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SELF PUBLISHING

©2018 Jericho Writers

Your Amazon Page Titles, subtitles and book descriptions

Pitching your novel


What we’re going to talk about

Overview – and two models

Titles, subtitles, series titles

Book descriptions – copy

Book descriptions – formatting


Video overview

And two models of excellence


What we’re talking about: titles

Title only

Title and subtitle


What we’re talking about: titles

Title and series title

Title, subtitle and series title


What we’re talking about: book descriptions


You get to fill out all this data on your “Kindle Ebook Details” page

Typos Double & treble check. A misspelled title? Yeugh…

Subtitles Should appear on the cover. Enforcement is patchy, though

Series titles Don’t add “Book 3” – just supply the data


That’s definitions sorted. What about those models of excellence?

Arguably, the two best digital publishers at the moment are

Amazon Via Thomas & Mercer, 47North, Montlake Romance, etc

Amazon’s publishing imprints have a 14% share of all US ebooks

Bookouture An explosively successful UK-based publisher

From start-up to ‘Big 5’ in three years


Here’s how Bookouture does it

Titling Includes subtitle | Includes series title

Description Lots of formatting | full use of 4000 character limit | Reviews | Keywords


What does this tell us?

There are two well-tested, but totally different approaches to this

The ‘lite’ approach (Amz) Limited text forces reader to move to ‘Look Inside’

No subtitle games, etc – Amazon can’t be spammy or cheaty

No reviews in description – Amz has to play by its own rules

The full fat approach (B’ture) Make the sell! Be pushy!

Don’t care about being a tad spammy

Don’t care about silly, poorly enforced rules


I prefer the full fat approach ... but bear in mind the alternative

So we know what we’re talking about in this video

Titles Duh! That’s obvious

Subtitle Book-specific. Text should appear on the cover

Series title Common to entire series

Descriptions The blurb for your book

Two gold-standard approaches: lite and full fat


Nuts & bolts in a second, but let’s also remember why we’re here

Attract Bring readers to the page

Convert Get em to buy

Titles

Subtitles

Series titles

Title summary Interesting text conversions. Keyword-rich text attraction

Book description

Description is mostly about conversion


Titles, subtitles, series titles

What you’re doing, How to do it


Titles: just choose the best one for your book

See the video in the “Your book”

section of this course for more info

(Oh, and I’m not especially good at

titles, so don’t listen to me anyway!)


Sub & series titles: the choice is more complex

Using keywords in the title (“Serial killer”)

helps the book show up on search

But

Using too many keywords may give a

spammy / hard to read feel to the text.


And remember: title text trumps keywords (by far)

Example: search term: “serial killer”

Top ranked books 1-8 Title Subtitle Series title

Girl in the ice

Talking with serial killers

The serial killers

The principal of evil

Serial killers

The deadly dozen

Murder most Moscow

2016 Serial killers true crime


Sub & series titles: your choice

Do you want to keyword stuff?

Or stay bare? (probably, except Amazon does it)


Sub & series titles: your choice, cont…

Or just add a shoutline? (emerging standard for most books)

Or add a shoutline crammed with keywords? (Bookouture does it!)


Most writers will be happy if their fill title text meets these criteria

Great title

Natural & compelling subtitle

Contains keywords

Series refers to series in most natural way


Book descriptions

Copy


The basic structure of a great book description

Length Purpose

Intro 1-2 lines (bold or similar) Grab the attention

Main copy 100-150 words

Do not exceed 180!

Set up the premise. Your narration may well cut off

about 25% of the way into your story

Ending 1-2 lines ‘Great for readers of…’

‘But will Karen be able to find her in time…’

Series recap A few lines Let people know this book is part of a series

Review section As long as you want

Prove quality

Keep readers away from other temptations

Not strictly allowed, but who cares? (Not Amz)

Call to action 1 sentence max “Buy my book, it’s great”

Not sure if this adds anything


Your intro text is just a teaser: a promise of good stuff

Proof of success Gone Girl

THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON

OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE

Call to action Maestra

READ THE CONTROVERSIAL THRILLER THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Premise + proofs Magpies

Meet the neighbours from hell, in the gripping thriller that reviewers and

readers describe as "fast-paced," "chilling," and "impossible to put down.”

Teaser HB, Deepest Grave

An ancient battle. A dead researcher. And a very modern crime.


Your main copy needs to answer two huge questions

The what What kind of book is this?

What’s the genre? What’s the set-up? Who are the characters?

Reader wants facts

The why Why would I want to read this book?

What’s the payoff? What will it make me feel?

