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How can I send a message to those that follow me on Amazon
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I've looked online before, but there is no way to find out how many followers you have.You can start your own mailing list so that you can send out emails to your fans.
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I was told by Amazon that there is a way to communicate through Amazon to your followers and customers that have bought from you before. It is much easier to have your followers sign up for a newsletter or follow you on a social media site. I prefer the email newsletter program - it's safer by you owning it and controlling when you want to send to them and it's not in someone else's hands.
Your own mailing list through amazon you mean or normal through your own website? I have my own mailing list that's not the problem (problem is that it's very small still ;)).But I held an amazon giveaway last month, which had as requirement to follow my author page before you could enter. And of course you can unfollow right after but I had 183 people participate, so there's bound to be a few that forgot or kept following me intentionally.
I now want to reach out to those people and make them aware of the promotion that is ending in 12 hours...
When you release a new book, then Amazon will send you an email asking if you want to announce it to your followers. That is the only way that I am aware of that you can communicate with them.
Hmmm pretty limited then. That's a shame.
I just went through Amazon and they said what P.D. said. When you release a new book, they will send to your followers and those that have purchased your books before. It is their list and the authors have no way to use it otherwise, it appears. VERY Limited!
Alrighty, thanks for clearing that up. Back to twitter blasting and forum pushing... :)
A.J. wrote: "Alrighty, thanks for clearing that up. Back to twitter blasting and forum pushing... :)"It used to be that Amazon would send you an e-mail, asking if you would like to notify your followers of a new release (as P.D. said). However, recently they've moved to an automated e-mail.
P.D. wrote: "When you release a new book, then Amazon will send you an email asking if you want to announce it to your followers. That is the only way that I am aware of that you can communicate with them."I've yet to have this happen... which means 1) I'm doing something wrong, or 2) I have no followers. Alas, methinks #2 is more likely.
Think of it from the customer's perspective. Getting an email that an author I enjoy reading has a new book out is great. Getting frequent emails from that author would cause me to lose interest rapidly. That's what social media is for. You can link to your various accounts in your Amazon bio, so folks can choose where to follow you.
Ken - how recently? They still asked me in March.
P.D. wrote: "Ken - how recently? They still asked me in March."I had a new release about a week ago, and noticed that I didn't get the usual invitation. I thought maybe I'd angered the Amazon gods for some reason, but just forgot about it until yesterday, when I received the automated "new release" notification that was sent on my behalf.
This is why it's a good idea to follow yourself (or your pen names, if you have them).
I've never got an email asking me to announce it my followers.
I only follow ONE person and got an email once or twice from amazon telling me news about the author. Authors don't send the emails, Amazon does it on their own.
Hmm, too bad. Because when they sent you the invite, you could customize what it said. If they are just sending out an automated notice to your followers now, you lose your own voice.
P.D. wrote: "Hmm, too bad. Because when they sent you the invite, you could customize what it said. If they are just sending out an automated notice to your followers now, you lose your own voice."Yes, that's the down side of the new system. I liked sending out customized messages as well.
G.G. wrote: "I only follow ONE person and got an email once or twice from amazon telling me news about the author. Authors don't send the emails, Amazon does it on their own."We used to be invited to send them out, but not anymore.
My understanding is that it is by invitation only. Sometimes Amazon invites you to send a message...sometimes not. It's not that we've done anything wrong. I released an ebook in mid May and got the invitation last week.
P.S. From all my research, there's no way to know how many Amazon followers we have. I send out a Tweet regularly with a link asking people to follow me on Amazon. Also Facebook it occasionally and put it in my email signature, bios, and newsletter.I also ran a giveaway in May (first time) and had 267 enter with the requirement to follow me.
Just bumping this old thread with some new info that is hopefully helpful to someone. I've been looking for a way to find out how many Amazon followers I have, but to no avail. As Ken said, it is a good idea to follow yourself so you can at least see what your followers see. I get a bump in sales whenever an update goes out to Amazon followers, so I guess that means I have followers, I just don't know how many.I set up a pre-order on my most recent book on March 20th. Amazon sent me an email update (as a follower) about this pre-order on March 27th.
The book released on April 21st.
The next day, Amazon sent me an additional email update (as a follower) to say the book was available for Kindle.
I guess I found another benefit to pre-orders on Amazon (2 emails sent to followers vs. 1).
Thanks Marie. I'm off to follow myself. Bit like a dog chasing its tail, eh?
I have to laugh. I did this and it turns out I ignore updates from myself as much as from anyone else. Oops! XP
I followed myself immediately exactly for the reason that I would see what my followers were getting from amazon. Unfortunately, I think I'm my only follower...lol!
Anna, yeah exactly :D.Christina, lol it's all good!
Mary Ellen, yeah that's how I was on bookbub for awhile (my only follower). But they actually tell you how many followers you have so that's nice. Wonder why Amazon doesn't? You could have hundreds or thousands and never know!
Somehow I doubt it since I've only sold like 40 copies of my book...
Marie Silk wrote: "Wonder why Amazon doesn't? You could have hundreds or thousands and never know! .."Amazon guards its customer information very closely. That's why we don't get even basic stats like hits to the book page, referrers, etc.
Never thought of following myself - thanks for the tip, Ken.Like a few others here, I think I'm my only follower. *Sings 'All by myself...'* :-)
I'd love to know how many times the preview to my book is open. I'd probably want that stat more than anything else.
My promotion is almost ending and I would like to send out one last shout to those that follow me on amazon.
- A.J.