Have you ever wished that your book broke into a best seller list on Amazon?
Aggie Villanueva has written a book that gives you tips and ideas to use the categories feature on Amazon in order to break into a best seller list. We reached out to Aggie in order to get her to share some of her learning with the BookBuzzr author community.
The interview follows:
Hello Aggie! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello Vikram. Thank you so much for having me. I am so enjoying this little virtual visit.
My writing related bio is easy because it’s below, so I’ll tell you a little about the other part of myself! And thank you for asking.
I’m a baby boomer who quit school at 15 to run away and “change the world.” I didn’t do it – Imagine that! I got caught up in the hippie drug culture which negated the hippie ideals that drew me out to begin with. It’s a common coming of age story for the 60s.
A few of my major influences were the Black Panthers (pre violence philosophy), the Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou freeing all caged songbirds, Malcolm X, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and President Kennedy for sending in the troops to enforce civil rights and founding the Peace Corp. But most of all, my grandparents who raised me, humble Baptist preachers who lived what they preached.
I’m also a photographer. I was dubbed the Grandma Moses of the American Southwest, but last summer I moved from New Mexico to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Maybe I’ve now become the Grandma Moses of the South rather than Southwest?! Either way, I’m honoured by the moniker, and can’t wait to aim my lens at this southern mountain beauty.
What’s the story behind your latest book – ‘Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers’? Is it really that easy to become a best-selling book?
Well, of course we all know the first step is to write a quality manuscript on every level through editing and publication. And we all know that’s as easy as sweating blood onto virtual paper for several months and then paying editorial professionals to wring us out. BUT, once that shining book is in hand, it really is often just a matter of what I call “working Amazon.” And the first step is to understand what they offer and simply utilize it.
Amazon has created an ingenious free publicity machine with one purpose in mind – to sell books. And if your book is listed there, their automated system will work for you too, if you just pay the system a little attention. Amazon wisely structured the site for auto-promotion, promotion and more promotion applied to each and every book without bias.
Many are unaware of the tendrils of intertwined opportunity extending from your sales page to your target audiences. And those lead to more and those lead to more and…you get the picture. But you must put a little effort into identifying your audience. Amazon pretty much does everything else on auto-pilot.
I would never presume even slight understanding of the workings of their automated algorithmic tendrils, but my experience there points to this: everything is
What is KDP Select?
KDP Select is an option for KDP publishers from Amazon. Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it. Also, you can promote your Digital Book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.
We have had a few authors asking if it is okay for them to continue to promote their book using BookBuzzr Technologies while on the KDP Select Program. Based on our understanding of the KDP Select terms of service and their FAQ and extensive research on various forums on the Internet, here’ why we (the BookBuzzr team) have concluded that KDP Select DOES NOT affect BookBuzzr Authors. Of course, we expect that you will do your own research and draw your own conclusions. Feel free to jump in the comments section and let us know if we’ve misunderstood something.
Authors who use BookBuzzr technologies DO NOT violate KDP Select Terms of Service
If your book is on the KDP Select program, you are perfectly within your rights to market and promote your book through other sources. For example, you can go ahead and tweet about your book on Twitter. And you can talk about your book on your blog. If you use BookBuzzr technologies to market your book, you are not distributing your book through BookBuzzr or selling your books through BookBuzzr. Therefore, you are not violating Amazon terms of service. So go ahead and continue with your BookBuzzr subscription. It may even help complement your efforts on the KDP Select program.
Distribute Means Giving Away or Selling Your Book in it’s Entirety
The KDP Select FAQ Page states: “When you choose KDP Select for a book, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more information.”
It’s important to understand that distribution refers to the act of giving away or selling your book in it’s entirety on ebook distribution sites such as Smashwords, BookBaby etc. or in the form of PDF or other digital or electronic versions of your ENTIRE (FULL) book.
Giving Away Your Book Excerpt is NOT the Same as Book Distribution
However, when you provide your book excerpt it DOES NOT constitute a violation of KDP Select terms of service. Book excerpts have always been a valid form of book marketing for authors. The BookBuzzr Flipper Widget and Book Sampler is best-suited for book excerpts. If you are part of the KDP Select program, please do not upload your ENTIRE book. But feel free to put up your excerpt.
Amazon’s Exclusivity is for Distribution and Sales Only
Some of you may already know about the new viral book marketing technology from BookBuzzr named QuickQuiz.
This book marketing technology can be extremely powerful when used in the right way. This article gives you a few guidelines on how to create a QuickQuiz game that gets you the best returns on the time that you spend creating it.
1. Choose a topic that:
- Is relevant to your book’s topic
- Resonates with your readers
- Has a large enough audience
For example, let’s say you’ve written a book that features witches and werewolves and is targeted towards young adults. An effective QuickQuiz game could be on the Harry Potter series.
2. Don’t try to market your book through the quiz. You can always put up your marketing message in the “Sponsor’s Message” section. This will appear at least 5 times in a game that gets completed.
3. If a reader answers wrong or runs out of time, he will not be able to play that QuickQuiz again! Don’t make the first few questions too difficult. Make the first two or three questions easy so that your readers feel encouraged and are able to move forward.
4. Give your QuickQuiz a short, snappy title which looks attractive when viewed on a reader’s Facebook wall.
5. Create many quizzes. There is no limit on the number of QuickQuizzes you can create. You are limited only by your creativity. Remember that each quiz you create can give you hundreds or even thousands of exposures (impressions) for your book.
6. Share your QuickQuizzes with as many people as you can. Every QuickQuiz will have its own link. Share the link on Twitter, post it on your Facebook page, and email it out to your friends. You can also embed the QuickQuiz on your blog or website. This will engage readers who visit your blog or website and make it fun for them to stick around.
7. Note that a reader who completes a QuickQuiz will be presented with another QuickQuiz that you’ve created. This will continue to happen until all the quizzes that you’ve created are shown to the reader. After this, other quizzes created by other authors will be presented.
8. The reader will have 3 ‘Quiz-Keys’, that help the reader in completing the quiz. You can make the questions progressively difficult as the reader can invoke the 3 ‘Quiz-Keys’ in order to complete the game (see picture below).
So go ahead and have some fun creating a few interesting quizzes that entertain your readers. Done right, your readers will spread your QuickQuizzes while you focus on what you do best: Writing your next book!
See a live, working QuickQuiz below:
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