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Hi and welcome back. This is Penny Santa Merry and Miss Amy Cornell with the book Marketing tips and author Success Podcasts. We have a name for the show. So excited ways started off three shows without a day when we finally have a name and I'm really, really excited to be here 80 Welcome back. Thank you so much. So I know we were not a silly capping this a four shows. We were doing four shows just to kind of get started and to kind of start the momentum to the podcast. So we're gonna be doing more shows in future, and probably a lot of them will focus on Amazon and other little tips and

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tricks and hints to get, you know, to get more visibility on that site because it is one of the, you know, it is the biggest store. For those of you who are not selling on Amazon, you definitely wanna get your book. I talked to an off of the other day and he said to me he said, You know, I really want to try and see how many books I can sell outside of Amazon. I So I'm not to be like the buzz kill on your day, but probably not a lot. So, um, Amazon is your your You know, Amazon's a major sales tool and one of the things that I wanted to chat about today because you and I feel so passionately about this and also because you do a lot of book page evaluations is that authors? So s So it's one thing to say. I'm selling my book on Amazon, and my book is up on Amazon, and great. I'm super excited. I'm an author of Launch my Book, but a lot of times, that's kind of where it stops, Right? So they authors put their book up there, and then the ad, a book description, and then they kind of wait and see what happens. I mean, you do evaluations. I mean, you see that a lot, right? Yes. I want to wait and see is just like I hate to say it the kiss of death. You know, as soon as you've resigned yourself to a waiting for anything for your book, I think it's gonna start going downhill. Yeah. Dramatic. Yeah, that's very true. And here is something cause I'm getting ready to write a block post on this and depending on the timing of when the podcast launches the post, the blood cause may already be live. But one of the things that I've been discovering, as I continue to do my nerd research on Amazon is that everything matters. So there isn't a single thing that you could do on Amazon that literally does not matter. Every single thing that you do matters. But Amy, you know what this goes beyond obsessing over a bad review, right? Honestly, a bad review, which I know is where a lot of author focus goes when you talk about your Amazon book page. Well, my Amazon just great. But I have this one review and it's a one star and it's really upsetting. That is like the least of your worries, Um, even though I have one, but you know what I mean? I mean, having a one star review is obviously not good. Like I'm not saying that that's like a great thing. But that's usually where the obsession kind of starts and it ends. Don't you find that too? Oh, yeah. A lot of times like you focus on one thing and it's all encompassing. And you ignore all the other pieces that are really gonna end up over shadowing. You know that one tiny element that you feel is the end of the world. When you have everything else working to your advantage, it becomes less of a big deal. All of those little hiccups, not great reviews. What not they get very and buy all this other good stuff you have going on. Yeah, exactly. So let's talk a little bit about that good stuff. And just so you'll know in the show notes, we're gonna have a list of some of our favorite versus least favorite Amazon pages. Or let's put it this way, book pages that are just hitting it, um, hitting it out of the park versus book pages that could maybe use a little bit of work so that you get a sort of a sense of what we're talking about me and I'm gonna totally put you on the spot right now. What would you say is the top pet peeve when you do go page evaluations like, What's the one thing we like? Oh, I don't know how people can keep forgetting this I would say in the one that stands out. And the reason I'm choosing this one is because it's something that is immediately evident. As soon as you open that book's page like before, you know? I mean, you just catch it with your eye is when you see either a massive, long, ongoing block of text and then, you know, kind of the other extreme of that, like a two sentence description. Oh, yeah. You know, both of those, always, like, very different kind of fall into the same category is that it immediately catches your eye that either this is really long ongoing, potentially boring read or I don't even have enough information here to make a decision. I will move on to the next book, you know? Yeah. And I think because those stand out so much before anybody even, you know, I mean, like, you catch that with your eye, even as you're looking at the cover. Even before you finish reading the subtitle. You know what I mean. That just stands out so much Your description length. Yeah. Absolutely. And here's another thing in you and I because I sent you this yesterday in I forwarded this over to you yesterday. I was preparing for a class I'm teaching tomorrow and I was evaluating book pages and I stumbled on this book cover. And I think I think this author had a book, Bub deal. Or maybe it was, uh, Kindle Nation daily deal or something in any. In any event, I spotted this bill come and I was like, Oh my God, this cover was amazing. And then I go to the author's book page, and it says that the subtitle says a psychological thriller to keep you at the edge of your seat, which is typically a typo. So because it's I looked it up because I'm not the best like I'm not. I'm not the best grammar, but I looked it up and it is. It's on the edge of your seat. So watch out for typos because I see that surprisingly, I see that a lot. Yeah, those little things, And you know, even if you want to sit here and argue is when he wants to say, Well, technically, it's not wrong, but it's also not right, and what you're doing is you're making the person that's potentially going to buy your book. Think about something ridiculous in stupid that has nothing to do with the actual quality of your book story. You know where the content? Because even you and I were sitting there talking about like, Well, that can't be right. That doesn't sound right. I know that's certainly not the norm. Like maybe some people, buddy. Either way, now we're having this entire conversation that's essentially negative about this book for one little talking slip up. And that's the last thing you want people to start doing is to get distracted by something else that's not buying your book, you know, Right, right, Exactly. Because if some and this is this is