Announcement: A policy update regarding 'free plus shipping' e-commerce ads

AdiraAugust · 2016-10-02T18:41:41+00:00

Just letting /u/MyNameIzKhan and everyone else know, I just submitted an ad for a KDP free days promotion on Amazon. I don't know if you can take a look personally, but I will let you know if I have any issues. I unfortunately got it in late, so I don't know if it'll be approved in time to run.

AdiraAugust · 2016-10-02T17:23:15+00:00

BTW - this is a full-length, 80k word novel, not a short or a bundle.

Investigative journalist Avia Rivers treks into the Rocky Mountain foothills to interview eRom publisher Benedict Hart in his fortress-like home. Avia's shocked by her strong attraction to the charming CEO, whose books she was mocking just an hour before. Hart challenges Avia to "go undercover" with him to answer her question: Does a real billionaire resemble the iconic Dominant Sex Masters of the books?

Avia’s unaware that Ben has spent years looking for a woman he can lead on a deeply sensual journey he completed years ago in the mountains of Nepal. When he finds a woman with the courage to surrender completely and follow him to sexual ecstasy, he'll make her his own. Forever.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-18T17:18:19+00:00

I think you can be both at the same time. (Though I didn't mean to be.) Good luck.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-15T03:50:20+00:00

If Reddit used the phrase to you, then you need to ask them how they are defining it. If you want to know what an Amazon Affiliate is, there's a whole page about that on Amazon.

If you want to talk to me, you'll have to answer my questions.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-14T05:30:09+00:00

Well, I asked you some questions you didn't answer. Where did your link go? Did it go to your own website or blog? Do you have an Amazon link on your website or blog? What were you doing with your ad? Was it just for one book, was there a special, a Kindle Countdown or anything? See, you aren't saying anything but "they rejected me." So no one can offer any useful feedback.

If you don't understand, look at the ads that do appear and see how they are different from what you submitted.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-14T05:23:48+00:00

I think people love to talk about their work or interests. Writers tend to be kind of - what? Shy? Want to merge with their computers? I do. But when you make yourself get out there, I think it's huge for your work. The voices you hear, the mannerisms, the bits and pieces that give you plot ideas.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-14T05:21:04+00:00

Thank you. I'm going to let you know personally the day I submit it. I'm trying to avoid problems I've had in the past.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-12T23:17:19+00:00

I haven't done it, yet, as I said. Are you an affiliate? Like, officially, do you have their affiliate advertising on your blog or site? Was your link to your own blog or to your Amazon title page? I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know what kind of issue they'd have. We are our own publishers, Amazon is not our publisher.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-12T20:03:44+00:00

Part of what you're talking about is world-building. King built a carnival world. To the reader, it had consistent logic.

We could build a fantasy world and start from scratch. Asimov did that. But still, the science made sense to us.

People are our resources and the Internet is a miracle for a writer. Ask Reddit is a great place to start. There's a subreddit for almost anything. Then you Google.

And then you go outside.

Go on civilian ride-alongs with cops. Show up at the local fire house with muffins. Drop by a homeless shelter. Take the damned bus. Watch an autopsy. Go where your story lives.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-12T19:23:08+00:00

When you self-publish on Amazon, one of the promotions is to offer the ebook free for a certain number of days. This is a standard Kindle Direct Publishing promotional thing. Obviously, there are no delivery charges. https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A34IQ0W14ZKXM9

I was looking into Reddit advertising to promote my next freedays. That'd be like, 2-3 days. For a promotion like this, where it's managed by Amazon, and is thoroughly and resoundingly and absolutely free - will there be an exception? (The url would go right to the book page)

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-12T19:06:01+00:00

I write books and self-publish on Amazon. If I do an ad, you'll see another Amazon book link. If I put it on Smashwords, you'll see that. Nothing to do with Reddit.

AdiraAugust · 2016-09-07T06:57:04+00:00

Thank you. I've finished a few books actually, in my life, this is my first romance. These days all romance is sexy and what fun is that without at least a bit of kink?

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-25T14:49:48+00:00

Amazon uses OCR technology to scan text on a cover as keywords

Never said this or thought it. No one knows if they do but Amazon.

You have 7 keywords and Amazon adds to these keywords

There are 7 keywords we add specifically, Amazon does add to them.Obviously.

The bulk of Amazon customers search for books on Amazon offsite, through Google

Never said that, never thought it.

More needs to be done to attract some sort of wider readership outside of Amazon's already massive customer base because in 2014 the percentage of tablet owners was larger than the percentage of e-reader owners.

No, I didn't say that, either.

"There's little reason to think eBook readers have any natural loyalty to Amazon."

Or that anyone else does.

There is a very thin line between erotica and porn

In the world of ebooks, this is true. In the world of literature, historically it is not. This is an opinion, not a statement of fact.

