Product Description

There has never been a self publishing manual like this.

"Aiming at Amazon" is NOT about getting your book into bookstores. Instead, it lays out an innovative approach that targets sales on Amazon.com. It reveals how to make a book sell well online, with tips never before offered. And it doesn't stop there -- it gives you a way to publish your book with print on demand that can double your profit per copy.

Avoid publishing plans that handicap you almost before you begin. Let "Aiming at Amazon" introduce you to the NEW business of self publishing.

Aaron Shepard has been making his living from self publishing for years and loving it. On the side, he is an award-winning children's author with numerous picture books from major publishers. He is also the author of the bestselling children's writing guide "The Business of Writing for Children," as well as the popular guide to book design with Microsoft Word, "Perfect Pages."

CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

1 ~ AIMING AT AMAZON
Forget Bookstores
Print on Demand
Plan Your Route
Go to the Source
Ignore Amazon

2 ~ OPTIMIZING FOR AMAZON
Embrace the Possible
Research the Market
Optimize Your Title
Write a Great Book
Produce Your Pages
Craft Your Cover
Stick to a Format
Collect Comments

3 ~ ACCESSING AMAZON
Set Up Accounts
Find Resources
Make Contact
Look Up Your Profile
Keep Up with Change
Take the Express

4 ~ MARKETING ON AMAZON
Check Your Listing
Make Corrections
Add Your Content
Submit a Cover Image
Share Other Images
Suggest Tags
Classify Your Book
Get Customer Reviews
Connect with Readers
Explore More Options

5 ~ MONITORING AMAZON
Watch Availability
Watch Sales Ranks
Watch Search Results
Watch Pairings
Watch Rivalries
Watch Customer Reviews
Watch Tags
Watch Other Content

6 ~ POINTING TO AMAZON
Channel Your Sales
Earn Commissions
Tame Your Links

7 ~ UPDATING FOR AMAZON
Refine Your Book
Refresh Your Content

8 ~ GLOBALIZING WITH AMAZON
Aim at Amazons
Optimize for Amazons
Access Amazons
Market on Amazons
Monitor Amazons
Point to Amazons

APPENDIX
The Kindle
Amazon Vendors
The Book Depository
Self Publishing Terms
Amazon Etiquette

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99286 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
FORGET BOOKSTORES

Yes, I said it: Forget bookstores.

The first principle of the new business of self publishing is probably the hardest for aspiring publishers to accept. If you're like me, you love to visit your local bookstore -- whether chain or independent -- and wander the aisles, delighting in the sheer presence of so many enticing volumes. That love probably sprang up in your childhood, and will likely last you the rest of your life.

The trouble is, the feeling is not mutual.

In general, bookstores do not love self publishers. It's nothing personal. If the staff at that store sat down and read your book, they might like it very much. They might even make an effort to promote it. Perhaps you can convince two or three local stores to do just that.

But for most bookstores, your book simply isn't worth the effort. The book business is a well-oiled machine that runs in broad and well-worn channels. Bookstores deal with sales reps and suppliers that can deliver dozens of titles at a time to their doorstep. Unless you already have a runaway bestseller, it's simply not efficient for them to deal with someone hawking one or two books. And to tell the truth, it's usually not worth your time to try to get them to.

Luckily, you no longer need to. With only minor effort and cost, you can get your book carried by one bookseller that handles nearly 20% of trade retail bookselling in the U.S. -- about half of what's handled by all "real world" U.S. bookstores put together. You can get your book on Amazon.com.

Even better, on Amazon you'll compete on a much more level playing field with publishers of any size. By aiming at Amazon and exploiting its capabilities to the full, you can outmaneuver large publishers that may know less about its workings than you do and that have their main attention elsewhere.

Take the example of one of my own lead sellers, "The Business of Writing for Children." For much of its publishing life, this book has been the biggest selling children's writing guide on Amazon.com. When the book you're reading was first published, my children's writing book was competing on Amazon primarily against one guide from the For Dummies series and another from the Complete Idiot's series -- and it was outselling each of them by 2 to 1.

Was it a better book than those others? I wouldn't make that claim. But by a combination of persistence, dedication, savvy, ingenuity, and skill, I was able to outmaneuver all comers and stay on top in Amazon sales.

In fact, by aiming at Amazon, I was able to sell close to 30% the number of copies sold by one of those nationally-distributed competitors including its bookstore sales. And because the profit from my publishing system is so high -- generally half or more of the cover price -- I was earning about twice as much in total as that author would make with a normal royalty.

