Would you like your book to hit #1 in its category on Kindle and be able to say that you’re a “best-selling author”? Well shoot, we all do don’t we? That’s why we do this! The great part about this is it does more than just increase your credibility in related fields; it will help you sell more books.

The Magic Is In The Choice Of Your Categories

When you publish your book in Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing control panel, you will have to select the categories you want your book to be featured in. The general rule here is “the more specific the better.” Number one is number one irregardless of the category. So the more you can nail down and fine-tune your categories the better. Start by researching these on Amazon’s Kindle Store – not their kdp.amazon.com page

You Can Also Update The Categories

You may find that some of the categories available on amazon kdp aren’t the same categories you find on the Kindle store. To change your category to these more specific ones, contact  support at http://kdp.amazon.com to make these changes. At the most this will take 48 hours.

Very few people are aware of this, so these are the categories you will shoot up in.

Aaaaaaand, you’re welcome.

The Not-So-Obvious-Benefits of Being #1 in Any Category

The first thing to do once this happens is share the excitement on your social media. There are a ton of books out there, but only a few number ones – even with all these categories. People are naturally drawn to things that are already considered “popular.” It’s the classic bandwagon effect. The real magic here is that the book will start getting featured in that “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” banner that scrolls through Amazon. This way people who buy related books will pick yours up as well. This create more visibility, therefore more sales. Often what happens for books that teach readers who to do something is that the buyer will buy everything they can get their hands on. This is more true than ever with Kindle’s extra low prices.

You Must Completely Optimize Your Kindle Pages?

This little tweak is totally worth your time. I know on my first personal title, this is the move that made my book jump from occasional sales to daily sales.

And don’t you dare stop there. Add keywords so people will find your books in Amazon searches, (Amazon is basically a search engine for buyers) added new subjects, more tags. And create an author profile and optimize that too. If you plan on standing out from the crowd, you must leverage each and every tool Amazon offers. It will make a world of difference

The final way to get traffic is through Google searches. Amazon carries a gigantic SEO footprint. Let us optimize your Kindle book so it gets found on Amazon. Just click here to get started.

According to the Association of American Publishers e-books sales have recently experienced massive surge in growth. Meanwhile traditional soft and hard-cover books have seen a slump in sales during the same period since last year. This should not be a shock. Brand new hardcover books run from $20 to $35 dollars while ebooks average at just under $3. And we’ve seen a similar pattern before in the music industry. In a sense, history is repeating itself.

The parallels are clear – distinct but not exact. Although the response of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Association of American Publishers are radically different. To put it simply, the AAP has done everything in their power to embrace the change instead of the RIAA’s reaction of suing beyond their heart’s content.

Perhaps recognizing that they are better off being a part of this new empire of ebooks instead of it’s adversaries, earlier this year the publishing world made a progressive move to advance this trend in an attempt to colse a key deal with Google to bring more intellectual property into the digital fold. This was a bold move even though the effort got the botch by the judge as opportunistic and overreaching on Google’s part (but these days, what does Google do that isn’t opportunistic and overreaching?) That being said, this attempt proves that unlike the record companies, booksellers are actually embracing this new frontier of publishing. Particularly with the advent of a much cheaper Kindle and Apple’s rumored ereader. A report from the AAP indicating these new trends of exploding digital books and slumping paper books in which they are not freaking out and trying to sue everybody and their mother is telling that not only have they accepted the change, they are welcoming it.

That being said, piracy will soon be an issue. In some areas it is already a problem. As more and more e-readers are sold (particularly this holiday season) piracy will grow and it’s possible to hear cries of “lost income” from the AAP. The funny thing is you can’t lose what you never had. And the RIAA’s baloney calculations of piracy’s impact choke any credibility. Perhaps we’ll witness a handful of idealistic stands from the publishers also. And I’m sure we’ll get to see some rampant silliness rear its pretty little head on the sidelines; battles like the pedophilia controversy and the 1984 remote detonation from the RIAA. For example, earlier this year Harper-Collins played the part of court jester when it tried to rip off libraries.

