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3 Things You Need To Know Before Self-Publishing Your Kindle Book

Quality is important, no doubt about that. But quality isn’t everything or truth be told even the most important thing. Some are going to say that this is false but they are wrong. Plenty of crap get published is well marketed and ends up on top of the pile. Trust me the books that sell the best are not the best. Quality while important for overall success (though not as much as you’re thinking) doesn’t matter much. Plenty of quality books are never heard of and die in the dustbin never making their authors the money they deserve.

This fate doesn’t have to be yours thought. Like anything else making money from publishing books is a game. And when you learn the rules of the game it is much easier to play and win. Marketing your book, keywords, understanding the Amazon algorithm all matter far far more than the quality of your book. Authors will lie to you and tell you that your quality of book is very important to justify all the time they spent working on their books but the fact of the matter is just as many charlatans using ghost writers are making their livings off books as hard working writers.

Title

I’d encourage you to get an old book called First Hundred Million by E. Haldeman-Julius in it the author talks about books we has selling back in the early 1900’s and how he had the same book but would try different titles to see the results. What he found was that the content of the book didn’t mattered at all. What mattered was the title. Specifically books with “How To” in the title greatly out performed other titles. Any titles that were vague or artsy tanked like the Titanic while titles that were descriptive (such as “How To”) sold like hot cakes. Your title is no place to be cute or clever.

Your title should also include keywords of some type as long as it doesn’t end up looking too spammy. Although plenty of titles make it when they include lots of words I’ve seen descriptions for videos that are compilation of songs essential use ten keywords in the title and rank high on YouTube. Amazon works similarly. So while your book may look cheap using twenty different descriptive keywords in the title it’ll help its ranking on Amazon. My guess is that Amazon will crack down on this eventually but there’s something to be said for visibility.

Keywords

Amazon (which you will be selling the majority of your books through) has a function where it allows you to put in seven keywords for your book. This is how you work this. You don’t put in seven that you think make logical sense or that you like. You go to the Amazon search bar and start typing in potential keywords and then you use the autofill ones. The ones that pop up. So for example if I typed in “How to pickup” for my How To Get Girls books and it filled in chicks, that’s what I would put for the keyword. If it filled in girls then that’s what I would put for the keyword. If it said white albatrosses then that’s what I’d put for the keyword, get it?

Keywords are incredibly important. You want your title to include as many keywords as possible as well. Not just the title but the subtitle as well because it can also rank for keywords if you fill it in (which you’d be a fool not to do). Very few books are spread because of their merit and if you’re hoping that’s how yours is going to be spread I hope you have a decade to wait for word of mouth to make it’s mark. Exposure is the name of the game. The book that is the most exposed is the one that is going to make the most money.

Description

You want to make sure your including keywords into your titles, subtitles, keyword function when you upload to Amazon, and in your description. I would encourage you to use all seven of the keywords you are trying to rank for in your Amazon description something that I haven’t done with all my books but should. Whether you like it or not having an understanding of keywords is more important to making it as a self-published author then writing like Shakespeare is. You have to really have an understanding of keywords to succeed in self-publishing.

In addition to filling in your description of your book with keywords you always want to structure it as an ad. Meaning you want to entice your reader and lead them into what they’re getting. If it’s a fiction book you want to make them feel the action and the excitement. If it’s a non-fiction book then you want to make a list of all the benefits of reading the book just like you would in a direct response ad. Because truth be told that is what your description essentially is, a direct response ad. So make sure you structure it like one.

Summary

So while it can be a bit of a bummer to understand that making it as a self-published author is all about sales and marketing (as is anything else related to money) once you understand this you can then use it to promote your good quality work and get up with the big name authors as well as the hacks that know how to market their books. To make it as a self-published author you have to know how to play the game. Knowing how to play the game is more importantly than being a great writer. Marketing first writing second.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge

Charles Sledge

2 Comments

  1. This is really good advice. I am writing my first book right now, and although I have a publisher, this is still crucial info for any author.

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