Getting your book on page 1 of Amazon’s search results [FOR AUTHORS]
As you can imagine, getting on page 1 of Amazon’s search results can be very important. Amazon is the world’s largest search engine and your ability to rank for specific keywords related to your book can attract new potential buyers and highly relevant organic traffic to your book page. But the competition can be quite intense for many of the keywords you desire, so it has become increasingly important for authors to adopt advanced sales tactics to get their books to the top pages of Amazon’s search results.
Remember, Amazon’s objective is always to make more money. So, keep this in mind when you follow my guidance on this. When a customer performs a keyword search, the Amazon search algorithm will consider a number of factors, the most important of which are:
- Relevancy
- Sales Conversion
- Amazon Sales Ranking (optional, but it can help)
Now that you know this, I can imagine that you are asking yourself the following question: How can I use this to my advantage and get my book on page 1?
Well, by simply addressing each of these 3 most important factors. So let’s look at each of these in turn.
Relevancy
If the keyword you want to target is not in your book title, sub-title or book description, then it’s very unlikely to score high in Amazon’s search results. So if you book is on “mountain biking” you can understand why it’s not going to score high on “french cooking” or “historical romance”. It just simply isn’t relevant.
Sales Conversion
This is very important. If you have 10 people searching for a certain keyword, and the majority of them go on to buy your book, then Amazon will love your book and score you highly in its search results.
Amazon Sales Ranking
This is the rank Amazon gives your book based on recent sales. So if your book has not sold many books in the last few weeks, this will not be good for your SEO results.
So how can you get to the top of Amazon’s search results?
Well, quite simply, you, or a book promotion site you advertise on, will promote your book to a select audience of readers, checking how many of them are willing to buy your book. You, or your book promoter, will then send them an email with a link to your book containing your desired keyword.
The result is a surge of new readers will search for your desired keyword and buy your book. This will satisfy Amazon’s search criteria for relevancy, sales conversion, and Amazon Sales Ranking and within days and put you on page 1 of Amazon’s search results.
Too good to be true?
Well, let’s look at how I achieved it for my last book. My hope is that if I can do it, there is no reason why you cannot achieve it too.
So, here is a screenshot of my book on page 1 of Amazon’s search results. In my first campaign I decided to target “self publishing” and here you can see the results.
Wow – how amazing is that! My book is not only on page 1 but placed at #1 on Amazon’s search results. You have to admit, as an author you get a thrill at seeing this happen and I was more than delighted. Almost makes you want to repeat what the lady in the Deli said in the movie When Harry Met Sally, “I’ll have what she’s having”. It might not be an orgasm, but it sure does feel good. Note: if you don’t know this scene from the film, look it up on YouTube – it’s a scream, literally.
For “sales conversion” I simply got a number of people in my street-team to search for the book and buy it. So I estimated my sales conversion to be way over the average at about 65%. Note: A “street team” is usually a group of people you can trust to buy your book. They are usually fans of your previous books, beta-test readers, or friends and family.
For “Amazon Sales Ranking” I ran a small promotion a few days before to ensure my sales figures were already going up.
So will this method work for other authors such as yourself? I’m sure it will if you take care of the three main criteria points I mentioned.
Here’s another example for a book I helped promote.
Here I promoted a British espionage novel called Dead Man Falling. You can see this clearly at the top of the three books listed, which includes in third place a very successful author Robert Harris whose book An Officer and a Spy is incidentally one of my favorite all time books.
If you look carefully at the top left of the image, you will see that the search results being displayed here are for the search words “British spy novels”. And yes, I used the method I explained above to get the book to #1 of Amazon’s search results. This one was not quite so easy since the search word is not in the book’s title, but I ensured it was in the book’s keywords which you can select using Kindle Direct Publishing.
So there you have it, a great example of Disruptive Marketing where I took a book that was not in any of the top 100 search results for a certain keyword, and moved it right to the top of the pile. As is the nature with Disruptive Marketing, it does not mean it will stay at the top for a long time since there is intensive competition to get to page 1 of Amazon. Yet if you maintain the three criteria points I mentioned, it can be kept there for a long time. For example, my book on self-publishing has been on page 1 of Amazon for many months now.
Your challenge in making it happen
So now it’s your turn. As the much beloved comedy actor Robin Williams instructed us to do in the film Dead Poets Society, “Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.” Well, your book at least.
Getting your book on page 1 of Amazon’s search results is possible following the options I have just revealed. As an author, you have two main methods for making this happen for you:
- If you are an author who likes to do the marketing yourself and have a big enough street-team to help you out, you just have to follow the technique I have explained to you. Clearly, the more competitive the search word you are targeting, the more sales and high conversion rates you will need, but as I have shown with how I did this myself, you should get there in the end.
- The other method is for authors who don’t want to spend time marketing their books and prefer to concentrate more on just writing. In this case, hire a virtual assistant or book promoter to get these results for you.
