J. Abram Barneck ~ Suspense, Fantasy, and Sci-fi Author

Authors spend a lot of time writing books. The best work they can do is to write. But while writing is the best work they can do it is not the only work they should do. Marketing is important if a writer wants to make their passion a career.

Both Published and unpublished authors get a certain percent return on book sales. For published authors, the percent return is different per author, but I hear it is around 12%. Self-publishers authors get 70% of every ebook they sell, but their return on the print-on-demand copy varies.

Authors should Amazon Associates

Did you know that as an author you could get an extra return on your marketing efforts? What if you could get a 4% or 6% more? Would you do it? Well, you can.

If you read about it on Author Central you will see this text:

From what I’ve researched, you probably won’t get 15% extra on your book. That appears to be for selling items other than your book. But you probably can get up to 6% on your book with descent sales.

For this to work, you must use an affiliate link when promoting and selling your book.

Extra Earnings

You may also find yourself making money for items other than your book, even if you don’t promote any other item with your affiliate id. Why? Well, because anything a customer buys from Amazon within hours (maybe up to 24 hours) after using your affiliate link will go to you. My affiliate stats show that I made an extra few bucks because someone made a big purchase on Amazon after buying my book.

Understanding the URL

A link is something you click on that takes you to a URL.

A URL is the website address that shows in your browser’s address bar. A URL has multiple parts that computer geeks like me can name. The protocol (http or https) The top level domain (.com or .net) the domain name (amazon) and the subdomain (www). It also has paths such as the /dp/B00EQANIJU. I go get more complex and break down the parts further, but I am trying to keep it high level.

Here is a URL that includes an Amazon Associate tag.

|-------------- URL----------------|--Parameters--|

The part of the URL before the ‘?’ is the URL. This will take you to your book. The second part, the part after the ‘?’ holds the URL parameters. The parameters are used to by the backend code to track things, such as who referred the customer to this link.

You care about two parts of this URL. The ASIN and the Affiliate id.

                         |--ASIN--|     |Affilate id|

My book is reference by Amazon as ASIN B00EQANIJU.
My primary Smazon Associates id is Rhyous-20.

I can use this template and just plugin any book’s ASIN and my Amazon Associate id.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/<ASIN>?tag=<AffiliateId>

Other Affiliate Companies

If you sell well with other companies such as Barnes & Noble or iBooks the become an affiliate for them as well. Don’t sell yourself short. Literally.