How to Promote Your Book on Amazon
Along with many self-publishing authors, you are choosing to publish on Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce platform for books, but are you wondering how to get your book noticed on Amazon? What Amazon book marketing services are available? How to promote your Kindle book for free?
This article discusses how to market your kindle ebook and paperback books on Amazon (mostly for free).
This article discusses how to market your kindle ebook and paperback books on Amazon (mostly for free).
Would you like to know how to promote your book on Amazon now you're finally preparing to publish? Or has your book been available for a while but the sales aren't exactly what you hoped? How do you make sure your fiction novel, non-fiction book, ebook, collection of short stories, memoir, self-help book, business book or children’s book is a marketing success?
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a free book publishing service that allows independent authors to create their own digital books and paperbacks to sell through Amazon. It’s straightforward and free to self-publish your ebooks and paperback books with Amazon KDP. They also provide free book promotion tools as well as those that require an investment to market your book. There are many book promotion services and free book marketing ideas to promote your book on Amazon.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a free book publishing service that allows independent authors to create their own digital books and paperbacks to sell through Amazon. It’s straightforward and free to self-publish your ebooks and paperback books with Amazon KDP. They also provide free book promotion tools as well as those that require an investment to market your book. There are many book promotion services and free book marketing ideas to promote your book on Amazon.
If you would like information on how to self-publish your book on Amazon (ebook and paperback), check out my article How to Publish Your Book on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which discusses setting up an Amazon KDP account, writing an Amazon book description, how to find the categories (genres) to list your book, and much more.
Table of Contents
- Amazon Webinar – Developing a Promotional Strategy
- Author Central – Set up Your Amazon Author Page
- Amazon Advertising – Promote Your Ebooks and Paperbacks
- Amazon Free Book Promotions
- Amazon Kindle Countdown Deals
- Kindle Ebook Pre-order
- Buying and Gifting Ebooks for Others
- Kindle Instant Book Previews
- Conclusion: How to Promote Your Book on Amazon
1. Amazon Webinar – Developing a Promotional Strategy
Successfully promoting and marketing your book on Amazon should preferably take place before you even publish your book. So before I list the important aspects showing how to promote your book on Amazon like a pro and boost your sales, check out Amazon KDP's video webinar below on developing a book promotional strategy to help set up your book for success.
Links discussed in the above Amazon webinar video
- Amazon Author Insights – Guide covering the stages of publishing and promoting your book, and articles from authors who have gone through this process and how they have marketed their books.
- KDP Help – Information showing how to upload your book, managing your books published through Amazon and managing your account where you can change your payment details, for example.
- Amazon KDP Promote Your Book page – See the full details of the Amazon promotion programmes.
2. Author Central – Set up Your Amazon Author Page
Free of charge
Image courtesy of Amazon
Why fill in the Amazon Author Page?
Your Author Page on Amazon lets readers know about you, the millions that use Amazon to purchase their Kindle ebooks, paperbacks and audiobooks, which provides that personal touch when trying to stand out from the crowd. It helps to build your ‘brand’ and let’s potential readers find out about the person behind the book.
Think of this the same as writing your book blurb, which is a promotional tool to hook readers into buying your book. Your author page is written to connect with readers so they invest in you as an author.
Your Author Page on Amazon lets readers know about you, the millions that use Amazon to purchase their Kindle ebooks, paperbacks and audiobooks, which provides that personal touch when trying to stand out from the crowd. It helps to build your ‘brand’ and let’s potential readers find out about the person behind the book.
Think of this the same as writing your book blurb, which is a promotional tool to hook readers into buying your book. Your author page is written to connect with readers so they invest in you as an author.
Update November 2020: Author Central is accessible from one hub now as it's centralised, instead of separate logins for the different regions/marketplaces.
If you already have an Author Central account, Amazon will have moved your account for you.
Access via Amazon.co.uk https://author.amazon.co.uk/?locale=en_GB
Access via Amazon.com author.amazon.com/?locale=en_US
Once written, your Amazon Author Central profile is easy to amend, and it can be used to provide updates about you, your life or announcing further book releases, for example.
It is essential to make use of this resource as you can help readers discover your work and it's where you can promote your kindle book for free as well as your paperback versions, for example.
