List Mania

I love Amazon and have really found the Listmania! lists on there helpful. Anytime that I read a book that I enjoy, I do a search for the book and author. There are usually several listmanias! that pop up, and I click on them to see lists compiled by readers. The lists usually have a theme and include books suggested by that reader. Usually, if they enjoyed a certain kind of book or author, they have recommendations of other books similar to the genre or by that same author. I have found many suggestions over the years that I have enjoyed.

This prompted me to create my own list a few months ago. I created a Listmania! list of my favorite LDS novels, which of course had to include my own novel, Star Shining Brightly. I decided to use it as a marketing tool and included books by my favorite authors such as Jennie Hansen, Betsy Brannon Green, Josi Kilpack, Sian Ann Bessey, Rachel Ann Nunes, Michele Ashman Bell, as well as many others. As you list each book, you can add a short commentary for each book. You can also add tags to help others find your list. I included words such as: LDS, Mormon, religious, romance all words that would describe the books that I listed. I also included the names of some of the authors on my list.

Any time that someone does a search on Amazon for an author on my list, my Listmania! list may pop up. Amazon rotates among all the similarly tagged lists, and it doesn't always come up, but many times it does. Since it is a marketing tool, I listed my book first on my list and so a lot of times, a picture of my book pops up with my list. So, this has brought exposure to my book as readers search for their favorite LDS authors. People can then click on my list and see what other LDS novels I recommend.

The first month after I did this, my Amazon numbers were amazing. It really helped sales. My book received a lot of exposure. People searching for LDS novels were exposed to it. In the four months since I started my list, it has had over 200 hits. So, that means that people who may never have heard of my book and were not looking for it were exposed to it. Most of them probably didn't buy it, but some of them did. After all, my book had the best numbers on Amazon since it was published. Of course, that has tapered off now, but it gave me a little boost when I really needed it, about 8 months after it was published.

So, try this little tool. Create a listmania! list with your favorite books of the genre you write it. Give your list an appropriate title, add some tags, including the names of other authors you recommend or write in a similar genre. Of course, include your book. It will get some exposure and maybe will boost your numbers a little bit. I'm not promising huge numbers, but we can all use a little help once in a while. Besides, you may help readers discover a book they will love, but hadn't heard of. I'm always finding good recommendations when I search Listmana!