8 Reasons to Have Kindle eBook Editions of Your Books
As a marketing agency with a specialty in book advertising, we often find ourselves recommending to our publishing partners that they add a Kindle edition to almost every book they publish - even in categories that don’t appear to be ideal for eBook consumption, such as:
Children’s picture books
Illustrated books for adults
Reference books
There are at least 8 reasons to have an eBook format for your books and, although some of the points below might be obvious, a few are usually a surprise when we share them.
Reason #1: Some readers prefer eBooks
Even within the 3 categories of books listed earlier, there are enough people who prefer eBook editions to justify investing in this format. Here are just 5 benefits of eBooks that motivate some readers to purchase digital editions:
eBooks are often cheaper
Readers can access the content wherever they go
Readers enjoy digital features like highlighting and searchable, sharable notetaking
Readers can increase the font size (and zoom in on illustrations) for a more pleasant reading experience
Content can be cast to TVs or in classroom settings via smart boards or projection screens
Even if your eBook revenue is significantly less than print, the incremental growth from selling to customers who prefer eBooks typically justifies expanding into this format.
Reason #2: Technology has improved
The digital reading experience has certainly benefited from technological advancements over the years.
The displays on tablets, such as the iPad Pro with high resolution, wide color ranges, and backlit technology can produce crisp, vibrant renderings of colorful children’s picture books. And with large 12.9” displays and the ability to zoom in on interesting illustrations, many parents enjoy reading picture books to their children on iPad Pro tablets.
eReaders have also improved, with Kindle Paperwhite offering a glare-free, adjustable display with battery life that can last up to 10 weeks. Some models are even waterproof.
Just a few years ago, colorfully illustrated books had little competition digitally, but these advancements in technology are a game-changer for many readers, opening up a new opportunity for publishers and authors to see incremental growth in sales.
Reason #3: Your books will appear in more categories on Amazon
Amazon has thousands of categories for books and there are separate categories for Kindle editions. This means that adding a Kindle edition doubles your chances of being discovered by those who browse by category.
Reason #4: Your books have more opportunities to achieve bestseller status
Since your book will appear in Kindle and print categories, it will have twice as many opportunities to receive recognition for being the #1 book in a given category.
The odds are doubled again by the two ways that you can achieve bestseller status: 1) overall bestseller in a category and, 2) the #1 new release in that same category.
These bestseller banners appear in search results and on product detail pages and they result in higher conversion rates because this visual sign of popularity entices readers to take a closer look. This is especially helpful during the pre-order campaign when there are no reviews to add social proof.
The competition to become a bestselling Kindle edition is usually different than the books you’re up against in equivalent print categories. Depending on the genre, books often have an easier chance of qualifying as a Kindle bestseller than a print bestseller.
Reason #5: There is more real estate for Amazon ad placements
If you are running ads for your books (and we highly recommend that you do), you can benefit from category-based targeting.
Having a Kindle edition provides twice as many relevant categories to include in your targeting mix. This can yield exciting results because the competition for ad space in each category will vary and one of those Kindle options might be where you’ll get the best ACOS.
Reason #6: Amazon Ads for Kindle ebooks Rarely Become Ineligible
When a print book’s retail price is too low (under $10) or it becomes popular enough to be given an aggressive consumer discount (over 25%), Amazon will often make the ads ineligible. This is frustrating for the publisher, author, and advertiser, especially when ads are driving the sales momentum.
The good news is that this rarely happens for Kindle editions. There are some cases when they become ineligible, but it is far less often than print.
This means your ads can continue running when the print ads are paused. The Kindle ads will still serve up and those who prefer to buy print can and will easily toggle over to their preferred format. But at least the ads continue to run.
Reason #7: eBooks are never out of stock
Supply chain issues have grown significantly over the last couple of years, and few things deliver the death blow to a marketing campaign like an out-of-stock warning or a “Ships in 1 to 2 months” alert on Amazon product pages.
That’s not an issue with Kindle editions. At least there is something you can sell while you’re facing inventory problems. If readers want it bad enough, some of those who prefer print will opt for digital when it is the only option available.
Also related to this, Kindle editions never lose the buy button to 3rd party sellers.
Reason #8: Popular highlights from Kindle appear on product pages
A recent development in Amazon’s commitment to improving the customer experience is a new section on a book’s product detail page where the most popular highlights from Kindle are displayed as memes in a relatively large carousel.
These popular highlights are prominently displayed above the description in the mobile experience and above the A+ modules in the desktop experience.
Since customers prefer to know what other readers think (as opposed to what the publisher or author thinks), this will help with conversion rates.
This new ability to quickly see the gems of each book without having to comb through Look Inside pages or customer reviews will help readers make quicker and more informed purchase decisions. But, if you don’t have Kindle enabled, this feature is not available for your product pages.
Conclusion
For these 8 reasons, whenever possible, we recommend publishing a Kindle edition. As long as the cost to produce it is low enough and the quality of the Kindle formatting is high enough, your book will have more chances to be discovered and purchased when there is an eBook option available.
If you’d like to explore an Amazon Advertising or book marketing partnership with Amplify, please reach out using the link below.