Book Marketing Maven

Publishing Content for Amazon's Kindle

Here's a guest post from April Hamilton, author of The IndieAuthor Guide:

Amazon's Digital Text Platform™, or DTP, is a conversion tool used to create content for the Kindle™ ebook reader device, and put that content up for sale in the Amazon Kindle™ Store. You cannot use the DTP to create Kindle™ editions of your work for your own personal use, the content creation process automatically generates an accompanying Amazon product page.

Assuming you've already made the decision to self-publish, there are three very good reasons to go with Amazon DTP: it's easy, it's free, and it gets your work onto the virtual shelves at Amazon in a matter of days. While it's true that only Kindle™ owners will be able to buy your DTP book, and they are a relatively small group as compared to the book-buying general public, these are the very circumstances that offer some distinct advantages over other forms of self-publishing.

How to Improve Your Position in Amazon's Search Results

The more books you sell on Amazon.com, the more books you will sell in the future. That's because your book will appear higher on the results page when customers search by keyword. For tips on improving your position in Amazon's search results, see the feature article in the January issue of The Savvy Book Marketer ezine.

Getting Great Reviews For Your Book

Below is a terrific article from Phyllis Zimbler Miller about getting great book reviews. This post also illustrates the power of online marketing. I first met Phyllis on Facebook, then signed up to follow her on Twitter. Today I saw a tweet on Twitter that Phyllis had posted this article at ezinearticles.com, and I wanted to share it with my readers. See how that all works together?
Cheers,
Dana

How to Get Free Targeted and Sincere Reviews For Your Book

By Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Getting free targeted and sincere reviews for your book requires research, commitment and follow through. I'm going to share with you the mistakes I made and the things I did right about getting book reviews. First the mistakes:

I waited until the book was published instead of sending out the manuscript or the first page galleys from my print-on-demand publisher.

I used pay-for-review services whose reviewers were not committed to the subject of my novel -- for them this was a job for hire.

I sent copies of the book to book bloggers who responded to my email that they indeed wanted to review the book but who never reviewed the book. I later realized that I wasn't anyone to them so my book obviously got buried in the avalanche of books they receive.

Now what I did right: