The traditional “book pitch proposal” seems like a quaint relic of traditional publishing in this age of digital publishing when anyone can self-publish a book. No gatekeepers asking questions like: Is there a market for this book? and How does this book differ from similar books? For those that really want to publish a book—for posterity, business development, to change the world—analyzing competitive books can seem irrelevant. But don’t fool yourself, the traditional publishing “gatekeeper” … [Read more...]
Canaries in the Coalmine: Lessons and Insights for Book Publishers from Digital Music, Video and Content Marketing
For the last four years I have presented an annual address on eBooks to the Publishers and Writers of San Diego, a 300+ member organization focused on the business of publishing and an affiliate of IBPA. This year I choose to highlight events, trends and techniques in digital video, music and online marketing and how they apply to eBook publishing and book marketing. As one attendee put it: “You not only presented the material in an approachable manner, but you drilled down to specifics and … [Read more...]
The Essential 5-Step Checklist for Running a Successful KDP Select Promotion
One of the biggest mistakes I see new authors make is thinking that it is Amazon's job to promote their KDP Select Promotion. A KDP Select Promotion is like any other sale, offline or online: it requires planning and advertising on your part. Whether you are planning a Free Book Promotion or a Countdown Deals promotion, following these five basic steps will help your book get more visibility than simply scheduling the sale and forgetting about it. Step 1: 1 to 2 Months Prior Select a date … [Read more...]
Google Alerts for Authors: Not Just for Book Marketing
Google Alerts is a snap to use and delivers immediate value for anyone, especially authors. In the time it takes you to read this article you can setup and begin benefiting from one of the top “listening tools” available. All you need is a free Google account and who doesn’t have one of those? Why authors need Google Alerts The old school way to describe Alerts is that it is a clipping service. Years ago, before online was the center of our communications needs, people would manually monitor … [Read more...]
Calculating Your Book’s ROI: Standalone P&L or a Marketing Investment?
I was recently asked the question “David, do you think this book is going to sell?” The author was essentially asking if I thought her investment in creating an eBook edition of a long-ago published hardcover print book would earn out. It’s a tough question to answer for a service provider because “no” means no business, but “yes” means I’m setting expectations. I said “no.” I went on to say that I thought we were asking the wrong question. We should be asking whether or not the book will … [Read more...]
Benchmarking Amazon Sales Rank to eBook Sales Based on 105 Samples
If you’ve spent much time studying eBook sales on Amazon you know that the sales rank of your eBook (or print book, or DVD, or CD) is a number that constantly changes, often greatly. While only Amazon knows for sure what components go into the algorithm to compute the number, the general consensus is that it is influenced by: How recent the sales are. The velocity of sales, in either direction. When those sales occur (the ranking is updated hourly). It’s also logarithmic, like the … [Read more...]
Searches for Free eBooks Down 28% from December 2010 Peak
According to Google Trends, searches for the term free ebooks doubled between December 2009 and December 2010 but has since dropped by nearly 75%. Searches for the term "free ebooks" during the last five holiday seasons What got me interested in looking at the trend of searching for free eBooks was the Pew Research Internet Project report released January 16, 2014: E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps. According to the report: 50% of Americans now have a dedicated handheld … [Read more...]
Using eBookTracker to Monitor and Track eBook Sales and Marketing
AuthorCentral is great for monitoring the performance of your own books, but what if you want to track and benchmark competitive books? Or get more details about your own eBook, or print book, such as its sales rank. Now try creating a historical picture graphed relative to price. That’s a lot of record keeping and data entry you can avoid by using the free eBookTracker tool from Kindle Nation Daily (KND). eBookTracker is ideal for… Tracking books by other authors. Monitor sales rank … [Read more...]
2013 Highlights and 2014 Outlook
Since it’s the start of the year I thought it would be the ideal time to share some stats from this past year and talk about my plans for AuthorImprints in 2014. First a recap of our top 5 2013 accomplishments and lessons learned: 1. authorimprints.com Alexa ranking drops from 1.4 million to below 300,000 One simple, measureable goal for I had for 2013 was to get authorimprints.com ranked below 1,000,000 in the worldwide Alexa ranking. At the time authorimprints.com ranked 1.4 million and … [Read more...]
What Happened When I Optimized My Book Description for the Amazon Search Engine
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, seems alive and well at least when it comes to maximizing your book listing for the Amazon search engine. I thought I’d share how I achieved an astonishing 92% improvement in one week’s time. Most people think of SEO as something you do to your website pages so that they show up “high” in Google search results when people search for words and phrases that describe your business. It’s the dream of every business owner to be in the first 10 listings … [Read more...]
