You can’t pay for Amazon reviews, as you've learned from previous episodes. Today we dive a little deeper into how we think Amazon looks for fake reviews or reviews that were gotten in ways that go against Amazon’s policies. Once a month, I like to sit down with authors or someone who is an authority and chat about their area of expertise in what we call Marketers & Coffee. On this episode, we talk about the Amazon review process. Visit for more information: https://kindlepreneur.com/e40

While there are many marketing tactics to help increase awareness and sales of your books, don’t discount local media to help you promote it. Press releases sent to news agencies are a good practice, especially if your book is relevant to readers and viewers. Dan Janal, the owner of a major press release company, helps us get the inside scoop and understanding of press releases, including how they work and if you should consider one for your book. Show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e39

Playster is a growing subscription-based service that allows you to download unlimited music, movies, books, audiobooks and games for a monthly fee. For customers, it’s a great deal and it means you don’t have to worry about credits or paying extra like with Audible for audiobooks. While it’s good for the consumer, it’s also great for authors, as well. Our guest this week is Kevin Tumlinson from Draft2Digital who talks about the benefits of making books available on Playster, as well as...

Emeka Ossai and I discuss what writing and our books have done for us that are necessarily about making money. They’ve opened doors for us and created opportunities. Emeka is known for his YouTube channel, which has a lot of videos about Kindle self publishing, as well as personal growth and creating a passive income. When he published his first book published in 2016, he found he was able to create some extra income for him and his family. For more information, visit the show notes at...

We all know reviews can be instrumental in giving our books some clout when it comes to people on Amazon browsing and looking to see what others thought. One question that causes some confusion among authors is, Can I give copies of my book away for free in exchange for a review? And the answer is yes, but also no. Amazon has specific rules regarding how authors can get fair reviews from readers. This episode, I talk to Craig Tuch, the owner of Hidden Gems Books, which is a review site....

Amazon may seem like the be-all-end-all when it comes to book sales, but there are a number of other markets and new ones emerging that can benefit your book sales. Spreading your books to these markets can help you not only make money, but also increase reader familiarity with your name and books. Today’s guest, Tracy Cooper-Posey, talks about some of her favorite platforms and ways you can increase sales on them. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e35

Many fiction writers may use a short story as a content upgrade for those signing up for their mailing lists, but using a method I call the Kobayashi Maru tactic makes that reader magnet even more appealing. W.H. Lock and Jim Heskett both used reader magnets and found that they not only turned their readers into email list subscribers, but also turned them into true fans. W.H. Lock used the Kobayashi Maru Tactic for his email list, while Jim Heskett actually gave his readers exclusive...

Turning readers into email list subscribers is sometimes tricky with a book. That’s why having what’s known as a “content upgrade” can be beneficial for both your readers and for your own future sales. Steve Scott returns to talk about content upgrades and how they’ve helped book sales and grown his email list. He talks about different options for content upgrades you can use to entice readers to sign up for your email list. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.

Book awards aren’t just a great way to have your writing recognized, but they may also boost your sales, especially if the award is one of the big ones that advertise their award. Amy Murphy’s series was nominated for the 2016 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel and her nomination opened doors for her and gave her a chance to engage her email list and network with other authors. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e32

Deciding where to spend your time, energy, and money on ads for your book may seem overwhelming. Not only are there ads available through Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), but you can also take advantage of other platforms to advertise your book, such as Facebook. I have a friendly debate with publishing expert Jonny Andrews about the pros and cons of using either Facebook ads or AMS ads for your book. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e31

A common question from authors is about pricing their books. There are five major things to take into consideration when setting your price: Competition analysis Analysis of KU and Kindle Direct prices Target Demographic Future Book Sales and Launch Prices Patrick King is the guest for this episode, and he’s had first-hand experiences testing prices and seeing what sticks. For more information, visit the show notes at www.kindlepreneur.com/e30

Authors have more opportunities to make money from their books aside from just selling them. In this episode I talk about creating services and merchandise in addition to your book that readers can purchase as a means for additional income. Gundi Gabrielle is an expert at turning books into even more profit-generating businesses. We look at examples of authors who took their book idea and made something even more. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e29

