A common phrase is "Never judge a book by its cover." Is this true in the publishing world and the world of readers? Unfortunately, I don't think it is. A good cover is the first thing somebody's going to see when they look through Kindle and Amazon. You could have the most wonderful book description and story, but if you can't get someone to click, it's not going to matter. A good way to make attractive book covers for nothing is through Pixabay, where you can get free images not under copyright, and Canva, where you can format the pictures or look through their covers, with some being free and others being about a dollar in American money.
After you design the cover, make sure your blurb is done well and grammatically correct. After all, if your book description has typos and mistakes, what does that say for the rest of the book?
Properly identifying your book genre is another key. Make sure you know what age range you're directing it at and what genre it is. You don't want someone buying your book believing they're getting a young adult book and then ending up with an adult book.
Your search tags are another important piece. This is going to require a good deal of research and Googling. Google what the best search tags for your genre and age range are and work with those. Again, don't mislead people--only choose tags that describe your book.
Now you've posted your book on Kindle and Amazon. What now? Advertising. I haven't quite gotten to this part yet, but use social media and stuff like that to advertise. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that stuff. Get your book out there, get it NOTICED. Even if you have to do giveaways, special offers, get people to read it, get reviews. The more reviews you have, the more chance someone's going to pay the money to get your book and read it.
Finally, there's the next step beyond eBooks--your paperback copies. Amazon is affiliated with a company called CreateSpace. They print your book for you and you can order a copy for about five dollars a piece (not including shipping.). This is a good way to do author meet-and-greets, get it sold at bookstores, donate it to your local libraries... I'm still experimenting with this phase, so more on that as I get further along.
Hope these tips help you!
One thing I'd add here, don't publish just to Kindle. In other words, don't rely on KDP. Publish to all retailers.
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