Amazon Ads: Choose Keywords + Categories Boost Book Sales with Jai Heer | Ep. 74

What if you could sell more books on Amazon without spending a fortune or wasting hours learning ads? 

Amazon ads strategist and founder and CEO of AMSPPC.com, Jai Heer, shares the exact steps nonfiction authors can take to boost discoverability, grow book sales, and make their book stand out in a crowded marketplace. You’ll learn how to choose the right keywords, set realistic sales expectations, and run ads that actually work, even if you’ve never touched the Amazon dashboard before. 

Whether you’re traditionally published, with a hybrid, or self-published, this conversation will help you turn your book into a long-term visibility asset.

In this episode, Allison and Jai discuss:

• 02:15 — The #1 mistake authors make with Amazon ads
• 10:30 — Why your book title needs the right keyword in the first half
• 24:40 — How to set a realistic Amazon ads budget that works
• 38:50 — Turning your book into a long-term visibility asset
• 50:20 — Jai’s one tip for every author using Amazon ads

Jai Heer is the founder and CEO of AMSPPC.com, an Amazon Certified KDP AMS consultant, and author of KDP Amazon Ads for Non-Fiction Authors: Basic and Advanced KDP AMS Strategies for Non-Fiction Authors to Sell More Books, Reduce Spend, and Align Your Goal with Your Advertising

Resources Mentioned:

• Connect with Jai Heer: https://amsppc.com/ 
• Connect Jai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jai-singh-profile/ 
• Book reco: The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society by C. G. Jung: https://bookshop.org/a/55773/9780316476942 

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Transcript

Allison: 0:00

I want to correct something I said. I'm not saying don't use the keyword that you're seeing, but make it different. Yes. Yeah. It's not the self-love handbook. The self-love guide. 10 tips to self Love. It's self-love for women. Self-love for black women. Or self care for busy moms. Be more specific.

Jai Heer: 0:24

Yes. I tell so that find your own pond. Don't be the ocean. Find your own pond and be the king of that pond.

Allison: 0:59

Welcome back to the Author's Edge. I'm so happy that you're spending time on yourself. You're an author or you think I'm not an author yet or I wouldn't call myself an author. If it's your idea, you are an author. Even if you're working with a ghost writer or you're having someone, air Bunnys help you with your book. It's your concept. You are the author. I'm not splitting hairs. I'm telling you straight. But you've done the hard part. So, if you are thinking, okay, now my book is out. Amazing. You've done the hard part. Your book is written, it's published, it's live on all the retailer sites, and it's live on Amazon. Now, what? And too many authors hit publish or their publishers say, okay, it's pub day, and they're waiting so fervently looking at their rankings on the retailer sites waiting for sales to roll in. But visibility on retailer sites is not automatic. Today's guest, Jai Heer is here to change that and to open our eyes because he and his team run a done for You Amazon ads campaign just for books, just for nonfiction authors. So that you can attract consistent readers and boost your discoverability and increase your book's ranking without needing to spend hours inside the Amazon dashboard or to DM me, which this happens. My books out, but I feel like the categories that I'm in are wrong. What should I do? I could tell you what I think, but I would rather hear it from an expert who was introduced to me by one of my clients who swears by him and says, the moment I stop running Amazon ads, I stop selling books. So, in this episode, we're going to get clear about what makes a book ready to advertise on Amazon. We're talking about Amazon specifically. How to approach a budget of what does that really mean because you hear budget and you automatically think it's more than you can afford. But I promise we're not talking a hundred thousand dollars or even anywhere close to it. And what it takes to run that campaign on Amazon. So, this is for you whether you're self-published or traditionally published. I hate to break it to you, your publisher even if you're traditionally published, we'll only run Amazon ads for a blink of an eye. And then, it's up to you. So this episode is for you to help you get smarter about using ads to grow your book and get it out into the world and grow your brand. So, let's get into it. Welcome and thank you so much for being here to open our eyes to what's possible because you hear ad campaign and you think, that's not for me because I don't even know what that costs. And everyone always thinks that something costs more than they could afford, even when they have no idea. So, let's start with what's a mistake people making when it comes to Amazon advertising for their book Especially for new authors.

Jai Heer: 4:39

For sure. The number one mistake that I have observed in my experience of five years of running my ad agency is that the authors don't know the numbers of their niche from an Amazon marketplace perspective. So, what I mean by that is how much is the demand and supply of my topic or my niche? And what happens is they go by default with the perception that I have published a book and it is meant to sell. And I have to tell them that Amazon is a marketplace, whether you would sell or not. It all depends on the Amazon numbers. So, in the first meeting that we sit with authors, I show them the numbers upfront that this is the demand and supply of your topic and niche. What it does is it sets the expectations not just from ads perspective, but overall from a book's perspective, how book will fare on Amazon now that we have the numbers in front of us.

Allison: 5:40

Okay. Let's take an example.