Once you accept the premise "Forget bookstores," it's amazing how much murkiness is instantly cleared out of the business of self publishing. Consider these:

-- You don't have to design or commission a slick cover that will look at home on a bookstore shelf.

-- You don't have to persuade anyone to stock your book.

-- You don't have to allow "returns" -- copies sent back for refund when the bookseller won't wait longer to sell them.

-- And best of all, you don't have to sit alone behind a stack of books at a tiny table in a busy bookstore and try to look like you want to be there.

Now, this doesn't mean that your book will never be sold in a bookstore. In most cases, it will. When you aim at Amazon, some customers will request your book from local bookstores -- and most new channels for self publishing will make it easy for bookstores to get it. The difference is, if you follow the approach I most favor, those bookstores will obtain the book on your terms, not theirs.

Sound good? Keep reading, and I'll show you how to do it.

Customer Reviews

A life-changing book - for the better!
I sometimes wake up cold in the middle of the night, wondering where on earth I would be, career wise, had Aiming at Amazon not been written. Probably in my kitchen, table overflowing with the overworked chapters of offerings the world would never see, hoping that if I rewrote them one more time and bought another job-lot of stamps, someone out there would recognise my worth and come a'running, publishing deal in hand, waving their wallet. Then I relax, safe in the knowledge that Aiming at Amazon has indeed been written, and not only am I the
author of three published books but also about to publish several by other authors writing in different genres with more in the pipeline. I have also discovered that rare and beautiful sight, a smiling bank
manager.
Aiming at Amazon is written by an author, for authors, in a style that even head-in-the-cloud dreamers with ink in their veins can understand and act upon. It is the hand-holding friend everyone needs when embarking
on a new venture, in this case the exciting world of publishing. Forget about impressing hard nosed publishing tycoon types, forget compromising your work to get it past the first desk, save those stamps!
Armed with Aiming at Amazon you are going into publishing yourself! All you need, as Oscar Wilde almost said, is your genius, and stuff the rejection letters. All you need to take control of your own literary destiny is faith in yourself. And Aiming at Amazon.

Great for Working with Lightning Source and Promoting on Amazon
I think I broke several "Aiming at Amazon" rules. One thing Shepard suggests is to set a publication date four months ahead of time. I didn't do that with my recent book, but I wish I had. It gives journalists enough time to review it, and several of these journalists require a four-month window. Had I done this, my book could have some reviews before its pub date.

Shepard says not to use a white cover image (note the word "image," not the actual cover. The actual cover could be white, but the cover image on Amazon can always be a different color.) I used a white cover for two of my books. The first one disappears into the web browser page. But for the second one, I inserted a black line around the cover using Paint. So it doesn't disappear into the background.

The advice about Listmania and So You'd Like To... guides is right as well. It does add a little bit of visibility, but it doesn't really help your bottom line. His best advice is to get customer reviews and to have a detailed subtitle. As a customer, I tend to buy books that have been reviewed a lot. I like being able to read what other people think about the book (or any other product for that matter). Having a detailed subtitle helps Amazon browsers find your book in search results.

If there is one thing that I don't agree with is his opinion on the Search Inside feature. I see his point of view. The logo used to degrade books' thumbnail views, but I believe that problem is history. I see quite a few old books whose thumbnails are degraded, but the new ones look fine. As a customer on Amazon, I tend to buy the book that has the Search Inside feature over ones that don't.

"Aiming at Amazon" would be a good compliment to Shepard's other book "Perfect Pages" and Steve Weber's "Plug Your Book." If one book doens't have the information you need, one of the others will.

If anybody is considering Brent Sampson's "Sell Your Book On Amazon," let me tell you to avoid it like the plague. I know from experience that Sampson's book is worthless. It is nowhere near as informative as "Aiming at Amazon." It is also full of inaccurate information and unethical practices.

Brandon Simpson

Very America & dot dom-centric - and that's a GOOD thing!
The good thing: The author is American and his business is centred in America so it's not surprising that 99% of this book is focused on the USA website. The "home" version of the website operates significantly differently and has different features to the "international" versions. That is not a weakness of the book - it is a strength. With Aiming at Amazon you can wholeheartedly embrace another market - it's called the World-wide web thingy for a reason. Aaron's book will lead you through opportunities to market and, ahem, to "leverage" that haven't made their way across the pond yet. If you're from A. N. Other Country then look upon this as your ticket to learn how to knock on 300,000,000 more doors the polite way, respecting local customs. Splendid book. Just never, never, never have cheese for supper and then make the back cover of this book the last thing you see before turning out the light to sleep. There lies only nocturnal madness and torment. Splendid book.