I never thought I’d be praising a commercial, but I absolutely love Amazon’s “Give” holiday commercial.
(@Amazon video shared via YouTube.)
Chris McMullen (author)
Monthly Archives: December 2017
Hope, Fear, and… Shopping for Books at Amazon
SHOPPING AT AMAZON
When browsing for a book (or other product) at Amazon, it’s amazing how much hope, fear, and other emotions factor into the shopping experience.
Whether you’re a customer, an author, or an Amazon seller, it may be worthwhile to take a moment to try to understand the psychology of Amazon sales.
Imagine yourself staring at a book detail page at Amazon.com, considering a book that caught your attention.
There are two types of criteria that may influence whether or not you purchase the book:
- You may apply logical reasoning.
- You may be influenced by your emotions.
For most customers, both aspects may factor into the purchase decision. Some customers generally rely much more on one aspect than the other.
It may not even be a conscious decision. Many people are influenced by emotional responses without even realizing it. Sometimes the emotional aspect is subtle. Sometimes it may impact us on a subconscious level.
Also, note that logical reasoning can’t decide everything. Sometimes, after a person who relies heavily on logic applies logic as far as he (or she) can take it, the person still isn’t sure. In that case, the person might use some emotional aspect to break the tie (or flip a coin).
If you’re a customer, you might learn to make wiser buying decisions by trying to understand how various aspects of the product page may influence you emotionally.
If you’re an author or an Amazon seller, you may wish to better understand how sales psychology may benefit you both short-term and long-term. (Note that what benefits you in the short-term may hurt in the long-term. They don’t always go hand in hand.)
A LITTLE SALES PSYCHOLOGY
Let’s break down an Amazon product page, considering how each element may influence a customer’s buying decision.
- Book cover (or product photo). This may send a strong visual signal, but may also suggest subtle emotional responses. You might think that the main message should be “Look at me,” but it’s actually better for the signal to be “Wow, that looks appealing.” An effective image does more than this: the subtler messages can carry influence. A picture can send a “positive” signal, inspiring the customer be in a better emotional state. A picture can have a “professional” tone. It can strive to earn “trust.” It can say “I look like the type of product you’re looking for.”
- Reviews. Many reviews (both good and bad) carry marketing influence. Good reviews play on customers’ hopes, while critical reviews play on customers’ fears. Most of the time, it isn’t intentional, but of course there are both good and bad reviews that have been written with the intent of playing on hopes or fears. As a customer, it’s a challenge to glean helpful information from reviews without being influenced on an emotional level. As an author or Amazon seller, you must consider that many customers are skeptical to some extent about customer reviews. One possible fear is that the seller recruited reviews, so if the first 20 reviews are all glowing and the last 10 reviews are mostly bad, that by itself may act to “confirm” a customer’s fear that the seller recruited good reviews for a not-so-good product. In addition to customer reviews, there may be quotes from editorial reviews, and there may be review quotes in the description or Look Inside. There is another important aspect of reviews: If a product page plays on customer hopes by making a product seem better than it actually is, customer reviews help to offset this marketing tactic. Reviews are a strong reason that all authors and sellers should focus on long-term success (writing a great book or delivering a great product helps to get favorable reviews in the long run).
- Description. Marketing copy is one of the most challenging forms of writing—and the proof of its effectiveness isn’t when several people tell you how impressed they are with what you wrote, but in what percentage of customers who read it proceed to purchase the product. An effective product description must be concise because most customers won’t read a long description in full (and if the description is long, most customers won’t even bother to click the Read More link to see the remainder of it). The few sentences that customers can see before the Read More link appears is valuable real estate: There is so much an author or seller needs to accomplish with a minimum of words. In terms of marketing influence, sellers want to create “customer engagement,” “arouse curiosity,” “inspire interest,” and perhaps even “create a sense of urgency” (but you’re not supposed to mention limited-time offers or pricing here). But the description also needs to provide valuable information about what to expect from the book (or other product). It may also need to create a sense of professionalism and trust. It needs to help create appeal. On top of that, the words need to flow well, be a good fit for expectations, and avoid spelling and grammar mistakes. There is one thing that a description shouldn’t do: It shouldn’t give the story away.
