How to Write a Kick-A** Amazon Bio to Sell More Books

By Penny Sansevieri (@bookgal) 

Editor’s note: It’s rare in these articles that I have a guest blogger. I’m including this post from marketing expert Penny Sansevieri because of her detailed insight to one of the largest booksellers, Amazon. I highly recommend her book, The Amazon Author Formula. I use it here with her permission. Penny’s topic is an important one. This week I saw a new book on Amazon from a publishing friend which didn’t include any bio much less one like you are encouraged to write in this article. I encourage you to do more than read this article. Apply the information to your own Amazon books.

Authors often don’t spend enough time crafting their bios. Most of them write up a quick “about me” to satisfy the basic requirements and never give it a second thought. I often see authors treat their bio like a resume. Approaching it this way means you’re likely to bore readers, and worse,  risk making yourself look  not only less interesting, but less interested in your own work and how you’re coming across to readers.

Have I hit a nerve? Good!

Unless you tell me that you know with certainty your bio is helping turn more browsers into buyers, I know for a fact I can help you make it better!

Start with an Outline and All Book Tie-ins

Before you begin, create a list or an outline of everything you’ve done related to the book. This can include life experiences, personal motivations, passion projects, research, past work in a related industry, accreditations, lectures and classes you’ve conducted, other books you’ve written, and awards you’ve won. You may want to include some of these elements, but not all of them. The rest of these bullets will help you determine which to include.

But It’s Not Really About You

Remember that while we start out by focusing on you and your achievements, this bio actually isn’t about you. It’s about your readers and knowing what your prospective audience is looking for, what interests them, what catches their attention, and most importantly, what speaks to their needs.

Let’s take a close look at a bio on Amazon by Mark Shaefer. His bio is keenly focused on his expertise as it relates to the book. Having read Mark’s other books and having seen him speak, I can tell you he probably has a lot more he could have added to this, but he kept it short and relevant to the book.

Write in Third Person

When it comes to writing a bio, never use words like “I” and “me,” because a bio written in the first person can make for an awkward read, especially when you’re listing all your accomplishments. There are other options for getting personal, don’t worry!

Show the Reader Your Expertise Without the Ego

When it comes to the credible portion of the bio you are creating or reworking, this may seem tricky. But remember, this is where the importance of your initial work comes in. How long have you been writing? Did you utilize any special techniques or resources in this book?

Check out Pete Ryan’s bio. He’s a first-time author, but he leads this bio with his background as a journalist, which tells the reader he is an experienced writer. Pete is also a marketing guy and has a successful business in SoCal. You’ll notice he doesn’t even mention it, because it won’t matter to his fiction readers, and Pete knows this.

Add Keyword Strings Particular to Amazon

As we’ve explained earlier, keyword strings matter greatly on Amazon. If you’ve already done your keyword string research, work some into your Amazon bio if you can keep it natural.

Don’t cram your bio full of keywords just for the sake of having them there.

Why does this matter? I’ve talked about how Amazon is a search engine. Like a search engine, Amazon will “spider” or “crawl” your book page for keyword strings, so make sure at least one or two of the ones you’ve found are in your bio, but don’t overdo it because you’ll get dinged by readers for being inauthentic.

Get Personal (If Appropriate)

There’s a time and a place to include personal information in your bio. Obviously, it’s essential to a Memoir of course. For self help, your connection to the topic is crucial. But novelists can also get personal in a creative way because your personality says a lot about your brand.

The key is finding the right balance. For example, if you write paranormal fantasy, the fact that you coach your daughter’s softball team may sound endearing, but it doesn’t fit your genre. On the other hand, if you’ve always had a fascination with mythology and history, and it fuels your stories, that’s great insight into who you are.

Be Funny (If Appropriate)

Be like what you wrote about. That means if your book is funny, then be funny. Check out this bio from Karen Alpert. Her book is I Heart My Little A-Holes: A bunch of holy-crap moments no one ever told you about parenting.