There are a number of reasons to choose to use a pen name for your writing, including anonymity, separating your personal and professional worlds, choosing something easier to pronounce, or as a marketing technique. When an author plans to pick a pen name, consider creating the author name with the reader's perceptions and their ability to remember it in mind. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e28 

Mastering AMS ads isn’t something you can just throw some money at and hope they’ll work. It takes time and some knowledge of how they work. In this special Marketers & Coffee, Brian Meeks will walk us through three major points to understand when it comes to AMS ads: Don’t trust the AMS ads reporting system, trust the keywords KDP Rocket gives you, and more keywords is better (even misspellings). For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e27

While the adage “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” may be true, it’s no secret that many people shopping for books don’t take that advice. You could be the greatest author and your book could be phenomenal, but if your cover doesn’t grab a reader’s attention and give them insight into what your book is about, they won’t necessarily buy it. In this episode Sasscer Hill and I dive deeper into what she did to change her covers. For more information, visit http://kindlepreneur.com/e26

A good book description is what turns shoppers into buyers. A good book description should include a hook, an introduction to the protagonist(s), and a summary that leaves them wanting more. In today’s episode, I talk to Bryan Cohen, author of the book, “How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis,” about some tips for doing so. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e25

Titles deserve a lot of love and if you are thinking about giving a book you’ve previously released a “facelift,” changing the title to better represent the book and its content can be a great strategy to help. I will give you tactics to consider if you plan on changing a book title and we go over Amazon’s rules and requirements for book titles and subtitles. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindleprenur.com/e24

We all start somewhere and authors are no different. No matter how far we’ve come, we’ve all had our shaky beginnings, and in this episode, Joanna Penn and I talk about the mistakes we made when starting out and the lessons we’ve learned. Joanna Penn is an author, blogger, the host of The Creative Penn Podcast, as well as lots of videos aimed at helping authors succeed in writing, publishing, and marketing their books. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e23

Marketing yourself as an author is an important part of marketing your books. Having an author bio picture is important because it is a reflection of yourself and shows professionalism. Even if you think you can’t be photographed, our guest, AJ Coots, considers herself a storytelling photographer. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this photographer tries to convey all those words with her clients. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e22

We all know marketing our book on social media is important, but are you using an email list to help your book sales? Our case study in this episode is Amy Murphy, an award-winning sci-fi novelist, who started off with basically no email list, but successfully grew her list. Amy will share tips that help authors find success with their book sales, and who may not have time to cultivate and grow a list by themselves, as well. For more information, visit the show notes at...

In our first case study about reviving a dead book, Kevin McLaughlin took his books that were previously selling poorly and, with a few tweaks, he was able to re-release them and garner more sales than before. This episode is the second case study featuring Sasscer Hill. We examine a few things authors can do to make their books stand out to achieve better marketing success. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e19

One of the best ways for learning how to sell books is not just to read blogs or listen to podcasts, but to go to conferences and meet other authors. It can be amazing what kind of ideas come out, and what you can learn from one another. This week, I'm be talking with Mark Dawson, who is the host of The Self-Publishing Formula podcast and has some amazing self-publishing courses available on his website. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e19

We’ve talked about Categories in the past about how they help sell more books, how we can find better Categories, and how we can ask Amazon to change our Categories for us. But did you know your book can show up for 10 categories? Showing up in 10 categories will help your book sales is because this increases your chances of achieving Best Seller status with your book. Asking Amazon is the way you can be listed for more than 3 categories. Visit the show notes for more...

We are going bit further into picking the right Amazon Book Categories we discussed in the previous episode. We will look at what niche categories are, how they are offered, and how authors can get listed in the categories we want. Our case study includes Dali Burgado, a Certified Personal Trainer and Bestselling author who used my free Kindle Sales Rank Calculator to help pick niche categories to increase her sales. For more information, visit the show notes at http://kindlepreneur.com/e17

We’ve already discussed how choosing the right categories for your ebooks can help sell within different niches, but in this episode we’ll dig deeper into how picking the right categories can help sales. You’ll learn what Kindle Categories are, as well as how Category rankings are done within Amazon. You will also learn how to distinguish between a good category and one that might not help as much as you might think. For more information, visit the show notes at https://kindlepreneur.com/e16