Lindsay - April 10, 2020Our guest this week was fantasy and non-fiction author Bryan Cohen from the Sell More Books Show. Bryan also runs Best Page Forward, a book description service for people who don’t want to write their own, and coaches authors on Facebook ads.
Since book descriptions and Amazon ads are his specialty, we focused on those subjects for the show. Here are some of the specific questions we asked:
- You seem to have put your fiction aside for now. What are you focusing on in 2020?
- How has your background in comedy and improv influenced your current career?
- What are some common mistakes authors make with book descriptions or “blurbs” as we like to call them?
- Do you lean toward short blurbs or longer ones?
- What are examples of good calls to action? How should they differ from genre to genre?
- Do you always recommend authors use hooks in their descriptions? Is there ever a case where it wouldn’t be useful?
- We’ve learned from guests in the past that, particularly with things like covers, it pays to pick something that matches reader expectations for the genre. Should blurbs similarly emphasize the genre tropes? Or are they where you try to show what’s distinctive about your story?
- Do you foresee the current styles for descriptions changing in the near future? If so, what do you think they’d change to?
- Thoughts on first-person versus third-person descriptions?
- There’s a trend to put a lot of white space in descriptions. So, one sentence, a full paragraph break, then another sentence. How well does this work? Do you recommend it?
- You mentioned that you feel Amazon ads are the most affordable and best way, especially for newer authors, to start. Why is that?
- Should authors who are wide (not exclusive to Amazon) avoid Amazon ads? Are page reads necessary to make an ad profitable?
- Amazon now allows you to put together ads without copy. Do you find that these convert well?
- What are your thoughts on auto ads right now?
- Does having a perma-free Book 1 complicate running an Amazon ad campaign?
- We know that people with a long series can afford to bid a lot higher on a Book 1 and are the ones driving up the prices. For people who are on a limited budget and maybe only have a book or two out, what can they do?
- How closely should authors monitor their ACoS?
- In your experience, how important is it to have a lot of reviews? And do average review scores make a difference in conversion on ads?
If you’re interested in signing up for Bryan’s next 5 Day Amazon Ad Profit Challenge, it starts on Monday April 13th, and you can find out more on his site: http://sellingforauthors.com/aprilchallenge
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The Billy blurb threw me for a loop! So funny.