part of the issue with Amazon book pages is that if you stop a person's experience, so if they have gone from thes search page and they've actually landed on your page, um, and you interrupt their they're buying experience by making them, you know, by by distracting them with a typo or something that doesn't seem quite right. That's like, you know, color with EU versus color without a you both are technically right, depending on where you live but color with the U is distracting because that's not how we still color. So it's kind of it's kind of sort of the same thing at an on you. The edge of your seat may both be acceptable, but to the mind you're gonna whatever doesn't feel intuitively right. He's going to stop your experience and there goes your sale 100%. You know, the other thing that I see that it one thing that really kind of, um, bugs me about authors is that for book pages specifically is that a lot of times I see folks burying the lead. So, in other words, they have awards or they got a great review or they have something and you don't know about this award or this review until later on in the book description, yes or further down the page. And I've had all There's Tommy and I've had a couple of other somebody. The reason why they do it is because they don't want to, you know, circumvent the book description like they feel like the book description to be front center. Absolutely, Your book description is extremely important. But remember eye candy people like what other people like so even if you don't know who book Life magazine is or indie reader is, or whatever award is that you won. Readers like to see that they like to see this is an award winning book. How? Oh, yeah, And then there's so few and far between early. Absolutely. You know, maybe people lose track of, you know, like, don't be so humble. Like, if you have anything to brag about, brag about it. Yeah, yeah, No, I think that's absolutely true. And I think that it is a, um we if you're part of the reason why we wanted Thio take the time during this podcast to sort of to address the Amazon Book page is yes, it is the primary place you're selling your book, but it's also such an overlooked. It's such an overlooked element. And if everything else that you're doing is driving people to your book page, which hopefully it is, um, your waist, you're losing your money. You're wasting an opportunity. I can tell you almost without question. If I get on the phone with an author and they say and I asked them, you know, what are you doing for marketing? They said, Well, I'm running some Facebook as but my Facebook ads are really doing well. And like, he they're like, Well, it seems like I'm getting clicks, but I'm not getting any buys. I can almost scared to you. It's probably not The ad copy on your Facebook ads is probably your the wet yearbook page. Yes, that last point of conversion. That last point of conversion? Yeah. And you know, some things that I think, um, you know, authors are one of the things that I really like about the book pages is that you can get into the back end of Amazon author Central and expands the heck out of your Amazon book page. I mean, like my truckload page for my Amazon truckload book. I went in there and added, um, the table of contents to the to the back of the page. Um, and the idea behind it is too grabs. You know, Amazon has a lot of stuff on because obviously, you know, it's their website. If they want to put the latest Jack Ryan thriller add up on, you are, but they're entitled to do that right? But you're also entitled to grab as much space back from that page as you possibly can. So adding more reviews, adding an interview with the author. Five Things About Me You didn't know. One of our most favorite authors. Who? Stephen Ramirez. I think we've talked about his books before. She writes the Sarah Greene mysteries. He is just so good this guy hits it out of the park all the time. And this guy did. I don't know if it's on all of his pages, but she has five things about me you didn't know and I thought that was just the shootist idea, right? Um, it's so clever. It's so clever because now you're getting to know the author. And one of the other thing is that one of the other things that we talked about a lot is really get personal with your reader. I mean, not, you know, obviously privacy issues. He had a guy like you get it, but, you know, share personal details of your life, like what made you want to write the book something that is not too personal but yet does give the readers and insight into who you are? Um, those kinds of like, what are your hobbies? outside of writing books, and those kinds of things really put you put your reader in touch with you, which also helps to make a sale. Oh, yeah, it's an extension. Your Amazon Book pages 100% an extension of your brand and who you are, and you have to do something other than what everybody else is doing. And really, the only way to do that now with his many books is there are out there is by getting personal, you know, And like you said, you have to tell him what you had for breakfast. But, you know, the only way to really be your own brand and stand out is to be unique, which means you really have to dig into what sets you apart and what makes you unique. And what makes you who you are and what motivates you because nobody else is gonna be able to copy that. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely true. And those are the things that you know. Authors are often times you know, they're introverts. It's hard to sometimes it's hard to get out there. Maybe they don't like doing events. They just want to keep writing, and I get all of that. I completely understand that. But you're Amazon book pages. Something that you could do some degree. Set it and forget it. Right, You can. You can do all of this stuff and make all these changes, and you don't have to keep modifying your page every single week. Um, but it is good to get in there and just make sure that you're expanding it. What other tips Amy do you have for authors? Like, what are some of the other things that authors overlook? I would say the, um you know, you you brought this up earlier with another example, Um, not taking advantage of being able to use the subtitle. And I think I think a lot of authors still assume that it has to go on their cover or they can't use it or that the subtitle that they enter in for Amazon has to be what they already put on their cover, which is really not the case. Ah, lot of times, you know, we see a lot of authors If they get the subtitle on the cover Penny and this happens all the time. The book looks great. The cover looks great blown up on your screen or in print in your hands. But then, once it gets down into that tiny thumbnail on Amazon, you lose the subtitle anyway. Nobody can read