Create your Author Page bio
You only need to write a brief, succinct summary about yourself – it doesn’t have to read like a memoir! Include the pertinent points and credentials that will make potential readers want to spend their money to purchase your book/s.
You can also set up your bio in other languages so Amazon users globally can read your Author Page.
Check out this article by scribewriting.com on How to Write Your Author Bio for important dos and don'ts as well as a template to help you write yours.
It is essential to make use of this resource as you can help readers discover your work and it's where you can promote your kindle book for free as well as your paperback versions, for example.
Create your Author Page bio
You only need to write a brief, succinct summary about yourself – it doesn’t have to read like a memoir! Include the pertinent points and credentials that will make potential readers want to spend their money to purchase your book/s.
You can also set up your bio in other languages so Amazon users globally can read your Author Page.
Check out this article by scribewriting.com on How to Write Your Author Bio for important dos and don'ts as well as a template to help you write yours.
If you need help to amend a book being attributed to you incorrectly (because another author has the same name, for example, or vice versa where your book is assigned to someone else), check Amazon's help page on Managing Your Bibliography.
Examples of Amazon Author Pages
Images courtesy of Amazon.co.uk. Click images to enlarge.
Add a photo to your profile
Include a photo when filling in your Author Page. It can be one that you’ve taken on your phone (as long as you’re happy with it, of course), so it doesn’t have to be something you need to pay a professional for. Author bios without photos don’t help readers feel connected to the author. People connect with other people when they can see what they look like. Author bios are read by potential readers when checking books they want to read.
Include a photo when filling in your Author Page. It can be one that you’ve taken on your phone (as long as you’re happy with it, of course), so it doesn’t have to be something you need to pay a professional for. Author bios without photos don’t help readers feel connected to the author. People connect with other people when they can see what they look like. Author bios are read by potential readers when checking books they want to read.
Tip: upload the same photo on your Amazon Author Page as you use on your website, social media profiles, Goodreads account, etc. This helps to you to become recognisable, enabling people to remember you and your books, which helps to build your brand as an author.
Link Your Amazon Author Page to your website and social media accounts
You can link your social media accounts to your Author Page too, which provides another element to expand your reach when promoting your book/s.
If you have a website or blog, connect this also. As well as being another promotional tool showing readers who you are and showcasing your writing, this link provides a backlink to your website/blog which, in turn, helps rankings on search engines when readers click on it as they’re finding your site via a reputable and authoritative source.
If you write posts on your blog or website, you can add these to your Author Page by adding a link to your feed. They will then automatically show on your Amazon page when you publish them on your site. Make sure you add the url of the feed, not just your main website address to make sure they are shown correctly. Check out this Amazon guide on managing blog feeds if you need more information.
Enhance your profile by adding videos
If you want to stand out even more, think about adding videos such as book trailers to your page. This task can easily be carried out be freelancers on Fiverr or People Per Hour, etc., or a book trailer creation company such as Literary Titan who can produce this for you.
Enable your ‘Follow Button’ so readers can be kept informed when you publish another book or make any other announcements. Check this Amazon guide on adding your books to finish populating your profile. To be able to create your Author Page, your book must already be available on Amazon.
Further reading
How to Promote Your Book on Amazon in Summary
Utilising your Amazon Author Page is an important part of your presence on Amazon where readers can find out about you and your book/s. As it's a straightforward process that shouldn't take up too much of your time (once you've written your bio...), it will attract the attention of readers and it plays an important part in promoting yourself as an author and boosting the sales of your book/s.
Once you have created your bio and populated the information as discussed earlier into your profile, it only needs to be revisited when you publish another book or if you have an announcement to make. It requires an investment of your time initially, but it's a key promotional tool when looking how to promote your book on Amazon.
So now you can see the importance of the Amazon Author Page, don't be tempted to put it on your to-do list for a later date or only fill in the bare minimum.
How to get started creating your Amazon Author Page
Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and log in using your usual Amazon account details to create your Amazon Author Page. Check out the following video by Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com to take you through the process in this easy step-by-step guide.
You can link your social media accounts to your Author Page too, which provides another element to expand your reach when promoting your book/s.
If you have a website or blog, connect this also. As well as being another promotional tool showing readers who you are and showcasing your writing, this link provides a backlink to your website/blog which, in turn, helps rankings on search engines when readers click on it as they’re finding your site via a reputable and authoritative source.
