I read some great blog posts today about building an author platform, using social media, etc. All good ideas and essential in marketing a book. But how many authors who self-publish forget to maximize the long tail or the Amazon marketing/book selling machine?
My next book should be ready to go from CreateSpace this week as the final cover design has been approved. The all important Kindle version, as well as the Nook version, will be ready for upload late this April. As I was going through my check list of who was to receive complimentary review copies, proofing again my e-newsletter edition announcing the release of the book on Amazon, etc, it hit me.
I haven't given a thought about maximizing the leverage of the Amazon marketing machine. I have not written any thing to add to the product information, though I did do a better than normal job writing the copy for Amazon when the files were uploaded to CreateSpace.
It occurred to me I need to pull out Aaron Shepard's classic Aiming at Amazon this week and go through it once again with a notepad in hand. My to do list for the week now includes a command to go through this classic and create a detailed and specific action list of marketing and promotional activities to be carried out using Amazon and all the options available to a self-publishing author.
With the emphasis on the other aspects of book marketing, it is tempting, or easy, for authors to forget the power of Amazon and the fact we have some control over the book marketing process when it comes to Amazon. So, I encourage authors to keep Amazon in mind when planning their marketing strategy.
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