Jai Heer: 5:42

Yeah.

Allison: 5:43

Say, I'm writing a self-help about healthy relationships and the psychology behind healthy relationships.

Jai Heer: 5:53

Yes.

Allison: 5:53

Does that go in self-help? Does it go in happiness? Does it go in relationships? Does it go in marriage or divorce? I don't even know. There are so many market segmentations. But self-help seems too broad.

Jai Heer: 6:08

Too broad. Yes, absolutely. So, what we do is we go by what is the main keyword on the title. You mean to understand how amateur buy a book on Amazon. For them, it's a split second decision. And they take the decision based on the title and on the cover. Now, if our title there's a topic around relationship.

Allison: 6:29

Wait, you just said something super important. The key word in the title.

Jai Heer: 6:35

Yes.

Allison: 6:36

The keyword has to be in the title. And this is specific to nonfiction because you are like me, we're just talking nonfiction now. Yes. But your title can't be super dreamy and ethereal and not have a connection because people search with keywords. Absolutely. And so, does that include a subtitle as well, would you Title subtitle.

Jai Heer: 7:02

Absolutely. Absolutely. I only example of one of my clients His initial title was Inner Awareness.

Allison: 7:11

Inner awareness.

Jai Heer: 7:12

Yeah. Inner awareness. And this book is was about meditation. And I said, I told my client, see I mean his name is Blair. He is my first client and still with us. I said, Blair, inner awareness is it's your word, it's in your head. As an amateur, if I am coming in and seeing your cover, I wouldn't know whether this is a meditation book or it's just spiritual book. I wouldn't know. And then we help him to create a title subtitle, which has the meditation keywords. Like meditation book for beginners something like that. So, where it shows clearly that this is for people who want a book on meditation. So in your example, if it's about relationship, the title will have or should have a keyword relationship in it. And that will tell us that this is our niche. And that's where we have to go through the numbers in the marketplace. And we have to see if our main keyword is relationship books. What is the demand and supply looks like? So, for example, if relationship books has a search volume of, say, for example, 3000 searches per month. And I have 60,000 competing products on relationship books, right? That tells me as an author that this is a two competitive as a niche. Right? So, this also means that whether ads non-ad, it'll be challenging to sell in this market if I don't have a following outside of Amazon. So we need to understand whether author has audience outside of Amazon. If not, we have to set expectations right. Let's see, this is too competitive space here, right? The numbers are not aligned to what we want. It's too competitive and we have to agree or rather we have to understand that sales will be bit challenging in this space if we are going purely with Amazon.

Allison: 9:02

I think too, it's, this is the Amazon or any bookstore, people are strolling, they're literally walking while they're browsing. So, they're not even picking up your book in order to decide if they're interested in. They're just like on a conveyor belt of their own feet, just walking by. Going, do I like any of these? No, it did. So they're looking for keywords. And if you're using words that are inside baseball.

Jai Heer: 9:32

Yeah.

Allison: 9:33

Words like authentic self which I don't know what that means, or own your agency. Those kinds of like have more agency. Those are not words that people use. Yes. Those are really jargon.

Jai Heer: 9:52

Yeah. Heavy. Yes. Yes.

Allison: 9:54

So, I would say, if you were talking to your mom or your elementary school child Yes. How would they describe that? They might say, a relationship could be, I want to make more friends.

Jai Heer: 10:13

Yes.

Allison: 10:13

How do I make friends easier?

Jai Heer: 10:15

Yes.

Allison: 10:16

Or it could be, I want to find true love.

Jai Heer: 10:18

Yeah. Yeah.

Allison: 10:20

But it's not how to own your authentic self in your next partnership. That I don't, what is that? I don't know.

Jai Heer: 10:29

Yes. That's why it is really important to keep our main keyword in the first half of the title not even in the subtitle. It should be somewhere in the first half of your title. And what it does is it also gives Amazon algorithm the right information to start promoting your book. If your keyword relationship book is somewhere in the description, people don't have time to read description to be honest with you. As we are saying that it's a split second decision. There are also window shopping all the thousand products out there in the relationship a niche. How can we catch our audience attention in just that few seconds, it's through the right title and subtitle. For example, ADHD for Women.

Allison: 11:15

We share a client, right? Yes. Yeah. Yes. So, ADHD for Smart Ass Women. We're not questioning who's this for?

Jai Heer: 11:24

Yes. It's so clear. So clear, yes. That men will not click. Men will not click. Then that's what we want. And women will click because of the cover intuitiveness and the title in journal is very motivating. And it's where the cover is so intuitive that one has to click at least see what it is. Right?

Allison: 11:45

Sure. And the other thing I love about this is that first it's hot pink, so it stands out because when this came out, a lot of books were light blue. Ah. So it was nice to see something other than that. And the word neurodivergent is in the title. And the word brain is in the subtitle.

