It’s been a while since I’ve posted about Amazon, but as usual, I’ve been collecting links. Here are some items that explain what Amazon has been up to (you may notice it covers a wide range of topics, which is fitting, since Amazon covers so many industries now):
How to Help Readers Find Your Book
- “Adventures in Amazon keyword padding” on Sheer Hubris
- “Advertising: Amazon vs. Goodreads” on Chris McMullen
- “All The Ways To Self-publish A Book On Amazon” on Self Publishing Advice Center
- “Amazon Bestseller Lists” on Angie’s Diary
- “Amazon buried my novel: Those search algorithms are for sale” on Salon
- “Amazon Hack: Get Your Book into the Hands of an International Audience: Tip #40 of 52 Ways to Market Your Book” on Author Marketing Experts
- “An Experiment in Amazon Sales Rank” on Dan Koboldt
- “Prepare your book for its KDP Select free promotion days” on Ben Zackheim
- “Big Changes for Amazon Categories” on Author Marketing Experts
- “Countdown Deals and KDP Select Free Promos: What’s the Current Status?” on Chris McMullen
- “Evaluating Amazon Book Promo Campaigns” on Phyllis Zimbler Miller
- “Amazon Book Description Generator” on Kindlepreneuer
- “How Authors Can Use Listmania to Promote Their Books” on How to Blog a Book
- “How Not To Ask For A Free Review – From A Top 1000 Amazon Reviewer” on Self Publishing Review
- “How to Choose Kindle Keywords” on Self Publishing Review
- “How to Launch Your book with at Least 25+ Amazon Reviews” on Book Launch
- “How to promote a Kindle Freebie cheaply…” on Yours in Storytelling
- “How To Unlock The Secret Kindle Categories” on Kindlepreneur
- “How To Write Fascinating Amazon Book Listings To Sell More Books” on Magnolia Media Network
- “Increasing Visibility on Amazon with the Big-Fish-Small-Pond Strategy” on Lindsay Buroker
- “Kindle’s New Favorite Web-Site is Referring the Best No-Cost E-Books” on PR Web
- “KindleSpy Can Help Uncover Pricing, Keyword Secrets of the Kindle Store” on The Digital Reader
- “Playtime with Amazon’s Search Engine and Selling Prompts” on The Book Designer
- “Quick Tip to Boost Your Best Book Reviews on Amazon.com” on KM Editorial
- “Self-Publishing Secrets Revealed-Comparing Free and Discounted Promotions” on Martin Crosbie
- “The Art of the Amazon Sale: Improving Rankings, Selling More Books, and Gaining Exposure” on Lindsay Buroker
- “Now you DO see it….making your book visible on Amazon” on The Beautiful Room
- “Now you see it……book visibility, categories and Amazon ranking” on The Beautiful Room
- “Setting Up Amazon Author pages” on Tony Riches
- “Using Kindle Scout as Part of a Book Launch Campaign” on Jane Friedman
- “Why Now is the Time to Start Promoting Your Amazon Associate Links Extra Hard!” on Entrepreneur Writer
Amazon/Kindle Warnings
- “5 Ways to Avoid Getting Your Book Suspended on Amazon” on Written Word Media
- “Amazon Specifically Mentions Warnings Appearing on Product Pages” on Chris McMullen
- “Help! My Amazon Reviews have Disappeared! Now What?” on Author Marketing Expert
- “Amazon Quality Control and Table of Contents (TOC): Everything you Need to Know” on Written Word Media
- “KDP Rules Roundup” on Self Publishing Advice
- “Warning Messages for Errors in Amazon Kindle e-Books” on Chris McMullen
- “What to Do about Reviews Disappearing from Amazon (Proactive Solutions)” on Chris McMullen
Amazon Features/Platforms
- Amazon Book Club
- Kindle Page Flip
- Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers
- “Amazon’s Dash Buttons hint at a future of interface-free shopping” on The Verge
- Amazon Inspire
- “How to publish a textbook and other educational content on KDP” on Amazon
- KF8 on ePUBSecrets
- “Kindle Previewer 3 – Beta” on ePUBSecrets
- Amazon Studios
- Write On
Author News/Insights
- “Here’s Why Amazon Won’t be Cutting KDP Payment Rates to 35%” on The Digital Reader
- “How Kindle has created a parallel universe of publishing with ‘permissionless innovation’” on Ingenta
- “How Kindle Press Made My Novel a Bestseller” on Jane Friedman
- “How to Improve Amazon (a View from the Publishing Side)” on Chris McMullen
- “How to Leverage the Power of the Kindle Ecosystem to Build Your Business” on Copyblogger
- “If your KENPC dropped with v2.0, what should you do?” on Chris McMullen
- “Income Report: Why Exclusivity is Bad (Unless You’re Amazon)” on Your First 10,000 Readers
- “Indie Author Earnings: Should You Be Worried?” on Chris McMullen
- “Introduction to Kboards” on Indies Unlimited
- “Is Amazon Exclusivity Right for You?” on Jane Friedman
- “Is Amazon using false information to censor book reviews?” on Consumer Affairs