If you write posts on your blog or website, you can add these to your Author Page by adding a link to your feed. They will then automatically show on your Amazon page when you publish them on your site. Make sure you add the url of the feed, not just your main website address to make sure they are shown correctly. Check out this Amazon guide on managing blog feeds if you need more information.
Enhance your profile by adding videos
If you want to stand out even more, think about adding videos such as book trailers to your page. This task can easily be carried out be freelancers on Fiverr or People Per Hour, etc., or a book trailer creation company such as Literary Titan who can produce this for you.
Enable your ‘Follow Button’ so readers can be kept informed when you publish another book or make any other announcements. Check this Amazon guide on adding your books to finish populating your profile. To be able to create your Author Page, your book must already be available on Amazon.
Further reading
- Check out this easy step-by-step guide by writtenwordmedia.com to help when writing your Amazon Author Page.
- Access the Amazon help page for Author Central.
How to Promote Your Book on Amazon in Summary
Utilising your Amazon Author Page is an important part of your presence on Amazon where readers can find out about you and your book/s. As it's a straightforward process that shouldn't take up too much of your time (once you've written your bio...), it will attract the attention of readers and it plays an important part in promoting yourself as an author and boosting the sales of your book/s.
Once you have created your bio and populated the information as discussed earlier into your profile, it only needs to be revisited when you publish another book or if you have an announcement to make. It requires an investment of your time initially, but it's a key promotional tool when looking how to promote your book on Amazon.
So now you can see the importance of the Amazon Author Page, don't be tempted to put it on your to-do list for a later date or only fill in the bare minimum.
How to get started creating your Amazon Author Page
Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and log in using your usual Amazon account details to create your Amazon Author Page. Check out the following video by Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com to take you through the process in this easy step-by-step guide.
3. Amazon Advertising – Promote Your Ebooks and Paperbacks
Paid service
What are Amazon Ads?
When you type a term into Google search to research something or to buy a product, the top three or four results are paid ads. This is the same when you enter a search term into the Amazon search box. When the appropriate results are listed, often the top results will be 'sponsored posts' – these are Amazon ads.
As an example, after entering the term 'historical fiction' into Amazon UK, the top two results are ads as shown in the following image.
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
Sponsored products are also placed further down the page when looking at books individually, usually before customer reviews. The example below shows books related to gardening for beginners, which gives an indication of how Amazon matches ads to similar products. Click image to enlarge.
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
Using ads to promote your books on Amazon can have a huge impact when targeting readers who will buy your book. Amazon Advertising allows you to create custom ads for readers who are your target market for your fiction novel, non-fiction book, children's book or memoir, for example.
How to find your keywords
You will need to research the keywords to use in your adverts. Think about when you are looking for a book on a specific subject or genre yourself, which search terms do you type into the Amazon search bar? To help more on this topic, check out the Free Amazon Ads Course from Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com.
You will need to research the keywords to use in your adverts. Think about when you are looking for a book on a specific subject or genre yourself, which search terms do you type into the Amazon search bar? To help more on this topic, check out the Free Amazon Ads Course from Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com.
Tip: when you have researched your keywords, include them in your book description (preferably seamlessly so it's not just a list of commonly searched terms) when uploading your book onto Amazon KDP, as this will also help your book's rankings on Google.
Amazon mainly use your book's title, subtitle (if you have one) and your keywords to rank your book.
Another way to research which search terms / keywords to use in your ads is to type into the search bar the genre, for example, and you can see the related search terms that other users have entered to find similar books. See the image below for the related search terms for 'historical fiction'.
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
As you can see, there are alternatives to use that you may not have thought of initially to give your ads the edge against your competition.
Here is another example for readers searching for 'contemporary romance'.
Here is another example for readers searching for 'contemporary romance'.
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
Try to be specific and niche when using keywords in your Amazon ad campain to promote your book. It is essential to stand out among the competition and the thousands of other books available for potential customers to peruse and choose from in your category / genre (find out more on categories in this article by Kindlepreneur.com Secret Method to Choosing the Best Amazon Categories to find out which categories you should use for your book).
Here is another example for the non-fiction market if your book relates to finances. This shows how being generic and vague can bring up a whole array of different search terms which all relate to 'financial'.
