck with your sales and keep us posted! thanks

 

[Hicks]

I've been looking for this post! When I couldn't find it, tried straight html, what a mess, lol.

HTML! Ouch. No, just place the code on either side of the text you wish to alter and it should work with no problems.

 

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[Hicks]

Is the book about learning to speak English in American Accent? Or is it for someone who doesn't know how to cummunicate in English and wants to learn English as their second language? I would be interested in seeing the Amazon link to the book? Good luck with your sales and keep us posted! thanks

Hi, I have a few books (some of which are ESL)...I was just talking about about publishing in general. It looks like English is your first language? but if not I'd be happy to point you to one of my books if it would help.

 

[letmein]

Thanks Hicks! I would take that as a compliment..English is not may native language but I get by ok. I was interested more on the business side of things ..I know ESL is great market. It probably has pockets of people here and there. Some within US and the rest outside in the rest of the world. Are you seeing good traction on the book as in could you see yourself expanding in this market?

If you don't mind sharing the book URL, I may have a tip or two for you in return

Hi, I have a few books (some of which are ESL)...I was just talking about about publishing in general. It looks like English is your first language? but if not I'd be happy to point you to one of my books if it would help.

 

[Hicks]

pm sent

 

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[Hicks]

Update:

Regarding using questions in the tag line. For some incomprehensible reason I just put a bland 'this is a blah blah book' in the tag line....sales were a bit slow and then I noticed it..
Changed it to 'Don't you want to be able to do this wonderful thing I'm promising' type question.

Result: sales increaced 3 fold.

Something to think about for non-fiction.

 

[COSenior]

HTML! Ouch. No, just place the code on either side of the text you wish to alter and it should work with no problems.

Glad the author recommended doing it for a book that isn't getting a lot of sales. Here's a little tip I learned: don't forget to close the H1 tag. lol