Quote:
Originally Posted by sourcejedi
It's said that the way to make the most money on Amazon, is to raise your price when you reach a high ranking, then lower it again before you slip too far down. But it raises the question: how do you get there in the first place. It looks like there's some sort of special treatment for the top 100... there are >2000 SF&F books on Smashwords; so you need to beat odds on the order of 1 in 10?
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I've seen it said that downloads of the free samples contribute to one's Amazon rankings, so you don't even need to get sales to push a book up on the charts. Can't get to the top without sales--but might be able to get a book tagged as a "fast mover" by increasing its rankings by getting a lot of people to look at it.
Consistent advice from ebook bestselling self-pubbed authors is:
1) Write good books. Potentially, fork out real money for an editor. (That's not an option at the moment, but might be possible in the future.)
2) Get a stunning cover, that looks good from postage-stamp to quarter-screen size.
3) Make the title memorable and interesting. I like the title "Onuissance Cells," but I can never remember how to spell it--when I wanted to find it again, I wound up coming back to the MR Wiki because I knew the bookstore was listed there. (Potentially, it could remain as a subtitle, and the main title could be something easier to Google.)
4) Make sure the description is intriguing. Make them *want* to download the sample. Make sure it's proofread to strict standards, and if you can't afford an editor for whole books, consider hiring one just for the blurbs. Or get free opinions about them (no shortage of free opinions on the web), but be selective, and be willing to take criticism. The blurb is a ~100-word advertisement that should scream "YOU WANT TO BUY THIS BOOK." Even if it's free.
Maybe especially if it's free. Free books are already competing with the notion that if it was good, you'd be charging for it. So the blurb has to make it clear that this is free because it's so wonderful it's going to convince you to buy the other books by the same author--"I'm giving you a sample of the good stuff, so you can realize you want to support me."
(Consistent pro advice also includes a bunch of things Steven's already doing: no DRM, decent prices, free samples, etc.)
Writing for yourself, you can call it anything you like, describe it to your friends however you like, decorate it any way you like. If you want to sell it, the packaging--which includes the title--has to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.