Jai Heer: 12:03

Yes. Yes.

Allison: 12:04

And those are important keywords.

Jai Heer: 12:06

Absolutely. More than that the title itself is the font of that is so big, you cannot miss that. Yeah. And that's where you make the decision. Like in few seconds, I'm a woman. I have I'm experiencing ADHD. This is, this book is for me. I'll click. So this, that's how you make that connection as really important for authors. You can be creative with the text inside the book. You can be creative with the description as well. Let's not go creative with the titles and cover rather titles and subtitles. And that has to be from an amateur angle. Somebody comes in, whether they will make sense what this book is all about in just few seconds. If yes, that's it.

Allison: 12:46

I need to tell you a secret too about a little insider behind the scenes about ADHD for Smart Ass Women. I worked with Tracy Otsuka to develop her book concept and her book proposal. And then, curate the agents that we pitched, which she'll tell you I tricked her into because she didn't know we were going to do it that day. And she, while we were live on our Zoom call, we, she sent the query letter to an agent and 17 minutes later, while we were still talking, the agent responded to say, I would love to talk to you. And these are cold pitches people that when an agent or a publisher knows what they're looking for. And the title speaks to them. Even the pitch letter, which in the publishing world, we call it a query letter, but it's a pitch letter. They respond right away. Yeah. And this happens with everyone I work with every single time they get agent response in their first round of queries, and I only allow 11 queries at a time. And we like to query within a all 11, within a 48 hour period because then we know, like when to start the counting. But the point here is that the agents who responded, she got in an agent offer on the first day, the second day, the third day, and the fourth day in a row. So she got four agent offers. They were responding to the clarity of her message and that was delivered in the proposal. It was consistent throughout every bit of the proposal, which led to the pitch letter. And the overview of the proposal is almost word for word, what you now find as the Amazon book description. Because my method is, let's start with the keywords. And this is even before you and I met. So, now, I feel even smarter for knowing.

Jai Heer: 14:58

Of course, and the probability the agent didn't have to go through a description in detail as well. The title was so clear and he must have, or she would have known that there is a demand of this book. I don't have to go through the description to see what this book is all about and what this email is all about. The title itself clicked and he responded.

Allison: 15:16

Yes, she got four offers from four women who are agents.

Jai Heer: 15:21

Yes. And the safety action we see on Amazon as well. When people are buying product, it is how sooner it clicks with what you are looking for, right? If I want an ADHD book for women and I have the same keywords or on the title and on the cover, I will ignore all the rest that just doesn't have those sort of keywords. I just click the ones which has the keywords that I want or other a problem that I want to solve.

Allison: 15:51

Oh my gosh, you're so smart. Okay, so when you first started working with let's continue with the Tracy as the example. Yeah. Tracy's book became a bestseller right away. It just hit at the right time, but also with the right marketing and the publisher gave her a lot of support. But at then, at some point, they move on to and at sooner than, you think people, sooner than you think, even though she had a traditional book deal. They're putting out hundreds of books in each season. Yes. So, it's a lot. And it's unrealistic to think that you're going to get six months of their booming support. At some point, the author has to step in and take over.

Jai Heer: 16:37

Yes.

Allison: 16:37

Because the book is opening doors for your next big opportunity. And the same is true for Tracy. Correct. She's gets cold call speaking opportunities now and good for her. We want her message to get out to more people. But then where do you start? So luckily she found you. So, what's the first step when you start working with someone? Do you start with the, what are the categories, really? Or let me ask a different way. What's the first thing you have to fix? Once someone finds you because it's not usually, they probably usually find you after their book's been published.

Jai Heer: 17:22

Absolutely.

Allison: 17:23

I'm sure usually you're like, Ooh, I don't know why they made that decision. So, talk me through some of the things that you're like, huh, let's undo or correct, or polish up what we're seeing here.

Jai Heer: 17:36

So, what happens is when publisher hands over book to the authors at that particular time, there is already some momentum. Now, it becomes tough for the author to continue that momentum, right? They would do it if they're following outside of Amazon, they would start promoting there. But most of the authors that I've met, they don't have that much of a following outside of Amazon. So, they now become dependent on Amazon ads to continue that sort of a momentum going forward, right? So, what happens is we meet with authors, we meet each and every author before we onboard them through a Zoom meeting. And we try to understand first, we set the right expectation, as I mentioned earlier, we set the right expectation. We tell them, we show them the numbers of their market. And tell them whether it's competitive, less competitive, we can make money, no money, right? Stuff like that. And then, we try to understand what they really want to achieve through this book and advertising. And I can tell you each author will define that objective very differently.

Allison: 18:39

Give me some examples because I'm thinking sales, I want to sell more books.

