The
significance of seemingly insignificant facts.
While it may be only the cover image and title that has attracted
some customers to your novel, once your book is published on Amazon, potential
readers can garner lots of information from that single page about you,
your book, your style of writing, its review star rating, and the publication
standard - be it traditional or home-grown. These are aside from the pertinent
facts like page count and price.
When browsing a book’s page, price for me, is the first
thing I check out. Personally, I don’t buy e-books that retail around $10 or
more.
I then consider the number of star reviews the book has
received and the value of the stars. I regard 4 and 5 stars at about the same
value and don’t usually read more than one or two of the printed reviews. Keep
in mind that a newly released book with only 5 star reviews might be the result
of friends and relatives being the first customers who feel obliged to boost
the writer’s ego. An occasional low star review amongst many does not concern
me. But if the low star reviews outweigh the higher star counts then I want to
know why.
I always read the author’s Bio(graphy). It provides an insight
into the personality of the person behind the pen – their sex, age, background,
nationality and interests. Can I align with that writer?
I then scroll down to the facts Amazon provides about each
book such as the date of publication. Is it a new release or has it been
around for years? What is the page count? Some books have less than 100 pages,
others have over 500.
Next I check out the publisher. Has the book been traditionally or
self-published, though it is not always easy to determine.
For me, the main factor which will determine if I will buy is
the “Look inside” facility. Most e-books on Amazon have this option available –
just click on the cover thumbnail.
Scrolling through a few pages provides a facsimile of how
the book will present when opened on your Kindle or reading device. Correct or
poor formatting is immediately obvious. Poor spelling, punctuation and syntax
indicate the book has not been well edited. Finally, by reading the opening
chapter the potential purchaser will know if he/she likes the writer’s style
and if the opening pages have grabbed their attention and made them want to
read more.
For any author, writing the book is the main. Having the
work edited and formatted comes second. Then throwing together a Bio and Blurb for
Amazon is often the last chore the author is confronted with.
But the Amazon web page on which your book appears is your
shop-front and it is the information that appears there that has most bearing on whether a customer
decides to purchase your novel or not.
Just my thought for the day.
