Should your Amazon ads use keywords or ASINs?
By: Ginger | Posted on July 29, 2022
Advertising on Amazon is the advertising foundation for many successful self-published authors, but it has a notoriously steep learning curve in order to prove successful. One common conundrum for rookie advertisers is whether to use keywords to try and find new readers, or advertise using ASIN numbers. There are different schools of thought about this approach, so Ginger is dedicating this week’s blog post towards helping you decide which option might work best for your books. What is the difference between keywords and ASINs? Every product for sale on Amazon has an ASIN, which stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It’s a 9-digit code that quickly identifies exactly which product you’re trying to specify out of the millions of things you can buy on Amazon. Self-published ebooks have their own unique ASIN, while paperback books (even the Print on Demand ones made using Amazon’s printing services) have a publishing… Read More >
Self-Improvement Books To Help Achieve Your Goals
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on July 26, 2022
For most people, New Year resolutions have long been abandoned by the summer months. No matter your goals, or your progress, we are certain that there’s a self-help book out there for you within this broad category. With those thoughts in mind, today we’ve rounded up the self-improvement books our Hidden Gems readers loved the most recently. Raising Backyard Chickens: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Flock, Boosting Egg Production, and Fresh Eggs for Life! by Daniel A. Hart With 147 ratings on Amazon, and a 4.8 average star rating, our readers were not alone in their interest in raising chickens. As the title implies, this book is meant to help a beginner chicken owner understand all aspects of this popular sustainable living trend. Ladonna M. shares about her experience in her five star review, “As a new chicken mama, I found this book extremely helpful. I wish I would… Read More >
Latest Tips for Advertising on Amazon
By: Ginger | Posted on July 22, 2022
Over the years, we’ve posted multiple blogs about how to get the most out of Advertising on Amazon. However, things change – and some of the the advice Ginger has given authors a couple of years ago isn’t necessarily what he’d recommend today. So here are a few of his latest thoughts on how Advertising on Amazon is working these days, and what authors can do to take advantage of the changes. A Changing Landscape Technology changes. It’s inevitable. If it wasn’t, we’d still be stuck using the same interface and operating systems we were a decade ago on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. There are multiple reasons why ecommerce and social media platforms update their layout and interface, and many of the choices the folks in Silicon Valley make don’t necessarily make a lot of sense to the likes of us. However, there’s no use complaining about these updates… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: Golden Angel
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on July 19, 2022
Today’s interview is with USA Today Bestselling author Golden Angel. She’s a prolific writer with a devoted fanbase. It was so much fun getting to learn more about her writing style, publishing journey, life outside of writing and upcoming projects! HG: How would you describe yourself to somebody who isn’t familiar with your writing yet? GA: Basically, if you love contemporary romance or historical romance with big friend and family groups, but wish they had more spanking… I’m your girl. I like to play with the story tropes and plots that I read so often and then add kink. HG: Awesome, thank you. Tell us why you enjoy writing romance. GA: For me, it’s the guaranteed happily-ever-after. Books have always been about escape for me, and I want to escape to a place that is ultimately safe, no matter what dangers have to be faced before the ending. Regardless of… Read More >
Aspiring Authors: Defend Yourself from Negativity
By: Ginger | Posted on July 15, 2022
If you’re already an author, you’ve likely been faced with someone, at some point, that didn’t believe in you. Whether it came from a place of love (trying to save you from “inevitable” failure) or malice, most of us have had a naysayer or two in our lives that told us we would never make it as a writer. But if we had listened to them, where would we be now? I know I’d still be stuck behind a desk at a day job I hated, as I was for many years before I found the courage to giving writing a serious try. To paraphrase a famous saying, the journey of a thousand books begins with the first word put down on a blank page. Sure, you may have to push past all the doubters in your life to get started on that journey, but if you keep the facts that… Read More >
Hot Romance Novels For a Sizzlin’ Summer
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on July 12, 2022
If you are a regular on this blog, you’ll know that hot romance novels are the most popular genre in the Hidden Gems ARC program. There are bad boys, enemies to lovers, second chance romances, and so much more in this list. Our readers know that no two love stories are the same, so they scoop up new books every chance they get. We’ve got one for everybody on this round-up of recently top rated romance books. Stone Cold by Winter Renshaw With over 1500 Amazon reviews and a strong average rating, this one from Winter Renshaw is a must-read and loved by our readers! Stone Cold is the story of Stone and Jovi, and follows them on their slow burn, enemies to lovers, second chance romance which is kicked off with a social media snafu, which propels their journey to romance. Melissa G. is one of the readers that… Read More >
A Template for Your Book Launch
By: Ginger | Posted on July 8, 2022
Most established authors have their own strategy for book launch that they swear by, but while there are probably a lot of similarities, it’s likely there are just as many differences between them as well. That’s because every author and book is different, and what works for some may fail for others. As with so many things, you have to test and try different things to find what works best for you, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to have a starting point. This week, Ginger is sharing his own template for launching a book in the hopes that it can help both authors that are starting out, or more established authors that might be looking to try something new. Even if it’s not an exact fit for your own launch, hopefully it will at least be enough to point you towards the path to success. The other day,… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: Ivy Smoak
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on July 5, 2022
Today’s interview is with Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon #1 bestselling author Ivy Smoak. Her books have sold over 2 million copies worldwide. It was an honor to get to know more about her writing style, life outside of writing and upcoming projects! HG: How would you describe yourself to somebody who isn’t familiar with your writing yet? IS: I’m a total weirdo. I think if I was normal my books would be super boring. Everyone is a little weird and it’s so much more fun to embrace it. Writing has really helped me embrace my true self. I don’t want a normal life. I want an extraordinary one. And I give all my characters extraordinary lives too. HG: I love that response. What inspires your stories and why is that important to you? IS: Everything. I pull a lot of inspiration from my life with my husband… Read More >
Building Believable Love Between Characters
By: Ginger | Posted on July 1, 2022
Strong characters are at the foundation of any successful novel, and making sure that readers can see the emotions and feelings that your characters are experiencing about themselves, or for each other, will ensure that your story stays with them long after they finish the book. That’s why so many stories include some aspect of love between characters. With love being such a strong and universal feeling, including it is rarely a bad idea, regardless of your genre. That means even if you aren’t writing a romance, or if romantic sub-plots just aren’t your thing, you can still include other types of love between characters, such as the love between family or very close friends. Regardless of the type you include, for it to work it has to feel real, which means that – just like in life – it’s not enough to just say the words. Luckily, there are… Read More >
