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Book Marketing: Secrets Of Amazon MetaData From #1 Amazon Bestseller Mark Edwards

2,658 views · Published 1 May 2012 · 31:30 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: The Creative Penn · 2012 · Education

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The runaway successes we see in the Amazon charts often have years of work behind them. In this interview, I chat with Mark Edwards whose Amazon #1 bestsellers with Louise Voss got them a 6 figure book deal, but only after years of hard work. Mark also gives some tips on how he used the Product Description metadata effectively.

    How Mark got into writing and how he finally got a book deal after an indie #1 Amazon bestseller and 12 years of trying. He has been writing for 20 years and got an agent quite quickly but none of his books were sold. In 1999, he was featured on a TV program about aspiring writers and was then contacted by another writer, Louise Voss who was in the same situation. They became friends. Louise got a book deal for several books but Mark was still struggling. They eventually decided to write a book together, a stalker told from the point of view of male and female protagonists. This was 'Killing Cupid' which didn't fit into any specific genre and was rejected. Then they wrote a straight forward thriller 'Catch Your Death' but still no one was interested. After all their efforts, in 2006, they gave up, sick of all the rejections.

    4 years passed and then Mark started reading about Kindle Direct Publishing. Amanda Hocking was taking off. So they decided they had nothing to lose but putting the books onto Amazon. They re-edited them and had covers designed. They published 'Killing Cupid' in Feb 2011 and sold 2 copies. Over the next few months, it started to creep up the Amazon.co.uk charts and by end of April it was in the Top 200. Eventually it cracked into the Top 100. They released 'Catch Your Death' at the beginning of May and within 2 weeks it was in the Top 100. At the beginning of June, both books shot up the charts and got to #1 and #2 on the Amazon.co.uk store. After all these years, it was thrilling to be selling so many books. It was a vindication of all the years of trying.

    At this point, they decided that getting an agent would be a good idea. It was still a dream to get a book in the shops. Mark & Louise had been networking with a lot of indie writers, like Stephen Leather, so they had a lot of contacts in terms of agents. They signed with an enthusiastic agent and while they were still #1 publishers offered them. Harper Collins did a pre-empt bid of over 6 figures. They turned the first offer down (balls of steel!) and accepted the second offer. They signed a 4 book deal in July 2011 and have a pretty intense writing schedule with 6 months per book. The paperback version of 'Catch Your Death' came out Jan 2012 and has done well. It's the 12 year overnight success story!

    How did Mark & Louise market the book? The book cover was critical and having a striking image at thumbnail size is important. The blurb is the most important thing and Mark is a copy-writer. He continually tweaked the Product Description. He studied the books in the Top 10 and tried to work out what it was about them that set them apart. He rewrote the blurb and literally sales doubled. He simplified the story and hooked people in. People don't need to know about you. They also did something controversial with the sub-titles, using 'a gripping psychological thriller' in the subtitle. There was a lot of controversy around using these types of keywords in the subtitle. People are still doing this but Amazon specifically warn against doing it (see right for the warning). They also put in brackets -- for fans of Dan Brown and Stieg Larsen -- which was really controversial. The publisher has now changed the blurb but originally it was catchy and optimized.

    They also put ads inside Killing Cupid for Catch Your Death, so the books would feed each other, and people would buy both books. This impacted the sales and sent them up the charts within a period.

    On the pros and cons of being indie vs traditional publishing. The advantages of having a publisher are (a) the editorial input you get which is far superior to hiring an editor. The editorial changes have improved the books and both Mark & Louise appreciate that. (b) Being in bookshops which was always a dream for both of them. (c) Kudos from other writers. You do get a different kind of respect. There is still a stigma to self-publishing, which is unfair but a reality.

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