Before releasing your book to Amazon, it’s important to test your book cover, title and description. Even if you think you have the best cover, tile or description, you may be surprised to find out that what you think is great may not work in the market or for potential readers who happen to come across your book.
A great way to get feedback is to A/B test your stuff on Facebook. Post a couple different choices of covers, titles and descriptions to your own page or in a group. There is also a service called PickFu, where you can have 100 strangers rate two options presented to them and see which one rates best.
Listen to Strangers
It’s often best to listen to the feedback from strangers. We become attached to the things we create. However, an outsider might not understand or get the right context from the title or cover. Many authors have used AB testing, like in PickFu, to help them make a decision about which covers, titles and descriptions are the most appealing, and the results from A/B testing to strangers might surprise the author.
Be open to being wrong and explore other possibilities you may not have thought of to find the best title or cover for your book.
An example is Tim Ferriss. He had other choices in mind for the title of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” his favorite being “Broadband and White Sand”. Soon after testing titles, he found more people preferred the now-iconic title.
The same idea goes for book covers. You might write the greatest book in the world, but if your cover includes elements that look like clipart, shoppers will assume it reflects the quality of your writing.
A/B Testing with Feedback
PickFu is great for A/B testing because users are required to leave a comment about their choice. Sometimes the feedback may simply be they are not the right audience for the book, but much of the feedback is useful – especially when you start to see an emerging theme.
Kim Kohatsu from PickFU shares problems she finds authors doing with their A/B testing. Many try testing too many things at once. This muddles the feedback received. Instead, she suggests authors only test one thing at a time. She also suggests putting your author bio or author photo through testing to see if it helps people off the fence and on to clicking the “Buy” button.
Bio of the Author in the Case Study:
Kim Kohatsu is the director of marketing for PickFu and the founder of Charles Ave Marketing.
She is a Google Certified Partner with over a decade of PPC experience, working with companies to manage their PPC campaigns and content amplification via Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, as well as networks such as Taboola and Outbrain.
Resources Referred to in this Episode:
- PickFu.com
- Kim Kohatsu on Twitter
- Case Study on how I redid the book description of “BattleField Earth”
- Book Marketing Show When and How to Redesign Your Book Cover
- PickFu Blog You’re Not Always Right: How to Succeed on Amazon
- PickFu Blog When Being Wrong Is the Right Answer
- Kindle Direct Publishing 
