By Vincent B. Davis II, @vbdavisii

Regardless of our book’s genre, they have many silent killers. There might not be a single murder in your narrative, but there are several factors that can kill your book sales if you overlook them. The three I’ve decided to highlight here are your book categories, your price, and your keywords.

Categories

There are nearly 5 million books available in the Kindle Store, and growing rapidly at the pace of nearly 800 books a day. With that kind of crowded market, we have to make sure our books are visible by selecting their proper categories. I often hear other authors say that their books is a little bit of this genre, and a little bit of that genre. It’s easy to think you might receive double the sales from crossing over genre boundaries, but oftentimes we can miss out on both if we don’t clearly define where our book belongs.

You might be writing a paranormal romance, a sci-fi space thriller, or a noire mystery. In any of these various genres, you can display elements of various genres. For instance, my most recent novel is a crime thriller. However, it is set in the 1920s, in a historical setting, so it could also be seen as a historical thriller in certain aspects. Regardless of how I may see the story, I have to decide how I want to list my book. This will determine who the book appears in front of, which is very important.

Authors might also be tempted to pick something very general to describe their story. My first novel, “The Man with Two Names“, was published in July. It’s two categories initially were historical thriller and historical fiction. I had moderate success in these categories, but Historical Fiction is such a massive, competitive category. I had virtually no chance, as a new author, to feature in the top 100 books in the Historical Fiction bestsellers list.

So, on December 12th (just over a week ago), I decided to switch things up. Removing my book from the historical fiction category, which might have suited it best, I placed it in a more niche category. After doing some research, I chose to place the book in the History -> Ancient Civilizations -> Rome category. You can’t get much more niche than that, can you?

After making the switch, I have continuously featured in the top 20 books in my new category. While I was listed in historical fiction, I didn’t have a chance of placing in the top 100.

Here’s the real kicker:

By placing myself in a more niche category, I was able to list as a #1 bestseller in my new category… in Australia. I have never even tracked my sales in Australia, and did nothing specifically for that market. All I did was make my title more visible to those who might be interested, and now I can say I am an International Best Seller! The category switch, plus our next topic, was what allowed me to do this.

Price

Most authors (or there publishers) pick a price point, and stick with it. This can be a silent killer for your book’s sales. The book market is rapidly changing, and keeping an eye on price point is imperative to staying ahead of the curve.

This picture is an illustration from the October 2016 Author Earnings Report that shows how price point influences sales. If you are indie published or with a smaller press, price point is even more influential. If you are a new author, with say, less than three books, your sales will correlate directly with your price. A reader is far more willing to take a chance on a newer author at the $2.99 price point than they would be at $9.99.

The first and most important thing to consider is your book selling objectives. If you’re first priority is getting your book into the hands of readers, and building a larger platform, pricing low is the way to go. If you’re most interested in revenue, you’ll want to price higher. But remember, there is a diminishing return with price point: the higher you go, the more money you’ll receive per sale, but also the less sales you’ll make.

Take some time to test different price points (or talk to your publisher about doing so), and figure out what works best for you.

One last note: if your book is available in foreign markets (as most books on Amazon are), leaving it up to Amazon to determine your foreign prices can be a big mistake. When you set your US price, Amazon will automatically choose a corresponding price for other markets. However, books in other areas are often priced differently than they are here. Being more sensitive to sales in these markets can go a long way to increasing your foreign audience.

By simply changing the price of “The Man with Two Names” from $4.99 to $3.99 in Australia, along with the category switch, allowed me to become a bestseller there.

Keywords

Much like categories, your keywords will determine who your book appears in front of. It is easy for the author to pick 5-7 terms that make sense for the story’s topic, and “let the big dog roll” so to speak. That can kill your book sales as quickly as bad reviews.

Some of the keywords chosen might not have an audience at all. Meaning, no one is searching for them. On the other hand, the chosen keywords may be far too competitive. Remember, Amazon is a company that wants to make money. If you are competing with a large number of books that are selling as well or better than yours, Amazon is going to pick the books making them the most money to appear to shoppers first.

And here is why that’s important:

This is an image from Kindlepreneur.com that illustrates how sales are effected by the page number your book finds itself in. If someone is searching for their next story, there is a 27% chance that they will click on a book if it is listed on the first page of their search results. That percentage drops to 8% if it is on the fourth page. If you keyword doesn’t bring your book up in the first several pages, it should be axed. It isn’t doing you any good, and it isn’t bringing you any sales.

Play around with these keywords. Your sales will reflect the changes, for better or worse, but the best thing is that you can always alter them afterwards. Your goal is to ensure that the keyword is actually being searched for (using tools like KDP Rocket, Kindle Spy, or Keywords Everywhere can make this very easy), and also to ensure the book is showing up high in the results of keywords people are actually searching for.

Conclusion

Changing these variables might not make you a bestseller. Leaving them the same doesn’t mean you’re career as an author is over. But the first and most dangerous killer to your book sales is remaining stagnate, and simply hoping that readers will stumble onto your wonderful story. You worked hard to ensure your book was the best it can be. Now, it’s time to work to ensure your marketing is the best that it can be. It’s all about getting our books into the hands of readers, and impacting their lives.

Best of luck to you! If you have any input or questions, leave a comment, or feel free to reach out to me at vincent@thirteenthpress.com. Have a merry Christmas!

Vincent B. Davis II is an entrepreneur, soldier, and freelance writer. In December 2016, he founded Thirteenth Press, LLC. His first novel, “The Man with Two Names” is available on Amazon now. You can connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or on his website at vincentbdavisii.com. He loves hearing from other authors! If you would like to be featured on Blueridgeconference.com, e-mail him at vincent@thirteenthpress.com with the subject line “Blog Query”.