- Title. Even the title can carry emotional influence. Have you ever read a title that had a little jingle that you got a kick out of, maybe put you in a good mood? The title needs to reinforce the visual message that the book cover (or product phot) sends. With fiction books, very short titles tend to be more effective (1 to 3 words). That’s partly because the eye is drawn to a short title in search results, and partly because many customers just look at the first few words when looking at search results. A title can help to create appeal (or just the opposite). Appeal is an important criteria, since appeal helps to put the customer in a happier state when making a purchase decision.
- Look Inside. This can be the most valuable real estate on the product page. The customer must already be interested in order to be looking inside. This means that every other aspect of the product page has done its job: Now it’s up to the Look Inside to close the deal. The Look Inside has one important job to do: It just needs to send the message, “This book is everything you hoped it would be—based on the cover, description, title, and reviews—and MORE.” If it sends that message, the customer will almost certainly Buy Now. (But again, if the rest of the book doesn’t live up to the expectations created by the Look Inside, this will be exposed in customer reviews, and fewer customers will Look Inside in the future.) The Look Inside contains visual elements and writing, both of which need to help deliver the right messages. As with the description, the Look Inside must engage the customer and arouse curiosity (but without giving the story away), and like the book cover, the Look Inside needs to send the right visual signals.
- Bio. A biography (or about me) section is a chance to demonstrate expertise or knowledgeability, but it’s also a chance to show humanity, individuality, and professionalism. For authors, if you can write an interesting biography, that bodes well for having written an interesting story (since very often readers aren’t interested in biographies). A picture that accompanies the biography offers another opportunity to send the right visual message.
- Colors. There is even a psychology for interpreting colors. For example, a good cover designer selects a color scheme that is appropriate for the subject matter or story. Certain colors are better for attracting males or females, some colors work better for romance while others work better for mystery, some colors suggest professionalism, and some colors convey emotions (like happy or sad). Amazon uses color in text labels, prices, stars, buttons, and other elements of a product page. The prices are in red, which not only stands out well against a white background but may aid in creating a buying impulse (many stores use red for one of these two reasons: let’s assume they are using it for contrast and to catch attention, and if it happens to help a little to create a buying impulse, it’s just a happy bonus for the store).
We humans don’t always make the best decisions. Even humans who spend their lives solving very difficult problems quite skillfully can be prone to making a stupid everyday decision.
If humans tended to be better decision-makers, a lot of successful talk-show hosts would be out of business!
So when you’re shopping for a product, try to think about how you might make a wiser purchase decision. Try to think of which factors may be trying to influence you emotionally. Try to force yourself to rely somewhat more on logical reasoning and somewhat less on emotions.
Or forget it… just act impulsively and enjoy the splurge. You know you want to. 😉
If you’re an author or Amazon seller, try to think about how your Amazon product pages might influence customers emotionally. Don’t try to think of ways that you might take advantage of this in the short run because such ploys tend to backfire in the long run (killing sales later): For example, if the product page plays on the customer’s hope that it’s the most amazing product ever, disappointed customers will post critical reviews (which will play on future customers’ fears) and will return the product (and Amazon uses customer satisfaction metrics in its algorithms).
So you don’t want to oversell a product, making it seem way better than it is. But you do want to make it sound as good as it is. If it does deliver on customer hopes, the product page should show this.
You can also think about how your product page delivers both visually and in words important messages, such as “professional,” “positive,” “trust,” “expertise,” “creative,” or a particular subject matter or topic (like “romance” or “country”).
What is your customer hoping to get from your product? Among these hopes, what does your product actually deliver? You want to show the customer that your product delivers on the right hopes, and you want to disclose when it doesn’t deliver on other hopes.
What does your customer fear he or she may get from your product? You need to apply a similar reasoning here.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
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)
Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.
WordPress Bloggers: December is the Best Time to Check Your Stats
ANNUAL BLOG STATS
If you have a WordPress blog, you’re probably used to checking your daily stats.
There are also weekly, monthly, and yearly stats.
December is the best time of year to check your annual stats because the current year is almost complete.
The yearly stats offer some insight that you don’t really see in the daily or weekly stats.
Visit your WordPress stats right now (in another window) if you wish to follow along as I suggest what you might look for.