Jai Heer: 18:43

Yes. So, for example, 80% of my authors are business owners. For them, number of orders increasing on a monthly basis or increasing the number of sales is the first priority. They say we we are okay with the break even point on Amazon ads. But for us the most important thing is number of orders increasing so that we can sell more value of product out outside of Amazon to them. So, this is one set of things. The other set is where author says, you know what? This is my income source. I'm treating this as an income source and I want somebody to increase my profit margin. Now, as a consultant, we look to two objectives very differently. And we try to see where the book is at present, and then we try to see whether it'll be possible to meet that objective or not. This is what I tell, authors all the time, we all want Ferrari, but it's up to Amazon to tell us whether they can give Ferrari to us or not.

Allison: 19:45

So, you're saying that some people just want to see sales increase month on month. But some people say, these objectives are very different. One is just number of books that go out the door. Yeah. The second is I want to make sure that I'm earning Money. Which of course you're earning money when your book sells, but I think what you're saying is that people want to be making their living off of the book sales.

Jai Heer: 20:15

Yes. Or not living maybe, or it is just the second revenue stream or more, it's one of those revenue streams for them. And we have to see it from that perspective. So if somebody comes to us and say, I want this to be my revenue stream, we need to understand whether the book is ready to deliver that objective or not. For example, we are working with one of our clients in the acquisition space. He is a leader in this space. People know him, his brand outside of Amazon as well. His book has about 1500 reviews on Amazon. Now, he says, I have, we now my book has come to a point now. It should not be an expense to me. It should bring more money to me. And we've been profitable on this book since we have onboarded him, since the beginning. I have another client in the gut health space. His book is has five star reviews, about 200 reviews. And it's in a space that has more demand and less supply. So, it's a low competitive space, and we are able to deliver the profit to her because we know that it's of high demand and less supply on Amazon. We show them and that only after that we onboard client. Once, we go through the numbers together and we have the same expectations from ads and from the book, only then we move forward. And many times we have to say no because if the numbers are not working for us, even ad ads cannot help you. So, that's.

Allison: 21:40

Right, because it comes down to how many books are in the category that you're in. Yes. Which you've already said. Yes. If you're in a category that's so big. Yes. And there are only 3000 searches a month. Yes. Within that category, then you're just categorized wrong. Can an author change their category?

Jai Heer: 22:06

Yeah. They can, but I can tell you the crux of the book or the book topic will not change with that, to be honest with you. If my book says leadership books for CEO, say, for example, a best leadership book for CEO, it's still a leadership book. I can change the category to a leadership category to a unknown category or other loose the related category and be a bestseller there. But the point is it still falls under leadership space. If you type leadership books, we are competing with the likes of Tony Robbins. You know, if you want to compete in that space the point, if yes, do we have a structure in place to compete with them? Do we have audience outside of Amazon that will buy your book? And then, is there enough demand on Amazon to even justify the spend? So, what I was saying is category changes helps you to get that bestseller tag. That's there. But then after we got the bestseller tag, the book is still in the leadership niche.

Allison: 23:02

Which goes back to your point of you got to put the keywords that you want in, not just in your title, but in the first half of your title. Absolutely. And your best thought is to know those keywords before the book comes out, before you even meet you. So that your book doesn't say leadership for CEOs, because then you're going to be in this huge sea of Yeah this category. And once, your book is called Leadership for CEOs, that's where you are.

Jai Heer: 23:34

Yeah. That's where you are. And for example, one of my clients that I was mentioning, my first client on the, in the meditation space, we told Blair that Blair, until, unless you don't have organic sales, something comes coming, you organically, the royal is coming you organically. You will get tired very soon with ads because we are competing with the likes of Jay Shetty here. Do you think and he said, I don't know anybody outside of Amazon. It's just Amazon. I'm depending on. I'm saying, do you even think that we will be able to justify the spend and it's not just one month spend and we have to spend long. Then what we did for him is we tried to, put his book organically on the first page when somebody types meditation book, his book now comes for the last three to four years. His book is on the first page. So he's getting some organic sales, even in the competing space. Oh, that's good. Yeah. And then we are putting ads over top of that, and more or less on a monthly basis, we are breaking even for him. And he's very happy about that because he's in a niche where selling just via ads is societal. You won't be able to forget about the money. We'll be able to, we won't be able to get that traction on Amazon because of that competitiveness.

Allison: 24:46

I want to pull apart two things that you mentioned. Yeah. One is you might be breaking even, you spend let's say 500 a month on ads and you're making 500 a month, but your book is opening doors for you. Yes. You are the brand. Your book is a product. Yes. But you're being asked to speak and getting paid for that. So that is also a product of you.

Jai Heer: 25:14

Yes.

Allison: 25:14

And maybe you're doing some coaching or consulting. And that is a product. Yes. So, your book is, I understand what you're saying. You're breaking even within Amazon.

Jai Heer: 25:28

Amazon, yes.

Allison: 25:29

But your book is also opening doors for you in other revenue.

Jai Heer: 25:34

Yes.

