Marketing Your eBooks on Kindle

If you consider self-publishing after finishing your book, you must have done your research and came across Kindle Direct Publishing. Here are 10 easy steps to help you on How to Market Your Ebook on Amazon Kindle. From Pre-Launch to Launch to Post Launch, you will most likely build an efficient sales machine.

Amazon’s Kindle store has a massive audience. This is what authors find appealing if they are looking for a boost in sales and a good way to share their work with new readers. Some may find publishing for Kindle challenging, especially in the framing and formatting department. Perhaps you already know the basics, or maybe it is your second, third or even your tenth time using Kindle. But have you considered your marketing strategy before hitting that “publish” button?

Whether looking for the right audience who will appreciate your book or to make it big with your sales, planning for a great online strategy is a must. It could be a tough sell marketing your book online. Having been able to write and finish a book does not guarantee a queue of purchase for your book. There is no guarantee that your book would sell 100 copies, let alone 1,000 or more.

Most self-published eBooks are considered lucky to even hit 100 sales; that’s the rough and sad reality. But do not be disheartened and give up just yet. If you take on the challenge, there is plenty of potential for success. If others can do it, why can’t you? You can also burst onto the scene with your books in the Kindle bestseller list.

Here are 10 steps to help you in marketing your eBooks on Kindle.

YOUR PRE-LAUNCH CAMPAIGN

1. Blogging

I would assume you already have a website and composed blog and articles relevant to your work. I would also assume that you update your audience regularly. This is one of the key tactics to make your book known to your audience. If you do not have a website yet, better to create one now.

It has become fairly easy to create and own a website these days. By making use of free sites such as wordpress.com, you can easily create your very own website that allows you to incorporate images and personalize the design template to your taste. You can create a website so your audience can get a glimpse of your book and will allow you to reach out to them.

Good books have great contents. But how will your audience know that? A blog allows you to exhibit your skills in writing. Apart from that, you can use this platform to connect with future readers and direct people to your landing page. As a writer, writing a blog should not be a problem. It is an excellent chance for you to write and write often.

Keep your audience engaged by enabling comments and allowing social media sharing.

2. Begin Marketing on your Pre-launch Landing Page

What is a landing page? In digital marketing, it is a standalone web page, created solely for marketing or advertising campaigns.

Email-gated landing pages is a brilliant and practical way of collecting emails. It is a good way to connect and keep in touch with future buyers. Pre-launch promotions also stir up interest in your book.

How to generate leads and keep your audience excited about your upcoming eBook using pre-launch campaigns on your website landing page?

•  Have an email-gated vote contest to allow your audience to choose what book cover they prefer.
• Host your own email-gated sweepstakes for a free book give away.
• Let your audience have a say in your book by asking for inputs. If you have a fiction book for example, provide choices for your audience as to what your main character must do. If it is a non-fiction book, try asking for advice on the subject matter. This will also keep your audience engaged. Motivate response by letting them know that the best advice will show up in your book.

These pre-launch promotions can help kick-start your book sales. Remember that even before publishing your eBook, generating a sense of excitement or interest in your audience is important. The more excitement, the more chances of success.

If you can build up a large scale of opinion or feeling from people leading up to publication, you might make it on to a genre-specific list or better yet, on Amazon’s list of top 100 bestselling books. You might also consider making it to the top 10 spots on the bestselling book list. You are likely to sell more if that happens because people are inclined to buying more popular choices on the bestseller list.

3. Advertise on Facebook

Why not use Facebook to advertise your eBook? This alone provides great benefits to reach your desired audience and let them know about it and doing this will also give you more site visitors. You cannot simply ignore Facebook advertising if you wish to experience long-term publishing success.

Of course, having a Facebook page is necessary. Once you have a page, you can move on to the actual process of creating a Facebook Ads for your book.

You can just go ahead and click the ‘create adverts’ link under the drop-down menu found on the top right of the Facebook desktop layout, or you can click the green ‘create advert’ button which is found on the left of the desktop screen, under your favorites tab. Either option will open up the Facebook ad screen, which has a separate structure and user interface.

Knowing how to maximize the use of Facebook advertisement for your book is just another step you make towards success. Not only does it generate sales but it also leaves you a large pool of audience.

4. Email Marketing Automation

Stay in touch. Now that you have gathered lead information from people who are interested in your upcoming book, this gives you the perfect opportunity. The frequency of emails to keep your audience updated on your book prior to publishing. This will retain their interest in your book. Definitely, maintaining other pre-launch campaigns, writing new blogs and telling your audience not to hesitate to connect with you on your social sites will keep them interested in your book.

The right messages and content delivered to your audience, at the right time, is an effective strategy for selling your eBooks. Sending bi-weekly or weekly emails can be tedious. Using email marketing automation, you can send your audience pre-written emails triggered and delivered at time intervals. Email marketing automation empowers and optimizes your follow-up sequence.

