My school-age daughters teach me a lot.
Probably stuff I should have learned when I was in school, but was too busy doodling or talking to my schoolmates.
Plurals was one lesson. A gaggle of geese. Herd of cows. These I knew.
But they taught me about others. A romp of otters. Business of ferrets. A murder of crows.
That last one stuck in my mind. A “murder” of crows. I wonder how that came to be named?
Today, I witnessed a murder!
I had just dropped my daughter off at school for her final exam. Before I got to the end of the first block, I noticed a bunch of black dots in the treetop. Must have a been a dozen or more. Crows.
All squawking their annoying crow squawk.
One bird rarely catches my attention. Unless it’s unusual, like a Blue Jay or a bright red Cardinal.
And that is the lesson the murder (of crows) reminded me of. The murder lesson that can help authors sell more books.
You see, when there is just ONE of something, like your one book, it is often hard to get enough attention to make a lot of sales. Amazon.com is a crowded place. Especially when you are standing there alone. Naked.
However, when there are a whole bunch of your books, let’s call it your “cache” (rhymes with cash) of books.
When you have a “cache of books” for sale, you are easier to find. You take up more space on Amazon.com, and you appear to be good at what you do. You write lots of stuff, presumable because people want it.
At the extreme, James Patterson is very easy to find. His “cache of books” takes up TONS of space. He attracts a lot of attention.
But you don’t need that many books to gain more attention. You could do it with 4, or 6, or 10 books to start. Create a series based on your expertise. Or if you write fiction, your main characters.
Books in a series are actually promoted better on Amazon.com. You get more “Amazon Love”. It can contribute to better ranking scores (so I’m told, but no one knows for sure EXACTLY how their secret ratings system works) But everyone IS familiar with the section Amazon offers, recommends, “People who liked this book also bought… (and here they will essentially promote people buying your other books). How nice! Free advertising from Amazon.com
An easy way to create a series if you are just getting started, is rather than write one big 280 page book on your topic, break it up into 4, 70 page books or even 8 35 page Kindle books, or at least 2 140 page books. People like to read shorter books anyway. Especialy if non-fiction. They want to read quick and get results fast. This alone could help you sell more books.
So your murder lesson for today is to gain more attention by put your books out in a group, a series of similarly titled or subtitled, related books to capture more attention from readers searching for you, or your topic. Better still, books in a series are Amazon’s favorite kind.
Try it and feel the love. Amazon love.
Robert Schwarztrauber
P.S. On a related note, I love the author, poet, Edgar Allan Poe. Especially “The Raven” Have a listen as Vincent Price reads it on Youtube.
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