Amazon.com, as you probably know, is the biggest online retailer of books. One of the secrets to their success is the fact that customers--and authors--can interact with the site. Here are some of the fun tools you can use to help promote your work, all for free!

By the way, you can see all the features I talk about below on the listing for my own book, Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic. I'm going to discuss things roughly as they appear on the page so you can just scroll down as we go.

--Getting started: If you don't already have an account with Amazon, go ahead and register with them--I get very, very little spam from them, and it's often things that are useful, such as notifications of new author tools. If your book is already on Amazon.com, then you'll want to register with AmazonConnect which is their service to authors. You'll want to go to this page:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=13685551 Scroll down and click on AmazonConnect. That should get you into the registration process, including getting your books officially connected to you. Amazon will ask you to give contact information for someone from your publisher to verify that you are indeed the author of said book.

Amazon will then send a verification email to your contact, and unless you're trying to register the next Harry Potter book (hey, I've been that desperate for money!) s/he'll complete the verification. This now means that your profile and journal will be visible from the page where you book is sold.

If your book is out, but not up on Amazon yet, give it a little time. Talk to your publisher if your book isn't up yet.

--Profile: Mostly this is taken up with your journal, but there's also space for a good picture of you, and it gives details as to your activity on Amazon. I'll go into more detail about the various bells and whistles further on. The biography on your profile is where you get to give readers a chance to know more about you, what you like--you know, the usual bio stuff. Way down at the bottom of your profile page there's a little calendar where you can list important dates. I find this is useful for posting workshops and book signings, just in case the right people happen by. The thing is, a lot of pagan and occult authors come off as standoffish--if you show that you're accessible, and *involved* in the community, it's in your favor.

--Journaling: One thing that I love about AmazonConnect is the journal feature. Post to the journal, and not only does it show up on your profile, but on the page for my book as well. The great thing about it is that it gives readers a unique view into your life. I use mine to talk about whatever book I'm working on at the time, but I also do some off-topic stuff, too. It makes you seem more human, rather than some distant pagan celebrity, and it's also a neat way to give customers a sneak peek at what you're working on, as well as a bit of information on the person behind the book. Readers are key to this market, and I find that the more down to earth and personal you are (especially in this genre) the better.

--Tags: Heading back on the page for your book, below the journal we have "tags". These are basically the same as meta tags on a web page--when you search for a book on Amazon's site, the tags will help the search engine pick out your book. For instance, while "Fang and Fur" doesn't have the word "totemism" in its title anywhere, I tagged it with that word so that if someone searches for "totemism" my book will be more likely to turn up.

--Reviews: I tend to encourage those who buy books from me to leave a review for them on Amazon--I know a lot of people use those reviews to gauge whether or not they'll buy a book. And I leave reviews for books I read, too. The reviews for my book, of course, pique interest, but the reviews for others not only help (or halt) their sales, but also give you a little more exposure. Someone who takes an interest in one of your reviews may want to look up what else you've reviewed, and maybe even check out your profile, which may lead them to check out *your* book.

One note on reviews for your work--yes, you can contact Amazon's customer support if you think a review should be removed--ie, someone saying nothing more than "This author is stupid!" However, I suggest not removing a review unless it's pure harassment. Getting a negative review stinks, but constantly removing bad reviews makes you look insecure, and doesn't fool anyone.

--Forum: Right below the reviews is the forum for your book, where people can ask you questions about it. I haven't gotten any traffic on mine, but I left a thread there just saying "Hey, I'm here to talk if you have quesitons!" just in case. I don't think it serves any purpose that the journal can't, but it doesn't hurt anything by being there--just one more way for readers to contact us.

--ProductWiki: Again, this isn't a highly-used feature for books in our genre. However, when Lightning Source, my publisher's printer, posted my book on Amazon they didn't out any descriptive information about it, so I used the Wiki to give my synopsis of it. Make sure that you allow Amazon to email you if someone changes the Wiki--that way if you get some jerk who wants to mess with you, you can fix the problem quickly.

--Listmania! and So You'd Like To...: These are two ways to create recommended reading lists for other readers. I've created several, both with and without my own work on them. When I have listed my book, I've made sure and mentioned that I am the author, but also listed a whole bunch of other books. You don't want to overdo these, simply because you don't want to come off as egotistical. Still, one or two with your book in them can't hurt. In addition, you can describe yourself as a pagan or occult author in the So You'd Like To lists, which may pique people's interest and give you a little more authority. And, again, there's that accessibility and involvement I mentioned earlier--people like interacting with authors, at least in our genre. The aloof, "holier-than-thou" thing only works for so long, especially in a relatively small pond like the pagan and occult community.

So there you have it--an up to date listing of the useful features for free promotion on Amazon. I'm going to put this into the file section of the Yahoo group, in case you want to reference this later.

Have fun, look both ways before crossing the street, and if a stranger offers you candy, make them buy a copy of your book first!

Site content © Taylor Ellwood and/or Lupa, 1998-present. Contact us. The Pagan and Occult Author Resource Page does not endorse any publisher, publication, school or other organization or individual over any other. We provide the information herein for information purposes only.