Allison: 25:35

That's coming in. So you do have to lead, think of yourself as having a portfolio life.

Jai Heer: 25:42

Yeah. Yeah.

Allison: 25:43

You are the brand, you are the center. And all the ways that people interact with you are products.

Jai Heer: 25:51

Absolutely.

Allison: 25:52

That fit the way that they want to interact with you. You don't get to choose.

Jai Heer: 25:57

The business owners we work with, they have the same mindset. They are not thinking of breaking even. They don't want to be break even on Amazon because they know probably, how much I can earn or how much I can break even through Amazon. The way MRPs are of the paperback or ebook, they says, help me sell more books because I can sell a$5,000 workshop or mastermind outside of Amazon and it helps you to create brand for myself. But then, that there are other set of people who are like small business owners who says, I don't have any product or heavy product outside of Amazon. Help me get break even. So, the most example fits in that space Got it. This owners are, is a different mindset. They're very aggressive Put ads, give me more orders, that's what we are looking for. Is it increasing? Good. So, that's where we have to sit down with authors and try to understand where they're coming from. What kind of mindset they have when it comes to books? What they want to do with their book? And then, we aligned the advertising strategy based on that answer. Somebody who comes to me is saying that, please help me being breakeven. It'll have a very different campaign strategy versus a businessman who comes to me. I want to be aggressive. So, it'll have a very different campaign strategy, Allison. So, it's based on book to book, author to author, their life.

Allison: 27:16

Very customized.

Jai Heer: 27:17

Very, very, very customized. It can't be journal.

Allison: 27:18

Alright, let's talk about money. Yeah. Take me through just general, let's remove the fear of all of this costs$20,000 a month. It doesn't, right? No.

Jai Heer: 27:31

Yeah.

Allison: 27:32

So, you and I have talked money before, and I believe you said you start out with, I don't know,$600 for a month. And then you get started and part of that is the ads.

Jai Heer: 27:48

Yes.

Allison: 27:49

So, talk me through, if I had a book and I called you today and you said, okay, you passed our quiz of you, we can achieve for you what you are looking for. Now, I PayPal you.

Jai Heer: 28:04

Yeah.

Allison: 28:04

500, 600 bucks. Not even a thousand.

Jai Heer: 28:08

Yeah.

Allison: 28:09

Yeah. And we get started. So, what happens in that first month?

Jai Heer: 28:13

So, what happens is, so we set the budget that we want to advertise. Right? So, what I suggest authors is start with$500 per month. This is the budget that will go directly to Amazon. You have Amazon dashboard, advertising dashboard. You put your card there and Amazon will charge to you. Now, why$500? It's just, it tells you that we are talking about$15 a day spending. If you have a new book, this is a good starting point. You don't have to spend 5,000 or 10,000 because there are phases to spending also. Amazon advertising does not behave like Facebook advertising. You give them a thousand dollars, it'll spend$5,000 in a day. That's not the case with Amazon. Amazon takes its own time. It tries to show your book to the relevant places, to the relevant people and it takes a bit of time. You cannot spend, in by instead, a thousand dollars a day in, just like you have created a campaign and you start spending a thousand dollars a day, that doesn't happen. So,$500 a month is a basic and a decent start where we start collecting data. We create campaign strategy based on our discussion, as I mentioned. And then we create campaigns based on that strategy. And then, we let it run for a month. What it does is it gives you data back. And this is very important data. It helps you to understand how people have actually bought your book. What are they typing in? Saw our ad and bought our book. What is the human psychology or what are the problem queries that they're typing in? And those are very important data points, and we use that and create further campaigns from there. The first set of campaign is based on our own research through our own tools outside of Amazon and gives us a bit of a head start. And then, we go from there and try to see what search terms people have actually typed in and bought the book. And that gives us a clear indication of where we want to go from there. So, a month of a testing to collect the data is the first phase here, if you haven't advertised that book at all. If yes, then we look at the past 65 days data. Because we already have a data and we try to understand how people have bought your book. We take that search terms or keywords and we create different, more different variations of those sort of keywords and campaigns. Got it. So it depends on where the phase, where you are in terms of advertising. Right?

Allison: 30:40

What I like about this is it's baby steps. Yes. And you're data driven. And Amazon doesn't allow you to spend$15,000 in a day like Facebook would. Facebook be like, sure. Great.

Jai Heer: 30:52

Yeah. Yes. Enjoy.

Allison: 30:54

And so, it might be$15 a day. Yes. Whatever. And then, you're getting the data. Yeah. And then you stop and you adjust.

Jai Heer: 31:04

Yes. Yes.

Allison: 31:05

Based on what the data is showing you.

Jai Heer: 31:08

Absolutely. We cut down inefficiencies. We try to do more of what is working and we cut down inefficiency as soon as we see. We don't wait for a month, two months to shut down things. It is just matter of maybe a few days or a few weeks where we know that this is not working and we do cut this down. And we monitor it on daily basis. It's not a one time week or biweekly. It's every day we go in and see what else we can do to increase.

