Amazon KDP Publishing: Choosing the Right Keywords, Categories and Price

I’m happy to announce that I have a new eBook out today called Tarot Card Killer. This is my 18th book selling on Amazon and my 7th novel. This book is also the book that I wrote for NaNoWriMo. Overall I’m quite proud of it.

So what is Tarot Card Killer?

Well, if you’ve visited this site at all in the past month I’m sure you’ve heard about the book. I wrote about the Tarot book cover, gave an excerpt of the book, and now here I am pushing it again.

Let me tell you right now, this will be the last time I do a post on this book all year!

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Amazon Blurb

Writing a blurb for Amazon isn’t the easiest thing. I usually don’t get around to it until I’m on the publishing screen. Then I hastily hobble something together and slap it on there. This is what I came up with this time:

Jim Sharpe is sick of life, sick of being a cop, and most of all sick of Hong Kong. He’s one of the few not on the take, yet he’s being charged with corruption. By the end of the week he’ll be kicked off the force – no matter what.

All that changes when a dead body’s found next to Victoria Harbour, a bloody Tarot card in its hand. Jim’s called onto the case, and what he discovers promises not just to upend his world, but the whole city as well.

With action-packed car chases down The Peak, harrowing shootouts on the streets of Hong Kong Island, and plenty of Tarot card mumbo-jumbo you know this hard-boiled, international detective novel will take you to the edge of your seat.

Experience what readers everywhere will soon be talking about – Tarot Card Killer! So what are you waiting for? Draw your first card today!

Alright, that’s actually a touched-up version that I fixed just now and plan to copy/past over my older, not-as-good blurb.

So is that it? I mean, many users come to this site to read about publishing and some Amazon secrets. They don’t read my books and don’t really give a damn about them, honestly.

Well, here are the tips and tricks I employed while on the Amazon publishing screen.

Amazon Categories

This was a tough book to figure out. When you publish a book on Amazon you get 2 categories. These are what people will see you in if your book gets into a ‘Top 100’ list. For Tarot Card Killer I chose Mystery, Thriller and Suspense – Hard-Boiled. I figure this book is a lot like some of those older ‘50s detective novels so it seemed a good fit.

My next pick was a non-fiction category, Mind, Body & Spirit – Divination – Tarot. Yeah, well, I figure a lot of people looking in the Tarot category would be interested in this book.

Also, if I sell just a few copies I’m almost guaranteed to get a spot on that ‘Top 100’ list, increasing my visibility. After all, when I’ve been #1 in Tarot before I had a rank of about #15,000 or so. That’s just a few sales a day.

I’ll leave it there for a month or so and then see how it does with another Mystery category.

Amazon Keywords

The thing you have to remember about categories is that you shouldn’t be too disappointed if you can’t get all the ones you want. I would have loved to choose about 5 more categories, like Police Procedurals and International Detectives, but I only had those 2.

Thing is, Amazon gives you 7 keywords you can use. These are the words people type into the search bar when they go to Amazon. What I did was typed in all those categories I didn’t get, like Procedurals and International. Often you don’t even need to type the whole word in if you know what Amazon wants. And they tell you in the Amazon Keywords Guidelines.

Amazon Price

I think the best thing an author can do when they release a new book is to put the price really high or put it really low.

First, really high means you can get some cash for those first initial sales. If you have fans they probably want to read your new book. If it’s the next in a series you know people will need to read it.

Charging more is something that’s good, and that you should do for a few weeks or a month. I put the price of Tarot Card Killer at $4.99, making it my most expensive novel (the others are $3.99). So when will I lower it? Ha! Wouldn’t you like to know!

Now how about a low price? Well, what if I put that book at $0.99? I’d probably see more sales right out of the gate, that is of course if I’m promoting it.

For this book I’m not promoting it. I’ve got about 4 to 5 releases planned for this month and I just don’t have the money to do covers and advertising. This month my new titles will be my advertising.

Amazon Post-Publishing Blues

Well, that’s it. I’m done. I always feel a little bummed-out when I publish a new title on Amazon, something I seem to do every few weeks now. I should probably take a break. And don’t forget that I write for other people too, sometimes books even. You can read all about that in Adventures in SEO.

Anyways, check out Tarot Card Killer and maybe even buy a copy. I’m already working on the second book in the series and hope to have a good, finished rough draft by the end of January or so.

Thanks for reading!