Changing the vehicle we consume information through is a natural change. (Spoken word to tablets to books to newspapers to paperbacks to blogs and now e-readers). It’s nothing but the democratization of information. These trends just create more access for more people. This growth will continue and possibly accelerate in years to come. The new $78 Kindle, will probably result in the greatest flood of ebook readers since the first kindle launched, and the impact of mass consumption of advanced technologies like flexible devices are yet to be seen. And contrasting the RIAA, publishers are embracing the trend and advancing the democratization of information.

Here are 30 smart, simple, and fresh techniques to help you promote your kindle book. Some of it involves using other social media accounts (facebook, twitter, youtube). So if you’re not on those, learn more about social media marketing at embark internet marketing

1. Place your Amazon page URL in email signatures.

Think about it. Hopefully you already plug your blog or website after your name in the email signature. Include your kindle address.

2. Promote it on your Facebook page

Create a status update about your kindle book. Do this once a week at most (people will get sick of it otherwise).

3. Ask followers on Twitter to check out your book.

Don’t only ask them to give it a look. Ask them to play along. Ask them to read it and let you know what they thought in the comments section.

4. Use Facebook ads.

Good Facebook ads will direct hundreds of eyeballs to your kindle page. They are easy to get started. Plus, you have the ability to determine how much or how little it costs each day. The key is specific targeting and testing different ads out.

6 – Put your Kindle page URL on business cards.

Don’t limit the promotion of your book to the online world. Share it offline: posters, business cards, envelopes, letterhead, etc.

7 – Plug a link in under your Facebook profile info.

It’s easy to put a link to your Kindle pages under Basic Information, just like this:

8 – Ask your fans to post a link.

If you don’t ask, the answer is already, “no.” And your fans want to help your out. This especially true if they really like you as a person and your work. If your work has helped them in their lives, they’d be more than happy to do this one little thing. Plus, they will feel like they were a part of something special like a successful launch.

9 – Tag those YouTube videos.

If you produce YouTube videos (and any online marketing presence should), insert a link to your kindle page at the beginning and end of the video.

You can also include the URL right at the beginning of the descriptions of your youtube videos.

10 – Make one of those QR codes for your Kindle book.

For more about QR codes, see http://www.qrpr.tv.

11 – Email your fans.

This one seems kinda obvious, but it’s often overlooked. Even if you don’t have a huge following, filling in your friends and family on your latest project can often be that small degree of separation between success and stagnation.

12 – Run a Google AdWords campaign.

You can target specific keywords to get more eyeballs infront of your kindle book. This is particularly effective if you use our entire SEO Package. Google AdWords is tricky. It can be spendy, but it’s actually very hard to screw things up with your page being hosted by amazon.

13. Put your Kindle URL on other social media pages.

You can add your Kindle URL to your Google+ profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, etc.

14. Feature your Kindle URL in offline ads.

If your Kindle book is important in your marketing strategy, then place the URL on sales posters, in brochures, in your print ads, on your sales letters, on your menus, on receipts, in your white papers, etc.

The truly exciting news about the fresh round of amazon kindle developments isn’t the Fire (as sweet as it looks) it’s the fact that the Kindle e-reader is now only $79. That means both your grandma and your little nephew can get one without breaking the bank.

Kindle ebooks are much cheaper than hardcover or paperback books. Browse the Kindle store and you’ll see prices ranging from $13 to absolutely free. And on average, a vast majority of Kindle books range from $2.99 to $9.99 – the cost of a typical used paperback. Now the same book fits in your bag, purse, or briefcase along with a nearly unlimited amount of titles.

Right now, the new, cheaper Kindle ranks at No. 2 among best-selling products in Amazon’s Electronics department. From your perspective as you’re exploring publishing your ebook in Amazon’s Kindle Store – that’s huge. It means there is going to be a flood of people buying kindle books. It means that every single person who has thought the Kindle was awesome, that they’d love one, but it’s just a bit on the pricey side – those folks are putting that item on the top of their wish list. “What do you want for X-Mas?” I’d bet the farm that Amazon’s ubiquitous e-reader is the first thing off their tongue.

