Why Directing All Your Marketing to Amazon is Killing Your Author Career
At Proving Ground (PG) Publishing, we often speak with authors who believe their path to success is paved exclusively by Amazon. They pour every marketing dollar and social media post into driving traffic to their Amazon book page.
While Amazon is a necessary evil for distribution and reviews, this approach is, in our firm belief, a critical and costly mistake.
The simple truth is this: A HUGE side benefit of being an author is not just selling ONE book;
it is building a loyal following of past readers and customers... to sell many books to, and to offer relating services.
And Amazon, the world’s largest bookstore, actively prevents you from doing this.
The Blind Spot: Losing the Customer ConnectionThe core problem with directing your marketing solely to Amazon is customer data ownership. When a reader clicks your ad, follows your link, and purchases your book on Amazon, they become Amazon’s customer, not yours.
Amazon does not let you see or contact the buyer. You receive a monthly sales report with numbers, but zero personal information — no email address, no name, and no way to reach out to them when you launch your next book. You’ve paid money to acquire a customer, only to have a massive corporation claim them as their own.
This lack of direct connection means that every time you publish a new title, you start your marketing efforts from scratch. You are constantly hunting for new readers instead of easily announcing your new release to an established, known base of proven buyers.
The Amazon Search RealityMany self-published authors overestimate Amazon’s innate power for the "searching" customer to find their books organically.
They believe if they upload a book, the millions of shoppers will simply stumble across it.
The reality of Amazon’s listing placement is brutal:
- Brutal Competition: Amazon’s platform is oversaturated. Thousands of new books are published daily.
- Search Specificity: A reader will only find your book organically if they search for the EXACT title, a very specific genre niche, or the EXACT author’s name. If they are browsing generally for a topic, your book is quickly buried.
- Pay-to-Play: Consistent, high-visibility purchases on Amazon rarely happen without constant advertising. Only those authors or publishers who pay Amazon for prime placement through their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) platform ever achieve consistent daily sales volume.
In short, Amazon is not a benevolent sales platform; it’s a high-cost advertising engine that demands a constant flow of marketing dollars just to keep your book visible.
The PG Publishing Solution: Data Capture is KingConsider the same marketing dollar spent to drive traffic to Amazon. Instead, imagine directing that same marketing dollar toward a publisher’s site with your book for sale or a dedicated author landing page.
At PG Publishing, we believe this redirection is the smarter, long-term play. Our strategy focuses on:
- Customer Information Capture: When a reader lands on our author-data shared site, we can use that opportunity to capture their email address — perhaps with a free chapter, a bonus story, or a newsletter signup... from YOU!
- Building a Durable Asset: That email list becomes the author’s most valuable asset. It is a communication line you own, control, and can use for free to promote future books, events, and merchandise.
- Higher Lifetime Value: Every dollar spent acquiring an email subscriber now contributes to the sales of Book 2, Book 3, and the entire backlist without paying Amazon for the access again.
- PG Publishing utilizes pricing strategies to steer the public away from Amazon and to your book directly.
To publish on Amazon is great for a customer convenient check-out, Kindle free, discoverability, and Amazon reviews
(which we provide)— and it is a necessary part of any global strategy.
But to direct every marketing message, social media post, and advertising campaign
to them
rather than to a page designed to capture customer data is a critical mistake
hat limits an author’s growth and long-term earning potential!
Welcome to Proving Ground Publishing.
Don't waste years of self-publishing.. to prove we were right.
That is why, we do NOT even touch your existing Amazon account if you already have one.
We let you keep that little control they provide.
We give you FULL CONTROL of our in house sales.
And PG Publishing Invests- not in advances- but in the marketing of your book. To gain you a sale AND a customer for life.
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