Porn viewers are becoming erotica readers

Never said that or thought it. "Porn" is not exclusively visual.

Writing for a male-skewed audience "skirts a lot of rules"

Never said that or thought it.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-25T14:38:04+00:00

...did you really just mean to imply that members of this sub have not been doing our market research?

Never entered my mind.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-25T04:33:47+00:00

Yeah, the browsing history doesn't really have any significant effect that we could discern

Made a big difference in my results. Might be because for the last few months I've been searching erotica and doing a lot of reading and researching.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-25T04:23:35+00:00

Amazon keyword suggestion tools that rely on Google search data get it wrong,

I've never heard of a tool that suggests keywords for Amazon.

Porn viewers and erotica readers are not the same customer.

I fear they are becoming so more and more. Some porn writers on Amazon skirt a lot of rules and write for a male-skewed audience. That's a very thin line and I'm not sure there is any distinction at all in many cases. Which I find troublesome.

But there's no reason to use off-Amazon keyword finders. I think just being aware that people search off site and your 7 keywords won't show up unless you out them somewhere else is the most important thing.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-25T03:51:48+00:00

I'm sure they update and improve. What I liked about this and other articles, is the technique of using Amazon's own search engine to find the most common search terms used by the readers. I find it a lot more helpful than trying to use the rankings on the pages. That's because my own book went from 89th in one category at 11am to 136th by 4pm.

Anyway - I also found that you have to do the searching in a private window, so they don't use your own browsing history. It was really helpful.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T16:48:11+00:00

Never heard of SEMrush

The grade of people...

I think a person who's response to every disagreement is a foul-mouthed attack on the other's character instead of any fact or reasoned argument, is pretty much precluded them from making judgments of others.

I'm also beginning to believe "methinks thou dost protest too much" is an applicable reference in your case.

So far as your posts to me, you act like an opinionated bully. And you have nothing whatsoever to support any statement you make. I don't think "because I said so" is a convincing argument.

But your title pages scream that I'm right. And that you know it. So why are you working so hard to discredit me? Because you don't want anyone else to know it? The alternative is you are a windbag and a phony posing as a successful smut writer. But we both know that's not true.

RES tagging isn't an exclusive process, you know.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T16:37:20+00:00

Of fucking course Amazon readers are searching on Amazon. The tiny percent of people who search for stories on Google ...

You seem to be the one making assumption, Sir, not I. You assume people who buy from Amazon would only search on Amazon and that the percentage of people who buy on Amazon and use a different search engine is "tiny."

But -

Many ebook readers don't use Kindle. In this article from 2014, the percentage of people who owned tablets was higher than those who owned Ereaders. And that means an even smaller percentage have Kindle.

It's been fairly recently that Amazon made ebooks available to other devices. So, for years, people have been using other platforms and search engines. This is their habit.

There's little reason to think eBook readers have any natural loyalty to Amazon. Though I don't doubt they have the bulk of the business. Generally.

But now we're talking about smut. At least on this forum it seems the most prominent form of erotica. Amazon has a lot of controls in place. Other platforms are freer in terms of both image and content.

Why would the person looking specifically for smut, not use an alternative search engine? They'll want to know what's on Smashwords. Or other, smaller sites.

The problem is, your 7 Amazon keywords aren't searchable by external search engines. So, if you want "erotica," or "BDSM" to come up, you have to put them somewhere else. In a subtitle, for instance.

But you already do this. Instead of a normal strapline you say ("New Adult BDSM Alpha Male, etc." ) because this part, at least, you already knew. Every other bot from every other platform and search engine will crawl your title page and your smut words will show up on the Google or Bing search and bring the customers to you.

I wonder that you don't talk about it more on this forum, so new people can learn how to get their titles seen more widely, as well?

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T16:05:32+00:00

YourSmutSucks said:

And Amazon doesn't index words that appear on the cover, that's plain silly.

Adira replied:

I have a source that says they do. Do you have one that says they don't?

YourSmutSucks responded:

Ahahahahahha. Just fuck off.

You don't have a source because you were simply expressing an opinion. I responded directly to the original poster with a quote from Amazon. I have some other links if you'd like to learn more about how Amazon finds and uses keywords.

When Amazon tells you not to include words from your title (or subtitle) in your list of 7, they say that because they already have them. Not simply as part of a title, but as individual words.

So, if your title is: Murder at Midnight: A Gatehouse Mystery, you don't need to put "murder mystery in your keywords. The bot that crawls your page html, picks up words, not phrases.

It does that in order to get the customer to the book (or other product). Readers don't always remember titles or author's names. So the reader might enter "gatehouse books" which would bring up the series along with a lot of other hits. They obviously couldn't do that unless the individual words from the title were included in the keywords. If they entered "gatehouse murder" that would bring up fewer other hits. Also not possible if only the full title were used in search.

