The Shopkeeper

by James D. Best

Wheatmark was so impressed with the success James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and Leadville, achieved selling his fiction books on Amazon, that we had him give a presentation on the subject.

All of his novels rank very high—briefly even floating into the No. 1 slot—for Western fiction and he believes that with a quality book and marketing savvy, most authors can be successful at selling their books on Amazon.

Jim shared his tips and tricks, problems he encountered, and also what didn’t work for him. He stressed the need for authors to have expectations grounded in reality. Being an author is work. It is hours spent revising and editing to make the best possible content for the reader. It also includes many, many hours honing the marketing around the book.

One of the things to consider, according to Jim, is to look at how best-selling books look on Amazon and use those same features to make your book look as professional as those from the big publishing houses. For example, make sure that your book’s Amazon page also says “available from Amazon Kindle,” which you can do by publishing your book to Amazon’s Kindle (ebook) format. Make sure also that your book has “Search Inside” enabled, so that readers can look inside your book before they buy. Furthermore, having a second book on Amazon is also a great way to help your potential readers click the “add to cart” button, because not only do these invite readers to take a look, they also underscore the importance of your work and shore up your credibility as an established author they might want to try.

Jim also highlighted the importance of professionalism on your page. When writing your book description, author bio, and the editorial review, you want your language to be representative of the kind of work they will be buying: quality. Spelling errors, unedited descriptions, and other such negatives will mark you as a novice with a book they might not be willing to pay for. If you use an Amazon blog (which he does recommend), make sure your writing is professional, that your entries are on topic, and that you are careful not to enflame the sensitivities of the folks at Amazon. Trying to market aggressively through the Amazon blog or through other editable areas on the Amazon page will most certainly earn you some negative feedback—or loss of a “buy” button.