"I just realised my product description has a typing error. So, I have amended it. I've read that description loads—HOW did I not catch it? The paperback cover is fine though, so it must just be the online blurb. Maybe this is what the nasty reviewer meant by a 'mistake in the first line'? It's all updated now anyway, and the physical book is fine. I'm mortified, but at least I did catch it eventually; it could have been worse."
I remember writing this on May 30th 2024 after discovering a silly typing error in the description for To See A World; a description I must have written, re-written and read a thousand times already. I realised after the mad rush to fix the error that just as much care must go into the online descriptions and listings as the books themselves, and that I wanted to make myself a note not to let something like this happen again.
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
30/05/2024 - This did cause some panic because it had me wondering if this was what that bad review was referring to all along. But it only seemed to be on one particular website, and as the description was copied and pasted over across the multiple platforms I use, I was baffled as to how I'd let that slip through, and could only assume it was accidental, like the nudge of a key or something. But, fixing it felt satisfying, and it was a major reminder that even those who care immensely about their work can make mistakes. The good thing about publishing the way I do is that these can be corrected... fast.
How had I let such a silly mistake slip through? How was I going to prevent that happening again?
I took some advice from a YouTuber to learn more about running Amazon ads and getting my online description and display perfect.
I've used one of the AI-generated images here for The Resurrection of Pandora as it accurately describes my mind on the 30th and 31st May 2024. After seeing that error, it sent me spiraling down a 'how can I improve this even more?' phase. It happens occasionally, when something triggers my anxiety or a short burst of OCD, and I NEED to fix something that technically cannot be fixed, and NOW. So I turned to the experts on YouTube who were already doing this and did some research.
Here is the outcome. See what you make of my notes!
The Customer Journey and Amazon Impressions
An Amazon Ad impression is when the book appears on Amazon's listings when somebody is scrolling. Ideally, we need the book to appear on page 1 to get the most attention. But its appearance is called an 'impression'. This happens if your keywords are correct, so it will appear in the right place at the right time for the right reader. You might get 1000 impressions, which means all those people have seen it, but not all of them will click or buy it.
More impressions mean you can rank higher. Page 1 makes the book easier to see and may equal a higher conversion rate for a keyword. The books above you on a listing have a higher conversion rate. But you don't need to mess about on Amazon to achieve it. Your conversion will go up if you have the correct keywords, design a top notch cover, have stunning A+ content and plenty of reviews.
The important thing to know is that we don't actually pay Amazon ads for sales. We pay them for data, which helps us to achieve more sales. You can start a bid at 60c and increase by 5c after every few days if you don't see impressions, but you don't need to immediately bid so high. 35-60c is too popular, so ideally bid a little higher than that.
ACOS
I got baffled by the ACOS term, and felt myself drowning in the math behind how it all works. But I did follow the YouTuber's advice and made some notes about ACOS, and he said that to achieve a high ACOS, this means tons of clicks on a book but no sales (so basically, a low conversion rate from clicks on the ad to actual sales of the book).
If your bid is $1.20 (cost per click, CPC) x 10 clicks (CPC to get one sale) = 100% ACOS based on a $12 book. If the spend is $12 and the earning is $12 then it's a 100% ACOS.
A+ Content
A few other things to consider are:
is the price of the book too high?
Does the description look good with bullet points and formatting (if relevant)?
Do you have A+ content?
Reviews have value - 50+ are needed and ideally 4-5* average. Aim for 50-100 reviews in month 3.
The reader then clicks on what they like the look of. My book, ideally, if the cover is correct and the title is enticing. This then extends to the description, A+ content and the reviews, and a customer/reader will compare books they like before choosing which one to buy, just as customers might compare brands of other products before choosing the best.
A+ content is one of the things the YouTuber says is needed to impress the reader. So you need a standard image header with text (one of the options when you create the content) or a standard image and dark text overlay, 970x300px minimum in size, but if you want just images you can leave the overlay text blank. I didn't realise you could do this and it took me a long time to figure out that to create simple images without any additional text over the top, you can simply choose not to add any.
There will be a 3-10% increase of conversion with effective, high quality A+ content. Use colours from the book - the same ones in the same amount - focus on contrast and hierarchy, so put the big stuff at the top and skip some of the smaller stuff like your readers will.
So I created these (example of 2), which matched my book cover/series theme.
