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Merchandising Tips

When you publish a book on KDP, Amazon starts merchandising your book for you right away. Places where Amazon markets your book to customers on the Amazon website may include:

  • "More Items to Consider"
  • "Customers with Similar Searches Purchased"
  • "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought"

Your book may also appear in Shopping Cart Recommendations, "Frequently Bought Together," and many other places on the Amazon website.

Ways to market your books

Quality is the most important element in generating reader excitement. The better the book, the more likely it is to sell. But you can maximize reader excitement by making sure your book stands out.

  1. Create a compelling cover. You want to create a cover that looks good as a full-sized image and also as a thumbnail, since Amazon shows thumbnail cover images in search results, automated merchandising, and detail pages. We recommend using our Cover Creator tool to design a compelling cover.

  2. Edit and proofread your book well. Books filled with typos and grammatical errors may foster negative customer reviews.

  3. Write a compelling description of your book. Your book description gives customers an opportunity to learn about your book before they buy, so this is an opportunity to convince readers to buy your book.

  4. Introduce yourself to your readers. Complete your author profile. Upload your profile picture in Amazon Author Central, add your biography, and view and edit your listed books.

  5. Promote your book online. Connect with potential readers for free over social networks. Share a link to a free preview of your book with Kindle instant book previews. Create profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote your book. You can also create a website for your book, post on message boards, join user communities, and promote your book on sites across the Web.

  6. Publish paperbacks through KDP. KDP paperback publishing helps you publish and sell paperbacks in the US, Europe and Japan. You can order proofs and author (wholesale) copies of your paperbacks on KDP. To distribute your paperback through bookstores, online retailers, libraries, and academic institutions, you can also enable Expanded Distribution.

  7. Upload videos and book trailers. Self-published authors often create video trailers to advertise their books online, and Amazon's Author Pages give you a place to feature them. Note: Photos and videos are available only for non-US Author Pages.

  8. Join the Amazon Associates program to earn an additional 4% on each sale you drive. Create custom links to your book and professional interactive widgets. When customers click these links and purchase your book, you can earn an additional 4% on each sale.

  9. Add a Kindle Countdown Deals promotion. This is a KDP Select benefit that lets authors, no matter where they're located, run limited-time discount promotions for eBooks available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Customers will see both the regular price and the promotional price on the book's detail page, as well as a countdown clock showing how much time is left at the promotional price. You'll also continue to earn your selected royalty rate on each sale during the promotion. Learn more.

  10. Encourage readers to leave customer reviews. If you're providing a free advance reader copy of your book to a potential reviewer, make sure you're both following Amazon's Customer Review Creation Guidelines for Paid Reviews. You can't require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review. For more information, see our Community Guidelines.

  11. Add images, text, and comparison tables to your Amazon detail page. Include A+ Content to engage readers and give them more information as they consider buying your book.

  12. Join the Goodreads Author Program. Create a wide variety of promotional features; participate in Ask the Author, sponsor giveaways of your books, share excerpts of upcoming publications and communicate with readers. 

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