How To Sell More Kindle Books + Killer Little Trick To Get Testimonials

10 replies
There are lots of things you can do to sell more Kindle books. In addition to crazy testing we do on our own books, I have also studied many of the Amazon Kindle best sellers to discover what they do to sell more books.

I will highlight a few of the key things here that we have tested and work very well:

1. Write great content. This is a MUST. If you have crappy content you will get found out quickly.

2. Promote your book and your author brand on your social media. Amanda Hocking did this for over two years and when her books started to "pop" this was a huge key to her success. For the past 2 years she has done at least 2 quality blog posts per week. She was not an overnight success.

3. In your book, make sure you have an author page with proper "clickable" links to your blog and social media.

4. Here is one of my little tricks that I have not shared before and this has worked CRAZY GOOD!!!.....Offer secret chapter/alternate ending for everyone who leaves you a testimonial on Amazon. Create a page in your book that has an autoresponder email so it's all automatic. Once we started doing this, our testimonials on Amazon went up over 400%!

5. Price test your book. Some books sell better at 99 cents but don't assume it's always the case. I had a book that I price tested at 99 cents, $1.99, $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99. While it did well at 99 cents, it sold WAY more at $3.99 for some reason. ABT - Always Be Testing.

Feel free to share your tips on selling more Kindle Ebooks!
#book #killer #kindle #neat #sell #testimonials #trick
  • Offer secret chapter/alternate ending for everyone who leaves you a testimonial on Amazon.

    You can't offer any kind of compensation in exchange for an Amazon review. Amazon is banning accounts for this.

    fLufF
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
      Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

      Offer secret chapter/alternate ending for everyone who leaves you a testimonial on Amazon.

      You can't offer any kind of compensation in exchange for an Amazon review. Amazon is banning accounts for this.

      fLufF
      --
      That's a great point that I forgot to add (thank you!) The key here is how you word it. We definitely word it in a way that it's not a requirement for a testimonial so we don't get into any trouble with Amazon. They can get the free chapter whether they leave one or not.

      Around 75% of the people who download the free chapter leave a testimonial anyway so it's all good!
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      • Profile picture of the author pianorosa
        Paul, thanks for the great tips! About pricing our books, I found the same thing about pricing the book higher. It seems that people don't mind buying a higher priced book. I have been selling a book for $1.17 for 2 months now and I noticed that in the last 2 months, people kept borrowing them. I would think that if I can only borrow a book a month, I would borrow a book that is higher priced like $9. What could be the reason for this?

        And then I discovered that I was making a lot more money on the borrowed feature than the sales because with the sales, I only get 30% Royalty of $1.17. So now I've moved the book to a higher price just as you said to $3.17 - to get 70% Royalty and testing this to see if there are more sales on that.

        Rosa
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Thanks for some real content, Paul!

    I rarely come into the main forum because of all of the fluff. Hmm. Speaking of fluff, looks like Fluffy beat me to it!

    Love your #4 point, How to get more awesome testimonials! But looks like you can't use it on Amazon. Plenty of other places to market where you can, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author thelionz
    Great.... Thanks Mate....
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  • Profile picture of the author Alan Petersen
    I would be careful with #4. Amazon doesn't allow offering compensation/bribes for reviews and that could be seen just as that.

    It's not as bad as offering to refund their purchase which is how this company was busted and they had all their reviews and products removed from Amazon:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/te...er=rss&emc=rss

    Just an FYI, to be uber careful when offering something in exchange for a review vs. just letting them happen naturally.

    All it takes is one person to get offended or a shoddy competitor to report you to Amazon.

    Edit - I missed Fluffy's post where she already mentioned this. So yea, I agree. :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Peeps66
      As far as I am aware, You can get people to leave a review but there must be no remuneration given other than to keep the book.

      You could argue that the different ending is just another part of the book
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    If you are at all worried about Amazon, here is exactly how I would set up my #4 point from the OP:

    Have a special page in your book with a clickable link to a page on your website where they can download the bonus/special chapter/alternate ending etc. On that same page, you can either have a nice form for leaving testimonials or some great copy asking them to leave a review for you on Amazon.

    Make it so they can download the extra chapter no matter what. In our case, around 75% will leave reviews but even just getting a high percentage of your book readers to your website (where they can connect to you via social media and see other books you sell) is huge, even for the people who don't leave a review.

    You can adjust this strategy based on your risk tolerance with Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
    Is good advice, thanks!

    Give them something and then ask them for a review, but do not require it. Law of reciprocation will help here. Can def see that helping things along.
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  • Profile picture of the author JaySG
    Thanks for the advice, I really like the idea of giving a secret chapter for those who leave a testimonial or review to your book, that's a killer idea for selling more kindle ebooks.
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