Can anyone sell on Amazon?
It seems to be the new craze – self-publish and sell on Amazon. Then you can sell loads of books, make loads of money and retire. Unfortunately, this isn’t quite the reality. So, the question is, can anyone sell on Amazon? Many authors upload a book with high hopes and realise that getting it onto Amazon – while time-consuming and a massive achievement in itself – is actually the easy part. Selling your books takes more work, but this is where many authors stop. I’m not saying you have to spend millions on advertising though – what we do here at Turtle Publishing is help you to self-publish on Amazon the right way! You can upload a file… or you can upload within a launch program that maximises your book for organic sales. So, can anyone sell on Amazon?
Optimise your book!
As I scroll through pages of Amazon, I see common mistakes EVERYWHERE! I see cute and clever titles that don’t actually explain what the books about. I see even more ‘catchy’ subtitles that leave you wondering – what is this book? If your name is Tony Robbins or Stephen King – that’s fine! People will buy your book because they know it’ll be good. If you’re Joe Smith – you need to make it obvious within a quick scroll-by! Your cover image should fit in and represent your genre and stand out from the crowd. Your title or subtitle should be keyword optimised to ensure it shows up in the correct place with the Amazon algorithms. Your book description should draw them in and make them want to ‘add to cart’.
A little story about ME!
The first book I launched was a journal. I uploaded the files to Amazon with great excitement. I’d sold quite a few within Australia to people within my social-media-circle and was receiving fantastic feedback. Surely putting it out for all the world would be a success. I filled in all the details, uploaded the files, and sat back and watched. Can you guess what happened? Nothing! I had a few sales, received no reviews, and the excitement fizzled. A year later, I launched a book. This time I followed a complete launch strategy. I optimised everything, created pre-launch reviews, promoted in various affordable ways and uploaded the file. This time… so much better! After launch, I didn’t stop. I worked on getting reviews, promoting sales, and launching an Amazon advertising campaign. Last time – crickets! This time… on bestseller pages for two categories, over 30 reviews in the first month, ebook and paperback sales almost every day. It’s now six months later, and the book is still selling 3-7 copies a day. It’s not ground-breaking (yet)… but the strategy and process are scaleable.
How can we help you!
Let us take the guesswork out of your next book… OR… perhaps fix a book listing that you currently have! There are two things that sell on Amazon… a good quality book (massively underestimated) and reviews. If you can completely ‘nail’ these two things, you’ll make some money on Amazon. It’s just two things right… but it takes a lot of hard work to really perfect those two things. This is what we do at Turtle Publishing! We take the guesswork out and mentor you through the process. Book a 30-minute complimentary consult with us, and let’s see how we can help your book dream come true.
Kathy Shanks
Turtle Publishing was founded in 2020 by self-employed designer and happily married mother of two, Kathy Shanks. With 20 years of design experience and having created her own journal in 2019, where she subsequently believes that the ‘universe started throwing books at her’, Kathy is passionate about creating designs that convey the right emotion and ‘vibe’ to the right audience and specialises in budget friendly publishing solutions.
