Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast

Amazon’s A10 Shift: The Real Reasons Your Book Isn’t Selling (and How to Fix It Fast)

• Author Marketing Experts

Share episode

The algorithm finally caught up with reality: readers want real authors, not content mills. We unpack Amazon’s A10 shift and share a clear plan to stand out with signals that only humans can create—engaging pages, authentic reviews, meaningful off-site links, and a living brand that shows up beyond the buy button.

We start with the quick wins you can tackle today. Then we raise the ceiling with strategies that compound over time. You’ll hear why external links matter more than ever, and creative ways to place them.

From there, we explore community and collaboration.  We also demystify Amazon ads: how to target with intent, and why ads rarely convert on first click.

If you want a roadmap that respects your time and boosts your odds in a crowded marketplace, this one’s packed with practical steps you can implement this week and habits that will pay off at your next launch. Subscribe, share with a writer friend, and leave a review to help more authors find these strategies. Which tactic will you try first?

Send us your feedback!

Help shape our 2026 content by taking our 30-second listener poll!

📱Text Penny & Amy: send us your show feedback, burning marketing questions and new topic ideas!

Text the word PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to sign up to send us messages and receive new episode announcements. And don't forget to save our number!

Check out our Book Marketing Jumpstart options if you're ready to take your brand, platform and SEO up a few notches.

Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

  1. Be sure you're following the show: by clicking the + Follow button on the top right of our show page. If you're already following you'll see a ↓ downward arrow.
  2. Locate Ratings & Reviews: Scroll down on our podcast page until you find the "Ratings & Reviews" section.
  3. Rate the podcast: Click on the stars to give the podcast a rating.
  4. Write your review: Under the star rating there will be the most recent review and just below that click "Write a Review" and compose your review in the text box that appears.
  5. Save: Once you've written your review, click "Save" to submit it.

Can't use Apple Podcasts? Email us your review and we'll put it on our website: inf...

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sansberry and Amy Cornell. And we are really looking forward to doing this show today. I have to say we were in the green room talking talking about it, all about the Amazon stuff. But I wanted to start fight first by uh uh apologizing. I know we tried to get super creative with the Halloween show, and our poor sound editor guy was like, you can't do this again. So Amy's so awesome that you got the echo of her like two or three times.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it was my children's nightmare. So I apologize to any of the listening because that's so funny.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god. Yeah, we were we were so I I was we were talking to the we were talking the green room and I told Amy, I'm like the next time that we do special music, and even our sound guy was like, okay, listen, ladies, like I appreciate the thought. So that's just us getting creative. We'll try not to do it again. Right, we just have to stay in our lane now. Right. We just stay in our lane, just like we tell authors, right? Stick to the facts, stick to the show. Um, and and speaking of which, by the way, so our podcast have started our podcast text notifications have started going out and we really want to hear from you. So what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see more of. This you the pod texting us is a direct way to communicate to both Amy and myself. So it's a really, really cool thing. If you haven't signed up for the text notifications yet, text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. And I'll tell you something. So Amy and I are a little bit on the fence about the notifications when there's a show. So let us know what you think. Like, we'd love to know do you want notifications when we drop a show? Amy thought, you know, we should just notify people when there's like a special show. And I'm like, no, let's notify them about everything. But this goes, but this goes into I have like when when we're in in the room together and she looks at my my phone and she sees like 9,000 notifications. I'm sort of used to that. Amy is very much not like that. So let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if there's one notification on any of my apps, it's like I'm ready to burn my phone. Like, what what is happening?

SPEAKER_00:

