Let's Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books

by David Gaughran

Take your sales to the next level! The author of the award-winning, bestselling Let's Get Digital is back with an advanced guide for more experienced self-publishers.

There are over 1.5 million books in the Kindle Store, with thousands more added every day. How do you get yours noticed? Visibility isn’t a challenge that can be bested once - it requires continual work. But there are tools and strategies to do much of the heavy lifting for you.

In Let’s Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books, you'll discover how to:

* Leverage Amazon's famous recommendation engine to take advantage of the various opportunities it provides for exposure
* Position your books for discoverability on other sales venues
* Minimize the time you spend promoting so you have more time to spend writing
* Promote in a cost-effective way that actually works

By using these tips, you will get your book noticed. And getting noticed is the key to growing your sales.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Business, Ebooks, Reference, How To, Research

116 pages, Unknown Binding

First published May 8, 2013

About the author

David Gaughran was born in Ireland but now lives in a quaint little fishing village in Portugal, although this hasn't increased the amount of time he spends outside the house. He writes historical fiction and science fiction under another name, has helped thousands of authors publish their work through his workshops, blog, and writers' books - Let's Get Digital, Strangers to Superfans, BookBub Ads Expert, and Amazon Decoded - and has also created giant marketing campaigns for some of the biggest self-publishers on the planet. Visit DavidGaughran.com to get yourself a free book.

Reviews

[Michelle Madow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative and interesting book on marketing and advertising strategies for authors. He focuses a lot on Amazon and helps authors understand the mysterious algorithm, and how to get the algorithm to work in your favor. I highly recommend this book to any author -- whether you're experienced or just getting ready to publish your first book!

[J.F. Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many books on marketing focus on the platform angle, how an author can distinguish themselves in the market. But at the end of the day, most readers don't care that much about authors - they just want entertainment or information. And Amazon will always sell more books that you can as an individual author - so understanding how to maximize your book's chance to stand out is critical and David's book offers in-depth tips for sorting this out. All authors should read and implement immediately!

[Aleatha Romig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information. Slightly outdated.

[T.B. Markinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the book is targeted towards self-publishers who have more experience, I found the information insightful and encouraging. David doesn’t promise that if you follow a certain formula you’ll make millions. I despise those types of books. In fact he’s rather honest about his own trials and tribulations and how sometimes he gets jealous of other’s success. What he writes, though, makes sense. The first part of the book explains Amazon’s Algorithms. I know, when I first read that I ran for the hills screaming. Then I made a soothing cup of tea and read this section. Guess what? I understood it. If I can, I know the rest of you can. Part II discusses free giveaways, including when and why to do them. Part III delves into pricing and when to discount your book to gain more visibility. Part IV probes the pros and cons of selling outside of Amazon. The appendix includes an Advanced Author Toolkit

The key message is how to get your book or books visible to readers. Currently there are over one million books in the Kindle Store. And each day more are being added. That’s a lot of competition. David’s book outlines tools and tactics to increase your visibility. But don’t think it’s easy. It takes patience and constant work. What I like most about his advice is that it doesn’t rely heavily on social media and tons of time promoting your work. Let’s face it, writers need time to write. That’s our job. I already know how to procrastinate. I don’t need more excuses.

[Shervin Jamali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing terribly new here, although authors new to the self-publishing game will find some nuggets of wisdom. What I find consistent in these types of books is concise keys to success that lack clear-cut definition as to making it happen. But then if there was a magic formula we'd all be best-selling authors.

[Nopadol Rompho · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to self publish to Amazon, this is the book for you. However as Amazon keeps changing its policy, you also need to be careful to check whether the contents of this book is still up to date or not. It is still awesome by the way.

[Eldon Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Gaughran has put together a terrific resource for any author here. Whether you’re new or old to the self-publishing game you will find something of value here. Want to know how launch a new book successfully? Want to know how to resurrect lagging sales? Curious how those mysterious Amazon algorithms really work? If you answered yes to any of these questions than this book is for you.

A fast read that is at once entertaining and informative, Let’s Get Visible is worthy of high praise and 5 stars! This will not be the last book by David Gaughran that I read!

[James Fant · Rating 5 out of 5]

When someone wants to talk to you about the highlights of their day, they usually want to tell you about the most interesting things that happened to them or the most interesting things that they did on that particular day. The highlights of the day for me litter the pages of David Gaughran’s “Let’s Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books (Let’s Get Publishing).” Over the course of two days, I read this book with the implicit intent of improving my marketing skill-set. I doing so, I marked the book up with my electronic highlight!

Mr. Gaughran gives readers an inside look into the algorithms that drive Amazon’s recommendation engine and he tells readers about the factor that really drives Best Seller and Popularity Lists. Then he gives advice on marketing and publicity strategies. I especially enjoyed his advice on email lists. His piece on category selection was exemplary. Ultimately, I believe the take home message of the book is first make sure that you have created a stellar product (great story with excellent packaging) and then make sure that that product is placed in front of the right reader’s eyes.