I have WordPress open on a browser on my PC. Already logged in, I click the 
My Sites link near the top left corner of the screen.
Next I select Stats on the left. Then I change from Days to Years near the top right.
My screen presently says Traffic (the alternative is Insights).
Following are some things that you can learn from your annual stats.
SEARCH ENGINGE TRAFFIC
If you get regular search engine traffic, you’re more likely to see significant frequencies for a few search terms. When you look at daily stats, most of the search terms that led to your blog are hidden. But when you add this up for the whole year, you might see a few search terms with multiple hits. It takes about 1000 views on average to get one search term that isn’t hidden, so if you get tens of thousands of views per year, there is a chance of seeing some search terms here, and if you get 100,000 views per year, you might see something significant. (But if most of your views don’t come from search engines, you’ll need more views.)
The most popular search term to reach my blog turns out to be “Amazon.” I see that 35 people reached my blog after searching for “Amazon.” Plus all the times that happened, but the search term was hidden. With 69,477 unknown search terms, it probably happened many more than 35 times.
Even if you only see a search term listed once, it may still be helpful. One of the search terms on my list had a typo. I searched my website for that typo and discovered that same typo in one of my articles. My first inclination was to correct the typo, but then I thought: Wait a minute, somebody accidentally discovered my website because of that typo. So I let that one go. (I wouldn’t make a typo on purpose, of course, but if something good came out of one of my mistakes, I’ll take it.)
HELPFUL POSTS
In December, your yearly stats show you which were the most popular posts and pages for the year. When you check your daily or weekly stats, the top-performing posts and pages can vary. At the end of the year, this can help you assess which of your posts are popular over a long period of time.
Some of my most popular posts for 2017 were written 2-3 years ago. When I write an article, it gets a lot of traffic for a few days, but then the traffic usually drops off. But once in a while, the article starts to gain traffic through search engines. Such articles can remain popular for a long period of time. Your yearly stats can help you find articles that receive regular search engine traffic. If you know which of your posts are more successful long-term, it can help you have more success in the future. Spend some time thinking about why those posts are attracting more search engine traffic than your other posts. There is a valuable lesson to learn here.
WHERE IS EVERYONE COMING FROM?
Check your referrers. In 2017, I had over 150,000 views come from search engines. Over 90% of my blog traffic comes from search engines. If you write helpful, unique content-rich articles, you can net a lot of search engine traffic, which can really help your blog grow long-term.
If you feed your WordPress blog into Twitter and Facebook, you may also see significant traffic coming from your other social media followings. (Note: If you do feed your WordPress blog into both Twitter and Facebook, don’t also feed your Twitter and Facebook posts into one another or back into WordPress—or you run the risk of seeing double or triple posts on at least one social media outlet.) A couple thousand visitors reached my blog through Facebook, but not as many reached my blog from Twitter.
How many people are reading your posts in the WordPress Reader? This stat shows you how many of your followers are reading your posts in the Reader. If you allow people to follow your blog via email (which I do), then not all of your followers will read your posts in the Reader.
Who are your most helpful rebloggers? I owe a huge THANK YOU to TheStoryReadingApeBlog, whose reblogs have generated much traffic to my articles. If you’re an author or blogger, you should follow the StoryReadingApe (a different Chris), who is an amazing supporter of authors and bloggers. If you’re an author, check out the StoryReadingApe’s submission guidelines. I have many other helpful rebloggers (too many to mention everyone, and I apologize if your blog didn’t make my list), many of which are also author supporters: The list includes NicholasRossis, Smorgasboard, Don Massenzio, Kim’s Author Support Blog, and many others.
There’s something similar that can be as effective as a reblog. Sometimes, another blogger writes an article that refers to your post. If that author’s article generates much traffic, and especially if it happens to arouse interest in your website, you can get some helpful traffic this way. As an example, check out the following article by Derek Murphy at Creativindie.com: “How much does the average author earn publishing their book” (it’s an interesting article, by the way). If you read that article, you will see that he quotes an article from my blog (he contacted me in advance of posting the article by the way). I actually received hundreds of visitors to my website from that one article. So I owe another huge THANK YOU to Derek Murphy for that.