Like I wake up and I just scroll through all these notifications, and that's just like another day at the office for me. Yeah. So um, yeah, but let us know what you think. We really we we love show feedback and we build a lot of our shows. Um, as I mentioned before, we build a lot of our shows around show feedback. So let us know. Sign up for those text alerts, um, all the things. So here's the really interesting thing about um so the Amazon A10 shift, the Amazon A 10 algorithm shift, this happened back, was it like August or July, something like that? And one of the things that we said at the time was that um this algorithm shift had a lot to do with the fact that Amazon is battling a lot of books written by AI. Right. And one of the things that we know, so if somebody is going to put a book, if somebody's just gonna let an AI write a book and then throw it up on Amazon, there are a few things that you don't care about. You probably don't care about your author persona, right? You probably don't care about external promotion, right? You're literally just there to jump on trends. Yeah, right, exactly, to jump on the topical bandwagon. And I remember, so actually, and you know, this is not so even though I realize AI at the consumer level is very new, the concept of this is really not new. So I knew somebody years ago, and she actually knew a group where they would outsource topics to people in other countries, so let's say Vietnam or India or whatever, and they would find somebody who could write prolifically and craft a book on whatever. So, like when Prince died, right? All of a sudden you see all these books show up on Amazon and they were all written by people who just scoured the internet for information. So there wasn't any new information. They were literally just regurgitating what was already out there, throwing it in a book and throwing it up on Amazon. Yeah, I know. And so this has been going on for a long time, but the problem now is that the volume, right, right? So the volume of this stuff is really challenging Amazon, even though Amazon has that silly, like, sorry, Amazon, but I mean that silly little question when you upload your book to to KDP. Was your book written by AI? Like somebody who wrote had their book written by AI, like right.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. Gary, huh? I hope nobody's lying.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Right? It just it's so, so, so weird. So, um, so what the A10 algorithm is doing is essentially it's looking at not just your exposure on Amazon directly. And I'm gonna have Amy um take the next segment because that's what that's what that sort of focuses on, but it also focuses on your presence off of Amazon, which is something that somebody trying to push a book on A, you know, written by AI is not gonna do. So we so a couple months ago, I talked to a guy and we taught, we we refer to him now as Chat GPT author. And he basically said, I want to write 50 books in the next year, all on different topics, all nonfiction. And he's using Chat GPT. And we we can't, I I wouldn't work with somebody like that first and foremost. But in fact, we never even got back to him with no, we're not sending you a proposal. Like I just ignored him because I'm just like I'm so offended by what you're saying. Right. Um, but that's where somebody like that is not gonna spend the time developing different author personas because they're not gonna have the time.

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so that's where Amazon is really going. So we thought it would be a really good idea to kind of take you through things that you can do to prevent, you know, to help your visibility on Amazon and to prevent Amazon from looking at your author persona and wondering if you're an AI, basically. You know, Amy, do you want to take the do you want to take the first um some of the some of the quick and easy fixes that authors?

SPEAKER_01:

I love this because so much of this is what we talk about all the time. So I love when we look super smart. Like these are all things we've been recommending for a long time, but it it's true, these are becoming, and you know, we did a show on this on um was it last year already, Penny? Wow, but on just general presence online.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And how Google is getting so much more focused on the user experience and all the old tricks that you used to be able to do to trick Google are not working anymore because they are user experience focused. And, you know, as you always say, Penny, like Amazon very much likes to do what Google does. You know, if it's working for Google, Amazon likes to follow suit, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And so let's talk about quick fixes. Tighten your book page for engagement. This is something I love helping clients with this. One, because it is it's a create, a very creative part of what we do, but also it just so speaks to we can all put ourselves in the shoes of a reader if you're a reader. You know what I mean? And sometimes it's easy to forget about that when you're have your author hat on and your author business hat. You forget like you're a reader too. And think about what you would want that experience to be like, how you respond, you know? So do a checkup. You know, your title, your subtitle, your description, A plus content. If you don't have it, get it. Categories, keywords, you know, your author central, all of those fields where you can add additional content to improve the reader-shopper experience. You know, that is so important. And it says so much about kind of that next level, like Penny said in the intro, that shows that you are committed to the reader, the shopper, the user experience. And that's what Amazon wants to see. That is where they want to send their traffic to product pages that are tailored to the user experience. Also, make sure your look inside feature grabs readers in 10 seconds. You know, I see this all the time, Penny, and I'm sure you do too, where you go to the look inside and you can tell that like somebody clicked the option but didn't actually look at what was being presented. Does that just drive you nuts?

