At last, it’s out there and on sale, but what do you do after self-publishing your book on Amazon?
If you think it’s time to put your feet up, you might have to wait a bit because you still have some important things to do.
When you published your book, you only had access to the most basic options for your book’s sales page.
But there’s a lot more you can do to make it shine and grab the attention of book buyers.
What’s missing after you hit publish
When you click the publish button, your book usually goes live within 24 hours.
However, it will appear on Amazon with only the bare minimum of page assets and formatting.
Yes, your book has a sales page, but it’s missing many of the features that can make it attractive for potential readers.
Your book description will appear, but it will be unformatted. Adding bold, italic, headings, and other formatting will make it much more appealing.
Also, it won’t have your author profile, so readers have no information about you and no option to follow you.
Another gap is often the lack of any book reviews. You need to remind all of those who promised to add a review to do it now. Without reviews, it’s difficult to convince new buyers.
However, you can also add editorial reviews yourself, which is a big bonus.
One factor new authors often forget after self-publishing a book is to monitor and check categories and search keywords.
Perhaps you selected these in a rush when you prepared your book for publishing. The last thing you want is for your new book to be buried in broad categories or missing useful keywords.
These are some of the most pressing issues, so you still have some work to do.
The work left to do after your book is live
Publishing your book is a huge step, and it’s probably taken you a long time to get this far.
You’ve spent all your energy up to now on drafting, writing, editing, formatting, cover design, and proofreading.
But you now need to draw breath and get ready for the last leg of the marathon.
Many new authors think that publishing is the end of the process, but it’s not. Once your book is available to buy, it’s the start of a whole new process.
While it’s tempting to sit back and wait for sales to start rolling in, it doesn’t work like that.
With a bare-bones sales page with no reviews, it is hardly likely to inspire readers.
That’s why you need to get to work very quickly to give your new book all the help you can.
After self-publishing your book on Amazon, your sales page will only have the basics.
It will display your book title, a by-author line, your book cover, book description, and, after a few days, a sample read.
However, these features alone will rarely make your book stand out in Amazon’s enormous book and ebook catalogue.
The good news is that you have plenty of options to help your book. And you don’t need to be a marketing expert or tech wizard to do it.
Most of the tools you will need to use are at your fingertips, and you won’t need to invest weeks of work.
To help you get started, the list below details the most important improvements you can make.
So, are you ready to make a start?
1. Set up or update your Amazon Author Central Page
Author Central is where you can make many improvements to your Amazon sales page.
Once you add your new book, you can include your author bio and photo, connect your versions, and use extra features to improve your new book’s presentation.
It is also where you can format your book description. If you want to take a shortcut, you can read our article on how to make the formatting task much easier.
2. Add your editorial reviews
Another Author Central feature is the ability to add your own editorial reviews. If you’re still waiting for customer reviews, these can help convince buyers that your book is worth purchasing.
3. Review your book metadata
Optimize your category and search keyword selections so Amazon customers (and search engines) can find your book more easily.
4. Push hard for early book reviews
You probably asked friends, family, or colleagues to leave reviews for your book. Now’s the time to follow up.
Early book reviews are gold, so remind them and give them a gentle nudge to post their reviews quickly.
Wherever you can, claim, add, or update your author profiles on social as well as book sites such as Goodreads, BookBub, and Books2Read.
All of these are very helpful for discoverability and building your author presence.
You need a home base online, so your website or blog is essential in helping you spread the word.
Make sure it highlights your new book, with links to all your online book retailers. You can link back to it from your author profiles or on social media.
Social media can help you reach potential readers, but use it sensibly. You can share short excerpts, ask readers questions, or share behind-the-scenes updates.
But the last thing you want to do is pump out “buy my book” posts and shares.
8. Create visuals for your book
Promotional images are a powerful online tool. You can create 3D book cover mockups or use images to help promote your book online.
You can also use images on your website to help find extra traffic from Google Images.
9. Start your long-term promotion strategy
Think about what you can do now to keep your book buzz going. It might be blogging more often, sending newsletters, or recording podcasts.
Whatever you can do to spread the word further about your book is worth the extra effort.
10. Start writing your next book
The best way to help sell your first book is to write the next one.
You’ll then have a new and extra lever to pull readers to your current book.
Summary
Publishing your book is a satisfying achievement, but the real work begins after self-publishing a book.
What you do now can and will improve how easily readers can find your book, consider it, and hopefully decide to buy a copy.
Polishing your Amazon sales page with Author Central, ensuring early reviews, and building your online presence are your first steps.
Then comes planning your long-term book promotion. Each step will help gain momentum for your book and give it the best chance to stand out in a crowded market.
But you don’t have to do everything at once. Prioritize one or two actions at first and then move through the rest as soon as you can.
Yes, you’ve published a book, which is great. However, you still have some work left to do.
Related Reading: Amazon Search Results For Books Guide For New Authors
