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FOLLOWERS AT AMAZON
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has a new feature.
When you publish a new Kindle e-book, in a couple of weeks (or so) Amazon sends you an email (to whatever email you have linked to your KDP publishing account).
The email subject is: A Question about Your Book (followed by the title of your book).
It’s not an advertisement. It’s not a problem. (Unless you get a different email!)
It’s an opportunity.
When you publish a new Kindle e-book, you can send a personal message to your Amazon followers.
Amazon will approve your message and send it out to your Amazon followers, letting them know about your new release.
This message may go out a few days after you submit it.
WHAT SHOULD YOU WRITE IN YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUR AMAZON FOLLOWERS?
Here’s your chance to include that personal touch in your message about your new book.
There is more than one way to do it, and it needs to agree with your author persona.
There is also an easy way to get a lot of good ideas for how to do this well.
Follow several successful authors at Amazon so you can see what kinds of ideas they use in their personal messages.
The next time they publish a Kindle e-book through KDP, you’ll receive (in a few weeks) their personal message to their Amazon followers (assuming they accept Amazon’s offer to do so).
While you’re browsing for top selling authors on Amazon, also find them on Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs.
This will also let you see how they use social media. You may get to see some of their marketing tactics firsthand. You can learn a lot by following successful authors.
Ideally, you want to follow KDP authors at Amazon. If they publish through KDP, they will receive this opportunity.
AMAZON FOLLOWERS
When a customer visits your Author Central page at Amazon.com, there is a large yellow Follow button on the left-hand side, under your primary author photo.
This lets customers follow you at Amazon. (Too bad it doesn’t include a brief explanation of what this is in a way that would encourage more follows.)
Unfortunately, it doesn’t show you how many followers you have. If you receive an offer to send a personal message to your Amazon followers about your new release, then you know you have at least one follower.
Follow yourself. This way, when you send out your personal message, you’ll also be able to see how it looks from the customer’s side.
GET MORE AMAZON FOLLOWERS
Yes, you want to do this:
- Many customers are reluctant to sign up for an author’s email newsletter. But how about signing up through Amazon to receive email updates via Amazon? Customers who already shop at Amazon are more apt to trust Amazon’s email system.
- Similarly, many customers are reluctant to follow authors via Twitter, Facebook, or the author’s blog. Some people don’t like social media. Some people follow authors, but don’t read most of the messages that they get from hundreds of people they follow.
- Amazon lets customers follow their favorite authors directly on Amazon. Authors can send a personal message to their Amazon followers when they release new books. Customers sign-up directly at Amazon. The emails come from Amazon, not the author. Authors don’t receive the customer’s email address, so they don’t have to be worried about being contacted frequently by the author. The only time they will hear from the author is when the author publishes a new book.
- You’re not trying to drive traffic away from one site to go to Amazon. These are Amazon followers hearing about your book from Amazon itself.
So how do you get more Amazon followers?
Put a note at the end of your book letting customers know that they can follow you directly at Amazon. Explain how to do it, and show them why it’s valuable.
- Explain that they can follow you directly at Amazon.
- Just visit your Amazon author page. Provide a link to your Author Central page.
- Tell them to look for the large yellow Follow button on the left. It’s as simple as that.
- Explain that Amazon won’t give out their email address to you. The only time they will hear from you is when you publish a new book, and the message will come directly from Amazon, not from you.
- Start off with something like, “Would you like Amazon to notify you by email when I release a new book?” (For a series, finish with “the next book in the series.”) This helps to show why they should follow you.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2015
Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers
- Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
- Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
- 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
- Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)
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