SPEAKER_00:

Makes me, it drives me nuts.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, when it's like, oh, I saw the copyright page and something else that was super random that tells me nothing about the writing style, the storyline, the content, nothing. It's like, okay, so clearly they just went with this option because they thought, yeah, that sounds like a good idea, but didn't actually take that next step to figure out what is going to represent my book best, you know? Right. Right. So that's a huge, huge one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that totally. I think that um paying attention to that. And then, you know, the other piece of it though, too, is you know, okay, ask for reviews, I get it, but I I get that asking for reviews is not always something that an author wants to do. But the majority of authors pushing, like like ChatGPT guy who's pushing out 50 books in a year, this person's not going to spend the time on reviews. They're literally just trying to make money based on volume, right? They're not really reviews.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and we see that. And I, you know, we get authors, it doesn't happen a lot, but we still get authors that get in touch with us that say they've gotten so far down the rabbit hole of producing content that they forgot that they're also a brand. And when you go check out their collected works, it's they've got all these books with and oftentimes zero reviews. Like they've done nothing. And that is not a good look when it comes to pleasing the Amazon gods. I know we've talked about the Google Gods before, but now it's the Amazon gods. They do not want to support a brand that is just pushing out content that is not getting any positive feedback from shoppers. Right. You know, it may sound unfair, but that's the reality. You know, Amazon wants to make money. They would love you to make money too. They're okay with both of you making money, but you have to put in the work on your end. Right, exactly. And reviews matter for that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, reviews matter for that. And and I would say, you know, even if you have if you're listening to this and you have not a single review, start, you know, aim for 10, and then once you've hit 10, aim for 20, and then once you've hit 20, and so on and so forth, right? Exactly. Um, but I mean, I think, and we've talked about this before, so I don't know if we don't I don't have to spend a ton of time on this, but you know, if you have a um if you have a newsletter, when was the last time that you asked for reviews? Oh my gosh, we have an author, and I know that she listens this to this podcast. I did a coaching call with her last week. We've worked with her with her book launch, and I told her, I'm like, you need to ask for reviews, ask for reviews. And I just saw she put up a cute little video on Instagram uh yesterday asking for reviews. And I'm like, you go, girl, that's amazing. I love that. It never hurts to ask, right? Um forget they mean well, right? Yeah, they mean well, and you know, and and because it so many times, in fact, I did a coaching call with an author yesterday, and he said to me, He's like, you know, all these people promised reviews, and none of them have reviewed my book. And I'm like, I know it's a thing. Like it's so a thing. It's it's a thing. Um, external links, right? So make sure. So this is probably the number one thing, and and we're gonna get to that more in the next segment. The number one thing that Amazon is looking for is they're looking for external links. So your email footer, a link to your book, your Amazon link in your bio, links on your website to Amazon. And obviously, you can list link to other booksellers and things like that. But make sure that your, and you know, if you have, if you're on social media, make sure that your, you know, there's a book link in your social profile, your headers, or if you have, you know, a link tree on, you know, your Instagram and TikTok or whatever, make sure the tripbook is listed there. Again, Amazon is looking for, I and I hate to put it like this, but Amazon's looking for a live person. Like they want to know that you're not just some guy like the 50-book chat GPT guy out there just popping stuff up and throwing it up on Amazon, right? Amazon links in your newsletter at least once a month. Every external link helps, and Amazon's really paying attention. This is what's really interesting, and then we'll get to the other one and pop over to the next segment, is that Google does this too. So, one of the things that Google looks for, so something that we with our website have always aspired to is we have aspired to external links from other trusted sources into our site. So I do this by like writing articles and getting placements in other publications and things like that. Those links validate you in your website, right? And that's how Google views this. Amazon's very much the same way. And Amazon, I think, is going to become even more aggressive about this in 2026, too.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I know we'll get into more, you know, tips when it comes to the marketing side, but this is also where those supporting, you know, I like to call them supporting actor strategies like running limited time discount promotions, peppering in some book bug ads, things that aren't super expensive, but that show Amazon, you're trying to send traffic. You're trying to send people there to buy things. You know what I mean? All that matters, like you are checking the boxes off, and it doesn't have to be super expensive. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And then the Amazon follow. This is something that I I feel like too many authors forget about. And I get it, there's a lot to remember. Y'all are probably looking at like if you're taking notes, like they've already given me like eight things to do.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01:

