Best Series Tip No. 8: Drive Demand--to Amazon

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 8: Drive Demand--To Amazon

• Author websites and external blogs
• Join organizations focused on your genre or specialty
• Give books away to opinion leaders
• Book fairs and signings
• Book cards
• Email campaigns
• Selective advertising
• Google Adwords

One of the great things about Amazon is that you can get your book listed there. You don't need an agent, a publicist, or anyone else trying to schmooze your book's way onto a brick-and-mortar store's shelf space. All you have to do is get it distributed on Amazon and you're in business.

But in order to get your book to begin to sell, you have to make your buyers aware that it exists. You need to drive the demand. There are lots of ways to do this, most of which are fairly inexpensive to free: they just require some (OK, a lot) of elbow grease and access to the Internet.

Like a mighty river starts with a trickle, so must you begin your Amazon book campaign. One of the best ways to drive demand for your book (which is for sale on Amazon!) is a website or blog--an external one, not the one on Amazon (since, you know, if they are reading your Amazon blog they know your book is there). Your blog should be about you the writer and about your book. It should also mention somewhere, with a link, that you can purchase the book on Amazon.

But how do they find your blog? You find groups and organizations online (or in real life) that relate to your book's genre. You comment on their blogs and mention your own links. You become a fount of information and goodwill and they check out your blog. Even if they don't read every word you write, they'll hopefully notice your link to your book and will click on it. If all the spheres are aligned, they'll buy your book.

Other ways to drive demand are to give copies of books to opinion leaders: newspapers, bloggers, radio personalities, speakers, etc. If they like your book, they'll be a great mouthpiece for it, which (fingers crossed) they'll mention is for sale on Amazon.

Other ways to drive demand to Amazon is through book fairs and signings. You'll find you are asked a lot, "Is your book on Amazon?" Why, yes. It is! Then hand them a business card, book mark or other type of media that has your book's information on it so that when they get around to ordering, they won't have to try to remember who that nice lady with the book was at the signing.

After you've built up some contacts, a nice way to keep everyone in the loop (and drive demand to your Amazon page) is an email campaign. Even if, again, they don't read every word of your email talking about your upcoming signings, interviews you've done, or any of that other hard-won publicity you are likely to write about...they'll still be reminded that you have a book. Where can they find that book? AMAZON!

The last two points we'll mention are actual paid advertisements. These can be helpful, if you have the budget, in selling books, but in the end may not be worth the price. Buying a print ad in a magazine that deals with your genre can be helpful. Also, using Google Adwords isn't a bad way to go. But if your budget is very small, don't worry that you're missing your audience. Simply using the online venues available to you will be enough to begin the stream of interest to your Amazon page.

One question that comes up frequently about selling on Amazon is royalties. Many authors have done the math and have figured out that by purchasing inventory and selling the books themselves, they make more money per book. Should they drive demand to Amazon where the book is discounted? Won't they make less money? Jim Best's answer: By all means, drive the demand to Amazon.

Not only will Amazon take care of the ordering, shipping, and over all customer interface with the product, but more people will have access and will feel more secure ordering from tried-and-true Amazon. It makes good sense that if more people are will to purchase your book on Amazon (even at a discount), then say, the few who order from you (where you have to package and ship the book as well as deal with sales tax and keeping inventory on hand) you'll end up making more or the same money in the end!

Next tip on the horizon: Be a Good Amazon Citizen