Support for Indie Authors discussion

I have lately gotten my eyes up for the apparent importance of keywords on Amazon, but I have no direct clue of what kind of keywords to use. How do you use them and have they made any kind of change for you?

Reason I ask is that I need to make something about my sales. Don't know about you and your sales, but I have sold eighteen books in two years, no matter what kind of marketing I've used, including several give-aways, and I'm a little bit at my wits end here.

Ooh, I know, I know!!
It took me ages to discover this.

It depends which genre you're writing, but here's the romance selection...
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...

These will trigger sub categories, so if a reader is searching in a specific genre sub category it could improve the chances of your book being seen.

I have to say I don't think it helps massively, but it certainly doesn't hurt either.

As for 'low sales', I'm 3 years in and my sales are still low.
But then everyone's are. It's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

Write because you love it (has become my mantra, and said many a time on here).

Any sale you get is just a bonus.
Your success is having written and published.

It is a constant struggle to try to keep up your 'online presence' and write as well.

And pop along to my SIA thread (under Fun) 'I need a hug'; we give out supportive hugs regularly on there. We all need them sometimes.

xx

A.E. wrote: "I have lately gotten my eyes up for the apparent importance of keywords on Amazon, but I have no direct clue of what kind of keywords to use. How do you use them and have they made any kind of chan..."

Keywords are critical. In some genres, they can mean the difference between steady sales and being lost on page 36 of the search results.

You have to research them, like anything else. Start typing a keyword related to your book and see what else comes up. Also, make the maximum use of your 400 characters. You can have multiple keywords between commas. if you make sure not to repeat any, that gives you room for a lot of keywords!

I've found this to be hard to pin down, too, and I change some of my keywords now and then just to see what happens. It seems that my books are not searchable on Amazon by their blurb, which is weird, but only by title and keywords. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but this makes a difference to me.

Thank you. Haven't seen that page before, TL. That looks great. I'm into the funny 'multi-genre' books, and romance is part of my second novel. Might actually use the Romantic/Paranormal and Romantic/Love Triangle/Menage. Honestly, I don't think I'd come up with those keywords on my own. I'm too stuck in my horror/crime genre.

Ken, that is what I mean. I had no idea that the keywords could make such a difference. Thanks for letting me know.

Denae, that sounds weird. I wonder why that is. Not that I knew that you could make a search by blurb either. Seems as if I have some things to learn. :-)

Hm, checking into those categories you showed me, TL, makes me wonder how horror isn't a genre of its own, but a sub-genre under erotica... I do have some erotic scenes in my second horror book, but I would definitely not call it erotica... *lol*

Hi A.E., I've just looked at your profile page and then followed the links from your #1 and #2 books and neither of them takes me to your book on Amazon in the UK. You might like to check this out with Goodreads because it might help increase your sales - you have good reviews.

How broad do you have to make a keyword? I'm torn because you don't wanna be broad and decisive but you don't wanna be generic and have the same words everyone else has.

Maybe I need to add more keywords as well - for the fantasy genre
Can you even change/add keywords on Amazon?

Fantasy genre:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...

Horror falls under:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...
(and yes; I would've expected Horror to be its own genre!)

Guys; the words on these lists will pop you up in the sub genre browsing pages.

But if you want to put your own in feel free, but someone will have to search for 'deep sea aliens' very specifically to make it worth it. But you never know what people may type in as a search ;-p

Yes; you can go into KDP and change your keywords whenever you want.

Anna wrote: "Hi A.E., I've just looked at your profile page and then followed the links from your #1 and #2 books and neither of them takes me to your book on Amazon in the UK. You might like to check this out ..."

Anna, you are awesome! Thank you for putting in that extra effort. Do you have any idea how I can reach the Amazon UK from Goodreads? I might have looked at the wrong place, but I can't find it.

TL wrote: "Fantasy genre:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...

Horror falls under:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...
(and yes; I would've expected Horror to be its own genre!..."

Lovely! Thank you, TL. I checked the Science fiction/fantasy genre, but it must have passed me by. Put the keywords in now, though. :-)