When I clicked the View All link at the bottom of Referrers, I discovered a very long list of the many ways that visitors reach my blog. It’s both fascinating and helpful to read that list. I actually had significant traffic reach my blog from the KDP community forum, Kindle Boards, Goodreads, and many other author support forums. (I don’t participate in discussions at Goodreads, and have hardly ever used Kindle Boards, but I was fortunate enough that a few of my articles were referenced during authors’ discussions. It’s cool that some authors know about my blog, and found it helpful enough to mention while talking to other authors.)
CLICKETY CLICK
Do people click on links on your blog? The yearly stats show you which links are getting clicked on the most.
Thousands of people click on a link to Amazon.com on my site. Of course, there are many reasons for this. I’ve written several articles about various features on Amazon, and sometimes link to a specific page on Amazon that has information about that feature or contains a download for a free Amazon tool. Remember, several people reach my website after searching for “Amazon” in a search engine. They probably reached one of my articles about an Amazon feature or tool, and then clicked on a link in that article to check the feature or tool out at Amazon. But a few visitors may click on a link to one of my books or my Amazon author page. And I’ve had a few guest posts that featured other authors, so hopefully a few of those clicks take readers to their books and their author pages.
Regarding reblogs, under Clicks you can find out how effective your own reblogs of other bloggers are. Or if you reference other websites in your posts, you can see how many of your visitors and followers check out those websites.
INSIGHTS
Now switch from Traffic to Insights, near the top left (but not in the left sidebar). You can find more information here.
Check out your Tags & Categories. This is basically how your blog looks from the outside (perhaps to search engines). Those are the topics you have written about most frequently this year, based on the tags and categories that you’ve used. Is this how you want your blog to be categorized? If not, it might impact how you use tags and categories from now on.
Also check out Comments by Authors. These are the valuable people who have given life to your blog, making your articles interactive, and who have evidently enjoyed communicating with you and/or were really interested in your posts (or in you, perhaps). I owe a huge THANK YOU to Don Massenzio, Chris the StoryReadingApe, Kim’s Author Support Blog, Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt, Nicholas Rossis, Dr. Stone, and countless others (sorry I don’t have space to mention everyone).
Do you let people follow you by email? If so, check out your Follower Totals. This shows how many of your followers follow you by email.
You can get another interesting stat by dividing your total number of Views by the total number of Visitors. This ratio shows you how many pages the average visitor reads on your blog. Do people tend to read one article and leave, or do they tend to stay around and read more articles? Are your articles so helpful that people often read several of them after discovering your blog?
MAYBE YOUR STATS ARE BETTER THAN IT SEEMS
You may have hidden stats.
I do.
I show the full article right on the home page so that nobody has to click a Read More link.
This is convenient for visitors. They can read several full articles, and when they do, I only get credit with a single view (just my homepage).
Some bloggers who have changed their blogs to force readers to click a Read More button have seen an increase in their recorded blog views—but they are almost certainly losing traffic at the same time. The increased frequency of views can be misleading.
I realize that some people don’t like that Read More link. I try to do my visitors a favor, knowing that I myself don’t like to have to click those links (sh: I sometimes X out the site instead).
But that results in hidden traffic. I actually have many more views than are recorded. If someone visits my homepage and reads 5 full articles, I get credited with 1 view instead of 5 (because they don’t have to click anything to read those articles).
Now if I changed my site to force those readers to click a Read More link, when one person visits my homepage, they would have to click (at least) 5 different links to read 5 articles, and I would get credited with 5 views instead of 1.
I would see increased “traffic” according to my daily views. BUT I would be losing traffic—because some visitors won’t bother to click that Read More link.
If 1 out of 3 visitors who would have read 5 articles directly from my homepage walks away, I would get 11 clicks (5 + 5 + 1) from 3 visitors using Read More links, whereas currently I would only get 3 clicks for 3 visitors. Comparing 11 clicks to 3 clicks, it seems like there is more traffic when you use that Read More link. But what really happened is there were 3 visitors each way: When 3 visitors led to 11 recorded views, 11 articles were read, compared to the case when 3 visitors led to 3 recorded views but 15 articles were read. You see, I want to be read more (with hidden views), then to have more recorded views (but actually get read less).