Short Is the New Long

The days of bios that rival the length of your book are gone. Keep it short because, while people do care who wrote the book, they don’t care enough to read paragraphs upon paragraphs about you. Save the long bio for your website, the foundation of your infrastructure, and where readers will go when they want to learn even more about you!

Include a Call to Action & How Readers Can Find You

Do you want your readers to take any action besides buying your book? Are you giving something away on your website? Do you want readers to join your exclusive reader group or your newsletter? Then mention these offers in your bio. Don’t forget to add your website address so they can find you.

Customize It & Change It Up

Your life isn’t static, and your bio shouldn’t be either! Is there something going on in the world that ties into your book? Mention it! You should also modify your bio when you win awards, get more mentions, or get some fab new reviews. For example, “The New York Times calls this book ‘groundbreaking…’” is a review quote you could easily add at the end of your bio for a strong finish. An upcoming release or mention of your other work is also another reason to tweak it a bit.

Find reasons to change up your bio! You can do it as often as you want, and don’t forget the algorithms notice and respond when a book page is updated.

If you’re reading this and you’re with a traditional publisher, you may be thinking, “The publisher won’t let me change my bio!” Trust me, you don’t need your publisher to make changes. Just do it on your Amazon Author Central dashboard and—voilà—done and done.

Your bio should be a fluid extension of your author brand, so update it as part of your monthly book marketing plan. This may seem tedious, but it serves another purpose: it gets your eyes on your entire book page, and once you’re there, hopefully, you will be inspired to cast a critical eye on other parts of the page to make updates that could help drive more sales.

Penny Sansevieri is Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc., best-selling author and internationally recognized #bookmarketing and #indieauthor media relations expert. Go to Penny’s website to get more marketing insights at:amarketingexpert.com After studying this article what actions are you going to take with your Amazon bio? Let me know in the comments below. 

New Podcasts 

Several times a week (almost daily), I’m booking new podcasts. Here’s a couple from last week:

Maxwell and Dean Rotbart and I spoke on the Monday Morning Radio - Podcast. Watch W. Terry Whalin: Harnessing the Power of Books for Profit and Influence at: https://bit.ly/40bu9Rc

I enjoyed a LIVE conversation about Publishing Myths with Gillian Whitney on the EasyPeasyBooks Podcast at: https://bit.ly/4amtv8a Watch a video clip at: https://bit.ly/40wVQVM

Sue Pats (@suepats) and I spoke about The Truth About Publishing on the Solopreneurs Nubeginning Podcast at: https://bit.ly/40gBwGW 

Tweetable:

Write a remarkable Amazon bio and sell more books. Get the details in this guest article from marketing expert Penny Sansevieri. (ClickToTweet)

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses. 

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Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Time for a Reboot

I love January and the fresh beginnings of a new year.  Whether you are reading this article in January when I wrote it or in the middle of the year, any time is a great time for a reboot or a new start. 

As I consider last year, I know some great accomplishments happened with new authors and my own writing life. 

Yet some of my goals were not met and some projects were not completed. Do you have some of these projects? Here's my good news: you can reboot those projects and push them into the marketplace. Maybe your book didn't sell as many copies as you wanted. Then take a reboot and begin reaching new readers. As the author, you are the person with the passion for your book. Maybe your publisher has pressed on to other books and other authors—but you still love your book and want to reach more readers. My encouragement is you can do it so make your plans and push forward. When your old book generates some new sales and new momentum, then your publisher will notice and join you in the push. As the author, you are in the drivers seat of this passion and momentum. 

Book publishing is not a sprint but more like a marathon. Some books shoot out into the marketplace and succeed while others are more of a slow burn and take time. If the author continues with their passion, these slow burn books can pick up momentum and begin to sell thousands of copies every month—but the author has to keep going on the marketing. My friend Sandra Beckwith has an inexpensive tool (yes 99 cents) called 365 Daily Book Marketing Tips. These insights come every day via email. Sandy sends you the full listing of the tips in a single PDF but I like the regular reminders through these daily emails. I do not take action on all of them but I read them and follow a number of the suggestions. Why?