If you don’t have a book on the Kindle store yet, now is the time to take the leap.

The new model Kindle features a 6-inch display, contains approximately 1,400 books, weighs just under six oz, and sports instant Wi-Fi functionality for only $79.00.

Meanwhile, the Kindle Fire ranked as the No. 1 best-selling product in the same period due to strong pre-order sales.

Today, reports arrived that show the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s venture into the tablet market, produced 95,000 pre-orders the first 24 hours following the initial announcement of the new gizmo. Since then, Fire sales have exploded. Cult of Android reports and estimated 2,000 units being sold each hour, or around 50,000 a day.

So, based on the pre-sales this means two possibilities for the Amazon Fire: Either A) it’s going to be absolutely huge, or B) there are going to be a lot of disappointed people. Since Amazon graced their homepage with the Kindle Fire, more than a quarter million tablets have been pre-ordered. That’s pretty wild to think about. Let’s say this trend continues (I imagine it will die down a bit) Amazon will reserve 2.5 million Fire tablets before the open sale of it goes debuts November 15th. Imagine how many folks will buy it between now and the holidays.

Here is proof of yet another reason why you must make sure your publications are in Kindle format. This will be the hot new gift for the holiday. And even if little Timmy doesn’t wake-up to an Amazon Fire from Santy Clause, his folks might grab him a regular kindle for only $79. That’s why this announcement is so exciting. Yes, the Fire is cool. Yes, it give the iPad a run for its money. But the once expensive gadget of the kindle is now less than eighty dollars. That’s the democratization of information in action!

That being said, the comparisons to the iPad are unavoidable. Just to get a taste for how the Fire might compete with the iPad, the first-day pre-orders for the iPad were 120,000. So the Fire probably won’t be the iPad killer. But it will definitely up the competition against the iPad. For the most part, that device is in a league of its own. No other tablet has been really close to ousting it as the king. But this Fire definitely makes things a bit more interesting.

Now while the initial pre-orders of the Amazon Fire are fantastic so far, what really matters are long-term sales. The iPad sold 1,000,000 iPad 2 units in the first weekend and around 2,400,000 the first month.

According to reports, pre-sales of the brand-spanking-new Kindle Fire from Amazon indicate the new tablet is projected to usurp the iPad in its first month of sales. If these projections are correct, it’s huge – massive. It means it’s the first real competition to Apple’s big dog status in the sprouting tablet world. The Amazon Fire is it’s first true contender.

Apple iPad sales are still strong – that hasn’t changed. But there’s reason to be excited about the full-color, touch-enabled Fire from Kindle. Yes, it’s distinct. Yes, it’s different. And it’s close enough to the iPad at a much cheaper price. It will be easy for consumers to view it as a smart alternative if not even better.

Here’s five reasons the Amazon Fire is a better buy than the Apple iPad:

1. It’s cheaper. For only $199, the Kindle Fire is less than half the cost of the iPad, starting at $500. That’s two point five Fires for every iPad. (Yes, I’d be kicking myself too if I got the iPad). That alone is reason to pay attention, especially considering other iPad contenders have met that higher price for something far less desirable, cool, or functional.

2. Tons more content – not just apps. “Content is king.” And while the Apple app store may be the grand bazaar of mobile applications – the Kindle Fire one-ups it with massive volumes of content. The Fire has instant access to over 18 million movies, TV, music, magazines, books, and ebooks patiently waiting on Amazon’s digital shelves.
Yes, Apple has shows, movies, and music as well. Globally, iTunes is still the larget music retailer out there. But compared to Amazon’s kindle store and including Amazon Prime – Apple pales in comparison. The iPad is perceived as a hand-held computer, while the Amazon Fire is perceived as a supped-up, roided-out ereader.

3. Free storage on the cloud. The entry-level iPad only has 16 gigs of storage. Want more? Should have bought the bigger (spendier) one. Since the Fire’s storage is on the illustrious “cloud” your storage is practically limitless. Add the fact that Amazon is largest digital bookstore, and the second mp3 store (behind iTunes). That being said, there are 6 gigs of space on the Fire just incase you wander too far from the cloud.