“Let’s Get Visible” is more than just a book. It is a tool that authors can use to gain a better understanding of publicity and marketing so that they can spend more time doing the most important thing: writing. My highlights of the day are littered all throughout “Let’s Get Visible.” What are your highlights of the day?

[Claude Forthomme · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone with more than one book self-published and thinking of publishing more. It tells you in simple, precise language how to maneuver in the complex Amazon world, for example, clearly explaining the pros and cons of KDP Select and how to maintain your book's visibility in the Amazon rankings - making it clear that's where the real battle for virtual space really takes place. It has a very interesting chapter on e-book launch plus many other exceedingly useful tips.

If you are a believer in the self-publishing road, that's the book for you! Actually, even as a non-believer I have found it useful and I shall certainly apply some of his advice...He really clarifies how to move to obtain the greatest possible visibility in a game that I consider highly stacked against self-published authors and as he makes exceedingly clear, a game that can only be usefully played on Amazon. When it comes to other e-platforms (or the printed book world) there is practically no strategy that will permit you to achieve the kind of success you can get in the Kindle Store.

[S.J. Pajonas]

This was a great book for anyone who has published on Amazon and wondered how the heck it works. There are so many lists on Amazon: best sellers, movers & shakers, recommendations, popularity, etc. It's hard to know what they all mean and why. This book explains them all and then gives you ideas of how to hit the lists in your first month and stay visible to your intended audience. It also had great ideas on sales, doing free and 99c price pulsing, and where to advertise them.

A must-read for all authors even if you are traditionally published and can't control your pricing or categorization. Because sometimes, you just want to understand how it works, even if you can't do much about it :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that there's also a great section on Amazon sales rank. So if you're curious about that then you should definitely read this.

[S.M. Reine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent most of my first year in publishing floundering, and I would have KILLED for a book like this at the time. It's a no-bullshit, intermediate guide to positioning one's books in the marketplaces. Any author can learn a lot from David Gaughran's Let's Get Visible - it's a fantastic, informative read.

Disclaimer: I am friends with David Gaughran's mustache. I'd like this book even if I weren't, though.

[Yesenia Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only will you learn the basics of how the Amazon algorithms work, you'll also gain much insight on how to increase your chance of making the Amazon bestseller list. David Gaughran is the go-to guy on this stuff. Hr definitely knows what he's talking about, explains it well, and shares extremely helpful resources and tips. Check out his other book, Let's Get Digital as well as his blog. Will be referring to this again and again.

[Tammie Painter · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book goes into great detail of how the Amazon lists work and the number of sales you need to make to get on and stay on these lists (Hot New Release, Popular, etc), I found the book absolutely overwhelming with little information on how to actually market your book effectively to make it visible. Had the book been titled "Understanding Amazon's Lists" I'd give it five stars. I love David's advice on his blog and in podcasts, but this book just left me feeling absolutely hopeless.

[Destine Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book with helpful advice for Indie authors just starting out like me. If it weren't for datedness of this book, I would give it 5 stars, but most of the strategies in here are still worth reading about if you're an indie author struggling with what to do with your releases.

[Martin Rinehart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stars for great, in depth information on topics like how Amazon bestseller rankings work (and how you can give your own book a shot). Four stars because the info is so out of date (2013). And two stars because the info may no longer be that important except to a very few, so three stars overall.

Here's the issue. Gaughran explains that the big bucket (Literature & Fiction) has 620k titles. But if you drill down: Lit & Fic > Genre Fic > War you are in the pool with only 5k titles. Far more likely to hit Amazon's recommended titles, bestseller lists, popularity lists etc. (and all these will boost your sales) if you pick the War genre (assuming war is your topic).

Here's the other issue. That was 2013. Today Lit & Fic sports 3.5M (yeah, million) titles. Little War has 34k titles. Your very good war drama (it's very good, right?) will hit top-ten in sales by beating out 33,990 other war dramas (some of them may be pretty good, too).

Me? I've got a romance. Best one written since Jane Austen dropped her pen, of course, but still... (Only 1.2M other romances to compete with. Yeah, million.)

P.S. That's about six-fold growth in both Lit&Fic and War. Six-fold growth is 80%/year. Mid '17 will have, at that rate, 6M titles in Lit&Fic, War will be over 60K. Someone quipped, 'Writing is like vagrancy, but it pays less.'

