| Editing your Amazon record2-3 weeks after | | | | publishers can't be bothered and there is a huge |
| approving your proof, you will see your title | | | | backlog for Amazon to process.Marketing & |
| appear as a record on in the US (inheriting the | | | | Promoting your bookGetting good reviews on |
| basic details that you entered when uploading to | | | | your Amazon page is the most effective way to |
| Lightning Source). LSI allocates a new "child" ISBN | | | | start. I do not advise "spoofing" reviews as this is |
| identifier to your title, which differs from the | | | | unethical and could lead to your book being |
| "parent" ISBN. Until recently, your eBook would | | | | de-listed. Instead, include your email address |
| also have appeared on Amazon.co.uk. However, | | | | towards the back of your book and invite your |
| Amazon have turned off eBook records on their | | | | readers to contact you. When they do so (with |
| UK site (pending the integration of their recent | | | | positive feedback) reply politely and invite them |
| Mobipocket acquisition).Your record will look pretty | | | | to submit a review to Amazon, saying explicitly |
| empty to begin with. There will be no cover art, | | | | that this will help you drive sales. Include the |
| very little descriptive data, no reviews and no | | | | review URL in your email, to help them out. You |
| capability to search inside the book. Don't worry. | | | | could even offer to reward them with a |
| All this data can be added directly via the Amazon | | | | complimentary copy of your second edition (when |
| site.The first key step is to ensure that your | | | | available).Outside Amazon, the best free way to |
| basic data on Amazon is accurate by clicking on | | | | promote your book is by submitting excerpts (or |
| the "correct errors and omissions in this listing" link | | | | articles which build on your book) to article |
| in the "feedback" section at the bottom of your | | | | repositories (used by webmasters to source |
| record page. After logging in, you are presented | | | | topical free content for their websites or ezines). |
| with a choice of data to amend, including: (a) title, | | | | Pick only sites with a Google PageRank of 5 or |
| (b) author, (c) languages, (d) binding, (e) number | | | | greater and submit only to relevant categories; |
| of pages, (f) publication date and (g) format | | | | you will soon find your articles scattered across |
| edition. Once you have made your changes, you | | | | the web and ranking well in search engine results. |
| will be shown a summary; click on "submit update" | | | | I can recommend eZinearticles; Ideamarketers |
| to confirm. Please check you are happy with your | | | | and netterweb to get you started.Most sites |
| author name; they may have picked up your full | | | | permit you to include both an author bio |
| name from Nielsen Book Data for your parent | | | | ("resource box") and one keyword-rich |
| ISBN record. If you don't want the world to know | | | | anchor-text link in the body. Use these to make |
| your funky middle name, now is the time to | | | | people aware that you are a book author, to |
| amend it!The second step is to add some | | | | name your book and perhaps to link to a page |
| descriptive context about your book, including a | | | | from which the reader can purchase your book |
| brief description, a biography of the author, a | | | | (e.g. a page on your own site). You will be amazed |
| review from the publisher and transcripts of the | | | | by the jump in sales that a well-executed online |
| inside flaps and back cover. Make sure you have | | | | articles campaign produces!Blogs are becoming an |
| handy (a) your publisher name and contact details | | | | ever more popular phenomenon on the web and |
| and (b) the ISBN of the title you wish to amend. | | | | many authors have established blogs as a way of |
| Then go to the Amazon Online Content Form in | | | | staying in touch with their readers. Setting up a |
| the UK or US.Assuming the ISBN you entered | | | | blog using Google's Blogger is a simple and |
| matches Amazon's catalogue, you will be passed | | | | rewarding experience. By adding the same articles |
| to an input screen with a series of free-form | | | | you are submitting to repositories (or simply |
| boxes; where each box corresponds to a field in | | | | keeping a diary of your recent thoughts on the |
| your Amazon record. You are encouraged to fill in | | | | topic of your books) you can attract more traffic |