4. Democratized apps. One of the few, but significant downsides to the Apple AppStore is its closed system. Meaning, if Apple doesn’t fancy what you’re creating, that’s just too bad. (That being said, unless you put together something naughty or that violates privacy – there shouldn’t be a problem). A huge downside of Android behind pretty much all the other tablets is that it’s too open. To find good applications you have to sift through a ton of bad ones tossed up by hucksters just trying to make a buck.
The Kindle Fire aims to strike a balance between those two extremes using the Amazon Appstore. It remains open like Android, but only shows the best and most popular apps from that open market. This results in more free apps without the crap, the best of both worlds approach.
5. It’s easier to hold. The 10-inch iPad is great, but tricky to hold with one hand. The 6-inch Kindle reader, is much easier to hold for several hours without fatigue, using just one hand. The 7-inch Kindle Fire will pretty much do the same: easily held with one hand, significantly lighter than the iPad, and much more portable.
6. You can upload your ebook to the kindle store. Getting a book on the apple bookstore is possible, just much more difficult. With Kindle’s direct publishing platform, you can get started publishing your book right away. And those millions of users can access your book with the tap of a finger.

A new Kindle tablet from Amazon would shake up the field and present a huge threat to the dominant iPad — because of this the tech industry has its eyes glued to the ecommerce giant as it preps for a media spectacle in NYC this week leading into the holidays.

Will an Amazon tablet dethrone the iPad? Doubtful. The Apple iPad still accounts for about 75 percent of the tablets purchased in 2011. But a Kindle tablet open a whole new bag of worms precipitating into a cage-match between Amazon, Apple, along with Samsung and Motorola.

Nonetheless, Amazon is a household name. There’s a standing army of loyal Kindle disciples (along with that comes a natural hatred of the nook). And Amazon has something Apple wishes for: a Web-based online retailing platform featuring instant one-click access to buying e-books, films, music downloads, and their Android app store. As of this moment, Amazon holds the cards as a serious player to challenge Apple in the tablet market and become a serious competitor in the field.

Here’s what we can anticipate from an Amazon e-reader: we project it will be much more than just color upgrade to the Kindle. It’s likely to be a totally fresh Android-based tablet; much more distinct than the iPad or Motorola Xoom than a product restricted to just being an e-reader.

Here’s some of the hottest rumors about what this might have in store for us:

One reporter has positively confirmed this project’s existence. He even shared his personal experience testing a preproduction test unit.

Others share that the tablet is pretty much an Android system, ala Amazon. Amazon used open-source Android OS – creating a custom UI design for the OS — mimicing the well-known Kindle appearance and colors.

Here are some of the anticipated specs:
a 7-inch display. And an option for a 10-inch model of the Kindle tablet, released in the new year.

It’s expected the Kindle tablet will cost only $250 — half of the cheapest iPad 2.

It’s also rumored that the $250 price will include access to Amazon Prime. If that’s truly the case, that price is an absolute steal. Access to the service is usually $79 so in a way that makes this new tablet only $171. If you’re not familiar with Amazon Prime, it provides free two-day shipping on certain Amazon products, and has a movie streaming system comparable to Netflix.

Amazon already launched its own Android app store. Once this new tablet is out it will essentially merge Amazon with the Android system, creating more stability and notoriety for both brands.

The 7-inch size will be much closer to the size of the Kindle e-reader. For some, the iPad is too cumbersome, needing both hands to hold. This smaller tablet ist more than comfortable to use one hand with. Think of people being able to read while on public transportation and there’s standing room only.

It’s true that the Amazon tablet will be compared to the iPad. But it’s true competitors are the other 7-inch tablets that also run on Android. Amazon’s advantage to those producers is their extensive book store, and Amazon Prime.

Whatever happens next week in NYC – it’ll be exciting and reshape the e-book world.

If you haven’t converted your book to kindle format, you’re missing out on a lot more readers and buyers.