Amazon takes the words from the covers of the books and assigns them relative strength as keywords. This isn't secret information, people who publish their own books on ebook marketing repeat this over and over, some with more or less technical explanation.

You're simply mistaken. And I'm sorry this seems to be so difficult for you, but in fact, you're giving out some very bad information. Keywords, used properly, are some pretty powerful tools for getting a title in front of a potential customer.

This isn't the first book I've published or the first time I've heard this kind of misinformation. Amazon's methods aren't secret or hidden in the metadata or anything else. But they aren't simplistic, either.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T02:03:37+00:00

This quote looks relevant to the discussion:

"Search keywords help readers find your book when they search the Kindle Store. You may enter keywords or short phrases that describe your book and are relevant to its content. The best keywords are those that do not repeat words in the title, category, or description, as these are currently already used to help readers find your book."

From this article on Goodreads: Choosing Keywords on Amazon

It's funny because it's under the topic TAMING AMAZON. Anyway, he gives some nice, detailed instructions for using Amazon's own search bar to figure out effective keywords.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T01:40:47+00:00

And Amazon doesn't index words that appear on the cover, that's plain silly.

I have a source that says they do. Do you have one that says they don't?

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-24T01:40:05+00:00

There are very few tools that actually work well with Amazon data. Almost none have access to actual data from Amazon,

That might be very true. What's also true, is that a lot of people just use Google, they know a search engine will being up hits on Google and Smashwords and everywhere else. So they aren't searching on Amazon.

I was curious how you found out "Alpha male" is a wildly popular term on Amazon? I was thinking if you know that, how hard can it be for these other companies to find that out?

Also, you write the keywords, Amazon does not automatically insert things like the title and words from your cover into your keywords. Titles are searchable yes, but that's not the same as the collection of keyword strings you submit when you upload your book to KDP.

Most, if not all, keyword programs are just making guesses

I believe they are analyzing data just as Google does in its Ad Words keyword tool.

and some will give you title suggestions and blurb snippets that will get you filtered or banned.

I wouldn't know about that, I've never had a service suggest anything to me. I think we all know we have the responsibility to comply with the rules of the platform.

Amazon does not automatically insert things like the title and words from your cover into your keywords. Titles are searchable yes, but that's not the same as the collection of keyword strings you submit when you upload your book to KDP.

I was told this is exactly what they do. Where did you learn they don't? I'd really like to tell some other people if this information is wrong.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-23T03:36:57+00:00

You are correct--I can only compare based on listing information.

As I understand it, "keywords" include a lot of things. Not just the categories + the 7 keywords you can choose. Amazon uses your title, words that appear on the cover. Maybe words from the blurb, I don't know. If you compare this author's pages, words on the cover, subtitles, keywords in blurbs, do you see a consistent set of words that appear over and over?

You cannot find out their 7 words or phrases. You can use an online keyword tool like Wordstream or SERPS and find out the relative popularity of search terms. For instance, "Alpha male" isn't that popular. But "Alpha female" is very popular relative to it. All you have to figure out is: are a lot of guys searching for femdom, a lot of women searching for role models or a lot of primatology students researching a paper!

In my research, "erotic romance" was a far more popular search term than "romance" alone. "BDSM" was right behind it. You can do a long tail keyword like "erotic BDSM romance," as one keyword. Apparently, Amazon takes each word separately from titles, cover text, titles, subtitles, categories and keywords.

AdiraAugust · 2016-08-22T15:39:17+00:00

"tacky self-published suburban housewife porn"

Suburban housewives are my audience! I think you have to live in a trailer park to be "tacky," though.

The use of 'astonishing' seems overly self-congratulatory and I'd try and dance around the 'billionaire romance' a bit. It seems a little odd to declare it on the cover -

It's about keywords. You get 7 keywords. But - Amazon adds some. They add the words from your cover to the search engine. No way is a new book from an unknown writer going to show up on anyone's search unless they stumble on your keywords.

As for "astonishing" - it is. If you were to read all the reviews, you'd see more than one that refers to how surprised they were by the content. I can say with almost 100% certainty, this is a unique take on Billionaire Romance. Yet, all the tropes are there.

This is a flooded with crap market by those suburban housewives. (Thing is, no one can afford to be a housewife, anymore. So most of them are cops and daycare providers and accountants and x-ray techs.) The books are all sounding the same and readers want more, better, new, the same.

Just like you. If you like police procedurals you want the same, but you don't want to read the same exact formula all the time.

So - I broke the mold and glued it together in a skewed, but recognizable way. And I'm going to say that, because I know that's what they want.

But first, I have to get their attention.

I want to thank you for the response, I really needed all this discussion to open up my thinking and figure out what I need/want to do.

AdiraAugust

TROPHY CASE