Maximising Your Book Exposure

By Patricia de Hemricourt

As an author, getting your book on readers shelves ( or ereader’s library) is the ultimate goal, as, unless they get there, they will never be read. Ultimately, we write to get read, and maybe make some money as well … 🙂

So, of course, our book is on Amazon, and J.L. Campbell is giving us nice advice on how to raise visibility on Amazon by carefully using keywords in the book blurb to increase our book visibility. Reposting her post is the best way I could think of to thank her for sharing her insight with us.

Yet, though Amazon accounts for around 70% of online booksales in the US, iBook is steadily gaining market shares, especially outside the US, so putting your book on iBooks shelves as well might considerably increase your book traction. Deborah Drum and Amy Harrop are offering a nice help book to assist in the process of uploading on iBooks and identifying the relevant keywords, thus maximising your book exposure.

Uploading on iBooks is a different process than on Kindle, and much less literature is devoted to that topic, making it harder to achieve. The bonus is that competition in iBooks is still substantially lower than on Amazon. As a result, maximising your book exposure is proportionnaly easier. Not only are there less books to compete with, but authors are les versed in the art of increasing their book disoverability on iBooks than on Amazon, further increasing your book’s potential impat on iBooks.

Drum and Harrop’s book Become an iPublisher might be just the item that tips the balance in favor of your book by maximising your book exposure on an additional platform.

In the meantime, J.L. Campbell’s tips below might help your book’s discoverability on Amazon.

How Amazon Search Terms Can Help Your Books

By J.L. Campbell

Ever notice that when you’ve edited your work until your eyeballs hurt, you want to just give up? But, as always, you keep moving forward until you know when the book is done.

When I get to that point, I find ways to distract myself, which usually involves reading and research. What I’ve discovered this time around is the importance of matching my blurbs to keyword searches that people do when they’re looking for books to buy.

I know this is some obvious stuff and I’ve read about this a time or two before, but I’ve been too lazy to do anything about it. This time, I decided to actually try and see if matching keywords works. So, what did I do? I followed some instructions that basically was geared toward Amazon’s search engines finding my books, based on the categories in which they’re listed.

I did it with Christine’s Odyssey, but it was a little harder to match certain keywords to the book blurb. Still, I got results. The following day, the book came up at #81 in the Children’s Fiction category and sank into obscurity, thanks to the lack of any promotional activity. Anyway, I digress.

I looked at the seven keywords I used for Distraction, which are Domestic Abuse, Relationships, Romance, Jamaica, Women’s Fiction, African-American, Multicultural, and Drama. Then, I looked at my blurb (which isn’t bone dry, but could be a bit meatier) below.

Three Jamaican women walk a tightrope of decisions when their lives are derailed by blackmail, deceit and infidelity.

JUSTINE CHARLES, sensible and self-contained, battles an addiction which could destroy her marriage, reputation, and relationship with her daughter.

DIONNE JONES, an aggressive go-getter, takes risks that cut a trail of devastation through her family and business.

KYRA MILLS, struggling single mother, is crippled by debt, bad judgment and destructive choices.

Can two of the long-time friends survive startling revelations involving their partners?  And will the other push her obsession to the point of danger?

Based on what I read, my aim is supposed to be fitting as many of my seven keywords as possible into my blurb. As naturally as possible, of course and I’m allowed to use other material, such as reviews, etc.  So what did I come up with?  See below.

Three Jamaican women walk a tightrope of decisions when their lives are derailed by blackmail, deceit and infidelity.

JUSTINE CHARLES—sensible and self-contained—is sidetracked by romance outside of her marriage. Despite living with domestic abuse, she battles an addiction that threatens to destroy her home, reputation and relationship with her daughter.

DIONNE JONES, an aggressive go-getter, is obsessed with financial freedom. Her fixation leads her down a path that few women have the courage to tread and cuts a trail of devastation through her family life and business.

KYRA MILLS —struggling single mother—is crippled by debt, bad judgment and destructive choices. The drama never ends, thanks to a liaison with a man determined not to let her go, even if it means putting her life at risk.

Can two of the long-time friends survive startling revelations involving their partners? And will the other push her obsession to the point of danger?

J. L. Campbell’s Distraction is a read as enticing as the honey and caramel-skinned feisty women whose intertwined dilemmas are spiced with dialect and pinched with a generous helping of tropical Jamaica.

Distraction is an exciting, unforgettable story of love, betrayal and secrets.

PRAISE FOR DISTRACTION

Distraction is an insightful look into the hearts of three women who break society’s rules in search of happiness and completion.
~ Nancy DeMarco, Finding Sara

Okay, so I forgot I’d used reviews on the back cover of the paperback. I dug through my email until I found those and added them in.

I’ve put the keyword in both samples in bold and you’ll notice that I’ve used more of them in sample two – the ones I could fit in that didn’t sound clunky.

I did this on Sunday afternoon and it didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to tweak the blurb. Long story short? I checked less than an hour ago and Distraction is showing up at #76 in the African-American Women’s Fiction category.

See screenshots below. Note that the blurb on Amazon has not changed from the original version as at 11:20 am today, however, the Amazon search engine is obviously at work. BTW, I did this while logged in from the Amazon Author Central dashboard.

So d’you think based on the results—more visibility and possibly more book sales—that I should go ahead and take the time to do this with my other books?

If you said yes, then we’re on the same page. Pun intended.

Have fun with yours!