Post on 18-Jul-2020
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SELF PUBLISHING
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Your Amazon Page Titles, subtitles and book descriptions
Pitching your novel
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What we’re going to talk about
Overview – and two models
Titles, subtitles, series titles
Book descriptions – copy
Book descriptions – formatting
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Video overview
And two models of excellence
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What we’re talking about: titles
Title only
Title and subtitle
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What we’re talking about: titles
Title and series title
Title, subtitle and series title
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What we’re talking about: book descriptions
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You get to fill out all this data on your “Kindle Ebook Details” page
Typos Double & treble check. A misspelled title? Yeugh…
Subtitles Should appear on the cover. Enforcement is patchy, though
Series titles Don’t add “Book 3” – just supply the data
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That’s definitions sorted. What about those models of excellence?
Arguably, the two best digital publishers at the moment are
Amazon Via Thomas & Mercer, 47North, Montlake Romance, etc
Amazon’s publishing imprints have a 14% share of all US ebooks
Bookouture An explosively successful UK-based publisher
From start-up to ‘Big 5’ in three years
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Here’s how Amazon’s imprints do things
Titling No subtitle | No series title
Description Bold 1st line | No other formatting | No quotes | Short (180 wds) | Low keyword use
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Here’s how Bookouture does it
Titling Includes subtitle | Includes series title
Description Lots of formatting | full use of 4000 character limit | Reviews | Keywords
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What does this tell us?
There are two well-tested, but totally different approaches to this
The ‘lite’ approach (Amz) Limited text forces reader to move to ‘Look Inside’
No subtitle games, etc – Amazon can’t be spammy or cheaty
No reviews in description – Amz has to play by its own rules
The full fat approach (B’ture) Make the sell! Be pushy!
Don’t care about being a tad spammy
Don’t care about silly, poorly enforced rules
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I prefer the full fat approach ... but bear in mind the alternative
So we know what we’re talking about in this video
Titles Duh! That’s obvious
Subtitle Book-specific. Text should appear on the cover
Series title Common to entire series
Descriptions The blurb for your book
Two gold-standard approaches: lite and full fat
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Nuts & bolts in a second, but let’s also remember why we’re here
Attract Bring readers to the page
Convert Get em to buy
Titles
Subtitles
Series titles
Title summary Interesting text conversions. Keyword-rich text attraction
Book description
Description is mostly about conversion
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Titles, subtitles, series titles
What you’re doing, How to do it
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Titles: just choose the best one for your book
See the video in the “Your book”
section of this course for more info
(Oh, and I’m not especially good at
titles, so don’t listen to me anyway!)
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Sub & series titles: the choice is more complex
Using keywords in the title (“Serial killer”)
helps the book show up on search
But
Using too many keywords may give a
spammy / hard to read feel to the text.
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And remember: title text trumps keywords (by far)
Example: search term: “serial killer”
Top ranked books 1-8 Title Subtitle Series title
Girl in the ice
Talking with serial killers
The serial killers
The principal of evil
Serial killers
The deadly dozen
Murder most Moscow
2016 Serial killers true crime
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Sub & series titles: your choice
Do you want to keyword stuff?
Or stay bare? (probably, except Amazon does it)
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Sub & series titles: your choice, cont…
Or just add a shoutline? (emerging standard for most books)
Or add a shoutline crammed with keywords? (Bookouture does it!)
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Most writers will be happy if their fill title text meets these criteria
Great title
Natural & compelling subtitle
Contains keywords
Series refers to series in most natural way
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Book descriptions
Copy
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The basic structure of a great book description
Length Purpose
Intro 1-2 lines (bold or similar) Grab the attention
Main copy 100-150 words
Do not exceed 180!
Set up the premise. Your narration may well cut off
about 25% of the way into your story
Ending 1-2 lines ‘Great for readers of…’
‘But will Karen be able to find her in time…’
Series recap A few lines Let people know this book is part of a series
Review section As long as you want
Prove quality
Keep readers away from other temptations
Not strictly allowed, but who cares? (Not Amz)
Call to action 1 sentence max “Buy my book, it’s great”
Not sure if this adds anything
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Your intro text is just a teaser: a promise of good stuff
Proof of success Gone Girl
THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON
OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
Call to action Maestra
READ THE CONTROVERSIAL THRILLER THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
Premise + proofs Magpies
Meet the neighbours from hell, in the gripping thriller that reviewers and
readers describe as "fast-paced," "chilling," and "impossible to put down.”
Teaser HB, Deepest Grave
An ancient battle. A dead researcher. And a very modern crime.
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Your main copy needs to answer two huge questions
The what What kind of book is this?
What’s the genre? What’s the set-up? Who are the characters?
Reader wants facts
The why Why would I want to read this book?
What’s the payoff? What will it make me feel?