Here is another example for the non-fiction market if your book relates to finances. This shows how being generic and vague can bring up a whole array of different search terms which all relate to 'financial'.
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
To find out more about assigning keywords to your book, check out this article How to Choose the Right Kindle Keywords from kindlepreneur.com.
How much do Amazon ads cost?
This all depends on how popular your search terms are, how fierce the competition is and how often readers search for that particular wording when searching for a book.
You are in control of how much you want to spend; this could be on a daily basis or monthly basis as a maximum spend. Costs are accrued when Amazon users click on your ad even if this doesn't result in your book being purchased. You won't be charged more than the limit you have set on your ad either according to each search term or your daily / monthly maximum budget.
As with all paid advertising to promote products, the more competitively priced you set your ad (how much it costs you when someone clicks on it – cost per click), the higher the likelihood of your advert being shown and the increased prominence in search term results.
Check Amazon's comprehensive guide on Keywords and Targeted Marketing for more details on how to create Amazon ads for your book/s. This also includes information on 'negative keywords'. These make sure your ads aren't shown and subsequently clicked for queries that aren't relevant to your book or listing.
For example, you could add 'free' as a negative keyword because your book isn't on promotion at £/$0. Remove the possibility of paying for clicks from Amazon users who aren't going to purchase your book because they're looking for free publications instead.
How to get started with Amazon Advertising
If you'd like to supercharge your book sales with paid ads to promote your book on Amazon, check out this free course Sell More Books With Amazon Ads to help you get started using Amazon Advertising, from Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com who takes you through the process step by step.
This all depends on how popular your search terms are, how fierce the competition is and how often readers search for that particular wording when searching for a book.
You are in control of how much you want to spend; this could be on a daily basis or monthly basis as a maximum spend. Costs are accrued when Amazon users click on your ad even if this doesn't result in your book being purchased. You won't be charged more than the limit you have set on your ad either according to each search term or your daily / monthly maximum budget.
As with all paid advertising to promote products, the more competitively priced you set your ad (how much it costs you when someone clicks on it – cost per click), the higher the likelihood of your advert being shown and the increased prominence in search term results.
Check Amazon's comprehensive guide on Keywords and Targeted Marketing for more details on how to create Amazon ads for your book/s. This also includes information on 'negative keywords'. These make sure your ads aren't shown and subsequently clicked for queries that aren't relevant to your book or listing.
For example, you could add 'free' as a negative keyword because your book isn't on promotion at £/$0. Remove the possibility of paying for clicks from Amazon users who aren't going to purchase your book because they're looking for free publications instead.
How to get started with Amazon Advertising
If you'd like to supercharge your book sales with paid ads to promote your book on Amazon, check out this free course Sell More Books With Amazon Ads to help you get started using Amazon Advertising, from Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur.com who takes you through the process step by step.
4. Amazon Free Book Promotions
Free of charge
You may not think that offering your book for free makes financial sense, but with the Amazon Free Book Promotion you have the opportunity to increase your reach – for free!
There are many readers who are looking for new authors to follow and read, so when they see a book available for free, they are more inclined to download it as they have nothing to lose. Which in turn means that the author can find a new readership and even gain more reviews in the process.
Also, this can increase word-of-mouth recommendations where your book has been shared on social media, for example, by readers who are happy to let others know about your great book that they have just read.
If you publish further books, you will be building on your readership for future titles as readers will want to read those as well. Don't forget to announce on your Amazon Author Page when you publish a new book as discussed at the beginning of this article.
Your Amazon ranking will also gain a boost, which enhances the visibility of your book even after the promotion period has finished.
This promotional offer applies to the whole book not just a sample.
To take advantage of Amazon’s Free Book Promotion, your ebook (only Kindle downloadable versions can be used) needs to be enrolled into KDP Select*. This allows your book to be available for free for up to 5 days within each enrolment period of 90 days. Your Free Book Promotion will be accessible in all the Kindle marketplaces (US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, etc.) where your book is available for sale.
There are many readers who are looking for new authors to follow and read, so when they see a book available for free, they are more inclined to download it as they have nothing to lose. Which in turn means that the author can find a new readership and even gain more reviews in the process.
Also, this can increase word-of-mouth recommendations where your book has been shared on social media, for example, by readers who are happy to let others know about your great book that they have just read.
