Nothing shouts “I don’t really care about my book” more than an obviously do-it-yourself cover.<\/p>\n

If you don’t care enough about your book to make sure that the cover is appropriate for the category, why would I care enough to read it? You’re telling me that what’s between the covers will be amateurish, too.<\/p>\n

The “look inside” feature is the online equivalent of flipping through a book in a bricks-and-mortar bookstore. It gives the reader a preview of content and writing quality.<\/p>\n

When you haven’t made it possible for me to peek inside the book, I start to wonder if there’s a reason why. That could mean that a preview might discourage people from buying.<\/p>\n

That’s probably not the message you want to send.<\/p>\n

4. Your book description is written and formatted like an advertisement.<\/h2>\n

Nothing shouts, “I’m an internet marketer trying to grab your dollars!” like a book description that looks and reads like a website sales page.<\/p>\n

Hype might fool others, but it doesn’t fool me. I want thoughtful text that helps me see what I’ll learn from the book, not a huge, boldfaced font shouting at me.<\/p>\n

Major publishers don’t use this approach. Minor publishers shouldn’t either. It’s insulting to the reader.<\/p>\n

5. The book description is one long block of text with no paragraph returns.<\/h2>\n

This is a problem for two reasons. First, I can’t read text with no white space. My brain craves paragraph breaks!<\/p>\n

Second, it tells me that you care so little about your book that you didn’t even review your sales page before it went live.<\/p>\n

If you don’t care, why would I?<\/p>\n

On the other hand … authors have been complaining that the system has messed with their descriptions. To be safe, go to your book’s page and make sure it looks the way you want it to.<\/p>\n