Author: A.C. Flory

Amazon’s New ‘Look Inside’ Feature for Blogs and Websites [Part Two]

Look Inside VoktahLast week, we talked about the functionality enhancements by Amazon so that folks can install a ‘Look Inside’ preview directly onto their blogs. This week, I’m going to show you how to do that.

Before I begin, a disclaimer: this tutorial will only work on WordPress blogs that include sidebars and have the option to display images. [Sidebars are narrow columns that can appear on either side of the main posting area]. I have used my own blog for the screenshots and it has two sidebars with pictures of my books displayed in the second sidebar [see below]:

Continue reading “Amazon’s New ‘Look Inside’ Feature for Blogs and Websites [Part Two]”

Amazon’s New ‘Look Inside’ Feature for Blogs and Websites [Part One]

Look Inside VoktahIn case you missed it, Amazon is now keen for its customers to display ‘Look Inside’ links to their favourite books, from within their own websites or blogs.

To be honest, I cannot see too many ordinary bloggers bothering with this feature, but for us Indies it could prove to be marketing gold!

Why? Because the ‘Look Inside’ feature gives casual visitors the ability to sample our work without feeling pressured to buy. Now I know sales are the holy grail, but nothing puts me off faster than a hard sell, so why do it to potential readers? Continue reading “Amazon’s New ‘Look Inside’ Feature for Blogs and Websites [Part One]”

Tagging, discoverability and #ebooks

hashtag for indie authorsAs Indie authors, all the work we do in marketing and promotion goes toward just one thing: discoverability. If readers don’t know our magnum opus exists, how can they buy it?

Sadly, the flip side to that question is how can we make our work more visible?

The stock answer is always ‘social media’, but getting noticed on social media is just as hard as getting your book noticed on Amazon – after all, you are still one amongst millions. Continue reading “Tagging, discoverability and #ebooks”

Is Big Five Publishing Positioning Itself for Large eBook Profits?

big five publishing vault of money pixabay safe-913452_640As an Indie author, I’ve always sided with Amazon because Amazon made my career as a writer possible. Nevertheless, I was a little confused recently by the retail giant’s apparent about-face with regard to the agency model.

Essentially, the agency model does two things:

  1. It allows traditional publishers to set the price of their own eBooks, and
  2. It prevents Amazon from discounting those prices.

In practical terms, this means that many traditionally published eBooks are more expensive than their paper counterparts. Not surprisingly, this has led to an overall drop in profits for publishers.

A less obvious effect has been to make some readers angry with Amazon because they think the retail giant is to blame for the high prices. So why has Amazon allowed this to happen? And why are traditional publishers willing to take such a big hit to their profits? Continue reading “Is Big Five Publishing Positioning Itself for Large eBook Profits?”