But I prefer to have 3 visitors give me 3 clicks (rather than 11) when all 3 visitors read 5 articles on my homepage (that would make 15 views, with 12 of the views hidden—that is, not recorded).
I don’t want to lose that visitor who walked away because they didn’t want to have to click to Read More. So I’ll take fewer recorded views to have more people read my content.
That’s a personal choice, and not necessarily the best one. If your goal is to get as many recorded views as possible, the Read More link may help with your goal.
There is another advantage of that Read More link: You know your content is really compelling, or at least the beginning of your article did a good job at creating interest, if a lot of people are clicking to Read More.
If you add that Read More link and your views go down, you need to work on the beginning of your articles. There is some helpful information to gain here.
Personally, I get enough views, the number of recorded views doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want a Read More link to discourage one person from reading an article, and I don’t want a Read More link to cause a visitor to not want to return to my site. (Again, I would probably have more recorded views using the Read More link, and it would “seem” like there is more traffic using that feature when there really isn’t. The difference is that the Read More link removes the “hidden” views.)
There are other ways that you may have hidden stats.
For example, if you include a Follow by Email option without a Read More link, your email followers can read your full articles without actually visiting your website. Again, I offer this option out of convenience to my followers. I’m happy to have people read my articles by email (as long as the email came from me—I don’t support plagiarism, of course). I don’t need them to come to my blog to read my articles.
WHAT COOL SEARCH TERMS DID PEOPLE USE TO REACH YOUR BLOG?
I found some good ones on my list. One of my favorites is “funny paragraphs.” Imagine someone entered “funny paragraphs” into Google (or Bing or Yahoo or whatever) and found one of my articles. That wasn’t planned, but it’s a happy coincidence.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
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)
Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.
Comments
Kindle Unlimited Per-Page Rate Continues to Rise (November, 2017)
KINDLE UNLIMITED PER-PAGE RATE, NOVEMBER, 2017
Through July, 2017, the Kindle Unlimited per-page rate had been spiraling downward.
But Amazon introduced KENPC v3.0 before it could drop below $0.004 per page.
The per-page rate has steadily climbed since.
- November: $0.00463 per page
- October: $0.00456 per page
- September: $0.00443 per page
- August: $0.00419 per page
- July: $0.00403 per page
The KDP Select Global Fund also hit a new record high.
- November: $19.8 million
- October: $19.7 million
- September: $19.5 million
- August: $19.4 million
- July: $19.0 million
- June: $18.0 million
It’s nice to see the per-page rate rising alongside the KDP Select Global Fund.
However, at some point the per-page rate will reach a plateau, whereas the KDP Select Global Fund has risen steadily for years.
I remember the days when the KDP Select Global Fund was below $10M. I remember the people who claimed that $10M would just be the gravy to entice authors into KDP Select, and that it would surely drop once it got settled. But it’s since doubled, continuing to rise.
I also remember every time the Kindle Unlimited rate dropped to near $0.004 per page several people crying the end of the world, that it would drop below $o.004 and never return. But yet again it has bounced back.
The Kindle Unlimited per-page rate is a bit of a roller coaster ride with peaks and valleys. After it peaks and drops a bit, try not to panic. 🙂
Overall, the KDP Select per-page rate has experienced relative stability between $0.004 and $0.005 (occasionally rising slightly over $0.005).
Copyright © 2017
Chris McMullen
Amazon Reviews Now Require a $50 Minimum Customer Spend
NEW $50 MINIMUM FOR AMAZON CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Customers used to be able to write a review at Amazon as long as they had made a purchase.
Amazon now requires customers to spend a minimum of $50 using a valid credit/debit card before they can write a customer review.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201929730
This is one of several steps that Amazon has made over the years in an effort to improve the customer review system.
Amazon strives for organic customer reviews.
Organic reviews are the best reviews you can get.
For years, Amazon has effectively blocked reviews that are posted by friends and family of authors.
Verified purchase reviews now have an advantage over non-verified reviews when it comes to visibility on Amazon.
Amazon uses machine learning to help determine how prominently a review will display on a product page.
This new $50 minimum customer spend is another of many steps in the right direction.
Amazon’s customer review system has never been (and may never be) perfect, but Amazon is working to make it better.
