Indie Publishing Tip #1: Amazon Product Description

I’m cleaning out files, preparing for some big changes in life.

I’m proud that I threw away an entire kitchen-sized trash bag full of clippings and other papers.

Still, I’m finding information I’ve saved and/or information I’ve written about in years past.

Often I think everyone knows what I know—what I’ve learned in the writing and publishing business, but I guess that’s not true.

After all, I’ve been around for a while, working in the trenches. I decided to start passing these tidbits of information along. The info is about realizations that I’ve had, the random ideas about how something works, or a shortcut way of doing something.

These posts won’t be in any kind of order or subject matter. The title of the post will say it all. I’ll just lift a paper from the stack on my credenza and post about it. Once committed to text, I’ll toss the notepaper away. Just to keep everything straight, I’ll number the tips in the various categories so I don’t repeat myself.

Indie Publishing Tip #1: Amazon Product Description

Amazon truncates the Product Description of everything it sells. Look at anything from widgets to books, and you will see only a sentence or two appears unless you click Read More.

Only the first 120 words of the Product Description appears without clicking those two words.

If that 120 words doesn’t make an impact on the reader, chances are the reader/shopper won’t click Read More.

Use those 120 words to wow the reader.

Those first words are where you want the powerful tagline about the book, or some critical information.

You want the reader to immediately click Buy Now, or at least click Read More.

Takeaway Truth

Always use those first 120 words to hook the reader.