Tag Archives: Amazon Marketing

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How To Signup & Utilize Author Central Effectively

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Author CentralAmazon’s Author Central

Recently I answered a question related to signing up to AuthorCentral and if there could be a Step-by-Step process on how to use it.

I thought this was an excellent opportunity to also share it with you – my readers!

If you are an author and or publisher, you’ll realize this is another way to implement into your book marketing campaign. By utilizing all the tools within your Author Central account, you’ll have the ability to use additional methods to effectively market/promote your book/s.

Signing up & setting up Author Central is simple:

  1. Surf on over to http://www.authorcentral.com
  2. Sign up if you aren’t a member (I used the same login info as my Amazon Customer Account).

Once you’ve accessed your AuthorCentral Account, you can do a number of things to optimize your Author Page.

The following links/tools are available in your account profile:

  1. You can Add multimedia, blog feeds, a Twitter feed, events,etc. to your Author Central Profile:
  • You can edit your Biography.
  • You can create your own personal Amazon Author Page url.
  • You can add a Twitter feed.
  • You can add a Blog feed.
  • You can add an author photo.
  • You can share a video interview, book trailer, or book signing video.
  • You can share any upcoming speaking engagements, bookstore appearances, or whatever event you feel will help market and or promote you, your book and or your brand.
  1. You can View and Edit your list of books (click on the Author Title/Book Cover):
  • You can request to edit your editorial reviews.
  • You can Add a Review.
  • You can Add info for: ‘Product Description’.
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Author’
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Inside Flap’ (if you have a jacket cover).
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Back Cover’.
  • You can add info for: ‘About the Author’.
  1. Under the ‘Book Extras’ tab you can add additional info via Shelfari.com:
  • Characters/People.
  • Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis.
  • Summary.
  • Quotations.
  • Settings & Location.
  • Glossary.
  • Organizations.
  • Awards.
  • Themes & Symbolism.
  1. You can add a book to your bibliography:
  • In a pop-up search box you can search for books you’ve written by Title, Author or ISBN then add them to your bibliography.
  1. You can check sales of each of your books by geographic region (sales figures are an estimate from BookScan).
  2. You can view all the reviews of your books (and add comments to them if you wish).

Hope you find this helpful in your book marketing plan!

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Utilizing The Shortened Amazon Book Detail Page Url

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Amazon IconUsing a Shortened Amazon Book Detail Page Url

Many authors/publishers send potential customers to their books using lengthy Amazon Product/Book Detail Page urls/links.

Examples of lengthy Amazon urls:

  1. http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Niche-Marketing-Definitive-Competitive/dp/0977968421
  2. http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Poynters-Self-Publishing-Manual-Write/dp/1568601425/ref=pd_sim_b_39
  3. http://www.amazon.com/Well-Fed-Self-Publisher-Turn-Full-Time-Living/dp/0967059860/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327461633&sr=1-1
  4. http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing/dp/0470643471/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327461773&sr=1-1

You can actually use a shortened & simpler url/link that’ll ‘look’ better in your marketing and promotion.

You’ll also be able to access your Amazon.com page directly by typing in the following short url format:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/[YOUR_ISBN]/

Enter your ISBN where it says: [YOUR_ISBN]

For example: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977968421/

The same books listed above as examples are also listed below but utilizing the shorter links (and substituting the book’s ISBN into the Amazon urls):

  1. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977968421
  2. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568601425
  3. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0967059860
  4. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470643471

Much better, yes?

Or, shorter yet, create a short custom url for your Amazon link using Bitly:

  1. http://amzn.to/0977968421

The website Bitly will generate an amzn.to URL with a random suffix but you could also choose to “customize” your own suffix with something else (in the above example the ISBN of the book is used).

By using one or both of these methods, you’ll successfully shorter your Amazon Product/Book Detail Page url/link.

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How To Leverage Amazon’s Tools To Increase Sales

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Eric Van Der Hope - Author Platform

Eric V. Van Der Hope

Eric’s Book Marketing Tip – #7

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, makes it possible for authors to connect directly with their audience through a variety of innovative tools. When these tools are used effectively, potential customers will find your Product/Book Detail Page. In the next couple marketing posts I’ll reveal these tools and explain how you can implement them into your marketing plan.

Here are the features you can exploit on Amazon that’ll help with your book getting the best visibility possible:

  1. Adding Book cover images
  2. Book Description
  3. From The Author
  4. Editorial Book Reviews
  5. Inside & Back Book Flap
  6. More About the Author
  7. Author Bibliography
  8. Amazon Best Seller Ranking
  9. Customer Reviews/Testimonials
  10. Tags
  11. Participation in “Customer Discussions”
  12. Creating Unlimited Listmania Lists
  13. Creating Unlimited Guides (a.k.a: So You’d Like to . . . Guides)
  14. Request “Search Inside the Book Program”
  15. Request Browse Paths
  16. Request Browse Categories (this benefits the “Look for Similar Items by Category”)
  17. Request Subject Categories (this benefits the “Look for Similar Items by Subject”)
  18. Add a video interview, book trailer or book signing video
  19. Your Author Profile Page (via your Product/Book Detail Page)
  20. Adding blog feeds to your Author Profile
  21. Adding your twitter feed to your Author Profile
  22. Book Extras – by adding the following via www.Shelfari.com:
    • Characters/People
    • Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
    • Summary
    • Quotations
    • Settings & Location
    • Glossary
    • Organizations
    • Awards, Themes & Symbolism

In upcoming Marketing Minute posts I’ll explain how you can leverage all of of these tools that Amazon provides to increase your book sales.