But truly, this is a simple one, and it can just get incorporated. Like once you get in the habit of incorporating it into everything else that you promote on a regular basis. But have people follow you on Amazon. Click that button, follow author. You know what I mean? Because I love, we follow all of our clients that we work with because I love to see the emails. I love to show our clients what they look like too, because a lot of times authors don't get those. It's like, look at this. Look how many everybody that followed you got this announcement that your book is ready to release. Like that is amazing. And so, especially if you plan to do this for a long time, prioritize having people follow you on Amazon. And that's something, you know, like Penny already mentioned, very simple to put in your email signature, promote on social, goodreads, newsletter, all the things. Just don't forget to incorporate that as well, you know. So newsletter signups, also follow me on Amazon, you know, throw it in there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. The follow link, by the way, and I know we have another, we've done another show on this, but the follow link is gold because when you get people to follow you on Amazon, not only does it notify them when you put your book up for pre-order for free, by the way. Yeah, but then when your book goes live, it also notifies them. We have an author that we've worked with, and she has something like 30,000 followers on Amazon, which is amazing and awesome. So she puts a book up for pre-order and 30,000 people are notified. Brilliant. Yeah, it's it's a brilliant, and then when the book goes live, again, they get another follow notification. If nothing else, like grab all the free tools on Amazon while you can, because you never know when Amazon's gonna be like, well, now you have to pay for that. Right. Um so social media. We talked, I talked about this just a minute ago. Make sure that um, so I love sharing social proof. I love sharing, and we encourage authors to share. In fact, we're getting ready to share some social proof for an author that we worked with who got um like literally like a banner mentioned from Amazon influencers. Book is right next to like Frieda McFadden and some really big best-selling authors. We're sharing the heck out of that. But that's the kind of thing, social proof that you really want to be sharing in your social media posts. So again, think of the things that you know, robot AI is not gonna be doing. Okay. Um and, you know, I realize that buy my book feels really awkward. Like you don't want to have a bunch of posts. You don't want to run from this show and go, oh my gosh, now I have to throw up a bunch of posts that say, you know, buy my book. That's not really what we're saying. We're saying that, you know, grab your book copy is your call to action, certainly. But this is in the context of posts where maybe you're sharing quotes from quotes from the book. Basically, you are populating communication in social media that's all around the book. There's a link in your social media back to your book on Amazon. Those are kinds of things that we talk about in other shows, active author stuff, but now it matters because Amazon's paying attention.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And I I love this next one. And I think we've said it before that I really feel like this is going to be the next like big change, hopefully, and how authors promote their books. Because I realize now I'm leading the witness. Sorry, cross-promote. Pair up with other authors. You know, we've done a show, we've I know I keep sounding like a broken record. I know we did a newsletter show recently and we talked about this a lot. But find another author that is within your genre, within your topic, typically works best because obviously their audience is your audience, is vice versa, and it just makes sense. And set up an agreement to cross-promote each other's work. You know, whether it's a release mention or a limited time discount, you know, get creative with it. But everybody, I mean, unless they're a, you know, a household name author, everybody can use new introductions to readers. You know, there are no, so if you're thinking like, oh, I feel like I'm not big enough to do that yet, you know, don't talk yourself out of something that could be great for you. There are a bunch of other authors that are probably saying similar things. So once you reach out and say, hey, this could be great for both of us, you'll probably be surprised at the reaction you get. Don't you think, Penny?

