How can you refresh a Facebook ad campaign?
By: Ginger | Posted on June 30, 2023
As we’ve said many times in this space, advertising your book is an essential step in self-publishing success, but it is not something you can just set and forget. No matter how well your Facebook ad campaign performs initially, the sad and inevitable reality is that eventually, its performance will begin to decline. Since stubbornly letting a faltering ad continue to run is just a waste of money, you really need to monitor your campaigns for signs that your advertisements are getting stale and then take immediate action. The first step is determining the possible reasons for the decline of your ad’s performance, and then once you have an idea on that, you can figure out the best way to fix it. In today’s blog, Ginger has a number of suggestions on doing both of those things. The good news is that you don’t always have to pull a previously winning… Read More >
What can self-published authors learn from Barnes & Noble?
By: Ginger | Posted on June 16, 2023
Normally our learning series of articles is centered around other authors and what can be learned from them. Today, however, we’re looking at the recent moves made by brick and mortar bookstore Barnes & Noble. After unsuccessfully trying to compete head to head with Amazon, Barnes & Noble has taken a step back to focus on it’s core strengths and the factors that differentiate them from their largest competitor, as opposed to trying to compete on a playing field that is far from level. As Ginger explains below, authors can, and should, do the same thing. By focusing on your strengths, the customer experience and what makes you unique as a writer, you can stand out from the crowd and build up an audience that appreciates you for what it is you do best. This May, the third annual U.S. Book Show was hosted by the NYU School of Professional Studies… Read More >
Amazon Makes Huge Change to KDP Book Categories
By: Ginger | Posted on June 9, 2023
If you’re a self-published author relying on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform, you need to be aware of a recent change that can significantly impact your book’s visibility. The publishing giant has revised its category selection process, limiting authors to just three KDP book categories instead of the previous ten. While this simplifies the process and addresses abuse, it also raises concerns about your book getting lost among the vast sea of titles. As Ginger describes in his analysis below, there are a variety of implications to these changes and potential ways you may be impacted. Authors that don’t take action soon may find their existing books recategorized automatically, and leaving something that crucial to an algorithm or poorly trained rep is unlikely to do your career any favors. By proactively fixing them yourself, you’ll ensure you are placed in the best categories possible for your book, leading to maximum… Read More >
What 3 things can we learn from the Kindle Unlimited price hike?
By: Ginger | Posted on May 19, 2023
This May, Amazon announced the first Kindle Unlimited price increase since it’s inception, taking subscriptions from $9.99 a month to $11.99. What does this change mean, and will self-published authors benefit or be harmed? To answer these questions, Ginger delves into three key factors he believes led to this move. From the plateauing of KU subscriptions to Amazon’s strategic maneuvering against app transaction blockades, he explores what this means for your earnings and the competition within the program. Having already disrupted the entire publishing industry in 2007 with the invention of the Kindle and the self-service Kindle Direct Publishing platform, Amazon took another swing at traditional publishing in 2014 with the launch of Kindle Unlimited. A monthly subscription service, Kindle Unlimited (KU) was essentially “Netflix for ebooks.” Subscribers are able to download unlimited books from the Kindle Unlimited library for one monthly fee, while authors who opt into the program… Read More >
Switch up your subject lines to improve your email open rates!
By: Ginger | Posted on April 28, 2023
Most self-published authors know the value of building a mailing list of fans that you can use for a variety of purposes, from finding reviewers to selling copies of your latest book. But in order to get those benefits, you first have to convince your subscribers to open the emails, which is not as easy as it sounds. Many consider just 20% to be a “good” open rate, and even that can be a struggle for some. There are a variety of factors that play into your open rate, but one of the most important is whether or not you’ve crafted a compelling subject line. Whether your subscribers click or not is often determined solely by that one line, which means it needs to be tough to ignore. As Ginger explains below, there are a variety of ways you can do this – from including one of the 15 most… Read More >
What’s the difference between Affiliate Links and Attribution Tags?
By: Ginger | Posted on April 21, 2023
Before there were Attribute Tags, many authors used Affiliate Links to try and track their Amazon book sales, but there are a variety of drawbacks in doing so. Affiliate Links weren’t designed for this purpose, and are very limited in terms of where they can even be used. Today, Ginger delves into what Affiliate Links are, what they track, how and when to use them, and most importantly, how they differ from Attribution Tags. Both of these tracking tools have their purpose, but understanding the nuances of each can help you effectively monitor your book sales, optimize your marketing strategies, and keep you out of trouble. With so much discussion recently around Attribution Tags, it’s no wonder we’ve recently been getting questions about how they differ from Affiliate Links. If you’re not already familiar with them, Affiliate Links are a tool that authors used to use (and some still do)… Read More >
Measuring read-through with Attribution Tags
By: Ginger | Posted on April 7, 2023
As an author, it’s crucial to understand how many of your readers are purchasing multiple books from your catalog, especially if you have a series. This metric, known as the read-through rate, can provide valuable insights into your writing, marketing, and overall profitability. However, determining your read-through rate has never been an easy task. This is where Amazon’s Attribution Tags can come to the rescue! As Ginger explains below, by creating a tag that links multiple books together, you can track how many readers are continuing on to your other books after purchasing the advertised one. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to identify weak points in your catalog, improve reader engagement, and increase your return on investment. You may even discover that ads you thought were unprofitable were actually in the black because they were secretly driving sales of other books in your catalog. I’ve written plenty of… Read More >
The 5 Rules of Good Advertising
By: Ginger | Posted on March 24, 2023
As an author, it can be difficult to navigate the world of advertising, but there are some tried and true principles that can be applied to book promotion. Ginger, a former New York advertising professional who now uses his knowledge to promote his books and help other Hidden Gems authors promote their own, has distilled his decades of experience into a list of the five most important rules for successful advertising. Despite the constantly evolving industry, these core principles remain relevant and effective, and authors should keep them in mind whenever they are trying to promote their work. Before I threw myself into self-publishing full time, I worked in advertising, and what I learned in that industry gave me an excellent foundation to succeed in this one. This is especially true now that Amazon has filled their homepage with so much advertising space, and that advertising successfully on Facebook and… Read More >
How accurate are Attribution Tags in tracking book income?
By: Ginger | Posted on March 17, 2023
Ever since the introduction of Amazon’s Attribution Tags, authors have been able to track the book income resulting from their advertising and promotional campaigns to a level not seen before. This is incredibly useful for determining the value of these campaigns and planning strategies around then. But how accurate are they? In terms of tracking the sales that come directly as a result of a click from one of your attribution links, they’re very accurate, but that doesn’t actually tell the whole story. Even when the only promotion you’re doing is running a campaign with a tracked URL, you may very likely see more sales than are actually being reported. To demonstrate the issue and explain what’s going on, Ginger takes us through an example using an ad campaign he recently ran on one of his own books, complete with all the sales and page read numbers. I’ve been writing… Read More >
From the Mailbox: Amazon Attribution Tag Questions
By: Ginger | Posted on March 3, 2023
We often get questions from readers of our blog (or listeners of our Podcast) about things that we’ve discussed and we’re happy to send answers along if we have them. Sometimes the same questions come up repeatedly, though, which means that it would benefit the community a lot more if we used this space to open up the old mailbag and share the answers with everyone all at once. Recently, probably since we’ve been covering the topic so much and the feature is so new, we’ve been hearing some common questions regarding Attribution tags. So this week, Ginger is focusing his attention on answering the ones that have been coming up most often. Readers of this blog might have noticed I’ve been on a bit of a tear recently regarding Amazon Attribution Tags. I think these things are amazing – a game-changer for self-published authors and one of the few… Read More >
