{"id":3207,"date":"2010-12-06T12:28:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T06:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/?p=3207"},"modified":"2012-09-17T16:42:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T11:12:21","slug":"how-to-increase-your-books-amazon-rank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/how-to-increase-your-books-amazon-rank\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Increase Your Book&#8217;s Amazon Rank"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px;\" src=\"http:\/\/counters.gigya.com\/wildfire\/IMP\/CXNID=2000002.0NXC\/bT*xJmx*PTEyOTE2MTgwNDM2ODcmcHQ9MTI5MTYxODA*NzgyOCZwPTU*OTI4MiZkPSZnPTImbz1iYWZiODM5NGZhZmY*Y2E1OTU5\/MDYzMWMzMzM4YzA2YSZvZj*w.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" \/><object id=\"bookwidget\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"328\" height=\"220\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"name\" value=\"bookwidget\" \/><param name=\"book\" value=\"http:\/\/www.freado.com\/bookwidget.swf\" \/><param name=\"flashVars\" value=\"document_Id=7977_23997_1\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allownetworking\" value=\"all\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.freado.com\/7977\/widget\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"document_Id=7977_23997_1\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed id=\"bookwidget\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"328\" height=\"220\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freado.com\/7977\/widget\" allownetworking=\"all\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" flashvars=\"document_Id=7977_23997_1\" book=\"http:\/\/www.freado.com\/bookwidget.swf\" name=\"bookwidget\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p>Author Susan Bischoff who has a subscription to BookBuzzr Author Pro and is giving away over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freado.com\/bid\/386\/hush-money-talent-chronicles-1\">30 free copies of her e-book on Freado.com<\/a> has seen her book&#8217;s Amazon rank increase substantially over the last few months.<\/p>\n<p>We got in touch with Susan and asked her for some tips that she may want to share with other authors. Here&#8217;s what she had to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Ranga,<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m happy to talk to you about the Amazon rankings. I\u2019ve been very pleased with the book\u2019s success. I first hit the Kindle top 1000 within the first 8 weeks of publication, and have, with a few temporary dips, remained there fairly consistently. My highest ranks to date occurred during the first week of November. I believe my highest rank so far has been 327. I have sold well over 3,000 books across all distributors and formats, as the book approaches the end of its fourth month of release.<\/p>\n<p>The things I think are important for new authors, and independent authors in particular, are visibility and credibility.<\/p>\n<p>Visibility:<\/p>\n<p>There are tons of books out there, and no one can buy your book if they don\u2019t know it exists. I really didn\u2019t have a promotional budget in the beginning, and so I mostly concentrated on internet marketing that was free.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I      signed on for the free trial of BookBuzzr (Author Pro), and I can tell that affected      sales because other BookBuzzr authors sometimes show up on my Amazon page      under \u201cCustomers also purchased\u201d and \u201cWhat customers      bought instead\u201d (ok, those aren\u2019t exactly what those sections      are called, I\u2019m sure, but you know).<\/li>\n<li>My      price for this first book is as low as Amazon will let me set it at      99cents. And, for a time, Amazon discounted it to .89. This helped me get      found by customers browsing by price. More importantly, it allowed those who      found me to make low-risk purchasing decisions on a new author. Most      people are willing to risk 99cents on something that might not be good or      might not suit them, but higher prices sometimes require deliberation.      99cents is an impulse buy price, and I think I didn\u2019t lose as many      sales through people deciding to think about it, shop around, and then      forgetting about my book.<\/li>\n<li>Every      sales counts in the beginning because it\u2019s sales that drive rank,      and rank increases visibility on the Amazon top-seller lists, which are      pretty important.\u00a0 In October, I found out that I was being found on      Amazon\u2019s Hot New Releases list for my category. This is a list which      mirrors the Top Sellers in a category, but only include books in their      first three months of release.<\/li>\n<li>I      also traded excerpt material with two other authors with similar stories.      One of these authors was somewhat established already, and selling well.      When readers reached the end of her book, some of them went on to read the      first chapter of my book, and then went back and purchased that on Amazon.<\/li>\n<li>I      also blog and have a presence on social media platforms MySpace, Facebook,      and Twitter. Twitter is the one which requires the most upkeep but has      gotten me the most results as other people find a retweet my book.<\/li>\n<li>The      best social media outlet I\u2019ve used for book promotion is Goodreads.      I did a \u201cGoodreads Event\u201d in which I offered free copies of my      book in exchange for honest reviews. I did this for seven days in my      second week of release, and gave away about 30 copies. I asked my friends      to invite their Goodreads networks to this event, two did that for me, and      about three hundred people were personally invited to come check out my      book and request a free copy. It took weeks, and for some, months, to read      the book and get it back to me, it resulted in many reviews. Most      importantly, several book bloggers responded, read, enjoyed, and gave me      great reviews. A few of these were serious bloggers with nice followings      who work hard on promoting their blogs and draw attention to their reviews      by tweeting and other forms of promotion. The nature of Goodreads itself      is amazing exposure since whenever anyone added, reviewed, or in any way      updated their own account regarding my book, their followers on the site      were exposed my book again, like a free ad for my book. Those who link      their Goodreads update stream to Twitter and Facebook were making my book      more visible to their networks on those sites as well.