Back of the Book Strategy: A Funny Thing Happened Along the Way on Amazon

I have no proof of what I am about to say; I only have what I am observing. Yet I think this is worthwhile enough to share with other authors.

At this point I have four Kindle nonfiction ebooks and three Kindle fiction ebooks on Amazon. Five of the seven titles are KDP Select at the moment (ebook exclusive on Kindle for a 90-day period at a time).

The two non-KDP Select fiction titles I am now in the process of having removed from other sites so that I can make these KDP Select.

Until a few days ago at the end of each of my ebooks there might be one link, probably to my author website.

Then I got the idea of specifically listing under fiction and nonfiction subheads the title of each ebook and the link to that ebook’s sales page on Amazon.

I realized that there was not enough motivation for many of the readers of one of my ebooks to click on a link to see what else I have written.

If I used the titles of the books as billboards, perhaps the title and the link to Amazon would generate interest in checking out a title or titles.

(I purposely did not put descriptions below the book titles because that would be too much information.)

Each of the seven ebooks would have six of the following (the ebook being read would not have its own title in this list):

My fiction books on Kindle in the U.S.:

Technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS (co-authored with Mitchell R. Miller) — http://amzn.to/N6YyFZ

Thriller CIA FALL GUY — http://amzn.to/L38eiP

MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL (2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist) — http://amzn.to/OXrBhh

My nonfiction books on Kindle in the U.S.:

HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE — http://amzn.to/MAsw5v

HOW TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE AND PREP FOR BEYOND COLLEGE — http://amzn.to/L2AGTQ

HOW TO SUCCEED BEYOND COLLEGE — http://amzn.to/Mc13DT

TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK — http://amzn.to/N5H0Gj

Then I would end the list with the following just in case someone really wanted to see all my titles, including two books that are not ebooks for specific reasons:

Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s Amazon Author Central Profile at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

Now there’s an important point to notice in this new strategy. I am NOT sending people to the website page for each of these books, even though those pages do exist.

I am sending people straight to where they can buy the ebooks (ranging in price at the moment from $2.99 to $4.99 plus the five on KDP Select are free for Amazon Prime members who own a Kindle).

Now we come to what I have observed:

I believe that these links to the other books’ sales pages on Amazon are having an effect. I am beginning to see purchases in my KDP dashboard that I do not believe would be there except by being listed at the end of TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK.

Of course, this required a lot of effort to go back and add the html code to these ebooks, re-convert the book to the Kindle mobi format, and re-upload the book to KDP. I am at an advantage as my business partner Yael K. Miller has recently taught me how to do this and is available when I scream “help!”

The one fly in the ointment for me personally is that I do not have access to the html for HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE. In order to put my new strategy in place for this book I will have to spend hours and hours converting the Word doc to html.

If I continue to see indications that my new strategy is valuable, I will make the time to re-do the html conversion so that I have access.

This is surely particularly important to do as HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL is the first of a 3-book series. Readers could benefit by being able to click to the Amazon sales pages of the second and third books in the series.

(Yes, I do not use the automatic conversion on the KDP platform. I know that coding is too delicate to be entrusted entirely to a software program.)

If any of you are already using this “back of the book” strategy, please leave a comment below to say how this strategy is working for you.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. A new nonfiction ebook of hers is TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK and her newest fiction ebook is the thriller CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com