Remember the days when you walked into a bookstore, and the only reviews you saw were glowing reviews on the back cover and front matter?
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
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)
Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.
How to Crop a Circle (PhotoShop Tutorial)
HOW DO YOU CROP A CIRCLE IN PHOTOSHOP?
The first step is to select the Marquee Tool on the PhotoShop toolbar.
In all the versions of PhotoShop that I’ve used, this toolbar appears on the left side of the screen.
The Marquee Tool is the second button on the toolbar.
The two most common options are the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
We’ll first try a rectangular crop, since that’s more common. Don’t worry, we’ll apply a circular crop soon.
Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.
Left-click at one point in the picture that you would like to be one of the four corners of the rectangle.
As you drag your cursor, a dotted rectangle will appear.
It will tell you the width and height of the rectangle as you drag.
When you are happy with your rectangular selection, let go of the mouse button.
If you make a mistake and wish to try again, press Ctrl + Alt + Z. Each time you press Ctrl + Alt + Z, PhotoShop goes back one step.
Once you’re happy with your selection…
Select Image at the top menu (the one that starts File, Edit, Image, Layer, etc.).
Choose Crop.
Remember, you can press Ctrl + Alt + Z repeatedly to undo one step at a time.
Now we’ll make a circle crop instead.
Grab the Marquee Tool again from the left toolbar.
This time, choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
First just visualize in your mind the circle (or oval) that you wish to make.
To get the circle in the neighborhood of where I want it to be…
I focus on the point that will be the top left corner of the circle, and then I pick a spot even higher and further left than that.
(It may take a little trial and error to get good at selecting the initial point for your circle or oval. It may not work as you intuitively expect.)
Left-click on this point and drag the Elliptical Marquee Tool. I drag down to the right.
If you want a perfect circle, keep your eye on the width ( W ) and height ( H ) of your ellipse.
Position your mouse just right so that the width and height are equal in order to carve a perfect circle.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Z if you need to undo your selection. You can press this repeatedly to go back multiple steps. (Note that Alt in there. If you only press Ctrl + Z, you can only go back one step, whereas Ctrl + Alt + Z lets you go back multiple steps.)
Once you’re happy with your selection…
You could go to Image and select Crop…
But I prefer to go to Edit and select Cut.
Then I go to File and open a New Document.
I choose the option for the New Document to match the clipboard selection.
Then I go to Edit and select Paste.
This pastes my circular crop into a new file, as shown below.
Sometimes, the Quick Selection Tool on the toolbar can help you make a quick selection.
It’s worth trying, but this tool isn’t always quite as “magical” as one might hope.
For simple shapes where PhotoShop sees the image you want clearly against the background, the Quick Selection Tool can make crops easy.
In that case, once you have it selected properly, you can get it with a quick cut and paste.
However, when that doesn’t work, you can use the Marquee Tool as we have done here, or your can try the Lasso Tool for a freehand selection.
If you need to get into the finer details of Photoshop, you may want to Google how to create paths and masks, for example.
(There is a Crop Tool, but I’m not a big fan of using it to make crops. Though it is handy if you need to rotate the picture and make a rectangular crop.)
PhotoShop happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
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)
Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.
Goodreads Giveaways: Important Changes Effective January 9, 2018
Image from ShutterStock.
GOODREADS GIVEAWAY CHANGES
Like many authors and publishers, I have used Goodreads giveaways for years to help with discovery, create buzz, and seek honest reviews for newly released books.
I have been a big fan of the Goodreads giveaway, having written a few articles about it on my blog.
I’m still a fan, but there are some important changes coming January 9, 2018:
- All KDP authors/publishers will be able to offer eBook giveaways. Previously, this was only open to traditional publishers.
- It will cost a minimum of $119 to run a Goodreads giveaway. That’s in addition to the cost of purchasing and sending physical copies (if you choose to run a contest for print books). Until now, there has been no fee to run a Goodreads giveaway.
- Entrants will have the book automatically added to their Want-to-Read lists (which friends potentially see through their update feeds).
- You will gain additional exposure, as Goodreads will notify the author’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their Want-to-Read list about the new giveaway.
- Initially, Goodreads giveaways will only be open to residents of the United States. (This restriction applies to entrants, not to authors.)
