Just listing your book in the Kindle marketplace doesn’t guarantee sales. You need to give your sales a jump start, and the five tips here will help you do exactly that!

1) Choose good keywords. Using the right keywords in your listing as well as the book title itself (if possible) can help searchers find your book. So how do you find the keywords that will help people discover your book?

• Look at Amazon’s suggestions. If you run a broad search (like dog training) in the Amazon marketplace, Amazon will give you related suggestions, such as “housetraining.”

• See what words your competitors are using. Simple, yet effective – just go to your competitors’ listings to see what niche-relevant search terms they’ve included.

• Use a keyword tool like WordTracker.com. This won’t give you Amazon-specific search words, but it will give you the search terms that your niche is plugging into Google and other search engines.

Don’t stuff your book title with keywords, though. You may have seen books with titles such as: How to Train Your Dog (Dog training, housetraining, Dog Whisperer, obedience training). The stuff in parentheses is just a bunch of garbage that the “author” hopes will bring the book up in more searches. Don’t do it—it could get your book removed from Amazon.

2) The price must be right. Kindle book buyers can be a little skeptical about new authors. Setting your price a bit lower than established authors may cause people to take a chance on you.

But don’t assume that a low price leads to more sales.

Many Kindle customers have seen their share of low-quality $.99 books. Price your book based on the value to readers, considering the topic, competing books and even the length of the book. Aim to produce a book that you can confidently sell for at least $2.99 so you can qualify for the 70% royalty.

3) Create a great listing. Your listing needs to tell your prospective readers why they should buy your book. To that end, you need to list all the benefits of your book.

Examples:

• This book reveals the TRUTH about weight loss – finally, you’ll lose the fat and keep it off for good, even if you’ve tried and failed countless times before!

• Don’t have a green thumb? Don’t know a weed from a strawberry plant? No problem! Once you read this book, you’ll know everything you need to know to grow your own fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables!

Include information about you, and let them know why you are qualified to write the book if it is non-fiction or something about your writing history (such as books published, awards won, etc.) if you write fiction.

4) Get reviews. You’ll want to get testimonials and reviews from readers as soon as possible. You can give out advance copies of your book and ask for reviews, but it helps to have the “Amazon Verified Purchase” badge on reviews, certifying that the person bought the book. Ask your readers and fans to post reviews of the book and share their honest opinions.

Don’t forget to get reviews away from Amazon, too. Get influential bloggers in your niche to post reviews on their blogs.

5) Use social media. Post regularly to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media sites. Don’t just post, “Buy my book,” with a link to Amazon. Talk about your events, your research and writing process, interesting things related to the topic of your book, etc. Post pictures. Use social media to be social and create relationships with readers.