Reader wants emotions
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The what
‘It’s about this girl who falls in love with a vampire…’
The why
‘…and it’s sooooo sexy’
Any big-selling book can answer those two questions fast
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Your closing text should leave people needing to buy
Gone Girl Question - mystery
So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?
Maestra Shoutline
Fatal attraction meets The Talented Mr Ripley in this darkly decadent
thriller, soon to be a major Hollywood film, that asks:
Where do you go when you've gone too far?
Magpies Scenario recap
The Magpies is a gripping psychological thriller in which the monsters are
not vampires or demons but the people who live next door. It is a
nightmare that could happen to anyone.
HB, Deepest Grave If you liked this…
This book will be perfect for anyone who's enjoyed the work of Ann
Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, or Andrea Camilleri.
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The perfect piece of copy has a narrative arc
Example HB, The Dead House (UK edition – I didn’t write this!)
Setup
On a wild October night, the body of a young woman is found in a remote country
churchyard. She's wearing nothing but a thin, white dress. There are no marks of
violence and no obvious cause of death.
Who is the victim? Why is she here?
Complications But another young woman went missing from the area a few years back, and DC Fiona
Griffiths soon suspects a crime even more chilling than she first imagined.
Conclusion Will she unlock the secrets of the dead house?
Or will she become its next victim?
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So we’ve handled the essential parts of the copy
Intro Grab the attention Probably bold, or similar
Main copy 120-150 words Give the what: “What is this book all about?” Present the why: “Why do I have to read it?”
Wind-up Why you have to read it
Now we turn to the optional elements
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Series reminder. Example: The Girl in the Ice, Robert Bryndza
Watch out for more from DCI Erika Foster
She’s fearless. Respected. Unstoppable. Detective Erika Foster will catch a killer, whatever it takes.
1. THE GIRL IN THE ICE
2. THE NIGHT STALKER
3. DARK WATER
What do I think about this? I don’t know!
Con Amazon already tells you this book is part of a series; And does it support sales?
Pro Bookouture is very smart about these things and may well have tested
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We’ll talk about reviews in a second, but first look at this
We prohibit including any of the items below in your description:
Pornographic, obscene, or offensive content.
Reviews, quotes or testimonials.
Phone numbers, mail addresses, email addresses, or URLs.
Availability, price, alternative ordering information.
Solicitations for customer reviews.
Any keywords or tags.
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Reviews. Example: The Girl in the Ice, Robert Bryndza
What people are saying about The Girl in the Ice
‘I freakin’ LOVED it! ... Once in a while a book stops you in your tracks ... this is THAT book!’ - Crime Book Junkie
‘I loved, loved, loved this book and Erika Foster is most definitely my kind of heroine. She is smart, tenacious, direct and passionate…I found the writing tight, evocative
and enthralling. I CAN NOT wait for the next installment.’ - Angela Marsons
‘A non-stop, edge-of-your-seat, rollercoaster of a thriller! The ending, oh the ending! My mind is still blown! This book does not disappoint!’ - The Book Addicted Boy
‘Oh my gosh!...gripping, grimy, hardcore, thrilling…I was hooked!!!...I loved this book…You Have GOT To Read This!’ - A Page of Fictional Love
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If you want to include a review section, remember:
1. The reviews should be 100% consistent with your overall marketing message
2. Use bold to highlight key messages
3. Reviews don’t need to be NYTRB – bloggers & readers are fine
4. You’re in breach of Amazon’s guidelines. They may wipe your description and not tell you.
5. Don’t keyword stuff ... but if your review (or other) text happens to incorporate keywords, I think that’s helpful
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Do you want to include a direct call to action?
“So buy My Great Book now – you’ll be thrilled that you did!”
My view? Hmm…
CTAs really need to be links, and you can’t create links
Amazon users know how to use Amazon…
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Book descriptions
Formatting
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Good book descriptions should look nice
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So how do you format your text like this?
Amazon doesn’t give you formatting
buttons to play with
So you have to write your own HTML
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That sounds scary, but isn’t
<h2> This gives you a big headline </h2>
<h3> This gives you a small headline </h3>
<strong> This give you bold </strong>
<em> This gives you italics </em>
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Non-fiction authors may also want to use lists/bullets
This code (ordered list):
<ol> <li>List item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ol>
This code (unordered list):
<ul> <li>List Item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ul>
Delivers this result:
1. List item 1
2. List item 2
Delivers this result:
• List item 1
• List item 2
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If you want it super-easy
There are free tools to generate the necessary code
Key links:
http://twoschmucks.com/amazon-description-editor/
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Don’t go crazy
Remember plenty of mass-selling
books use no HTML at all.
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All done
Here’s the recap
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What we’ve talked about
Overview How titles work. Bookouture vs Amazon
Choosing your titles Attract the reader. Use keywords. Different models
Book descriptions Structure of good copy. Optional elements
Formatting Use basic HTML – or just cheat
Want notes? Want audio? Want links? - Get them below
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That’s all, folks!
See you soon
VIDEO TUTORIALS
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