Allison: 31:35

Gosh, so many people need you. This is amazing. So if someone wants to work with you, they come to you, you interview them, you have a conversation about their goals.

Jai Heer: 31:48

Yeah.

Allison: 31:48

So someone, they come to you, you talk about objectives, they get started. Start the engine. Their fee is not, did you say 900? 900 is the get started package?

Jai Heer: 32:03

Yes. Total budget. Yeah.

Allison: 32:04

And more than half of that is the Amazon budget?

Jai Heer: 32:10

Yes. Yes. Okay.

Allison: 32:11

And then you. And then you iterate every day. You adjust, we manage and you remove the things

Jai Heer: 32:19

Yes.

Allison: 32:20

That aren't working.

Jai Heer: 32:21

Yes.

Allison: 32:21

Because there's always something.

Jai Heer: 32:23

Yes.

Allison: 32:24

And you do more of what is working.

Jai Heer: 32:27

Absolutely. Absolutely. If there is a data. If there is no data, we are starting from zero. So, that's where we create campaign strategy campaigns and the same process falls there.

Allison: 32:37

Ideally, people would chat with you or chat with me before they titled their book. Most authors who come to me say, I've already written half my book, but I want a traditional book deal. And I say, please stop writing the rest of your book. Nobody wants your whole book. Yeah. They want your book proposal. Yes. And at PS better be key word optimized. Yes. And they want two sample chapters, so please write it. Stop writing.

Jai Heer: 33:07

Yeah. Since

Allison: 33:08

you've never written a book.

Jai Heer: 33:09

Yeah.

Allison: 33:10

Stop brain dumping into chapters. Nobody wants that. And it's usually all facts and no story. So, it reads like a textbook anyway, which is, it's such a relief to them. They think, oh my God, that's so great. because this has been so hard. So, stop doing that.

Jai Heer: 33:27

Absolutely.

Allison: 33:27

But what you would say too is before you title your book, you want to look at all these keywords? Because here's something that I tell people is it could be the same book and the same book proposal.

Jai Heer: 33:42

Yeah. And

Allison: 33:43

have 15 different titles. Yes. So, it's like a different frosting, same cupcake.

Jai Heer: 33:48

Absolutely. Absolutely. So for example, I'm just saying if you are, you want to write and you are in a relationship niche, say for example. Let's do a bit of a research and see what is working in the relationship niche. Is it the husband, wife or the marriage relationship, or boyfriend girlfriend relationship books are working. If yes, do write that instead of choosing something which without the backing of the numbers. So, even if you're writing in a niche, what is working in that niche is really important. What is in demand in that niche? And is your writing, you can write, about relationship. So, why not focus into a bit of a sub niche that is our subtitle, which is working and has a good demand on Amazon.

Allison: 34:30

This reminds me of something I just heard from an agent I was having a strategy session with about one of her clients. And she said, gosh, if I could just pass along, publishers do not want any more books with the word girl in them. And this was particularly for fiction. So, think about it. Even a key word, like Girl, Gone Girl, girl in the train.

Jai Heer: 34:57

Yeah.

Allison: 34:57

Girl in the window. The summer Girls, there are so many then there's the anything Sisters. Sisterhood of the traveling pencil. Yeah. Anything with these. So, anything that, where you see you, you start to see the same word. Yeah. Or like soulmate. Soulmate for a long time was in every nonfiction, soulmate and love. Yeah. Love soulmate.

Jai Heer: 35:24

Yes.

Allison: 35:24

And then, it was you could just follow these trends.

Jai Heer: 35:28

Yes.

Allison: 35:29

And then, even you get bored with another soulmate book, is it different than the other one? Yeah. And then, you realize all the covers look alike. Are the, do they have the same cover artist? No. But they know that you are also looking at the other cover and they're thinking, maybe she'll choose our cover because she thinks like there's just leveraging that the first book that had soulmate on it Yeah was such a hit that you'll spill over and buy the next one.

Jai Heer: 36:02

Yeah.

Allison: 36:02

So, if you see everyone going one way, go the other way.

Jai Heer: 36:06

Absolutely. And back it with the numbers. Back it with the numbers. We don't have to do what everybody's doing. If you have the numbers, you realize, for example, I'll tell you self love space, say for example. Now, you won't believe now there are books that are great demand and self-love are self-love for book for women. Self-love books for black women. Now, you're seeing that even if you think I want to write self-help a love book. Now you know that a self-love for black women has more a demand. And if you have a black woman and you experience a self-love and you want to teach people, this is a great market for you.

Allison: 36:45

So, I want to correct something I said. I'm not saying don't use the keyword that you're seeing, but make it different. Yes. Yeah. It's not the self-love handbook. The self-love guide. 10 tips to self Love. It's self-love for women. Self-love for black women. Or self care for busy moms. Be more specific.