<\/li>\n<li>I      maintain a simple website\/blog where I keep up-to-date information on      where to purchase my book so that people who look me up because they click      to my site from Twitter, or because they hear someone mention my book,      series, or name and Google me, can easily find out more about my work and      where to buy it. I can\u2019t tell you how many profile links I\u2019ve      clicked on Twitter, from people who claim to be writers, and there\u2019s      no book information on the site, or I really have to work to find it, or      they don\u2019t link me to their retailers, expecting me to go and search      out their book! When they already had my interest\u2026but not that much      interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Credibility<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First,      like I said, the 99cent price helps lessen the credibility issue for a new      author because it\u2019s so low-risk. But not for all customers.<\/li>\n<li>Reviews      are critical. Giving away the book for free early on allowed some people      to get it with no risk but their time. When those started to come back as reviews,      it encouraged customers to try it for themselves. It told other customers      that my book was a good bet. It also helped me approach more book bloggers      because I could reference a page with many good reviews\u2014most book      bloggers don\u2019t want to read bad books\u2014when asking them to give      my book a read.<\/li>\n<li>My      cover gives me credibility. It looks professional because it is. I hired a      professional to design the cover and it has definitely paid off. A      professionally designed cover can be had for $100-$150, especially if one      discusses the budget with the artist. My cover is very genre-appropriate,      so it makes a promise to the reader regarding genre expectations, and it\u2019s      also eye-catching, intriguing, and shows well in a small size. Customers      cannot tell, just by looking at my cover, that I\u2019m independently      published, and many shoppers will dismiss a book based on a cover that      looks homemade. My cover invites them to take a closer look, and try to      find out what kind of secret the girl is trying to keep.<\/li>\n<li>I      have a good book blurb\/product description which I have taken time in      crafting, and which I have tinkered with and improved since I posted it originally.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve      provided a good amount of sample material which is well polished. (My      style is very casual, but I\u2019ve tried to make it as engaging and      error-free as possible.) It was important to me, when writing and editing      the book itself, to hook the reader in the first few pages. I know that I      generally make my decision to read further or purchase within the first      three screens of a sample. Besides the story elements, I\u2019m also      looking at voice\/style and grammar\/proof-reading issues. Many authors lose      me in these first screens of text when I decide that I just can\u2019t      spend hours reading bad grammar or an author whose style isn\u2019t to my      taste.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s all I can think of, just at the moment, but I\u2019ll admit that my thoughts are bit scattered as I\u2019m traveling for the holiday (Thanksgiving). If you have questions on any of this, I\u2019d be happy answer anything I can next week. You also might check out a series of articles I wrote on this topic for my blog back in October. I\u2019ve pulled up the category link for you here: <a href=\"http:\/\/susan-bischoff.com\/category\/increasing-kindle-rank\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/susan-bischoff.com\/category\/increasing-kindle-rank\/<\/a> where you\u2019ll find the posts in reverse order. The first, \u201cUnknown to Top 1K in 8 Weeks,\u201d is at the bottom of the page. The next post, \u201cGoodreads, Giveaways, and Reviews,\u201d has been the most popular of the series. I also recommend that my peers read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/We-Are-Not-Alone-ebook\/dp\/B003VD1EQC\"><em>We Are Not Alone: A Writer\u2019s Guide to Social Media<\/em><\/a> by Kristen Lamb. I\u2019m not sure what there is in there for you, with regard to your site, but I think her understanding of social media and her plan for writers is excellent.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for contacting me, and, again, please feel free to write with further questions and I\u2019ll do my best.<\/p>\n<p>Susan<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/susan-bischoff.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/susan-bischoff.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author Susan Bischoff who has a subscription to BookBuzzr Author Pro and is giving away over 30 free copies of her e-book on Freado.com has seen her book&#8217;s Amazon rank increase substantially over the last few months. We got in touch with Susan and asked her for some tips that she may want to share [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,718,716],"tags":[104,352,9,3,18,155],"class_list":["post-3207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-interviews","category-how-to-guides","category-useful-interviews","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-rank","tag-authors","tag-book-marketing","tag-book-promotion","tag-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}