Amazon Ebook Marketing Strategies

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How to Market eBooks on Amazon

Strategies for eBook marketing success. Smith Publicity also promotes ebooks on Amazon with their strategic eBook promotion services. Effective Amazon ebook marketing strategy. Most authors, of course, want to successfully market their eBooks on Amazon and sell a lot of copies. The main difference between selling print and digital copies is that pricing can be a powerful marketing tool with ebooks. Promotional book pricing strategies aren’t new to eBook marketing and Kindle book marketing. Unlike printed books, it’s easy to change the price of your eBook strategically. Some experts believe in starting high to low, others low to high.

Finding the sweet spot in pricing to market your eBook on Amazon isn’t challenging to do. Begin with a price at the higher end, and every few days, drop it by one dollar until you get below a price of $1. For example, you might start your price at $6.99 and incrementally reduce it to $0.99. Repeat the process one more time, analyze sales data, and find the price at which the most copies of your book have been sold. Once you find the right price, keep it there. You can do the same with a low-to-high strategy. The key in either approach is to allow enough time to collect sufficient data so that you can determine the optimal price with confidence.

eBook Pricing Policies on Amazon Play a Role

Giving away your book but making it appear as if a copy was sold used to be a popular tactic for eBook marketing on Amazon. You could make it look like many copies were sold, earn a high ranking, and later shift to charging for your book without losing the top ranking. But now, Amazon and other bookselling websites have made the practice more challenging. Therefore, the key to good sales is understanding how to market an eBook within Amazon’s rules.

First, some things to consider: If you price your eBook at the high end, say $9.99, Amazon rewards you with a higher royalty. Pricing below a certain point reduces your royalty. However, if you sell more books at a lower price and receive a lower royalty, you might end up making more money than if it was higher priced. A little confusing? Here’s how Amazon explains it:

35% Royalty Option

Less than 3 megabytes, a minimum list  price of $0.99, a maximum of $200

Greater than or equal to 3 megabytes and less than 10 megabytes

A minimum price of $1.99, a maximum of $200

10 megabytes or greater

A minimum price of $2,99, a maximum of $200

70% Royalty Option

A minimum price of $2.99, a maximum of $9.99

When You Get eBook Pricing Right, the Opportunities are Substantial

The global eBook market is worth about $18 billion a year, and Amazon has a market share of around 70-percent. Because pricing is crucial to eBook promotion and sales, it’s obvious why it’s worth your time to get it right. eBook marketing pros are available to handle it or advise you on optimal strategies. Whichever way you choose to handle it, don’t overlook it. eBooks today compete in an incredibly crowded marketplace, and other authors take their pricing strategy seriously.

It’s also important to realize that eBook pricing is more art than science. It’s natural to look at competitors and consider your cost for producing the book. But you can’t count on determining the price that will spark sales based on these concrete factors. Book buyers will decide to buy your book when it is side-by-side with many others, and it’s a combination of the price and what they’re seeing at the time that will spark a purchase. It’s why the incremental research style method described above has proven to be the most effective. No two eBooks are alike, and the conditions under which they are sold differ.

Book Marketing on Amazon and How to Do It

So what’s an author to do? Do your homework, test, and test some more. With the correct eBook pricing and eBook marketing strategies for Amazon, nearly all titles and authors can spark some level of sales. Making sure your book is fully described and tagged in the proper categories also are critical to sales. You can find more information about each of those by reading more articles on eBook marketing strategy for Amazon at the Smith Publicity blog. 

 

 

 

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