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. Yeah, I agree with you totally.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things like, uh, it sounds like I'm not ready for this yet, but you are. And the fact that there are thousands of other authors that feel the same way just goes to show like this needs to happen. You just have to start making the right connections, get, you know, get that conversation started. But that's huge because again, their traffic can become your traffic, vice versa. It's just a great way to expand your reach, especially if you're thinking, I feel like I do a lot of the things and it's like, you know, my my followers are are building slowly and it gets a little frustrating. Well, this is a great way to skirt that for a while. You know, if you feel like it's going a little slow, expand your reach into other authors' networks as well and offer them the same in return. And that's a great way to get over that hump if you're feeling discouraged that things are kind of moving too slowly.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, exactly. And I love the idea of cross-promoting. I think cross-promoting is something that we don't do enough and we don't talk about enough. But the more that you can get, in fact, I was just writing an article on um Amazon, uh, the Author Central, and talking about cross-promoting books there, because now Author Central lets you recommend books. And yes, you can recommend your own books, absolutely. But you can also share this cross-promotion. Like if you know somebody, you know, if you you're connected with some authors, they're a similar genre. Maybe you eat to recommend your, you know, each other's books on your Amazon Author Central. That's another really great way to cross promote. So the newsletter swaps are great, the bundle deals are awesome, but we're just keep in mind the things that Amazon's going to be looking for, right? Um, the other piece of this, so we talk a lot about, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because we have some other really cool ones to get to, and we have done a ton of shows on categories and keywords. Freshen up your categories and keywords. And here's why. Not just because the Amazon algorithm changes, you know, the keywords can get updated, things like that, also seasonally, but because this is something that really tells Amazon that you are actively engaged in your book. And a lot of the tips that we're giving you today are about being actively involved and paying attention to your book on Amazon. So not just throwing it up there and hoping that something happens, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Right, exactly. You know, the we, yeah, like Penny said, we talk about it all the time. But those little touches on your retail page, keeping it updated, keeping it current, keywords and categories. And honestly, you know, keywords, I feel like we could say this over and over again as a reminder. Search terms, you know, think of keywords as search terms, not just like what your book is about. They really should reflect what people are looking for on Amazon. And as a shopper yourself, you should know that that changes throughout the year. That changes as, you know, things become popular within categories. So user behavior is what you're aiming for with keywords, not just short, punchy ways to summarize your book. That's a really key difference when you, you know, when you frame what are my keywords and why we're so insistent that those are evolving all the time. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Do you want to take the next one? Or, okay, building a reader community off of Amazon. So these are kind of in case we haven't said it yet, we're kind of building in terms of uh maybe complexity is the wrong word, but we tried to start off with things that you could really check off your list quickly and easily, you know, and that are definitely uh short, quick fixes. Some of these are going to start getting a little more complex, a little more long term, but that's also really important. If you want to be doing this a long time, you have to also do things that are for your longevity, not just something that you can check off your list that you can fix this week, because those are great, but you have to have both, you know. So starting a reader list or a Facebook group, um, you know, again, small is fine, but those kind of things where you have people recommending your book, you have other people sharing your book. You know, there's a new, and this was mentioned, Penny and I chatted about this recently. You know, a lot of authors, and we help our authors with this, are starting to build uh lists in Goodreads that include their book and other books that are similar to theirs that readers would like. You know, this is very reader-centric, you know, showing. And people are like, wait, now she's talking about Goodreads. Goodreads is owned by Amazon. You know, they talk, they are doing more and more, they're they're kind of adding more integrations all the time. And so don't sleep on the Goodreads element and the connection it has with Amazon.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, in general. Right. So, but every time you post, you know, with that group or on that list, you know, you include your Amazon link. You are putting your book somewhere that once somebody goes, that's intriguing, that's interesting, that sounds like something I like, they click through and Amazon is registering that they came from outside of the site. And they go, Wow, that shows that people are actually interested in this product. And then that again, to simplify it, that triggers the algorithm and tells Amazon that your product is worth showing to more people. And that is how you gain organic visibility within the system itself.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, exactly. Um so invest in a consistent content engine, which I know sounds really complicated. So I that's why I sort of hesitated when I first I'm like, oh, this is, I know this is gonna sound painful, but listen, you don't have to do all of it. In fact, I'm rewriting my book, Five Minute Book Marketing for Authors, and and I talk about the importance of breaking something that feels overwhelming down into just like a five-minute bite-sized task that you can do. But creating content offline, not just about social media. So if you're into posting videos, post videos regularly. Uh, if you're wanting to push yourself out to podcasts, um, you know, get regular interviews because those links are now going to come back to your website, potentially also, you know, your Amazon page or your author profile, uh, blogging, blogging on your website. I think, you know, and it's funny because I talked to an author yesterday. Uh, I did some coaching with him, and he was a worked in the federal government um as an agent and has tons and tons and tons of interesting stories and wrote a fiction book. And I'm like, dude, you need to be blogging about all the things, like to the degree, obviously, that you can, because there's a lot that you know you can't really talk about. Think about your blog as an extension of your brand. If blogging is not your thing, you know, videos, something that creates content on your website that shows that you're a real person. Because again, this is now what Amazon's looking for. And the other piece of this, though, too, is that I think that this is all going to wind into Amazon's experimentation with putting Amazon ads into Google. So, in other words, the Amazon ads are going to be continually continue to show up on Amazon, but they're also experimenting with the Amazon ads showing up in Google. Right. And I think that to the degree that you have external content that links back to your website and then obviously your Amazon profile, I think these, if you should decide to dip into these ads when they are launched, I think these ads are gonna, you know, it's gonna help your overall um visibility with running um with running these ads on Google. Like I said, Amazon hasn't launched them yet, but I think that's the long-term agenda. And I think that the A10 algorithm, though designed to sort of AI proof your, you know, books, is also with an eye to we want to emulate what Google does more and more in everything that we do. And this is a big piece of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Really, really