The future has finally arrived for authors of all stripes. Whether you’re an experienced published author, or someone just beginning to self-publish e-books, you can take advantage of the marriage of Amazon to Mobile Twitter.
How does it work?
Share a link on Twitter that leads people to your book already in the Kindle Store. When one of your followers taps on your link, s/he’s directed immediately to a Buy Now button. Your followers are already fans, otherwise they wouldn’t be following you. Giving them an opportunity to buy immediately is HUGE!
You don’t want to post these promotional updates too often, maybe once every 20 times you post. That being said, giving fans an opportunity to buy right now can certainly help you earn a nice living.
Half of Twitter’s users (and at least half of your fans) are connecting to Twitter via mobile devices. Making so easy for them to buy and download your books just makes business sense.
Why Amazon is so perfect!
Amazon has Kindle apps on all of the major mobile platforms: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows 7. Amazon’s mobile site is easy to use and has Amazon’s patented 1-Click purchase process. Amazon also provides book syncing, which makes maintaining your eBook library much simpler. To reassure any concerned eBook buyers Amazon’s links are always secure. When you use bit.ly to shorten your Kindle store link it will appear as amzn.to.
How to craft your Twitter updates:
The essential components of these updates are hashtags, or clues to what the update is about, and the link:
- 1) a clue that the update is targeted to mobile phone users (#mobile, #android, #iphone, #ipad),
- 2) a clue that the book is an ebook (#ebook or #ebooks),
- 3) a clue that the book is in the Kindle format (#kindle), and finally
- 4) the link to the download (http://amzn.to/MyAwesomeBook).
How often should you update?
You don’t want to spam your followers with lots of “buy my book” updates. If they’re following you for your content, they don’t want to be promoted to all the time. That being said, it is appropriate to send a “buy my book” update once out of every ten to twenty content rich updates.
How do you build an audience to send your Twitter updates to?
Audience building is an important part of selling your book online. Having a community of fans is important to maintaining momentum between your book releases. The short answer for how to do this is to hire a professional (ideally WePost Media) to do this for you. You’ve got better things to do with your time, like writing your next book.
My next book is a detailed how-to for building an audience on Twitter, and yes, it will be available on Kindle. Send me an “@” reply on Twitter with the title of your next book: @Thubten.