"I have re-designed my A+ content in [design software] using 3 artboards to separate them. 1 image that reflects the cover. I had to upload that to [2nd design software] with a free pro trial to lower the export quality as KDP only allows 300mb. I have then added a 4th image to advertise book 2 beneath it... submitted today for up to 7 days of approval + 24 hours to then appear on the screen for UK, USA, AU and DE territories."
You can have up to 5 modules with A+ content, and they are accessible via the KDP account. The YouTuber says to make use of all of them if you can, but I didn't, as I write fiction not non-fiction, so there was less to include. Focus on the USP (unique selling point), and give at least 3 of these in the description.
The Chronicles of Pandora has:
zero spice/sex (suitable for teens and adults who prefer not to read erotica)
Lord of the Rings meets Once Upon A Time (adventure and lots of mythical creatures with a lighter story-telling method where storylines cross).
Strong female protagonist
Unique characters and creatures I created (Dreamers, Retainers, Everlasts)
A full-spread map I designed myself
AI character art and locations as extras on the website (and in one edition of the book)
I chose to mention these 3:
The map
The HPS (Haeyloian Power Scale) which focuses on the creatures I created
The AI images (which I later removed from the paperback and posted online only as bonus content).
There are three types of readers on an Amazon page.
Skimmers - they look only at the image
Readers - they look at the image and the headline/s
Invested Readers - they read the body of the text
So you need to target people in the right order. Have a big image and a headline first, then the body beneath it. A catchy description and a picture alongside it, ideally. He also said to include the 7 Amazon keywords I chose when publishing the book on the description body as well. This helps the algorithm to determine what it's about (and the readers too), and categorise it organically. You can, for non-fiction, include it in the title, the cover and the A+ content as well.
I made a note of some keywords and phrases I could use given that my book was fiction:
YA readers
Greek Mythology
Pandora
High Fantasy
No spice fiction for teens
YA Fantasy
Fantasy series
The 1st Phase of a Book's Release (KDP Ads)
I came across this part far too late, but I made notes for the future anyway.
Phase 1 of a release is the honeymoon period - 40 days. Keywords for ads should be broad with fixed bids. It's not about making money but about getting the data in so you can adjust it later. It needs to be fixed as Amazon don't have previous data to use and needs to learn about the title. Gain 100-300 sales from ads before you try to move on.
Honestly Assessing My Facebook Ad
I needed to be completely honest with myself here, so I made some notes about potential problems I might face when it came to my book's description on a Facebook ad I was running, and how that would lead people to Amazon.
"The cover and ad is nice. Title potentially fine. Price £1.99 is acceptable as this is mentioned on the ad too. It leads to a click through to Amazon UK... could have more reviews as 41 in the UK and 58 in the US. Can the UK be higher as I live in the UK? Bold formatting is a bit off and the main USP and reasons to buy it are too far down. This can be corrected. The A+ content at the minute is OK but not very fantasy-related (again this can be corrected)."
KYC = (Know Your Customer).
31/05/2024 - I continued my study of branding and advertising to improve my product description page, but by this point I was honestly feeling very overwhelmed, tired, and a bit defeated by it all. There is NO WAY a new author would know any of this, and it baffled me how anyone sells anything with such complicated systems.
I learned a bit about the different types of branding
I learned a near fact about Amazon reviews
Branding
Linear brands are in a series like Harry Potter. Non-linear brands are a series of similar things that can be read out of order, but still understood. Targeted non-Linear brands niche down on the non-linear, for example a book about anxiety can be further niched to OCD or social anxiety etc. Expanded branding are workbooks or colouring books that relate to the original content.
My Chronicles of Pandora series is therefore a linear brand.
Reviews that Count
I discovered today that a reader must get through at least 50% of an e-book for the review on Amazon to count. I'm not sure if this is true or a rumour, but something I thought worth noting.
This covers the May entries in my success journal, and at the end of the month I was left feeling lost and confused. There was still a lot to learn, but I'd taken in quite a lot of information as well, and had to learn lots of percentages, abbreviations and 'tricks of the trade' to get my book's product description page and the Amazon ads I was running to standard. I am sure having read this, you are just as puzzled as I was back then, and writing this now I have to admit I'm not overly confident, but I'm getting better.
I'll be posting more about my June entries in the coming weeks. Please stick with me for the 7th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
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