big piece of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, what's the next one? Okay, this is this is for those of you that write a series or write extensively on a topic. You know, if you're a topic expert, if you have multiple books, make sure you're interlinking them in your back matter for the book and make sure readers know what to buy next, what you have available. And this sounds very simple, but too few authors don't take advantage of this. So make sure within your book files, you are actually reminding them like, this is the next book in this series. These are the previous books. These are, you know, I mean, I read a couple authors, Penny, that write multiple series with slightly different storylines, but within the same world. And they make sure that you know about those as well. So if you've already binged one series, it's like, I've got this other one that I think you'll like also. And same thing with topics, like nonfiction authors can take advantage of this too. If you've got multiple books or you have multiple resources, even include that because Amazon is absolutely paying attention if you are keeping readers engaged. So, I mean, and we talk to authors all the time that struggle with their followers, their read-throughs, their sales, their reviews, all those things slowly tapering off book to book, you know, and that's challenging. Like that's a very real thing. But a lot of that has to do with how you're branding, how you're engaging, how you're keeping readers interested and, you know, during between releases. You know, we do a lot of shows about that, that what you do between releases is just as important what you do for when you release a book. Yeah, that's very true. You want to get those readers back. And again, if you're a series author or if you write multiple books in a single topic, you really want to show Amazon that you have convinced readers to come back for additional purchases, additional read-throughs, things like that. And you can do that by making sure readers feel involved in your brand, in what you're putting out there, in your content, in your authority. But you have to nurture those relationships. And again, we've done a ton of shows on nurturing relationships, but this it's so great that you know, these things that we've talked about before is like you should do this, you should do this. Amazon is now saying that you should be doing this as well. This is not just like it's a great idea because it's a well rounded brand. Like Amazon is telling you that if you start doing this, you will get reciprocal support from you know our platform as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. And I think that, you know, uh so let's talk for a second about running Amazon ads. So I just we just I just mentioned Amazon ads in con in the context of them wanting to have. These ads show up at Google. But if you are running, so it's very easy to I I love running Amazon ads. We've done whole shows on running Amazon ads. I love to, I think Amazon ads are great for a whole variety of reasons. But um make sure that you're running these ads thoughtfully. So a lot of times, if you are inclined to like if the ads seem confusing and you want to just run automatic ads and be done with it with no ad copy and just your book, that's something that somebody who is trying to push an AI book would probably do because they're not going to invest the time in looking for keywords and whatnot, right? So just give that a little bit of thought. Not saying that that automatic ads are completely out the window. Because I love running automatic ads and sometimes they do really, really well for a book. They can cost you a lot of money if you are not careful because Amazon will just spend your money willy-nilly. But don't rely solely on Amazon ads for your clicks and your traffic and whatnot. You know, we talked a lot about external links and things like that and keywords and categories and all that stuff. Just make sure that there's a balance. And like I said, I'm not saying don't ever run automatic ads, but don't rely solely on Amazon's automatic ads because it's really simple. Like literally, Amy, I know that you don't run ads, and I know you like to stay blissfully aware of the ads in general, which I don't blame you because it can get very complex. But you know, literally, like an automatic ad will take you maybe five minutes to set up. Basically, you just boom, get the book, automatic ad. If you're not writing any ad copy, boom, you're done, the ad's running. That's pretty easy for somebody to do if they just want to willy-nilly promote promote a bunch of books. And but it's it's a nice way for authors to get their feet wet in at in ads, but just keep in mind that keywording category ads do tend to, you know, show that you're more engaged in your book. So just kind of keep that in mind.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And oh, sorry. No, go ahead. But we also, I think this is something else that we don't talk about enough, but it's worth reminding everybody that Amazon ads, you know, when I explain this to clients, I like to say that it's the start of the conversation. A lot of times, ads, a direct click from an ad is not the goal of those, because it's not realistic, is going to be an immediate buy. And so I hope I didn't blow up anybody's brain right now. But the reality is, I know the reality is the ad starts the conversation and it generates the traffic. But this is where this all like organically comes together. More likely than not, person will come, someone will come back and buy because they had another interaction with your book. And all these other things we've been talking about for getting your book out there and being on different platforms and through different channels and through multiple different organic introductions, that is what makes a difference. So the Amazon ads are such a great consistent traffic driver. And I also like to remind clients that it's literally the only thing that can work 24-7 to promote your book, which is nothing to sleep on. That's amazing. But they are not, they are less likely to be the reason somebody clicks by right away. They were clicked by once they've been, once they've had another interaction with your book, and sometimes three or four or five more interactions. So just keep that in mind.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, that everything else that we've talked about doing also supports spending what you're spending on ads. And it will give you better conversions in the long run because everything else you're doing will be that final tipping point where they go, I am ready to buy that book now. Does that make sense, Penny? Yeah, it does, it totally makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think that the moral of the story is, you know, always be linking, be thinking about your external links that are um that are showing that you are a real author, not just somebody, not just a robot out there trying to promote something to make a to make a fast buck. At some point, I think that Amazon will, I mean, this is actually a good first start. And I think it's a really good thing for authors to focus on the external links. I mean, you want to focus on Amazon, obviously, but focusing on the external links and focusing on the external traffic sending, you know, that's getting sent to your author central page and your retail page. Um, but yeah, focus on linking. It's a really, really good first step. I think, you know, um we always chase sales rank as authors. I am guilty of that as well. And I think we've done what I know we've done at least a dozen, if not more, shows on reader loyalty. Um and how to build that and how to build, you know, how to build more reader engagement. And that's really the thing that Amazon's looking for. By the way, Amy, I wanted to mention, do you know what today, do you know what today is? Oh, geez. I'm just gonna totally put you on the spot. I didn't realize I realize that after I hit recorded, and I'm like, oh, I I have to make sure and tell you. No, this is our 300th show. Stop it. Yes. And and we hit 101 reviews.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like early Christmas. I didn't even oh my gosh, it's like you were saving all of this just to catch me off guard on the show. I was totally saving all of it to catch me off guard, but yeah, it's our 300 shows.