If you publish further books, you will be building on your readership for future titles as readers will want to read those as well. Don't forget to announce on your Amazon Author Page when you publish a new book as discussed at the beginning of this article.
Your Amazon ranking will also gain a boost, which enhances the visibility of your book even after the promotion period has finished.
This promotional offer applies to the whole book not just a sample.
To take advantage of Amazon’s Free Book Promotion, your ebook (only Kindle downloadable versions can be used) needs to be enrolled into KDP Select*. This allows your book to be available for free for up to 5 days within each enrolment period of 90 days. Your Free Book Promotion will be accessible in all the Kindle marketplaces (US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, etc.) where your book is available for sale.
*Please note that KDP Select is a programme for all authors publishing through Amazon where you can only sell your ebook exclusively through Amazon via its Kindle store. Authors cannot make their book available through any other book selling platform or retailer.
The KDP select programme is set for 90 days; thereafter, there is the option to renew for another 90 days or opt out, so the book can then be sold via other merchants if you choose not to participate further.
In return, authors have access to promotional tools as discussed in this article – Free Book Promotion and Kindle Countdown Deals (discussed next) and others – so make sure you’re happy to have your book/s only available through Amazon to be able to promote your titles using these methods.
Also, your book is automatically included in Kindle Unlimited when you enrol into KDP Select.
Kindle Unlimited is a monthly subscription service for Amazon account holders to read an unlimited amount of books for the duration of their subscription.
Check Amazon’s help page on Kindle Unlimited to find out more information.
Matt DeCoursey's video below explains the Amazon Free Book Promotion marketing tool further and how it can benefit you.
If you'd like to increase the visibility of your book, go to Amazon's Free Book Promotion page to take advantage of this free book marketing programme on Amazon.
5. Amazon Kindle Countdown Deals
Free of charge
Kindle Countdown Deals is a free book promotional programme from Amazon that is available to authors who have uploaded their book/s on Amazon.co.uk and/or Amazon.com.
As the name would suggest, you offer your book at a discounted price – you set the period of time – to entice readers to buy your book before the time runs out and the title reverts back to the original price.
So as long as you have your book available in Kindle ebook format, you have another free book marketing strategy at your disposal to increase your book’s visibility, just like the Amazon Free Book Promotion as discussed above.
Please note that you can’t run a Free Book Promotion and a Kindle Countdown Deal within the same 90-day KDP enrolment period.
This offer employs the ‘fear of missing out’ and ‘grab it before it runs out’ psychology, which many retailers use. Whether you’re buying a completely different product on Amazon where it states ‘only 4 left in stock’ when you click on an item to find out more. Or when you visit a homeware and appliance website which flashes up how many people have looked at the item in the last hour/day or indeed how many have been bought. They all play on the thought of ‘I’d better hurry up and buy this before it’s gone…’
To add this promotion to your marketing activities, your book must be enrolled in KDP Select and priced between £1.99 and £15.99 for books on Amazon.co.uk and/or between $2.99 and $24.99 on Amazon.com.
Customers see the new reduced price alongside the original cost scored out, so they can see the saving at a glance.
You can see books taking part in this promotion if you enter ‘Kindle Countdown Deals’ in Amazon’s search bar as shown below.
As the name would suggest, you offer your book at a discounted price – you set the period of time – to entice readers to buy your book before the time runs out and the title reverts back to the original price.
So as long as you have your book available in Kindle ebook format, you have another free book marketing strategy at your disposal to increase your book’s visibility, just like the Amazon Free Book Promotion as discussed above.
Please note that you can’t run a Free Book Promotion and a Kindle Countdown Deal within the same 90-day KDP enrolment period.
This offer employs the ‘fear of missing out’ and ‘grab it before it runs out’ psychology, which many retailers use. Whether you’re buying a completely different product on Amazon where it states ‘only 4 left in stock’ when you click on an item to find out more. Or when you visit a homeware and appliance website which flashes up how many people have looked at the item in the last hour/day or indeed how many have been bought. They all play on the thought of ‘I’d better hurry up and buy this before it’s gone…’
To add this promotion to your marketing activities, your book must be enrolled in KDP Select and priced between £1.99 and £15.99 for books on Amazon.co.uk and/or between $2.99 and $24.99 on Amazon.com.