- It’s possible to gain premium placement among Goodreads giveaways by paying $599 (instead of $119) for a Premium Giveaway (instead of a Standard Giveaway).
- You will need to link an Amazon account to your Goodreads account in order to run a Goodreads giveaway. (You can create a new Amazon account if you don’t already have one.)
Are these changes good or bad?
Like most changes to the publishing world, it will be better for some authors than others.
Let’s start with the bad. There are really only two things that I don’t like:
- It’s no longer free. Having to spend $119 seems a bit pricey. And if you run a print giveaway, it costs even more, as you must pay for author copies plus shipping and packaging.
- Only residents of the United States may enter the giveaway, at least initially. It’s not a big issue for me, personally, since most of my book traffic comes from the United States, but I have acquaintances in the United Kingdom and Canada who feel left out.
The real question is this:
Will the benefits of a Goodreads giveaway offset the cost?
Keep in mind that with the changes to the Goodreads giveaway program, it’s possible that it will be more effective now than it has been in the past.
How might it be more effective starting January 9, 2018?
- There might be less competition from other giveaways, making it easier for readers to discover your book. Not as many authors/publishers will be willing to pay the fee.
- The giveaway might gain more exposure since the book will be automatically added to Want-to-Read lists, and since Goodreads will notify the author’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their Want-to-Read list that a giveaway is available for the book.
Note also that the cost of the giveaway has not necessarily increased as much as it may seem.
Starting January 9, 2018, you can run a Standard Giveaway for $119. However, if you choose to run an eBook giveaway instead of giving away print books, you will save on the cost of author copies, shipping, and packaging. I’ve actually paid more than $119 for a Goodreads giveaway when it was FREE: I’ve spent over $50 on author copies and over $80 on shipping for several giveaways, which comes to over $130. In those cases, I would have saved money by paying $119 for an eBook giveaway.
The new cost of the Goodreads giveaway encourages authors/publishers to offer more prizes.
You pay the same $119 fee for a Standard Giveaway, regardless of whether you offer a single book as a prize, or several copies of the same book.
If you only give away one book, $119 is a pretty steep price to pay. However, if you offer several copies of your book, the cost per book drops down dramatically.
Like all paid marketing, Goodreads giveaways are more likely to be cost-effective for authors who write compelling books. If you only sell a few books per month, paying $119 for a giveaway will come at a great loss. If your book sells thousands of copies per year, paying $119 is relatively cheap.
Are you upset that you won’t be able to run a free/inexpensive giveaway?
That’s ridiculous! Of course you can.
You can run an Amazon Giveaway directly from your book’s Amazon product page.
You just pay for the selling price of the book. For a print book, you must pay the shipping charges, too. In either case, you will be compensated partly later when you receive your royalty. You can even require entrants to follow you at Amazon. (When you publish a new eBook through KDP, Amazon notifies your Amazon followers of your new release.)
Learn more about the changes to Goodreads giveaways:
- Click here to see the Goodreads giveaway help page.
- Click here to read an article by David Wogahn.
Would you like to tell Goodreads how you feel about the new giveaway program?
- Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the survey (if it’s still available). Look for “send us feedback” in bold letters.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
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)
Click here to view my Goodreads author page.
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What Cool Word Have You Read in a Book Recently?
I was reading The Secret of Spellshadow Manor today by Bella Forrest, when I came across the word
—susurration—
meaning soft murmuring or rustling sounds.
It’s not a word I read or use every day. I enjoy coming across a cool word when it happens once in a while.
I don’t like it when an author goes out of his/her way to use uncommon words. I like the book to read well (for me).
But when the best word to use happens to be uncommon, the ‘best’ word is still the ‘best’ word.
When I don’t recognize the word and the author includes a little clue to help deduce the meaning, I like it even better.
In the case of the book I was reading today, it was great: The book is quite readable, the word felt (to me) like it belonged, and I could tell what it meant from the context.
(If you want to check out Bella Forrest’s—who I expect has never heard of me, and who certainly has no idea that I’m writing this post—novels, I recommend that you start with The Gender Game.)
Please share a cool word that you read in a book recently, including the title and author of the book. Surely, the author deserves a little publicity for helping you enjoy the word.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2017
chrismcmullen 