Jai Heer: 37:09

Yes. I tell so that find your own pond. Don't be the ocean. Find your own pond and be the king of that pond.

Allison: 37:17

Oh, that's a good one. Say that again. Listen, I'm all about a power statement and you made me lean in. So, say it again.

Jai Heer: 37:26

Don't be an ocean. Be a pond. Make your own pond, and own that pond.

Allison: 37:31

Oh my gosh, if I had another microphone, I would drop it. Don't be the ocean. Be a pond. Make your own pond. Own your pond. Holy crap. Full body chills. That was amazing.

Jai Heer: 37:50

Yes. These Are all the discussions that I have with my authors, right? I've been doing this for five years. I have met all kinds of nonfiction authors, rather, I would say the high level of categories. This nonfiction categories. I have books in those categories. I have world in those categories. And I have seen the pond books doing really well because it's so specific, like ADHD for women it's a pond book. It's not a ocean book. You're not in the ADHD ocean niche, say for example, right? You are in ADHD women pond and you are owning it. And Tracy is owning like hell. I mean, Is her book is sell really?

Allison: 38:31

She is really owning it. But I got to tell you, the day her book came out, there were seven copycat books that On Amazon. Yeah. Yeah. And I just started screenshotting them into and saying, you send this to your publisher because they've got to, it would say, smart ass women in ADHD or a biography, Tracy Otsuka and Smart Ass for Women, or smart ass women in ADHD. And the cover would look exactly the same. It was ridiculous. But because she owned her brand. And her podcast is named ADHD for Smart Ass Women.

Jai Heer: 39:13

Yes.

Allison: 39:14

It's super clear who the owner is, but it's really shocking that there are authors out there who say, that seems to be doing well on day one. I think I will put out a book that is essentially, and it would even say, this is a guide to reading ADHD for smart ass women. Like you're going to what? That's what a cheater, cheater. Yeah. Company eater. Yeah.

Jai Heer: 39:39

That is always the case, Allison, if something's doing well, people start copying, but I can tell you,"quality what matters on Amazon." And the reason why a book sticks for eight years or 10 years is only, and only due to quality. Other books, even if they start selling, probably go off within four months or so. So, the quality is, has to be the first most important thing to hold that book together there on Amazon.

Allison: 40:07

I want to ask you, we're going long, but I want to ask you a question about covers. What do authors need to know about a powerful eye-catching cover, especially one that is going to be purchased online?

Jai Heer: 40:26

To be honest, I'm not a graphic designer, so probably, I don't know whether I can answer this correctly. But for me, the title, it should not if the cover is not Clutter. So, in our ADHD book for Women cover, that's the best example. The title itself has taken about 60 70% of the cover. The, yes, the ADHD for Smart as Women. The phrase the color combination. The black or the blue or the white. And then, yeah, it's, yeah. Yes. And then there is an image up there, smart ass. Now, the brain is giving the signal. It's for smart people. Yeah. I don't have to go through the subtitle as well. And it's so clear.

Allison: 41:04

And her name is bigger than subtitle

Jai Heer: 41:08

Absolutely. And the Tracy the Tracy Font and the ADHD Smart for Ass for women font is coming out loud. Genius. Right?

Allison: 41:17

I didn't do the cover. Listen, I can't take credit for that.

Jai Heer: 41:21

Okay.

Allison: 41:21

I do want to point out something because if the cover is busy, then there's something else. But I want to show you a cover that I love.

Jai Heer: 41:32

Yeah.

Allison: 41:33

And the cover is busy. Yes. Okay.

Jai Heer: 41:35

Okay.

Allison: 41:36

On our best behavior.

Jai Heer: 41:38

Yeah. Yeah.

Allison: 41:39

The seven deadly sins and the price women pay to be good. This cover is, look at it. It is so beautiful. Yeah. That I wish I had pajamas in like silk pajamas in this design. It is so gorgeous. Yeah. But what I'll say is if something's really busy, then your text better be big and it better be white on black or black on white. Do not make us squint for it.

Jai Heer: 42:13

Absolutely. And if it's on Amazon, say, see, it's already co covering about maybe 40, 50% of the area, of the entire thing, right? Yeah. And then, it's just coming out that contrast of the color authors or other graphic designers should have a sense of which font or which color of the font will go with the background. So, that is the most important.

Allison: 42:32

That's graphic design. And people think, I have an artist, or if you're self-publishing or you're working with a hybrid and they're asking you. What would you like the cover to look like? I urge you to say, I'm going to depend on your market expertise because you think you want a vote, but really you want your book to be successful. So, unless you are a cover designer and you work in publishing, believe me, this is not your jam. Rely on the team that's surrounding you, please. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I would say too, and you're probably going to say this. Realize that, this book here looks really big and I can read it and I don't have to put on my readers. Yeah. But on Amazon, on mobile, yeah which is where most people, more than 70% of online purchases are from people's phones. Yeah. The cover is the size of your pinky nail.