Customers see the new reduced price alongside the original cost scored out, so they can see the saving at a glance.
You can see books taking part in this promotion if you enter ‘Kindle Countdown Deals’ in Amazon’s search bar as shown below.
Image courtesy of Amazon.com
Find out more about including your book/s in this promotion by going to Amazon Countdown Deals to see if this is a viable marketing opportunity for you.
6. Kindle Ebook Pre-order
Free of charge
Previously only available for mainstream publishers, all authors can now make their ebook available for pre-order on Amazon to generate a buzz about the release of their book or books (up to one year prior) so customers can place a pre-order to receive it once it’s released.
Why is the Amazon Pre-order programme a book promotion strategy?
You can advertise your book as being available for pre-order on your website, social media profiles, GoodReads account, local bookstore/library, etc. to build up the anticipation and excitement.
You have more time to perfect and polish your book before publishing without rushing the editing or proofreading process, which averts the disaster of rogue typos and comma splices, for example, not being caught and amended in your writing. Therefore, these won’t be reflected in the reviews you receive.
If you publish your paperback version before the release date of your ebook, this enables readers to buy the print version before your ebook is released. Which in turn may result in you receiving reviews before your ebook launch day. You can then add these reviews to the promotion of your book on social media, etc. As reviews are shown for all formats of your book, these will also be visible on your ebook pre-order version/sales page.
This is a great tool to accelerate the sales of your book on the first day of its release, which obviously has a positive impact on your Amazon rankings. (Any pre-orders placed during your pre-release period are all accumulated and counted as a sale on the release day.)
Make sure you upload your file before the deadline!
If you have an ebook or ebooks that you would like to include in this marketing strategy, you can find out more on the Kindle Ebook Pre-Order page.
- This only applies to ebooks, not paperbacks.
- You can add up to 10 books at any one time to be available for pre-order. Once one or more are released, you can then add more books up to the maximum of 10 books in total on your pre-order list.
- Pre-order books can be enrolled into KDP Select, and the 90-day enrolment term begins on the release date of your book.
- You can announce that your ebook is available for pre-order on your Amazon Author Page (see top of this article).
- Amazon will review your book to check it meets their guidelines.
- Customers can order your eBook up to 90 days before the release date
Why is the Amazon Pre-order programme a book promotion strategy?
You can advertise your book as being available for pre-order on your website, social media profiles, GoodReads account, local bookstore/library, etc. to build up the anticipation and excitement.
You have more time to perfect and polish your book before publishing without rushing the editing or proofreading process, which averts the disaster of rogue typos and comma splices, for example, not being caught and amended in your writing. Therefore, these won’t be reflected in the reviews you receive.
If you publish your paperback version before the release date of your ebook, this enables readers to buy the print version before your ebook is released. Which in turn may result in you receiving reviews before your ebook launch day. You can then add these reviews to the promotion of your book on social media, etc. As reviews are shown for all formats of your book, these will also be visible on your ebook pre-order version/sales page.
This is a great tool to accelerate the sales of your book on the first day of its release, which obviously has a positive impact on your Amazon rankings. (Any pre-orders placed during your pre-release period are all accumulated and counted as a sale on the release day.)
Make sure you upload your file before the deadline!
If you have an ebook or ebooks that you would like to include in this marketing strategy, you can find out more on the Kindle Ebook Pre-Order page.
7. Buying and Gifting Ebooks for Others
Paid service
Another book promotion idea is to buy your books and gift them to others, who can then leave a review which further enhances your rankings and visibility on Amazon.
This option obviously means allowing a budget to buy your own books, as you can’t include free books or those available on pre-order, but you still earn royalties when buying your book to gift to others.
As well as sending to friends and family, your book could be part of a giveaway promotion on your website to subscribers, or via social media to your followers and using a 'free book giveaway' hashtag to further your reach, or if you’re holding an event to promote your book.
Recipients don’t need a Kindle device to read your book as it can be viewed using the Kindle app on a laptop or phone, for example.
If your budget allows, this promotional tool could give your book exposure a boost as well as helping to increase your number of reviews.
This option obviously means allowing a budget to buy your own books, as you can’t include free books or those available on pre-order, but you still earn royalties when buying your book to gift to others.
