Category: Tutorials

How-to articles for writers.

Amazon Author Central: A Primer

Author Central LikefestIf you’re an author publishing on Amazon.com, Author Central is an essential tool to help you easily make changes to book data and improve readers’ ability to learn more about you.

If you’ve never used it, Author Central is where you create your Amazon Author Page. This is a profile page that includes a picture, a biography, and lists all the books you’ve published on Amazon. Amazon Author Central AC1_ProfileHow can a reader see your profile page? Usually readers find it when they’re looking at a book you’ve written and they click your hyperlinked author name. If you don’t have an Amazon Author Page, Amazon will give the reader search results for your name. If you do have an Amazon Author Page, Amazon will take the reader to it. The Author Page is a great chance to connect with the reader by showing them all the books you’ve written and a little bit of personality in your biography. Continue reading “Amazon Author Central: A Primer”

Setting up Your Book’s Kickstarter Campaign

kickstarter logoHere we are, once again! The other day, I covered some of the basics about Kickstarter. By now you should have figured out what you’re campaigning, how much it’s going to cost you, what Kickstarter amount you’ll need to reach your actual goal, what rewards you’re going to have, and how much all of this is going to cost you on the back end in fees, shipping, packaging, and production. Congratulations! You’ve made it this far, but the fun isn’t over yet. There are still a couple things you need, or should at least consider, before you make your Kickstarter campaign. So that I have something to give you as a reference, this is my Kickstarter that is currently running. Later I’ll have screenshots of the before process, but I wanted to give you the finished result to gauge by.

The Video Introduction

Do you need to do this step? Well, as Kickstarter puts it, Continue reading “Setting up Your Book’s Kickstarter Campaign”

How to Set Up an eBook Ad with Amazon Marketing Services

Amazon Marketing Services Logo 2017A few months ago, KDP opened up Amazon Marketing Services to all eBooks, not just the ones in Kindle Unlimited. Setting up an ad is a relatively simple process, although it can look intimidating in the beginning.

Today, I’m going to walk you through how to set up both types of advertising.

First, go to your Reports page in KDP and click on Ad Campaigns (red arrow below). Continue reading “How to Set Up an eBook Ad with Amazon Marketing Services”

Newsletter Swapping Service Offers Authors a Free Way to Connect, Advertise

newsletter swap logoIf you’re an author who doesn’t have a ton of money to spend on advertising, but would like to be seen, newsletter swapping is something you might want to consider. The basic principle is simple: Author A and Author B write in similar genres and each one has a newsletter. When Author A sends out his newsletter, he includes Author B’s book and vice versa. With newsletter swapping, each author gets exposure to potential new readers while exposing their own readers to books they might enjoy.

In the past, in order to do this, two authors would tend to have to know each other, have talked about their lists, and then decide they want to swap. The first newsletter swaps I’ve done occurred this way (once I swapped with an author who has a 20k+ list). When a swap goes well, it’s great to see an uptick in sales or free downloads as a result. But the pool of most authors’ knowledge/friendships with other authors is limited.

However, a service I discovered in December is making newsletter swapping easy, providing lists of authors with similar genres and spots available in their newsletters. Continue reading “Newsletter Swapping Service Offers Authors a Free Way to Connect, Advertise”