How to get noticed on Amazon

by Savannah Cordova from Reedsy

Though writing a book is an undoubtedly impressive achievement, veteran authors will know it’s only half the publishing battle. The other — arguably more important — half is marketing your book to the right people. And for many authors, that part of the fight will take place on the formidable battleground of Amazon.

But enough with the military metaphors. The truth is, marketing your book on Amazon isn’t nearly as scary as it seems. In fact, with the right knowledge and a can-do attitude, you’ll be astounded how easily you can master the world’s largest book retailer! To help you kickstart the process, here are five actionable tips for getting your book noticed on Amazon.

1. Invest in a standout cover

If you’re about to publish a book and don’t have a professional cover design, drop everything and go get one right now. Your cover is a crucial marketing tool on any platform, but it’s especially crucial on Amazon, where you’re competing with more titles than anywhere else! Indeed, to the casual browser, a striking cover design might mean the difference between clicking on your listing and forgetting about it forever.

For those who have never gotten a pro cover design before, take your time finding the right person to create it. Your cover designer should possess a style you love, experience designing covers in your genre, and great communication skills — so the two of you can build the perfect cover together. And while they’ll definitely have some thoughts on how to make your cover stand out from the crowd, you should bring your own ideas to the table as well!

To that end, start familiarizing yourself with your genre’s cover conventions. You’ll want your own cover to follow these, for the most part, otherwise, your target readers won’t recognize that your book is “for them.” That said, a single unusual element (like a splash of color or a custom font) can go a long way toward attracting readers. Consider your ideal balance between convention and innovation before you look for a designer! (And we hope this goes without saying, but don’t DIY; readers are quick to judge, and nothing puts them off like amateurish cover design.)

2. Choose your categories carefully

When you publish a book through Amazon KDP, you’re allowed to choose two categories for it — labels like “Personal Memoir” or “Spiritual Self-Help,” whichever best describe your book. These categories help readers find it via Amazon’s search function, as well as through listings that are similar to yours.

Needless to say, categories are a major factor in Amazon discoverability! The good news is,  there’s a lot you can do to game this factor — like checking out your book’s comp titles to see what their categories are, and identifying niche categories that not many authors have targeted. You could even hire a metadata specialist if you really wanted to nail your Amazon categories.

Another pro tip for those who may not know it: you’re limited to two categories upon initial setup, but if you reach out to KDP Support, you can get up to eight more added to your book! This may be incredibly helpful for works that fall into more than two high-profile categories. That said, don’t keep piling on the categories just because you can; make sure each one you add is relevant to your book and will boost its visibility with the right target audience.

3. Perfect your description

Your book description is another important part of your metadata — perhaps more so than your categories, since people are much more likely to actually read it! While your categories should be strong, your book description needs to be irresistible, because it conveys the substance of your book to readers and actually sells them on it.

How do you ensure that your description does this? By refining the copy one piece at a time, starting with your hook. If you’ve ever seen a book description on Amazon, you’ll know it cuts off after just a few lines — so those lines had better knock it out of the park. Think about the most intriguing element of your narrative and distill it down to 1-2 sentences that make it impossible for readers not to click “Read more.”

Next, the body of the description should present the premise and what readers will get out of it. Be as specific as possible! If you’ve written a novel, don’t just call it “entertaining”; mention the cultural relevance of the subject, the relatability of the characters, or what have you. And if you’ve written a nonfiction book, make it clear why you’re an expert on this topic and what new information you have to offer that similar books do not.

Finally, end on a slight cliffhanger — nothing too clickbaity, but something to let readers know there’s more where that came from. For example, these excellent lines that conclude the blurb of Tara Westover’s Educated: “Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents […] Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.”

4. Obtain early reviews

Grab readers’ attention from the get-go. You know what else they see when browsing Amazon search results? The number of reviews each book has, and the average star ratings of those books.

With any luck, you’ll accumulate many five-star reviews over time, as people discover and review your book organically — and the social proof of these reviews will feed into the cycle of more people wanting to read it. But someone has to get the ball rolling, and if this is your first book or you don’t have a particularly large fanbase, it may be tough to generate that initial buzz.

That’s why you have to take initiative and seek out people to write early reviews of your book. There are a number of places you can go for this: you might pursue an IndieReader review or a review on Reedsy Discovery, or you can get in touch with individual book bloggers to see if they’re currently accepting submissions for review.

Whichever route(s) you take, start planning well in advance of your book’s release, otherwise, the reviews won’t be ready in time for your launch! “Early” really is the key word here — the first days after your book’s release are crucial for its sales, so the more reviews posted during that window, the better.

5. Run a price promotion

Say you’ve carefully crafted every part of your book’s presentation to appeal to readers, yet you’re still not getting the results you want. What now? Well, you can always turn to the one tactic that never fails to get people’s attention: slashing the price.

On Amazon, you can enroll in KDP Select to run discounted and free price promotions for your book (though not both within the same 90-day period). Naturally, the lower the price, the more enticing it will be to potential readers. So if you really want to rake in the downloads, go for the free promotion — though be aware that it will only last for five days.

Meanwhile, a standard “Kindle Countdown Deal” can discount your book for up to seven days and also allows you to set different prices for each day. (For example, you might have it be $0.99 on the first day and $1.99 on the second, then slowly increase back to the regular list price over the course of the promotion.) This may be a better option for authors who have a fairly established audience, rather than those looking for exposure at the start of their careers.

Of course, it’s up to you to decide how much effort you want to put into marketing your book, and where you’ll concentrate that effort based on your priorities. But if you’re committed to getting your book noticed on Amazon, you should have more than enough ideas to get you started! Follow that momentum across the finish line, and you might just have hundreds of new fans cheering for your success.

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Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories.

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