As I've written about in the past, there is no single path to becoming a bestseller or achieving success with your book. If there were such a path, then every book would sell many copies and become a bestseller. Instead every author and every book has to find their own path. The author has to continually experiment and use tested methods to reach their readers.
Another resource is 5–Minute Book Marketing for Authors by Penny Sansevieri. Last year I wrote more details about this book (use this link). While I read this book last year, I marked my own book with numerous tags for action. As I look through them, I see more actions that I can take. I suspect each of us are in the same category. It's never too late to take action and get started. Make your plans and do it today.

For example, my biography of Billy Graham released over two years ago. In November, the audiobook version of the book released. At 99 years old, Mr. Graham is in his 100th year on the planet and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Decision magazine are celebrating this milestone. One of my marketing ideas for my book was to create a study guide. Small groups and book clubs are always looking for these study guides to enhance their group. I began to write the guide for my book in 2015 or two and a half years ago. Last week, I dusted off that file and decided now was the time to write this study guide. I've written study guides for other books plus I've used numerous study guides for books. I have the background and skills to pull together this study guide.  When completed and launched, it will give me a new tool to promote related to my book.

Does your book have a study guide with it? It doesn't matter whether your book is nonfiction like my Billy Graham biography or fiction? You can still write and launch a study guide. Maybe you need this tool for your own book. It is never too late to write it and get it out into the marketplace.

Do you have a project that you can reboot? Tell me about your action steps in the comments below.

Tweetable:

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The Value of Consistent Book Marketing

From my years in publishing, I find many writers expect to have instant success. While they may not say it verbally, they show this expectation in other ways. It makes sense since we live in a fast-moving, instant message world. One of the ways I see this expectation is in contract negotiations with new authors. In the details of the contract sometimes writers try and narrow the length of the contract to two or three years. I understand their desire but I often end up explaining that books sometimes take several years to take off and reach the public. At Morgan James Publishing, we've had a number of books with modest sales in the beginning, but the author consistently works at marketing and spreading the word about their book. These authors try multiple approaches to reach their audience. Then almost without explanation, their book begins to consistently sell in large numbers—month after month.

It is one of the truths in publishing that consistent regular action is the path to success. Whether it is trying to write a 100,000 word novel or a 60,000 word nonfiction book or a book proposal or sell a magazine article. The process of taking consistent action will eventually pay off.  You will complete the novel. You will finish writing the nonfiction book or book proposal. You will find an editor who wants to publish your magazine article.

Marketing a book is not a sprint but more of a marathon where slow and steady rules the day. Penny Sansevieri is a marketing expert who runs a book marketing company. 5-MINUTE BOOK MARKETING FOR AUTHORS is filled with practical, easy to apply information. Sansevieri gives the straight scoop in the opening page, “With more than 4500 books published every day, unless you’re a big name, you can’t afford to set it and forget it. It’s true that the success of a book doesn’t happen overnight; the biggest constant in the publishing industry is that consistent, regular exposure of your books is the best way to reach your book marketing goals.”

Each chapter of this book is designed to encourage authors to take action. As Sansevieri writes, “You only fail if you fail to try! So dig in with me, and learn some great marketing efforts that you can begin in around five minutes!” (Page 11). There is a wide range of action in this book from Goodreads to Amazon to ebook pricing to website to newsletters to social media (Facebook, twitter and Pinterest). Whether you are a brand new author or an experienced author, you can gain valuable insights from 5-MINUTE BOOK MARKETING FOR AUTHORS.

Author insights are embedded into each chapter. For example, the chapter on how to get the best Amazon reviews begins, “Reviews can really help to drive the sale of a book. In fact, several marketing survey companies have cited that 61% of online purchases were made after reading a review.” (Page 45)

Sansevieri is an author but also works with authors all the time. She designed this book with short chapters and each one concludes with a “5-Minute Marketing Action Item” For example, “Join a Giveaway Group (on Goodreads).  Groups are quick and easy to join. You can see what members are excited about and get them excited about your title. The more you engage with potential fans, especially in your genre, the better!” (page 21)

Why are a variety of actions and strategies included? Sansevieri explains, “It’s important for you to remember that there’s no one marketing strategy that will help attract and retain fans. Instead, marketing is a series of actions and consistent engagement over time that will help you to grow your following and keep them engaged.” (Page 88).

