A good Kindle ebook sales rank helps you sell more ebooks.
But keeping your ebook in a high position on Kindle bestseller lists is challenging.
A book has a short selling life, so you need to make the most of your opportunities in the first few months, in particular.
If you’re looking to maintain your ebook’s sales rank on Amazon, there are several strategies you can try.
Offer free ebooks
The easiest way to maintain a good ebook sales ranking is to use the oldest promotional tool around. Keep offering free ebooks.
Many self-published authors frown upon giving away their ebooks, believing they lose possible sales revenue. But in fact, this is not (entirely) true.
Free ebook hunters abound and, in all probability, read only a small percentage of the ebooks they download.
However, simply downloading a copy yet never reading it increases your ebook’s ranking, making it more visible to ebook buyers.
If they do read it, they may become future buyers if it is a book in a series or, perhaps, become Kindle Unlimited readers.
While using free ebooks as a promotional tool works on most retail platforms, with varying degrees of success, it is on Kindle that it works by far the best.
Simply because there are more users of Kindle Stores than any other ebook retailer.
To access Kindle free ebook days, you must enroll in KDP Select and grant exclusivity to Amazon.
This is a hot topic among self-published authors, with many authors reluctant to grant Amazon exclusive rights to their ebooks.
But if you decide not to enroll, there are many other ways to offer free ebooks, including perma-free ebooks.
Your book description
Keep your book description up-to-date and engaging.
It is one of the most essential marketing tools you have on Amazon.
Make sure it is compelling, accurate, and up-to-date with any new information about your book.
You can add enhancements, including HTML styling and A+Content.
Push for book reviews
Great book reviews will always positively influence your sales rank.
So it’s important to encourage readers to leave reviews.
You can add a call to action in your book’s back matter.
To get a reader’s attention and hopefully to review your book, you can add a line or two after THE END of your book, politely asking for a customer review.
Here’s a simple example.
If you enjoyed reading this book, your review would be most appreciated.
Another option is to send a follow-up email to your beta readers, asking them to leave a review if they haven’t done so.
Use social media
Social media might not be as effective now as it was in the past.
But it’s still a free and quick option to promote your ebook and drive traffic to your blog or Amazon listing.
If you can afford the time, engaging with readers on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram can help you build a loyal fan base.
Buy advertising on Amazon
Amazon Advertising can be an effective way to increase the visibility of your ebook.
You can use tools like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Displays to target specific keywords and audiences.
But it’s certainly not a cheap option, so you need to budget carefully.
Use book promotion services
You can find many sites and services for promoting books and ebooks.
Some offer a free option, but you will need to pay for most of them.
The best way to research the possibilities is to refer to the Reedsy list of book promotion services.
Summary
There is no doubt that giving away free ebooks is by far the quickest, easiest, and totally free promotional tool that an author has to help maintain ebook sales ranking.
However, it is only one, albeit quite powerful, book promotion tool authors can use to maintain a good ebook sales rank.
Free ebooks should be combined with other book promotion ideas that generate ebook sales, as the only true measure of an ebook sales rank are actual ebook sales.
However, maintaining a high sales rank on Amazon requires ongoing effort and attention to detail.
But by using different strategies and continually promoting your ebook, you can increase your ebook sales rank and your chances of success on the platform.
Related reading: Is Kindle Unlimited Worthwhile For Self-Publishing Authors And Their Ebooks?
Quick question….Let’s say I have 100,000 KU pages read on a single book on Amazon. At what point during the month does that books RANKING get credited for those pages read? Daily? At the end of the month? I have looked all over the internet for this and cant get an answer. Thanks Steve
I have looked for this info before, and had problems finding a definitive answer. But Amazon’s book ranking is usually updated daily. So I would guess that it is the same for KU. But as with a lot of things Amazon, it isn’t always very clear.