As a first time author, I am wondering if anyone is putting a QR code on the back of the book… as a lead to their website? Something I’m thinking of 🤔

I keep getting asked this question, so I want to share my perspective based on my own personal experience. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿? 𝗡𝗢. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗞𝗗𝗣. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider them! Now, before you go running off to turn on Amazon Ads, hear me out. I'm not saying you should start advertising the second your book goes live. In fact, I recommend doing your own organic marketing first. Learn how to promote your book, get it in front of readers, and start building some momentum. I personally like to see at least 𝟮𝟬+ 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 on a book before investing in advertising. Once you've established some social proof, why not give ads a try? And no, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars! Even a $𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 can start giving you valuable information about whether your book is gaining traction. You might discover that ads work well for your book, or you might realize there's something you need to improve before investing more money. 🚀 Here's Where My Mindset Is Different…𝗜'𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲. 𝗜'𝗺 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗦𝗬𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗠. Think about it. You spend weeks or months researching, writing, formatting, publishing, and marketing your book. But what happens when you're ready to move on to your NEXT book? Are you going to spend every single day manually promoting the last one? And then the one before that? And the one before THAT? 😅 That's not the kind of business I'm trying to build. I want my books to continue generating sales while I'm working on other projects, spending time with my family, or simply enjoying life. 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. They allow me to create a marketing system that doesn't require me to constantly show up and promote the same book every day. Of course, ads still need monitoring and adjustments, but they can take some of that daily promotional work off my plate.

What if you could create short videos that attract readers, generate interest in your books, and potentially drive more sales... without ever stepping in front of a camera? Believe it or not, some self-publishers are doing exactly that! And you don't need to be a professional video editor or spend hours creating content. In my newest YouTube video, I'm sharing: 🔥 3 things that can make your book marketing videos more effective (and why views alone don't necessarily mean sales). 📱 Why faceless videos are such an opportunity for authors, especially if you're not comfortable being on camera. TRY SONDER FOR FACELESS VIRAL VIDEO BOOK MARKETING

You can spend hundreds of dollars on a professionally designed book cover, and it can STILL be the reason readers aren't buying your book. Here's why: A beautiful cover isn't necessarily a marketable cover. Your book cover needs to do more than look good. It needs to communicate the genre, tone, and expectations of your target audience. Think about it… 📖 If you're writing a cozy mystery, but your cover looks like a psychological thriller, you're attracting the wrong readers. 💕 If you're publishing a romance novel, but your cover looks like a business book, readers may scroll right past it. 🧠 If you've written a nonfiction self-help book, but your cover doesn't clearly communicate the problem you're helping readers solve, you're missing opportunities to connect. Readers make split-second decisions based on covers. They're looking for visual clues that tell them, "This is the kind of book I enjoy reading!" If your cover feels disconnected from your genre, even the most beautiful design can create confusion. And confused readers are less likely to buy. 💡 My advice? Before designing your next book cover, study the bestselling books in your specific niche. Look at their colors, typography, imagery, and overall style. You don't need to copy them, but you DO need to understand what readers in that market expect. Remember: You're not designing a cover just to impress people. You're designing a cover that attracts the RIGHT readers and helps sell your book. 👇 Let's talk! Have you ever seen a beautiful book cover that didn't seem to match the genre? Or have you ever redesigned one of your covers to better appeal to your target audience?

Hey, A.X. Hale here. I self-published Fueling the Night Shift — practical meal prep for night-shift nurses — and I've been sharing the niche journey in here. This one is about the part I think we underrate: not writing the book, but getting Amazon to show it to the right people. Picking the niche was step one. Step two, the one nobody warns you about, is your listing. Your cover and description get someone to stop and look. But it's your title, subtitle, keywords, and categories that decide who Amazon puts it in front of in the first place. And the first weeks of a book's life are when Amazon is deciding who to test it with. Here's what I actually did, practically, with Fueling the Night Shift: My title says the reader (night shift), the book's job (fueling), and the format (12-hour nights). That's not accidental. Every word in the subtitle is a phrase a night nurse would actually type. My keywords aren't what I'd like to rank for; they're the search terms a tired nurse would put in the box at 3 a.m. — things like "night shift meal prep" or "meal prep for nurses." And I picked my two categories not for how big they are, but for how small the competition is inside them. In a smaller category it's realistic to rank high enough that Amazon hands you a Best Seller badge, and that badge buys you visibility you can't pay for. The practical takeaway: treat your listing like a search problem, not a description problem. Write it for the search bar, not the book jacket. The readers you picked in those niche posts are only worth something if they can actually find you. So my question for the room: what keywords or category are you currently targeting, and has one of them surprised you by actually pulling readers? Or if you're stuck, paste what you're ranking for and let's workshop it. I think this is the part we can genuinely help each other with. And since a credible listing needs early honest reviews, I'm giving away free copies of Fueling the Night Shift to anyone here who'll read it and leave an honest review on the Amazon page. Good or bad, just honest. Comment if you want a copy and I'll sort you out.