As a long-time member of the publishing community as an author and editor, I learned a great deal from reading 5-MINUTE BOOK MARKETING FOR AUTHORS. I highly recommend every author get this book then start applying it to their own book marketing.

I want to return to where I started this article: consistent, steady action will pay off. Remember the parable of the race between the tortoise and the hare. It was the slow and steady tortoise that beat the hare. From my experience, it is the same in publishing. Too many writers quit too soon and never get their work published or achieve the book sales that they dream about. It is critical to keep going and not give up. 

Have you had this experience ? If so, tell me in the comment section.

Tweetable:
Do you need a quick book marketing idea? Check out this resource. (ClickToTweet)
 

Get a Truckload of Amazon Reviews

When it comes to getting reviews, you want to listen to someone who has experience and can guide you through this specialized—yet significant area of publicity for your book. Let’s face it, customers (your readers) make buying decisions every day 24/7 on the basis of customer reviews. I’ve been writing reviews for print and online publications for years. In fact, I’ve written more than 450 customer reviews on Amazon. 

Even with my extensive background, I learned a tremendous amount of insights throughout HOW TO GET REVIEWS BY THE TRUCKLOAD ON AMAZON. Penny Sansevieri knows her stuff—not only for marketing her own books but she has successfully helped many authors through her PR business. She takes this experience and pours the details into this valuable resource. Every author needs to get this book and read with your yellow highlighter. Then go back through and take action on the various suggestions. You can read this book multiple times and follow the links and resources.

In the opening, Sansevieri includes this guarantee, “let me make you a promise as a person who’s been marketing for many, many years. This book works. I guarantee it. If the methods in this book don’t get you more reviews, more exposure and more sales, you can return it to me, personally for a full refund.” Now when do you see that promise in a book? Rarely.

The examples and how-to information make this book a “must have” for any author. Whether your book is brand new or has been out for several years and you want to give it a new blast of promotion. Use the advice in Sansevieri’s book. Getting reviews by the truckload is not magic or something that happens without work. It will involve personal and consistent effort from you. 

I highly recommend HOW TO GET REVIEWS BY THE TRUCKLOAD ON AMAZON. In fact, I’m going to take action on a number of things that I learned reading this resource for my books. 

For Internet Book Marketing Insight

How can you level the playing field for your book to get any attention (and garner sales) in a crowded book market?

An answer you should think about--no matter where you are in the process is through the Internet and more than half of the books are sold outside of the bookstore. Recently I found a terrific resource to help in this area: Red Hot Internet Publicity. This book includes great quotations which are highlighted throughout the book for inspiration like "Eight-seven percent of blog readers are book buyers." (Page 95)

Penny Sansevieri covers the gamut of Internet marketing tools like websites, keywords, search engines, e-commerce blogs, podcasts, Internet Press Releases, virtual book events, autoresponders, email newsletters, Ebooks and cultivating your relationship with Amazon. Each chapter is loaded with ready-to-apply URLs and insight. She writes with experience and authority about a topic where she has intimate familiarity.

In fact, Sansevieri lays out her goal on page 169 saying, "I want Red Hot Internet Publicity to be different. I want you to put down this book with not only a mountain of inspiration, but a plan as well. Book marketing isn't an easy task. It takes time, effort, and lots of sweat equity and most of all, it takes a plan."

Get this book--and let the planning (and success) for your Internet marketing of your book begin.

Even experienced Internet marketer will gain value from a book like Red Hot Internet Publicity. I consider these types of books a success if I only learn a few insights--and with this book I found a number of new tricks to try in the days ahead.