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Gaughran's "Let's Get Digital" was the Bible for many of us who self-published our novels, and I am one of many who owe this author a debt of gratitude. Is the follow-up, "Let's Get Visible", as good? Well, no, but it's clearly written and worth reading for the tips it has on digital book promotion that can only help those of us still struggling to get the word(s) out. As sequels go this may not be Godfather II, but it's not Legally Blonde II either.
Gaughran goes in detail into how the Amazon sales ranking works (just sales - reviews, free downloads and price don't make a difference), as well as how Amazon creates its recommendations, popularity lists, top-rated charts and category best sellers. This is all valuable information for the self-published author, even if some of it you probably worked out for yourself. "Let's Get Visible" also discusses the now diminished power to boost sales through free download offers, and explains promotions, advertising, KDP Select and other relevant issues and tools. It's a comprehensive guide to all that the self-published author needs to know.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hrmm, not really worth it. For a very short book, it's frustratingly repetitive.

David Gaughran's advice boils down to:

1) Slot your e-book into less competitive categories on Amazon, and recategorize once you've tapped out that particular category.

2) Spread out sales of a new book over a few days, rather than creating one big day of sales.

3) Keep doing promotions to keep your e-book visible (well, duh).

Also, I didn't realize, because the title doesn't make it clear, but this book is ONLY about e-books and ONLY about the US Kindle store (apart from one teeny-tiny section on other vendors).

Gaughran's other book on self-publishing, Let's Get Digital, is actually a lot better and (ironically) contains more useful advice on marketing than this one does. Unless you're obsessed with Amazon algorithms, you can skip this one.

[Nicole C. Ayers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that Gaughran offered relevant advice to self-published authors. Navigating the maze of online publishing is intimidating, and Gaughran shares tips to sell as many books as possible. This book is a great read for authors who already have a couple of novels under their belt, which he states several times. I will be checking out Let's Get Digital to see what advice he shares with new self-published writers. The only drawback that I can see with this book is that Amazon frequently changes algorithms. While his advice is relevant today, will it be useful a few years from now? I believe he'll offer updated information, though, based on his blog topics. Gaughran is a pioneer in mastering the world of self-publishing.

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great foundation for understanding not just *how* to position your book to sell on Amazon, but, just as importantly, *why* certain techniques work and others don't. Gaughran does a great job breaking down the Amazon algorithms and marketing schemes so that the rest of us can understand how to apply them. Much of this information is available elsewhere, but Gaughran brings it altogether in an extremely handy organized format. Probably, the most valuable aspect is the up-to-date (as of May 2013) info on what Amazon's up to and how to best build launch plans to take advantage of that.

[Helmut · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is concise, well-written, and to the point. The author provides up-to-date data, which has helped me to run a successful promotion.

It continues to be very valuable to me for getting visible. Check out the author - and you'll see he is successful in getting his own books visible as well. He also maintains a helpful blog. This is totally a white-hat book, which I appreciated a lot. I hope the author keeps it updated.

[Anna Erishkigal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had already picked up numerous marketing tips by reading the blogs and tips of my peers, but David Gaughran has collated and documented the mysterious algorithms in such a way as to make sense of the soup. This book is largely Amazon USA centric and only barely touches upon the other platforms and international markets, but it does not purport to be more than that in the book blurb, so I will give it 5 stars.

[Anna Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of strategies to enhance visibility and promote book sales. Some interesting information about how the publishing industry works. In particular, how Amazon functions when it comes to categorizing and otherwise helping readers find books. Much of this information can be found elsewhere, for free, but it is helpful to have an overall framework for thinking about marketing and sales--the part of being an author that many of us like the least.

[Tammy Salyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful guide to understanding the nuances of Amazon's algorithms and practices for independent authors. It contained less information about specific promotional and marketing strategies than I wanted (i.e., a clear and step-by-step marketing guide), but a great deal of info on how to make the most of KDP Select and Amazon's categories. Useful and informative, definitely recommended reading for any indie author.

[Marese Hickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is reasonably useful, but the problem with a print version of anything to do with Amazon is how quickly things change. On a scale of 1-10, I would place myself at about 5 on the technology front. Even so, I found my eyes glazing over when reading about algorithims. Really I just want to know what to do, and how to do it. This book points the way but does not give step by step instructions so just be aware of that.

[Traci Loudin]

This book is awesome. It is a little behind the times in regard to preorders and which paid ads offer links to retailers besides Amazon, but other than that, everything seems pretty sound. I can't wait to apply some of what I've learned.

[Linda Acaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

An indepth look at how to get your new book noticed among the crowd. Well worth the read, if a little daunting.

[Krista D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for authors. Required reading.

[C.J. Darlington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delivers what it promises. I ended up with several new ideas to try in my own book marketing efforts. Highly recommended for all self-published authors.

[G.G. Silverman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely helpful book for authors learning their way around the Amazon system. Highly recommended.

[Jitka Egressy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seroiusly the best book about self-publishing! (Believe me! I read many of them)