In addition, email marketing automation campaigns increase the buzz for your book launch. The more people lining up for your book on its first day and the more sales you get in a short span of time, the more chances of getting on to the top bestsellers list.

YOUR EBOOK LAUNCH

5. Create a Land page for your eBook

It is highly suggested that you create your landing page in advance to avoid time constraints, stress, and last-minute marketing. This is something you must keep private until the most awaited day of launch.

Place your landing page where your “book blurb” is on your website. Insert your book cover image together with your book trailer. Also, provide links (” buy now” buttons) for your audience to conveniently purchase your eBook or link it to your Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing account. Once your book has been screened through Amazon Kindle and is live, go public with your eBook landing page.

Whether selling directly or through Amazon, your eBook landing page gives you more marketing opportunities to direct traffic to your site and promote your book like using Google Adwords or Facebook Ads that directly links to your website.

6. Announce your big day

Let people know of your book release. Announcements can be done by writing an article on your blog for the official launch of your eBook on the well-known, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or you can opt for a traditional press release.

Target niche readership

• Pitch your book to publications in your niche; for example, if your book is about cooking, pitch your book to cooking sites.
• Connect with main bloggers to pitch your book, especially popular blogs relevant to your topic.
• Add a “local author” spin to your press release, local newspapers and online publications.

Things to keep in mind: Journalists turn to experts for the validity of their stories, if the subject is the same as yours, pitch your book release. You can also organize your press release through PR sites if you have some spare cash.
Remember to send your big day announcement to your email contacts especially to those who have already expressed their interest in your book.

7. Continuously promote your Kindle eBook via Email and Social Media

Send your first follow up email hours away prior to publishing. Let your audience know that their wait will be over in just a few hours and that your book will soon be shipped to the Kindle store. Remind your audience of how hard you have worked for this moment and keep their hopes high by mentioning the benefits they will get from reading your book.

Send out a second email once you hit that publish button on Amazon Kindle together with a direct link to your new book. Now is not the time to slack off, now is the time to push your sales. Being able to sell a good 30 books on your launch date serves as a positive indication that you might just make it to the bestseller’s list.

In the next few days, continue to send out email to keep the excitement up. Inform potential buyers, and readers about any development you have had since your launch. Receiving press-coverage is something to be bragged about. Tell them of the positive reviews and feedback provided by your readers and engage others to also conduct a book review.

Never forget to promote your launch on all available social media sites as well. Provide the direct link for your Amazon page for convenience.

YOUR POST LAUNCH

8. “Review your Kindle eBook” landing page

Everybody hopes to receive good book reviews for our work. It is definitely one of the fruits of your labor. Send out your review sites or ask friends to write positive things to help you persuade people. You may also consider book review sites like GoodReads site that appears on certain eBook stores. Look for a review site for your book’s genre and simply submit your book.

You may also ask other self-published authors to review your book. In return, you may also offer to conduct a review of their work. Most of the time, they would be receptive to this idea and are willing to give positive reviews. Your marketing potentials are better if you stick with your fellow self-published authors. If they would be kind enough to share your eBook together with a piece of their mind on their blog, this extends your market reach to their audience too. You might just sell more books by doing so.

9. Offer Virtual Book Tours

A virtual book tour is an awesome way of promoting your eBook. The concept behind this is the old-school in-person book tour. It gives you more chances of speaking to your audience while spending a shorter amount of time.

It is highly recommended to schedule a book tour with back-to-back interviews, webinars, podcast, and Google+Hangouts. In a short span of time, you can provide a concise hit to your book title. No matter how small your niche market is, if you are successful in making it to the bestsellers in your genre, there is a good chance your book will appear on Amazon’s top 100 list. This can make a stellar increase in book sales and popularity.

How book tour works:

•  Get in touch with popular and influential bloggers.
•  Request for an interview. You may offer interviewers somethings that would benefit you both like swap book review and guest blogging opportunity
• Keep your schedules within a week and/or during the daytime.
  Amp your game by recording your interviews and sharing them on your website.

10. Promotions and Referrals

Kindle offers exclusive book promotion for its authors. As part of promoting their book, other authors give away free books for a limited time only. It invites and increases readership for your work. Take part in sitewide offers as much as possible. This proves extremely effective for book series.

Referral coupons are extremely easy to make. In fact, you can do it all by yourself. You may use a simple software tool before setting up coupons on your website or Facebook Page. You may offer a free book to anyone who gets four people to buy your book.

A dedicated and loyal audience will definitely bring in their friends because they people tend to trust their friend’s advice.

NOTES:
By implementing the above mentioned 10 easy steps to help you on how to market your ebook on Amazon Kindle; from Pre-Launch to Launch to Post Launch, you will most likely build an efficient sales machine. Your revenue from eBooks is expected to grow.