Among the challenges facing authors is ensuring their book frequently shows up whenever someone searches for a topic on Amazon.com. After all, if a potential reader searches for a Kindle ebook, say about nature, more than 75,000 titles are available for purchase. If your book is among the first few to show on the list, that’s a good thing, as it translates to more book sales.
So how do you improve your “author ranking” to get your book higher on the list?
The quickest way is to encourage pageviews. Each time someone looks at the Amazon.com page selling your title (called a “listing page”), that improves its ranking. Depending on the categories you’ve placed your book, just getting a few people to look at your listing page once a day for a week can help you dramatically. Of course, this effort must be sustained. Do this by regularly posting links to your books on a variety of social media platforms, such as tweets and blog entries.
Without a doubt, the most effective way is to top Amazon’s bestsellers lists. In addition to improving your author ranking, it delivers another way for readers to discover your book, as some don’t conduct a search engine-styled search but go right to the bestsellers lists for their favorite genres. Of course, topping the list requires a concerted promotional campaign, but encouraging pageviews will help send you to the top.
Another way is to set up your author bio page. This actually creates in a second web page that also advertises your books with links to the listing page. The greater the number of pages that readers can stumble upon that lead them back to your listing page, the better your ranking will be.
In addition, you should obtain more 3-star reviews as well as “yes” votes on those posts. The higher the number of these, the better your ranking, especially when making bestseller lists. While I don’t advocate paying for such reviews and yes votes, you certainly can encourage it among your readers. Just a note at the end of your paperback or ebook (with a link to where a review can be made) can make a big difference.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.