- “Is Kindle Countdown the new Free? Keeping books visible in 2014” on Victorian San Francisco Mysteries
- “KENPC v2.0 Amazon KDP Changes Normalized Page Counts (February 1, 2016)” on Chris McMullen
- “Kindle Unlimited Pages Read, May, 2016” on Chris McMullen
- “Kindle Unlimited Paid Authors $0.0058 Per Page Read in July” on The Digital Reader
- “Kindle Unlimited Payment Dips Slightly in September 2015” on The Digital Reader
- “Kindle Unlimited Scores a Knockout” on Hugh Howey
- “Kindle Unlimited vs. the Naysayers #PoweredByIndie” on Chris McMullen
- “Kobo President Michael Tamblyn to Indie Authors: You’re on Amazon’s Hit List” on Digital Book World
- “KU Scammers Attack Amazon’s Free Ebook Charts” on David Gaughran
- “May 2016 Author Earnings Report: the definitive million-title study of US author earnings” on Author Earnings
- “Mulling results from a Kindle Countdown Deal” on Sarah Hutchison
- “Amazon Phenomenon: NYT Article Boosts Obscure Book to Bestsellerdom” on Observer
- “Our fake book exposed Amazon’s fatal flaw” on The Guardian
- “Publishers, Amazon Not to Blame for Author Poverty Wages” on Publisher’s Weekly
- “The KDP Delivery Fee for Large Books: Is it really worth trying to reduce the file size?” on Chris McMullen
- “The MEGA-THREAD for “I went free with Select and here’s my data/experiences”” on KBoards
- “My Kindle Scout Adventure, Part 1” on Indies Unlimited
- “The Scoop on the Kindle Scout Program” on Yours in Storytelling
- “What It’s Like to Score a Kindle Scout Book Deal” on Jane Friedman
- “Guest Post: Is Kindle Scout Worth the Risk? For Me, Yes” on The Digital Reader
- “Why Most Amazon Reader Reviews are Worthless” on Publisher’s Weekly
- “Will Amazon Prime Reading for Kindle eBooks Hobble BookBub?” on Huffington Post
How Amazon Works
- “A New Report Shows How Amazon Is Different Around The World” on Fast Company
- “Amazon Publishing: Authors Are Customers” on Digital Book World
- “Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax” on Bloomberg Technology
- “Amazon Wrote The Book On E-Commerce, Looks Beyond” on Investor’s Business Daily
- “Amazon, explained in one chart” on Vox
- “The Great Amazon Page Count Mystery” on Digital Book World
- “Amazon’s killer app isn’t Prime. It’s time” on Market Watch
- “Amazon’s Next Big Challenge: Getting You to Buy Stuff You Didn’t Know You Wanted” on Recode
- “Amazon’s Vision for the Future of Self-Publishing” on Digital Book World
- “How Amazon Quietly Became America’s Biggest Publisher of Translated Literature” on New Republic
- “An Amazonian’s response to “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace”” on LinkedIn
- “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” on The New York Times
- “Disruption or human lives? Amazon story shows we’ll soon have to pick a side” on Pando
- “Bezos: Books Will Live On, So Will DRMed E-Books” on PC Mag
- “The evolution of search on Amazon” on Internet Retailer
- “How “Send to Kindle” Can Help Neutralize Amazon” on Digital Book World
- “How Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service Is Making A Play For Your Living Room” on Fast Company
- “How an industry of ‘Amazon entrepreneurs’ pulled off the Internet’s craftiest catfishing scheme” on The Washington Post
- “Look At Amazon’s Brutal Tactics In Its War Against Book Publishers (AMZN)” on The Record Herald
- “Multinational Amazon Book Reviews” on Ebook Success
- “Who’s Afraid of Amazon.com” on The Cockeyed Pessimist
- “The Echo From Amazon Brims With Groundbreaking Promise” on The New York Times
- “What Amazon’s OER Platform Means for Education Publishers” on Book Business
- “When Amazon Dies” on The Atlantic
- “Why Amazon is the king of innovation: Advantage, Alexa” on ZDNet
- “Your Amazon Account Can be Hacked via a Kindle eBook” on The Digital Reader
Amazon Statistics
- “A quarter of what? Confusing Amazon ebook sales stat released” on Melville House
- “Amazon reveals quarter of Kindle ebook sales in US were for indie publishers” on The Guardian
- “Amazon KDP and Kindle Unlimited: What It Means for Authors and Publishers” on Written Word Media
- “Anatomy of a Kindle Owner [Infographic]” on Written Word Media
- “The Kindle Index: What City Buys the Most E-Readers?” on The Atlantic
- “What Amazon’s e-book numbers are and aren’t telling you” on LA Times
Amazon Books and Readers
- “Amazon Books and the mythical wormhole” on Luxury Daily
- “Kobo Glo HD vs Amazon Kindle Paperwhite: Which one’s best?” on The Register
In case you’re interested, Publisher’s Weekly has a timeline of Amazon milestones from 1995-2014. I’ve also made a timeline, to show different things that have been happening at Amazon more recently:
