Book Marketing Advice and Tips

How To Rank in Amazon Kindle Categories

SPR’s Cate Baum takes a look at what methods work and don’t work this spring for ranking higher in Amazon’s Best Seller charts with your Kindle eBook.

Amazon categories

Amazon has been messing about with its categories quite extensively, but does this mean ranking is going to become more difficult? Yes and no.

Genre is relevant

Now categories are expanded with search terms, it’s more important than ever that you stay in your genre and categories.

Indie romance books will still be able to gain very high ranking when they make sales due to advertising within a niche market. However, without […]

2023-09-27T10:54:59+02:00April 21st, 2022|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: |

How To Get An Agent For My Book – Part Four: Finding Agents

The hardest part of your search for an agent begins: how to find the agents to write to. Seems easy, right? Just look up ‘literary agents’ on Google, make a list, and send your submission out to all of them? If you do that, you’re wasting your time and also your chances all in one go. Here’s everything you need to know about finding agents to submit to.

Setting Up Your Submissions Process

Research each agent you find. Start here at this agent database at P&W. Read their manuscript wishlists (#MSWL), and look at their social media. […]

2020-09-11T02:51:42+02:00September 11th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: |

How To Get An Agent For My Book – Part Three: The Book Sample

Here is a detailed guide to preparing your book sample for a literary agent.

Your book sample is obviously the most important element of your agent submission to be read after the letter and synopsis.

For fiction submissions, which is what I am talking about in this series, you need to read each agent’s requirement on the submissions page of their website.

(Non-fiction is completely different, and you should refer to Jane Friedman’s series on Non-Fiction and Memoir for this)

The vast majority of agents will want a sample attached to the email, and this is usually either thirty or […]

2020-09-14T07:56:07+02:00September 6th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: |

How To Get An Agent For My Book – Part Two: The Synopsis

Thousands of writers submit their books to literary agents every year, but only very few are chosen. Why is this, and how can you give yourself the best chance?

Part Two: The Synopsis

A synopsis is the second part of your submission to an agent in that if you nail your submission letter (discussed in Part One) they will next read the synopsis of the story of your book.

For this series, I am discussing fiction books, as there is a completely different type of synopsis for a non-fiction book, specified in detail on each agency website.

However, a fiction […]

2020-09-14T06:58:48+02:00August 25th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: |

How Can I Sell Books In An Election Year?

How To Sell Books in An Election Year 2020Our tips for selling books and engaging readers during the 2020 Election.

Whatever side you’re on, selling books this year will be tough. Why? Because people are busy reading about politics and watching TV in a way they do not at other times.

What can I do to weather low sales this year?

Go local. Where in your community would people buy your book despite the Election? If your book is about science fiction or fantasy, is there a games workshop near you, or a science group who would love to hear you talk about your book? Clubs and societies […]

2020-02-21T06:42:38+02:00February 13th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

The Best Twitter Hashtags for Book Promotion

The great thing about Twitter is that you don’t necessarily have to have a lot of followers to be seen. You can have ten followers, but if you use a hashtag like #horror or #sciencefiction, many other people will see the post as well, as there are a lot more visitors to hashtag pages than individual accounts.

However, having more followers means that your post has a better chance to land on the Top list, which is the first list users see, and where the post will show up for longer, as opposed to the Latest thread, where your post […]

2022-07-14T00:24:31+02:00February 12th, 2020|Categories: Resources|Tags: , |

How Do I Sell Books in 2020?

It’s 2020. You have written your book and published it, but nobody is buying it. What works, what doesn’t work? Things have changed for authors but many points of information still churn out the same old advice. We take a look at what’s needed to become a success.

Price is all

Maybe there was a time when you could price your Kindle book at $9.99 and someone might buy it. But now, if you are an indie author, the best price point is between 99 cents and $2.99. Remember that it is better to sell ten books at 99 cents […]

2020-02-21T05:53:13+02:00February 11th, 2020|Categories: Features|Tags: , |
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