SPEAKER_00:

So listen, if you are thank you, everyone. I know, thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like I should have had a speech prepared. My tiara's not on. Like, I know, all the things.

SPEAKER_00:

I um we I we can't thank you all enough. You guys, I'll tell you something. It's the listeners. We don't just love to hear ourselves talk. I know that sounds that way sometimes, like we just love to hear ourselves talk. But really, we do the show for y'all. We want to make, you know, good information. Information is power, right? Education is power, and uh we hope that this show helps uh you all to reach the success that you so deserve. And we love a review. I know we're gonna keep asking for reviews, even though we've obviously exceeded our expectations with the 100 reviews. We're gonna keep asking for reviews, but I also want to remind you um, we want to hear from you. So text the word podcast to 888-402-8940. Send us your show ideas, send us your thoughts. Let us know, you know, if you're on in Amy's camp, if you hate the weekly show updates or if you love them. Um we have no ego around us. This is all, the show is all built around y'all. So we want to thank you so much for listening and for being um you know, for being such a dedicated fan base. We love that. If you are new to the show, obviously we have 299 other shows that you can dig into. So make sure to go back through the five eighths of parts of it. Don't make any plans. Don't make any plans. We have your weekend covered. Um, and listen, happy November. I can't believe it's already November. Exciting. I know. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next week. Bye bye.

Head Shot

Penny Sansevieri

Host
Head Shot

Amy Cornell

Co-host