Reader wants emotions


The what

‘It’s about this girl who falls in love with a vampire…’

The why

‘…and it’s sooooo sexy’

Any big-selling book can answer those two questions fast


Your closing text should leave people needing to buy

Gone Girl Question - mystery

So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

Maestra Shoutline

Fatal attraction meets The Talented Mr Ripley in this darkly decadent

thriller, soon to be a major Hollywood film, that asks:

Where do you go when you've gone too far?

Magpies Scenario recap

The Magpies is a gripping psychological thriller in which the monsters are

not vampires or demons but the people who live next door. It is a

nightmare that could happen to anyone.

HB, Deepest Grave If you liked this…

This book will be perfect for anyone who's enjoyed the work of Ann

Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, or Andrea Camilleri.


The perfect piece of copy has a narrative arc

Example HB, The Dead House (UK edition – I didn’t write this!)

Setup

On a wild October night, the body of a young woman is found in a remote country

churchyard. She's wearing nothing but a thin, white dress. There are no marks of

violence and no obvious cause of death.

Who is the victim? Why is she here?

Complications But another young woman went missing from the area a few years back, and DC Fiona

Griffiths soon suspects a crime even more chilling than she first imagined.

Conclusion Will she unlock the secrets of the dead house?

Or will she become its next victim?


So we’ve handled the essential parts of the copy

Intro Grab the attention Probably bold, or similar

Main copy 120-150 words Give the what: “What is this book all about?” Present the why: “Why do I have to read it?”

Wind-up Why you have to read it

Now we turn to the optional elements


Series reminder. Example: The Girl in the Ice, Robert Bryndza

Watch out for more from DCI Erika Foster

She’s fearless. Respected. Unstoppable. Detective Erika Foster will catch a killer, whatever it takes.

1. THE GIRL IN THE ICE

2. THE NIGHT STALKER

3. DARK WATER

What do I think about this? I don’t know!

Con Amazon already tells you this book is part of a series; And does it support sales?

Pro Bookouture is very smart about these things and may well have tested


We’ll talk about reviews in a second, but first look at this

We prohibit including any of the items below in your description:

Pornographic, obscene, or offensive content.

Reviews, quotes or testimonials.

Phone numbers, mail addresses, email addresses, or URLs.

Availability, price, alternative ordering information.

Solicitations for customer reviews.

Any keywords or tags.


Reviews. Example: The Girl in the Ice, Robert Bryndza

What people are saying about The Girl in the Ice

‘I freakin’ LOVED it! ... Once in a while a book stops you in your tracks ... this is THAT book!’ - Crime Book Junkie

‘I loved, loved, loved this book and Erika Foster is most definitely my kind of heroine. She is smart, tenacious, direct and passionate…I found the writing tight, evocative

and enthralling. I CAN NOT wait for the next installment.’ - Angela Marsons

‘A non-stop, edge-of-your-seat, rollercoaster of a thriller! The ending, oh the ending! My mind is still blown! This book does not disappoint!’ - The Book Addicted Boy

‘Oh my gosh!...gripping, grimy, hardcore, thrilling…I was hooked!!!...I loved this book…You Have GOT To Read This!’ - A Page of Fictional Love


If you want to include a review section, remember:

1. The reviews should be 100% consistent with your overall marketing message

2. Use bold to highlight key messages

3. Reviews don’t need to be NYTRB – bloggers & readers are fine

4. You’re in breach of Amazon’s guidelines. They may wipe your description and not tell you.

5. Don’t keyword stuff ... but if your review (or other) text happens to incorporate keywords, I think that’s helpful


Do you want to include a direct call to action?

“So buy My Great Book now – you’ll be thrilled that you did!”

My view? Hmm…

CTAs really need to be links, and you can’t create links

Amazon users know how to use Amazon…


Book descriptions

Formatting


Good book descriptions should look nice


So how do you format your text like this?

Amazon doesn’t give you formatting

buttons to play with

So you have to write your own HTML


That sounds scary, but isn’t

<h2> This gives you a big headline </h2>

<h3> This gives you a small headline </h3>

<strong> This give you bold </strong>

<em> This gives you italics </em>


Non-fiction authors may also want to use lists/bullets

This code (ordered list):

<ol> <li>List item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ol>

This code (unordered list):

<ul> <li>List Item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ul>

Delivers this result:

1. List item 1

2. List item 2

Delivers this result:

• List item 1

• List item 2


If you want it super-easy

There are free tools to generate the necessary code

Key links:

http://twoschmucks.com/amazon-description-editor/







Don’t go crazy

Remember plenty of mass-selling

books use no HTML at all.


All done

Here’s the recap


What we’ve talked about

Overview How titles work. Bookouture vs Amazon

Choosing your titles Attract the reader. Use keywords. Different models

Book descriptions Structure of good copy. Optional elements

Formatting Use basic HTML – or just cheat

Want notes? Want audio? Want links? - Get them below


That’s all, folks!

See you soon

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