We are delighted to welcome Michael Drakich, author of Lest The Dew Rust Them, who joins us to share a guest post about the competitive world of being noticed on Amazon.
Guest Post
I would like to thank Donna and David Brown of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave for the opportunity to do a guest post on their blog.
As a self published author, I face the challenge all indies do in Amazon, the 900 pound gorilla.
Everyone knows the joke – Where does a 900 pound gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants to.
When it comes to the indie publishing world, Amazon is the 900 pound gorilla. Self published authors have no choice but to accede to the whims of this monster. Because most self pubs rely on ebook sales only and Amazon has the giant share of that market they are forced to compete within that marketplace.
What does this mean?
One of the difficulties is Kindle Select and how nowadays, the number of free novels every single day of the week (over 5,000 the day of this post) makes trying to sell your product a challenge. I mean, why should a book buyer look at your reasonably priced product, most ranging from $.99 to $4.99, when they can get a competitor for $0.00!
But it doesn’t end there. Let’s say a buyer decides to actually shop because he wants to search for quality. So they search a category and the default search is by popularity. Well, unless you can generate a lot of sales quickly, your book will be so many pages in the buyer will never look that far.
Let’s say they change the search to average customer review. Again, unless you have had any luck garnering reviews in a massive amount, your book will be buried deep. What is purportedly happening is authors are buying 5 star reviews by the hundreds to give them a high rating. Amazon’s algorithm’s kick in and voila, a top rated book. No effective system is in place to stop such abuse.
So how do self published authors get their books found on Amazon? The simple answer is – they don’t. As long as Amazon is happy with the current system they will have no motivation to change it. After all, buyers want to find the most popular or the highest rated. Why would they introduce anything that would be counterproductive to that?
The 900 pound gorilla is sitting and you can’t move him. Or can you? I hoping it depends on how many authors who read this follow my example.
I’ve decided to write to Amazon to suggest a change to the way they offer their product. Besides the standard searches currently in use – Popularity – Price: Low To High – Price: High To Low – Avg. Customer Review – Publication Date, I intend to suggest a new category – Random.
Yes, Random. How difficult could it be to install a random generator for a new category? I bet their tech guys could do it in an hour. And think of what a boon that could be to new authors. It would introduce a chance, albeit a small one, but a chance that every now and then their book will attain the top posting. In that category, at least, it levels the playing field. Sure, it won’t be the search of choice, but there will be buyers who will have tired on the others and give it a chance.
And as an author that’s all I ask for – a chance.
In the meantime, I continue on writing and promoting. I have just released my most recent novel, a thriller, Lest The Dew Rust Them.
Homeland Security Director Robert Grimmson faces the task of catching five men in New York City. They call themselves the Sword Masters with a single minded plan of terror through decapitations. Barely has the task begun when a new arrival at JFK is a man importing thousands of swords! Alexander Suten-Mdjai is a trainer in the deadly art of swordsmanship and Robert cannot help but believe there is a connection between him and the Sword Masters. As he goes about the task, each step in his search is made more difficult through the interference of politicians, the media and his own government. Robert’s examination constantly draws him back to Alexander who regales him with a tale of swordsmanship from his lineage featuring events of mankind’s bloody past and often oddly having a connection to the case before him.
With the clock ticking as New York collapses into a deep panic, he must catch the Sword Masters before it is too late!
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Guest Post: Michael Drakich | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