As well as sending to friends and family, your book could be part of a giveaway promotion on your website to subscribers, or via social media to your followers and using a 'free book giveaway' hashtag to further your reach, or if you’re holding an event to promote your book.
Recipients don’t need a Kindle device to read your book as it can be viewed using the Kindle app on a laptop or phone, for example.
If your budget allows, this promotional tool could give your book exposure a boost as well as helping to increase your number of reviews.
Another promotional tool is Lending for Kindle (check it is applicable in your country), which allows purchased ebooks to be leant for a duration of 2 weeks to others such as friends and family, which is another way for more people to read your book and to gain reviews.
Find out more about gifting your books by visiting Amazon’s Buying and Gifting eBooks for Others page.
8. Kindle Instant Book Previews – Share a Preview of your Book
Free of charge
Kindle Instant Book Previews allows you to share a sample of your book. The link can be shared via social media, email or embedded on your blog/website.
The information on Amazon says it’s available for ‘most’ books, but it doesn’t say which books are included, so double check this applies to yours before choosing to include this as a marketing strategy to promote your book.
The information on Amazon says it’s available for ‘most’ books, but it doesn’t say which books are included, so double check this applies to yours before choosing to include this as a marketing strategy to promote your book.
This is similar to 'Look Inside the Book' which is automatically applied to every book published through Amazon. To find out about how long it takes to be applied to your book or to see the percentage of the book shown, visit Amazon's help page.
If you'd like to use this feature to share a sample of your book to maximise exposure and increase the opportunity for readers to make a purchase, go to Kindle Instant Book Previews to find out how to get started.
9. Conclusion: How to Promote Your Book on Amazon
As you can see, there are a many ways you can promote your book on Amazon, including how you can promote your kindle book for free.
Some of the Amazon book marketing services discussed in this article may be a better fit for you, your book and how you want to manage your promotional endeavours than others.
Alternatively, you may find that some of these book promotional programmes are more effective than others as time goes on. As with most things, no book marketing strategy provides a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone who tries them.
As you become more confident at promoting yourself, you may feel ready to try using videos to announce the publication of your next book, for example, on your Amazon Author Page. Or you could be in the position of planning your book in advance to take advantage of the Kindle Ebook Pre-order programme.
Some of the Amazon book marketing services discussed in this article may be a better fit for you, your book and how you want to manage your promotional endeavours than others.
Alternatively, you may find that some of these book promotional programmes are more effective than others as time goes on. As with most things, no book marketing strategy provides a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone who tries them.
As you become more confident at promoting yourself, you may feel ready to try using videos to announce the publication of your next book, for example, on your Amazon Author Page. Or you could be in the position of planning your book in advance to take advantage of the Kindle Ebook Pre-order programme.
Tip: you can also earn extra money from the sales of your book by setting up an Amazon Associates account. If you have a blog, website or another means of listing your book for sale, you can earn a commission (affiliate fee) on top of your royalties.
After you have set up an Amazon Associates account and created a customised link to your book, you then receive a % when the sales are recorded. This is the same as affiliate marketing where bloggers promote products and receive a fee every time their link is clicked and it results in a sale.
- Amazon Associates UK
- Amazon Associates US
It is important to monitor which promotion and marketing techniques are delivering an increase in sales. Even free marketing strategies cost your time at the end of the day, so regularly check which are giving you a return on your investment (time and/or money).
Also, self-publishing is dynamic and ever-changing, so it’s essential to keep up to date with new promotional tools and techniques as they become available so you can adjust your book marketing strategy as appropriate.
Also, self-publishing is dynamic and ever-changing, so it’s essential to keep up to date with new promotional tools and techniques as they become available so you can adjust your book marketing strategy as appropriate.
Contact Book Editing Services
If you would like to get in touch, let me know about your book and which service you're interested in by using the secure Contact Form. You can also use the form to discuss your editorial requirements, request a no-obligation quote or check availability.
Please read my Terms and Conditions if you would like to use my editorial services so you are familiar with how I work and the requirements of both parties. I look forward to hearing from you.
If you would like to get in touch, let me know about your book and which service you're interested in by using the secure Contact Form. You can also use the form to discuss your editorial requirements, request a no-obligation quote or check availability.
Please read my Terms and Conditions if you would like to use my editorial services so you are familiar with how I work and the requirements of both parties. I look forward to hearing from you.
