Books For Authors
Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com [Paperback]
Aaron Shepard
(from the publisher) BECAUSE OF CHANGES AT AMAZON, READERS OF THIS BOOK SHOULD BE SURE TO VISIT THE AUTHOR'S WEB SITE FOR UPDATES
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS THE LATEST VERSION OF AARON'S BOOK, VERSION 2.1, "UPDATED IN PLACE" IN AUGUST 2009. HIS LATER BOOK, "POD FOR PROFIT," IS A COMPANION TO THIS ONE -- NOT A REPLACEMENT!
There has never been a self publishing manual like this.
Aiming at Amazon is NOT about getting your book into bookstores. Instead, it lays out an innovative approach that targets sales on Amazon.com. It reveals how to make a book sell well online, with tips never before offered. And it shows you how Amazon REALLY works -- not how self-proclaimed experts wish it did!
You will learn:
-- Why Amazon sales offer your best chance of success in self publishing.
-- Why letting Amazon order books directly from you is the least profitable approach.
-- How to make your book most visible on Amazon.
-- How to make your cover image most prominent.
-- How to optimize content on Amazon's page for your book.
-- How to increase Customer Reviews without violating Amazon's terms and conditions, as well as professional ethics.
-- Why many Amazon marketing techniques highly recommended by other authors are nearly useless.
-- Why it takes a full year for Amazon sales of your book to reach their peak.
-- Where to go on Amazon to get the help you need.
Avoid publishing plans that handicap you almost before you begin, and marketing plans that waste your time and money. Let "Aiming at Amazon" introduce you to the NEW business of self publishing.
(from Michael) Aaron Shepard is a busy guy. He’s the publisher of books by his wife and himself, and an award-winning author of children’s books. He’s been an actor. He supports readers’ theater, makes flutes and plays them, and is an authority on self-publishing.
Aaron is a frequent contributor to the Yahoo print on demand publishers group, where many people depend on his advice. Aaron’s first version of Aiming at Amazon was the major guidebook for self-publishing authors like me who hoped to sell books on Amazon.com.
I’m particularly grateful for this advice: “Set the book aside for a month or two.” A book that I sent to the printer in November of 2008 was theoretically finished in the spring of 2008. I put it away and ignored it all summer and when I looked at it again in September, I made it a bigger and better book.
Self-publishing is a very fluid field, and much has changed since Aaron’s Amazon book was published in 2007. At that time, Aaron advised authors “to keep your books relatively short” and that “people prefer short books.”
The first Aiming at Amazon had 171 pages. The new “2009” version was supposed to be more than double the size, and then shrunk to 208 pages as Aaron decided to divide the book and spin off what became POD for Profit. He said, “One book focused on Amazon, the other on Lightning Source, but interrelated.”
Aiming was one of the first books I bought when I became a publisher in 2008, and I've learned a lot from the new edition. So will you.
Tools for building better books