| as many of the boxes as you like and the boxes | | | | than you might suspect from hungry, blog-loving |
| scroll down if you need a little extra space. You | | | | search engines. Be sure to include an advert for |
| should not use any HTML in the boxes (as it | | | | your book in the side-bar, complete with a PayPal |
| won't work in the way you would expect). Any | | | | "buy now" button.Managing & Tracking your |
| existing content in any of these fields (e.g. picked | | | | earningsYou should not neglect your own log files |
| up directly from Nielsen) will be over-written in the | | | | or site statistics in seeking to understand the |
| process. Keep it simple! For example, with the | | | | success of your eBook marketing strategy. For |
| table of contents field, list each item in the table | | | | various reasons, data on hits, files, unique visitors |
| of contents on a line by itself. Remove page | | | | and repeat visitors are of only marginal use. The |
| numbers, leader dots and other | | | | key measure for you is referrer data, where the |
| formatting.Uploading cover artTo upload cover art, | | | | link a visitor clicked on to arrive at your site is |
| it is first necessary to sign up for an Amazon File | | | | counted as a referrer or referring site. By |
| Transfer Protocol (FTP) account. To obtain an | | | | tracking the number of referrals each month that |
| Amazon FTP username and password, send an | | | | you get from each search engine (and comparing |
| email to Whilst it is possible to FTP from a | | | | this to their respective market shares) you can |
| browser, I have never found it very reliable and | | | | get an idea of how your performance is |
| would recommend instead FTP Voyager (see | | | | improving over time.Amazon Sales Rank (shown |
| software links in panel right). In FTP Voyager, set | | | | in your eBook record under "Product Details", e.g. |
| up a new session and type in the site box. Enter | | | | in Books: #202,125) measures how well items in |
| your userid and password (freshly received from | | | | the Amazon Catalogue are selling (where the |
| Amazon) in the appropriate boxes and Voyager is | | | | lower the number, the higher the sales for that |
| ready to use.Amazon say on their website | | | | particular item). The calculation is based on |
| "experience has shown that customers are more | | | | Amazon sales; updated each hour to reflect |
| comfortable purchasing products with | | | | recent and historical sales of every item sold |
| accompanying images. Not only will posting cover | | | | (including Marketplace). Recent sales are given |
| art improve the look of your page, but it might | | | | higher weighting than the old. Monitor your sales |
| also help your sales!" I recommend buying a | | | | rank over time against your competitors. The |
| second-hand copy of Adobe Photoshop (see panel | | | | sales-rank-to-real-sales curve follows a logarithmic |
| right) to get truly professional results. Amazon | | | | shape, whereby a book with an average rank of |
| requires images to be (a) in TIFF or JPEG format, | | | | 1,000 or lower may sell over 100 copies a week, |
| (b) 72 dots per inch resolution, (c) minimum of | | | | whilst one sale a week only would see you |
| 500 pixels on longest side, (d) 8 bits per channel | | | | outside the top 500,000.Your LSI Publisher |
| sRGB mode. Do not use borders and name your | | | | Compensation Report gives a real-time tally of |
| file as the 10-digit parent ISBN (e.g. | | | | earnings and can be accessed by mousing-over |
| B000AMF66Q.JPG).When you are ready to upload | | | | the drop-down menu "My Account", "financial |
| your image, click "connect" in FTP Voyager on the | | | | information (view & pay), "publisher |
| session you set up earlier. Once the command | | | | compensation". In the form that comes up, select |
| "LIST" has been successfully executed in the | | | | the most recent reporting period (e.g. March |
| scripting box at the bottom of the screen | | | | 2006) and put your author name in as surname, |
| (messages 150 and 226), you know you are | | | | first name (e.g. Viney, David). Check LSI US |
| connected. In the top window the directory will be: | | | | (eBook only) then click on "display report on |
| ftp://ftp-1.amazon.com/catalogue/incoming. Now | | | | screen" to bring up the report.Banking the |
| you simply drag and drop the cover art file from | | | | proceedsAt the end of your first LSI reporting |
