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I'd turn your blurb around. Start with Zack then the police, then the village. Do you mind if I chop it about for you?

Hi Alex, the fact that you've waited so long for a response probably means there's nothing screaming at us to say it's all wrong.

"A peaceful community torn apart by murder, mistrust, and a desire for revenge.
When Oakhurst’s daughters begin to turn up brutally murdered and with accusatory words carved into their skin, the residents of the small, close-knit English village are unwilling to believe that one of their own might be a killer...."

As you can see, I've just taken a comma out and changed a few words around at the beginning of the blurb.

I'll keep thinking!

Did you have an editor? I'm not fishing, even though I am an editor. The best books sometimes need a tweak, and it's hard for the author to do alone, because they know what it's supposed to say, and their brain will fill in the holes. I'm willing to do a quick edit, and I'll give you a good price, because even though I'd sincerely like to see you succeed, I would still like to eat this month. Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth

I hear ya Alex. I've tweaked my book descriptions, categories and keywords and haven't seen an increase in sales but I know it's also not easy and just changing those three things won't make an immediate impact. The best thing to do is know what needs some touching up and make the best of it. Test out different prices and descriptions and if you find they don't work then you can always go back and touch them up again.

Hi Alex

You may have seen this in another posting, but here's a blog I wrote about my first real attempt at book marketing:

http://chryscymri.com/blog/

Secondly, how about joining a review group to get more reviews on your book? Here's one that's looking for people:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You can still improve your categories.

Let's compare our novels. Right now, "Written in Blood" is at #743,163 Paid in Kindle Store. "The Clerk" is at #755,169. Our sales rankings are comparable. Our category rankings, however, are very different.

Here are your rankings:

#1437 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Vigilante Justice
#3387 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Serial Killers
#7654 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Crime

And mine....

#262 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Humor & Satire > Dark Comedy
#381 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mashups
#587 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Parodies

So even though you're higher than me in sales ranking, my category rankings are much better.

How did I find these awesome categories? You won't like the answer - the answer, of course, is "spend money." I use Bestseller Ranking Pro (BRP), which is a great tool. You can find quality categories in like five minutes. But it's expensive. Check out the price for yourself, then after your jaw hits the floor, pick it back up and continue reading.

I'm not trying to shill for BRP. I think it's overpriced, and if there's another product out there that's cheaper, tell me, and I'll drop BRP immediately. But it does work. And it does have a money-back guarantee. You could get it, get the categories you need, then ask for a refund. Is that sleazy? Who cares? You gotta do what you gotta do.

If you don't want to do that, you can replicate what BRP does yourself - it'll just take forever. Go into these Top 100 lists and look at the sales rankings of the 1st, 50th, and 100th books. From there, you can determine which ones you can crack and which ones you can't.

For example, looking at "Vigilante Justice" just now, the #100 book has a sales ranking of 8,193.

By contrast, the #100 book in "Dark Comedy" has a sales ranking of 146,853.

See the difference? Even if you had a successful sale, it's unlikely you can even get into the top 100 in "Vigilante Justice" - and if you did, you wouldn't get far, because it only gets together as you climb the list. In "Dark Comedy," you'd surely beat 146,853, and could likely make significant headway.

For an even better example, look at my novel "Double Lives." It's #80 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Comics & Graphic Novels > Martial Arts, and the sales ranking is 312,842! It's very likely I could grab the #1 spot in this category if/when I have a sale - the current #1 book only has a sales ranking of 31,029.

But, since this data changes all the time, you'd drive yourself crazy trying to keep track of all the category fluctuations. Even "Martial Arts" isn't as lucrative as it was only a few months ago. That's where BRP comes in.

One final note: you may already know this, but don't worry about selecting a "bad" category. Amazon chooses the three best categories to put in the product details section. The others go to the bottom of the page. There's no downside to having too many categories - and you never know, a "bad" category may suddenly turn into a good one!

Hope all that helps, and isn't overkill. Any questions, just ask.

Drama fits.

As long as you're not choosing a category that's completely contrary to your novel, I don't think anyone will care. If I put Contemporary Romance, yes, people would be like "WTF?" But consider "Mashup" - pretty much anything qualifies as a mashup, right?

I know most writers want to do the right thing and be faithful to their story, but that's not feasible when it comes to Amazon categories. You have to bend a little.

You're on the right track, though. Look at more international categories similar to the "British & Irish" one. Us Yanks can't touch those, but you can.