Here’s an interesting publishing trend: According to Circana BookScan (aka NPD) romance print sales are up 52% (!) year on year. As an indie publisher for more than 10 years, a jump that size is practically unheard of outside of specific niches (think: the craze for adult coloring books or dystopian YA fiction). Even stranger: […]
Platform dynamics and a 52% surge in the sale of romance books Read More »
Some important things book publishers need to understand about Amazon, from a publisher who has been using Amazon to sell books for 10 years.
4 things book publishers need to understand about Amazon Read More »
Have a new edition of a book on Amazon KDP? Here’s how to apply existing A+ content to it. Narrator Ian Lamont is an experienced Amazon, Shopify, and Etsy seller who has built two successful brands from scratch.
Amazon KDP tutorial: How to apply existing A+ content to a new book Read More »
An independent book publisher shows how to optimize your Amazon detail page, probably the most important thing you can do for your publishing business.
Amazon detail page optimization for book listings Read More »
I thought over-the-top Amazon “keyword stuffing” for book titles (an SEO technique) was mainly the domain of self-published authors trying to rank higher in organic search, like the second example in the image above. “Psychological thriller” appears in the title, subtitle, series name and even the publisher’s name! But check out the first example. That’s
A “Big 5” publisher turns to Amazon keyword stuffing Read More »
Anyone who has worked as an editor or copy editor at a news organization should be familiar with style guides. Publishers use them as well. Below, I am sharing the style guide I developed for my own publishing company. It’s a work in progress and is updated and refined every year. It’s absolutely critical for
Indie publisher style guide sample for IN 30 MINUTES guides Read More »
Five years ago, author and poet Kwame Alexander gave a fantastic keynote at IBPA’s PubU conference in Salt Lake City. In it, he told a story about how he was frustrated by the lack of sales for one of his early books. His wife suggested that he try selling at the local farmer’s market. At
How indie publishers can develop alternative revenue sources Read More »
I get this question on a regular basis from people who have never worked in publishing: Should I create an ebook to market my idea/product/brand? NO! It’s a bad idea for many reasons, starting with: They introduce delays and barriers to people reading what you have to say. Ebooks usually require a login process to
5 reasons not to use ebooks as marketing tools Read More »
A publisher recently reached out asking about how to use Internet graphics in a yet-to-be released book on a specific medical condition. The author had found the images on a Google search, and wants to use them in the book. The problem that the publisher immediately identified: the images are copyrighted and therefore can’t be
How to use Internet graphics in your book – medical illustrations example Read More »
If you use Amazon Advertising (formerly Amazon Marketing Services, or AMS) advertisements to sell media (such as books or video games) or other products (electronics, toys, clothing, office goods, etc.) you are no doubt familiar with the Amazon Advertising dashboard. It presents many metrics, but one of the most interesting is ACoS, or Average Cost
Why you can’t trust ACoS metrics in Amazon Advertising (and two alternatives) Read More »