| the middle box (your PC directories) to the box | | | | period, you will be due some US Dollar receipts |
| at the top (the Amazon incoming directory).Your | | | | (which you will receive 90 days later). You can |
| image should appear on your Amazon page within | | | | opt for funds to be transferred into a US Dollar |
| 48 hours. Amazon advise that, should your image | | | | account directly or to be paid to you in the form |
| not appear within two to three business days, to | | | | of a cheque.There are organisations in the US that |
| check you have followed all the specifications for | | | | can help non-US residents to set up a US-based |
| preparing and saving documents and images, then | | | | US Dollar account but set-up and running costs |
| resubmit. There is no point in emailing Amazon, | | | | can be high and the account tricky to use, by UK |
| either with your image file attached or to chase it | | | | standards. I use Citibank in the UK, who do |
| not appearing on the record. They will ignore such | | | | provide a US Dollar current account that |
| emails.Search-inside-the-bookAuthors used to | | | | supposedly clears in New York. However, in |
| upload interior art for their table of contents, first | | | | practice the clearance is via a three-step process |
| chapter, inside flap, or other textual content. Now, | | | | and neither PayPal nor LSI will settle electronically |
| however, Amazon demand you join their | | | | into the account. For this reason, I get LSI to pay |
| search-inside-the-book (SITB) programme to do | | | | me by cheque and bank those by mail with |
| this. With SITB, customers can browse sample | | | | Citibank.For direct sales (via my own website) and |
| pages and do additional searches inside a particular | | | | Mobipocket & Lulu receipts, I take payment using |
| book from the book record page itself. This is | | | | PayPal. I could the convert my PayPal dollar |
| perfect if you want to confirm that the title is | | | | balance into Sterling and transfer it to my Sterling |
| just what you're looking for. All of this helps | | | | account. However, to avoid charges, I prefer to |
| publishers and authors to sell more books.To join | | | | leave the dollars in my PayPal account and use |
| SITB, in your role as publisher, you must first visit | | | | them to make personal purchases on eBay. If the |
| and complete a Search Inside the Book | | | | pound ever reaches record lows against the dollar |
| agreement. Once you have signed the Publisher | | | | then I'll have to rethink that plan!ConclusionsYour |
| Participation Agreement and are accepted into the | | | | most effective marketing strategy is based on a |
| programme, you will be set up with a user | | | | good quality Amazon record, with strong reviews, |
| account at Seller Central by a member of the | | | | decent cover art and search-engine friendly |
| Amazon team. Next, you will receive an invitation | | | | description. Use a mixture of weblogs, sales ranks |
| to join Seller Central, which you should accept. | | | | and compensation reports to monitor your |
| The Amazon team will then manually confirm the | | | | success. Thick ahead about how you plan to bank |
| authenticity of the email you used to sign-up and | | | | your proceeds, to minimise charges.David Viney () |
| activate your account.To get started, sign-in at | | | | is the author of the eBook Self-publishing Guide; |
| and choose the "Search Inside the Book" tab on | | | | Desktop to Amazon in 10 easy steps. The book |
| the main page. Make sure your PDF file follows | | | | is a handy pocket guide on how to get your |
| Amazon's rules, which are (a) turn security off, | | | | eBook distributed via Amazon and other sites in |
| (b) embed all fonts, (c) minimum 150dpi for all | | | | the UK and US and marketed for maximum |
| images, (d) no crop marks. The filename is, again, | | | | sales.Read further free extracts from the guide |
| based on the ISBN (e.g. B000AMF66Q.PDF) and | | | | at or download the full copy of the book from |
| the PDF must be a complete book that includes | | | | there.If you have enjoyed these free excerpts |
| front and back covers. You have an advantage | | | | from my book, then you can find much more |
| over traditional authors, who have to send | | | | detail - and step-by-step advice - in the full eBook. |
| Amazon a physical copy for the team to then | | | | Download from this site or from Amazon using |
| scan page-by-page. As you can imagine, many | | | | the links in the panel right. |