Can you control whether a paperback or kindle version of your book appears first in an Amazon search?

In my opinion, I would consider your long-term goals. If your plan is to build a brand around yourself and become established as a major influencer, it certainly makes more sense to go that route. On the flip side, your low hanging fruit is to build a brand around the concept by which you intend to cover. For example, Start With Why became a household name and Simon Sinek has built an entire company around that premise. It comes down to what aligns and resonates with you and what you intend to accomplish. Hope this is helpful, all the best!

Both domains are very important. I suggest that you use both of them in different ways. If you believe that your empiric spirit domain is a "company" that you would like to support in social media and in articles, etc., for years to come, support it on its own domain separately from your personal domain. However, I surmise that your personal domain is where you will (and, in my opinion, should) be driving up your social media presence and content. So, I recommend that you direct all book traffic there. So, create a subdomain for your site, or a subfolder, and "point" your book domain to that subfolder. Write about the book in your social media and blog, and all traffic will come where you want it to ultimately come - your website. It's important to maintain a website for the success of your book - for informational purposes, and to show people where to purchase the book. But it is important that you use social media like a pro, and become a guest blogging expert and frequent guest on radio programs... Those things matter much more. Direct all traffic where you want using bitly links, and track what is most effective. Good luck! Enjoy the journey :)

There are several reasons a romance novel fails, and that always has to do with the development of the romance between the two love interests. Every character in a story is going to have a main goal and something they want or need. In romance novels, this ends up being the relationship that ends in a happily ever after. Most of the time. That darn Nicholas Sparks! Obviously, romance sub-genres will have plot layers if mystery or suspense is involved, but when we're talking straight romance, it's far more noticeable if the development of the relationship is off. Here are just a few issues I've seen in romance novels. 1.) Love in a vacuum: nothing is happening other than the characters suddenly falling in love for no discernible reason. 2.) Purely Physical: the romantic tension relies on nothing more than the physical aspects of the relationship, preventing any development of emotional attachments taking place. (Note: erotica is a whole other subject, and its readership generally expects there to be explicit content when forming the relationship. Nothing wrong with that if that's the kind of readership you are aiming at. Just know your audience and write accordingly.) 3.) Little or no romantic tension: romantic tension involves wanting without fulfillment. Even the anticipation of a simple kiss can cause enormous amounts of tension if the two love interests are always close to succumbing but never quite get there. 4.) Weak sources of conflict: Are the obstacles that prevent the love interests from coming together superficial and unbelievable? Consider what each character wants and what they need, and put those wants and needs in opposition to one another, causing their relationship to seemed doomed before it even starts. 5. The reader doesn't care: are your characters likable, easy to relate to, or people we can admire? If they don't have any redeeming qualities, interesting backstories, and quite possibly some deep, dark secret that prevents them from moving on and falling in love, then you might end up with characters who fail to inspire readers or pique their interest. There are three things every romance needs. !.) An emotional connection between characters: they can't just be really attractive. Lust does not build a connection. Emotional connections require interaction and time. There also needs to be an emotional connection for the reader. They need to see the strengths and weaknesses of your character. No one can relate to a perfect person. There needs to be a compelling reason for your couple to be together. This helps with avoiding: the love vacuum, reader caring, cliche characters and plot. 2.) Need fulfillment: what does the character need? The deeper the need the deeper the connection. So figure out what your character needs in a significant other. This helps with: the love vacuum, weak source of conflict, cliche character, and no foundation for the love. 3.) Unique connection: the couple is something to each other that no one else is or can be. If the connection isn't unique, it will lack impact and will not be satisfying to your readers. This is why their connection must go beyond love at first sight, infatuation, or physical pleasure. This helps with poor reasons for miscommunication or no communication, the love has no foundation, little or no romantic tension. I'm always happy to answer questions on the fundamentals of fiction writing if you would like to discuss romance or any other genre in greater detail.

Obviously you need to generate more leads. But then you need to segment your list. Your basic list are those leads who "come aboard" and want to know what's going on. Your qualified leads list are your potential buyers. Between the two, you need a gate. So, they come on your big list. Then they need to get something that qualifies them from being a basic prospect to being a qualified prospect. That puts them on the second list. Leads >> Qualifier >> Qualified Leads. What's the topic of your book? Qualify by things people have said in similar book reviews. This is a lot easier if you are doing non-fiction, but it's possible with fiction as well. In the reviews you'll see people saying things like, "I bought this book because..." What they say after that is the pain point. Use this language, as they wrote it, in your qualifier. For example, in a review for SPIN Selling, someone says, " I don't do "hit and run," one-time sales. Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar offer great tactics for those kind of salespeople, but they don't work for me." Another says, "...I had no idea how to sell professionally. I had already read a few books by Tom Hopkins, but felt he was targeting used-car salesmen types. It seems as though Hopkins' techniques relied on "closing" gimmicks when it came down to it. (I must say I did learn some good principles from Hopkins, but his gimmicky style is not for me.) I was instantly attracted to SPIN SELLING when I saw that (1) it was based on extensive research, and (2) it dealt primarily with the large sale. Since I want to start my own corporation after my MBA, and want to have Fortune-500 companies as my customers, I realized SPIN SELLING was for me." See the commonality? So if I was launching a solid B2B sales techniques book, I would make use of this language. First, I would attract them to my basic list with the promise of a corporate B2B sales book. Then, I would qualify further with language like, "Are you looking to build real relationships with your customers, instead of hit-and-run one-time sales tricks? Are you eager to understand the secrets of professional corporate selling?" A Call To Action would follow. Those who respond to this language are qualified leads, as salespeople in other situations would not resonate with that copy. How can you transfer what I've shown you here to your niche? If you're writing non-fiction, as I said, it should be straightforward. If it's fiction, then you can find similar stories and pull from the reviews for those...the things they say they like about the author's style (assuming yours is like theirs), the story structure, the excitement, the thought process, or whatever. Why not just go straight for the qualified leads? Because your net won't be big enough. Better to grab a whole lot of interested readers, which you can make use of later as well, and qualify from there.

Such a great question, and one that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out with the last four books that I published. There are several ways that marketing a book can be done, but only a few ways that make the process fairly simple and give you the results you want. Wattpad is a great way to test out your chapters and build a following online. When you create an account and profile with them you have the opportunity to publish your book one chapter at a time, two chapters at a time, or the whole book at a time. What you'll find as you build a following is people are anxiously waiting for you to publish new material, and you can easily direct them to any published works on Amazon and other platforms such as Kobo or B&N, You will still face the same challenges on Wattpad that you do on any other platform when it comes to building an audience, and growth can be slow, which is why I always recommend that you build a loyal list of subscribers so you have a built-in audience to promote to. I've sampled plenty of authors' newsletters, and many of them will offer sneak peeks and first chapters to their fans who are eagerly waiting for the author's next release. Not only does this engage their audience by asking them for feedback once they have read the sample chapters, but it builds buzz for the release of the book, and if your subscribers go so far as to share the chapters with others so much the better. Pre-testing chapters can also be done with a launch team or street team. This is a group of people who have signed up to review your ARC (Advance Reader Copies) and give you feedback on your latest works. They also help get the word out about your book through their social media accounts and through the reviews they leave for your books on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. My launch team does a stellar job of reading my books and having reviews ready to post on release day. This is how I am able to get up to sixty reviews within a week of a book's release. I also have a large mailing list of eager fans who want that next book. So my marketing always includes that built-in audience So yes! Pre-testing chapters on platforms that allow for this can get you some great exposure, but using this strategy with an actual list of loyal subscribers is a far better way to tackle that particular marketing strategy.