that, especially if you're talking about Mobile. You know, if anybody shop on their mobile phone. So I would say not taking advantage of being able to not only choose a subtitle that is really intriguing and draws people in but also testing different versions. You know, there's nothing that locks you into a subtitle on that page, you know? So I think that you can, really it's a really great opportunity to kind of respond to what's going on in your genre and to the feedback you're getting on positive reviews and kind of incorporating those terms that people are using about your book and get those into your subtitle to draw more like minded individuals and likely buyers in. I think when authors do that, it's really, really smart and very clever, and it is something that you can keep rolling with and keep testing. Um, I love the use of a subtitle. It's really sad when we see nothing up there. It's like, Oh, you know. Yeah. Um, So we do a lot of work with the clients that with our clients, with subtitles and we get them a lot of different ideas to kind of get those creative juices flowing. And again, it's really great to use reviewer feedback for a lot of that, too. Because once you start getting more reviews, you'll start to see patterns and what people positive things people are saying about your book. And as you say all the time, people like what other people like so incorporating, you know, those kind of positive phrases and in terms and buzzwords that reviewers are using, it's just really, really smart marketing. Now. I think that is actually a really, really smart idea, because if you're listening to this podcast in your kind of struggling, you're like, Well, okay, but I think my copy's good enough. I'm not sure if it's good enough. Take a look at some of the reviews. Take a look at what some of the the reviews were saying on about your book and see if you could incorporate some of those buzzwords. Amy, as you were saying, I think that's really, really, really smart because you will start to see patterns. You will start to see people saying things over and over again, and at some point it's ahead. Slapper. Really like Oh, my gosh, why didn't I think of that before? It's that such an obvious, Um, you know that such an obvious thing that I could say about my book, huh? Yeah. I think it gets hard to put yourself in reviewer shoes and be that objective about your own work. So really, you know, like you're saying using those reviews to your advantage to kind of again put yourself in their shoes. Howard, how is your book being viewed from the outside? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then, you know there's There's no reason that if you get if you're, you know, if you haven't gotten so if you want a pepper your book page with some advanced reviews and you haven't really gotten advanced reviews, you're just dealing with, you know, you're you've got reviews of your book on Amazon, and maybe you've got some bloggers that did some reviews. There's no reason that you can't accept those and put them ahead of your book description in bold. So again, it's a quick little quote from a reviewer. Um, and it's a lead into your book description, and it already sets the pace sets that sets the table for people saying, Oh, this is potentially a book I'm gonna like. This reviewer liked it. They don't necessarily have to know the reviewer or the publication for that, you know, for the for the book description to start fighting with the reader. If that makes sense exactly. And I think a lot of authors forget to check Good reads for reviews to Penny. Oh, that's a great idea in the crossover because good reads, really, you know, is about lovers of different genres and topics kind of coming together and getting hyper focused on what they're interested in. And so they're feedbacks really good, too, because you're really not gonna you know, you don't see it as much on good reads where you will just tryingto garner reviews in general from the general population. But good reads, If that person has read your book, it's pretty likely that they're kind of a hard core fan of the genre, right in You know what I mean? Yeah, it would really take what they say. Seriously, take it to heart. You know, if anybody has constructive criticism, use that too, you know? But anything especially positive said on good reads. Move that over. Let people know that this is a review that you have on good reads like indefinitely. It has some legs that carry some weight. Yeah, no, I think that's that. That's that stuff. That's a really, really that is a really good idea. Good reads, because it isn't even though Amazon only good, very good reads the reviews. Don't trickle over onto your Amazon page. So that's a really, really good idea. Um, and I want to kind of leave you with this, which is such a great opening line. Andi, I'm gonna just give a shout out to Steve or mirrors again just because I think he's is an independently published author and he's just doing so many things right. The first line of his book description is when you look in the mirror and see a ghost, that's a bad day. Don't you love? I love that and to me like that, immediately like Oh, I want to read this book and then that's so that's the That's essentially the logline or the tagline, whatever you want to call it. And then he goes into the book description. And at that point, if that log line has captured your attention, you are gonna continue to read, and you're probably going to hit that that by now, Button and you're gonna get that book and you're gonna read it. So everything matters on Amazon. It absolutely all makes a difference. And in future, podcast would definitely want to talk about the also thoughts on Amazon because those were also important. Some things that we've discovered in terms of Amazon ads and how they help with your optimization. We'll talk a little bit more about optimization of future podcasts.

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But Amy, thank you so much for joining me today and for all of your terrific inside into this. So, yes, I'm excited. I'll be we'll be putting up lots of notes. So I hope everybody checks those out so they can actually get a visual with what we've been saying to. It's really helpful. Yeah, we're gonna list out a few actually several about 1/2 a dozen author pages that are good and some that could use work. And, of course, our our dear and most often Indian off their steamer mirrors will be part of that. You could take a look and see what this guy's doing. He's really hit it out of the park, as are many of the other authors that we're gonna talk about our show. So thank you so much for being part of this podcast. This is Penny Sands. Marry Amy Cornell and thank you for thank you for joining the show. And we'll see you next time. Go by.