Friday, April 22, 2016

Friday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts


By: Mike Fishbein


As an author, it’s your job to make sure your readers get excited about your book. You need to set the stage properly that triggers their emotions, leaving them eager to buy and start reading.

See, sometimes people are going to buy your book without thinking much. Sometimes they’re just going to stumble upon your book randomly and want to try it out, just like my friend and the Cambodian restaurant.

But instead of glancing at a menu, what do potential customers look at? What’s the last step before they make a decision? Your book description.

Now, I’ll be honest. Until summer 2015, I didn’t pay much attention to my Amazon book descriptions. I just provided a quick summary, copied and pasted something from my conclusion, and called it a day. Amazon descriptions can be up to 4,000 characters (usually around 600-700 words), and I kept mine under 2,000 characters.

Then, I realized my mediocre Amazon descriptions probably weren’t helping my book sales, rather they were hurting them. In late October 2015, one of my books became a #1 best seller. I doubt that ever could have happened with a lousy description…

Your Amazon book description is your last chance to make the sale. It’s an opportunity to force the reader to think, “I need this book right now.”

So, how do you do that?

1. Don’t Make It About Yourself

You don’t need to include how many awards you’ve won and why you’re awesome. Instead, make it about the reader. What are they going to learn from your book? Why is it going to be worth their time and money?

2. Be Exciting

. . .

To read the rest of the post, click here:

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If you missed my latest writing and marketing tweets, here they are again:
  • Best Practices on Writing Facebook Ad Copy | Facebook for Business http://ow.ly/4mWcnP
  • 8 Reasons Why People Buy Books | Digital Book World http://ow.ly/4mWcwq
  • 3 Types of Quotation Errors http://ow.ly/4mWebJ  Daily Writing Tips
  • How to Publish Posts that Search Engines Will Love | The Daily Post http://ow.ly/4mWlex
  • Writing and the Creative Life: The Tactile Experience of Writing | Go Into The Story http://ow.ly/4mWm4u
  • 36 Ways to Describe Buildings–Neighborhoods | WordDreams... http://ow.ly/4mWmaw
  • Pantsers vs Plotters by Jennifer Mason-Black http://ow.ly/4mWmna
  • Storyville: The DOs and DONTs of Running a Successful Kickstarter Campaign | LitReactor http://ow.ly/4mWms6
  • Plotting: The Flow of Your Story By Houston Havens | Romance University http://ow.ly/4mWmwA
  • Building Blocks of a Novel: Paragraphs | Pub(lishing) Crawl http://ow.ly/4mWmBt
  • How to Grow Author Mailing Lists | Self-Publishing Author Advice from The Alliance of Independent Authors http://ow.ly/4mWmG5
  • Indie Author Survival Guide (Third Edition) - Ch 3.2 Fear and the Creative Worker http://ow.ly/4mWmN4
  • How to Outline Your Novel Part 3- The Three Act Structure | Chris Fox Writes http://ow.ly/4mWmT7
  • Is Book Perfection in Your Midst? - The Book Designer http://ow.ly/4mWo9s
  • Revision: Making a Mess Less Complicated | A Writer's Path http://ow.ly/4mWofL
  • How to Measure Social Media Using Google Analytics Reports : Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/4mWorP
  • How to Create a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Wordpress Blog http://ow.ly/4mWoD9
  • 11 Tips to Craft the Perfect Amazon Book Description - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/4mWuRg
Happy writing and running, Kathy

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