The Kindle’s ‘Before You Go’ Feature

The latest generation Kindle now brings up a Before You Go… screen on the last page of all books, which can be a great way of spreading the word about your book through social media, as well as garnering reviews on Amazon.com. That’s two fantastic promotional opportunities!

Unsure what ‘latest generation’ means? See this page for images of the different Kindle generations to see what yours is!

The Before You Go… feature invites the reader to share with their Twitter and Facebook followers/ friends that they’ve finished the book. They are also able to give it a rating and write an Amazon review.

The page also links to other titles by the same author, as well as a list of books that “Customers who bought this book also bought…”. This is great news for authors with more than one title.

Image courtesy of pcmag.com

Key Points: Before You Go

1. Before You Go is a built-in feature and it’s only built into the latest generation. Neither the Kindle owner nor the book publisher has to turn it on, it’s naturally there.

2. Readers do need to enter their Twitter and Facebook account details into their Kindle in order to share what they have read.

3. The only real thing you need to know as a publisher: the Before You Go… page is a very useful way of getting reviews on the spot since many people will forget to write them later. And as we all know reviews drive sales. So you want as many people as possible to see this page.

What you do not want therefore is a ton of backmatter between the last word of your book and before the Before You Go screen. When formatting your book, be sure to make sure the Before You Go screen comes soon after the book finishes.

Traditionally there might be acknowledgements, references, book club questions and prompts after the last word. I would argue that it is more important to have readers see this screen than include this information. Important acknowledgements (brief ones at least) can come at the beginning of the book, and other information can be found on your website, which you can leave a link to at the end of the book.

The only backmatter exception I can see worth having, is a chapter excerpt for another of your titles at the end of your book. If readers enjoyed the book they just finished they will most likely want to read your excerpt and be drawn into your other title this way.

What are your thoughts and experiences with the Before You Go… screen? How will you handle not leaving the traditional pages and pages of acknowledgements? Do you think that spreading the word through social media in this instance drives sales?

How the Right Amazon Tags Can Help With Your Book’s Visibility

Have you added tags to your book on Amazon or the Amazon Kindle yet?

Here is an example of the tags for my wedding guide on Amazon:

What a lot of authors don’t realize is that tags not only describe your book, they also influence recommendations and this results in more visibility, showing up in pairings more often and thus being seen by potential customers who are browsing similar titles. The aim then is to catch his/her attention and draw them to your product page. In other words…

Authors, Are you using your Author Central page? | It’s your friend.

If you are selling a book or eBook through Amazon, you should absolutely be taking advantage of author central on Amazon.

I know, I know that you are thinking “GROAN!! Yet another social media site to keep up with.”

But actually it’s not all that much work at all, and once it is up and running (i.e. you have filled out your basic info, added a photo, imported your blog) you will rarely have to touch it again.

The benefits:

How Adding Customer Images Can Increase Your Sales

Did you know that on Amazon you can add customer images to any product?

Just go to any Amazon product page and look under the book image (usually the book cover). Here you will see the following option;

“Share your own customer images”. Anyone can upload these images, including the author or publisher. In the case of my wedding title, I uploaded 4 images to compliment the existing image of the book cover. These include my author profile picture, an image of the paperback book and two images of it on my Kindle.

When we added images to two of our titles, our sales increased significantly. Coincidence?

Why Getting Reviews on Amazon Should be Your First Priority | (& Why bookstores leave me overwhelmed))

Reviews are the reason Amazon is where it is. The other day I was in a brick and mortar store and I was struck by the lack of info I was getting about the books I was browsing. I needed social reassurance, because I grew up in the 90′s and 2000′s and that’s what I’m used to receiving.

Image courtesy of weheartit.com

Perhaps my parents relied on word of mouth recommendations from friends and family – the current generation depends upon several detailed written reviews. Without book reviews, all we can do is judge a book by it’s cover, and that’s a tough task. We crave something more. We crave the nod from more than a handful of people saying “this is worth spending your hard earned money on”. Or, “don’t waste your time”.

How to Send Your Personal Documents to Kindle for FREE| & my dog’s a drunk?

One thing I love about the Kindle is that you can read your own writing – and other personal documents – on it for free (it’s the narcissist in me!). The Kindle screen is much nicer on the eyes than the computer or event the iPad, and I can take it to bed with me. Since joining a critique group a few weeks ago, this is a great way to read my fellow writers work without having to sit in front of the screen.

This picture has no relation to the post, it’s just adorable. (It’s my Sunny Dog).

The Kindle tools page’s explanation of sending documents to your Kindle – and the fees associated with it – is overly complicated and confusing. Here is the short and sweet version of sending documents to your Kindle at no cost.

• Your Kindle has a unique and customizable e-mail address you can set on your Manage Your Kindle page. (“name”@free.kindle.com)
• You can send Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files to your Kindle e-mail address.
• Using the personal email address associated with your Amazon/ Kindle account, email your Kindle’s e-mail address (“name”@free.kindle.com), and attach the documents you wish to transfer.
• When you have Wi-Fi connection (i.e. do not use the 3G network if you have the Kindle 3G version), enable Wi-Fi on your Kindle and wait for the documents to download to your device. No action is necessary from you and no fee will be charged

You can also transfer personal documents to your Kindle at no charge using the USB that comes with the Kindle (detach the end piece of your charger and you are left with a USB cable).

If you don’t have access to Wi-Fi and use 3G, or if you email documents to the address “name”@kindle.com (omitting the ‘free’), you will be charged $0.15 per MB, and $0.99 per MB when travelling outside of the country where your Kindle is registered. To avoid being bitten by these costs, you can set a maximum charge limit via your Manage Your Kindle Page. Scroll down to the “Your Personal Document Charge Limit” section, enter your preferred maximum charge value, and click “Update limit”.

Happy July 4th everyone! Enjoy some sun, fireworks and maybe a beer or two.