Associated with this is to consider putting your book on Amazon/Kindle as a free book initially which will help give ranking and profile. A few years back when there was a huge demand for Kindle books with little competition and no restrictions put on sites by Amazon; if you had the right kind of book it was possible to put it up on a ‘free day’ with no promotion and get thousands of downloads. http://www.lulu.com/shop/gordon-owen/amazon-kindle-free-days/ebook/product-21654156.html
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Richard McCartney as a reviewer and now utilise his services and advice in my book promotions as an author. The above advice works for book promotion. It gives you much needed visibility in the Amazon market place. Grab Richard’s Self Publishing book too, it’s full of advice and tips.
Great tips and a ton of useful information.
KindleBookReview is awesome! I shared with some of my small-time author friends in hopes they’ll get that extra push on sales with a little promoting.
Very clear explanation of what can be a confusing topic and one authors might not understand well.
Wow this is informative need to share with my author friends
Richard always offers precious insights that really can help you boost your sales. Again, this article is no exception. Thanks!
Great article, very helpful. I’ve only published one E-book so far and I plan to use these tips to become more marketable in the future.
This article underlines the lessons I’ve started to learn from Richard. His book on becoming a best-seller is invaluable. And this article shows that helping people to find your book quickly and easily is the first step to becoming a #1 bestseller. Thank you.
I think name recognition is important, so Richard on self-publishing is probably going to score more easily than most. For the rest, the key Richard identifies is “The Street Team”. Get that, and you are well on the way.
I find the clarity of understanding “key words” which truly reflect your ebook to be absolutely sage. While lost in the complexity of our own work it is really important to see what reviewers see and how they “call your book.” If you want the book to be a romance but others see it as a mystery suspense — it probably is and it should be called at the very least the latter. You only have a few categories to use — pick wisely. Looking at various advice Richard McCartney has published–including the article presented here– has been essential to the success my novel Chasing Mercury.
It makes sense but again gaining a loyal following is no easy feat. Still every bit helps.
I heartily agree with Ian Miller and for most authors Richard’s “Street Team” is essential. For some time, long before McCarthy’s suggestion, I taught a college level course on writing/publishing. My suggestion to my students was simply if they didn’t have a sizable group with whom they had established a common bond, or if they could not establish one, they had better really enjoy writing, because their sales probably would not come anywhere close to their expectations. Obviously, his suggestion provides a most viable alternative.
This article by McCartney is perfectly well explained, with all the tips you need to be able to promote your books online. Great advices!
Looking forward to the book!
Reading Richard McCartney – whether in his books or his articles – reiterates what the self-publishing authors know – read his books and find the answers – from a man who understands this arena and KNOWS! Richard is target centered and makes achieving dreams seem so accessible. He is the leader in the field of author assistance in marketing that special just finished book!
I find it amazing that it could be so easy to manipulate a search engines outcomes, with the competition so intense and Amazon being the largest search engine, that would make this one of the most powerful articles written on the subject, and the most current.
This is such a helpful article! It lets you know that even those things that you though they wouldn’t be important, really matters when it comes to be a good seller.
Wow, this was something seriously informative, and exactly what I needed. I have been thinking about writing an e-Book for a long time, but the ranking and sales part of it always stopped me. These are some really helpful tips that, quite frankly, aren’t present in many other places on the internet. Thank you, Richard, for this wonderfully informative article!
This was certainly an interesting read and valuable information. I can’t wait to tell my aspiring publishing writer friends!
I have found Richard McCartney to be very knowledgeable about marketing in the publishing industry. Great that he has shared this with everybody. I now know that I need to round up a street team. Thank you, Richard.
I have been following Richard’s work and every word he wrote here about self-publishing is absolutely true. Building a trustworthy team of people who will buy the books you are promoting is not an easy thing to do. Getting your team to search for and buy books at the same time is even more difficult. All the coordinated effort will pay off and your book will rise to the top of the list if you are willing to work hard. Richard seems to have a knack for understanding book promotions, his methods work!
It is always so difficult to figure out what to do with Amazon and how to work with them – this is some great insight!
Richard McCartney is very knowledgeable about self publishing. It’s great that he has shared this information with everybody. I now know that I need a street team.
Without effective marketing, an author will be the equivalent of a musician playing in a subway station. No matter how brilliant the musician is, ninety-nine commuters out of a hundred will walk past him without a second thought. Richard’s books and advice have been invaluable in saving me from such a fate.
Thanks for shedding some light on the black box that is “Amazon Sales Ranking” Richard!
“I, like many of the authors who have commented already, have benefited highly from Richard’s advice and recommendations, and his books are a must read for any modern day author. His tips and tricks on how to get book sales are genuine. I advise all authors to go to http://www.kindlebookpromotions.com to generate sales and publicity for their novels. I used the Gold Best seller service package and my ebook shot up to number 1! The service is great and I’ll be asking him to help promote my books again in the future!”
Richard,
This is very good advice for aspiring authors. Keep on writing articles like this!
Colm
Great article Richard – didn’t know you were a best selling author. All the best!