Jai Heer: 43:32

Yes. And that's where the expert comes into picture. They have to see that when they are switching the mode from Kindle device to hardcover to a sort of a mobile device. The cover title and subtitle. And the author name should be, it should be visible. It should not crack while switching the tabs here.

Allison: 43:52

Exactly. Okay. I want to pivot because I have two more questions. Let's pivot to what's a book you're reading right now that you just love?

Jai Heer: 44:01

Wow. I mean, I've started reading it late in my life, but I think this is for everybody. It's called, The Undiscovered self by Young. And if you understand why people behave the way they behave, this is the book that everybody should read. And it talks about how your, so for example, when we say he's such an irritating person, right? You are putting out impressions onto the guy, right? Or the person in front of you. But that impression is telling you something about you, about yourself, right? So, this book tells you that you need to ask yourself why you said that stupid as a to the other person. Eventually, you would realize that there's something stupid inside you that has happened or other it has made you, in a way. Now, you are putting the word stupid on things.

Allison: 44:54

Oh. Yeah. It's the whole, I'm gum and you're a glue, anything you say to me bounces off me and sticks to you. But it really just splashes right back.

Jai Heer: 45:05

Yes. It's a book on psychology.

Allison: 45:07

We'll put the link in the show notes as well as links to find you. So, anyone who wants to work with you or even talk to you will be able to reach you. Now, before we call this podcast complete, what's one tip that you want to leave people with today when it comes to Amazon ads?

Jai Heer: 45:28

Oh. Know your numbers, please know your numbers. It's really important to know what Amazon Marketplace is saying about your title, right? And then, set the expectation and start working from there. When you set the right expectations you will sleep well at night. There'll be no confusion. But I set expectations. I can tell you nobody messaged me. Nobody emails me. Nobody ask me what is happening with my ads? Why this and why that? Because the expectation are set and they know whether it's challenging or not, whether they make money or not, right? So, it's a very, it's a very smooth sort of gives your life a bit of a relief, right? You don't, you're not losing sleep over it. And then, again, we set a budget in a way that authors do not leave. They sleep well.

Allison: 46:19

Right. Now, know your numbers is something that a marketing director knows. And this is a reminder to everyone. You are your marketing director. Absolutely. Marketing by the way, when you get a marketing degree, that's a business degree. Yeah. Marketing is about numbers.

Jai Heer: 46:42

Number. Yes.

Allison: 46:43

A tiny slice of marketing is the fun part of the idea and creative. Yes. And events and PR. Yeah. All the rest of it, numbers. Yes. Yes. You've got to be your very best marketing director because you are in charge if you don't know your numbers.

Jai Heer: 47:02

Yes.

Allison: 47:03

No one is going to hunt you down.

Jai Heer: 47:06

Absolutely.

Allison: 47:07

And make you own that.

Jai Heer: 47:08

Yes, absolutely. And my authors now, when they come up where they're coming up with second book, they reach out to me saying, Jai, this is the title. Can you check the marketplace numbers there whether there is a demand or not? And then, they say, if this is my space, can you tell me what is selling in that space? And I can probably write about that. So, I probably I guide them. So, help take help who's helping authors to publish. Ask them, what is my niche looks like? What are the numbers looks like? And they would know. They would definitely, no.

Allison: 47:39

Ugh, this is so impactful. So listen, I know that you are listening when you are trying to find a parking space at the mall, because Hollister is renting a buy one get one 50% off. Let me tell you, keep driving, leave the mall. You don't need another, anything from Hollister for your 14-year-old daughter. This might be just me talking to me. But do spend time doing the research. You have an Amazon author page, you can go and look at those details. And you can meet with Jai. Jai Heer, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for your knowledge and your wisdom and your smarts, and I'm so glad we met.

Jai Heer: 48:30

Absolutely.

Allison: 48:31

And all your details will be in the show notes and for you, dear listener, author, expert extraordinaire. Your message is needed in the world. If you're still putting off writing in the book that you know that you're meant to write and you think, oh, I'm going to get to it. Yeah, you'll get to it when you decide to get to it, and I'm telling you, now's the time. Don't postpone the thing that you know, that you should be doing. There's an easier way to do everything. We just talked you through an easy way to navigate Amazon ads, and I'm here to make your path to becoming a published author easier. There's always a way, but multiple ways to get where you want to go. So, let's do it. Goodness, don't wait. Get in touch. My information is in the show notes, and I would love to talk to you, book some time with me. It's a pre-consult. I would love to hear what you are writing or what you want to write. Because your audience is out there waiting for your message. And the thing is, they're loud about it. They're always together and they're always banging a drum hoping you will answer the call. So, now's the time, it's time to answer it.