I made a boo boo 👀

(not that kind)  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey, Amazon made some big changes to the category system - both in terms of what authors see in their KDP publishing interface, and in the sense of affecting what readers see in the store too. We will explore various aspects of these changes over successive emails - starting with a broader look today on how this shakes up the marketplace and the population of Amazon winners and losers in surprising ways. First, a confession - with some interesting data from you guys. I made a boo-boo. But I'm going to make some lemonade out of this! In last week's newsletter, I invited your feedback on a trending email practice - re-introducing yourself at the start of every newsletter - and boy did you feed back. Here's what I asked you: Do you like or need these kind of reminders generally? Do you see them out there in the wild (and appreciate them)? Or is it an unnecessary bit of faff delaying your consumption of the raw scallop content you signed up for? Hundreds of you responded - my sincere thanks - but pretty soon my Spidey-Sense was tingling. The responses weren't just so complimentary as well as so voluminous that I began to suspect something. And then one particular reply made me realize that I had worded the second question ambiguously. Many of you read it as asking if you appreciated this newsletter, rather than the specific practice of regular re-introduction. My bad. Well, my good. I wasn't fishing for compliments but that didn't stop me gorging myself on that buffet. (What is it with the food metaphors lately? I must stop writing this email before breakfast...) I also got lots of useful, constructive feedback which is genuinely valuable. On that note, I'd like to formally apologize to everyone who died of old age reading some of this year's increasingly verbose emails - I will break bigger topics into more digestible chunks in the future. With that spill neatly mopped, let's take a quick look at your responses - because I think there are some useful tidbits for all of us. Although do keep in mind that my audience is not necessarily your audience (especially given that it's an audience of authors). That caveat aside, I got so many useful response that there was a lot to chew on. Enough to sketch out some general best practices. And I'll share those right after a quick word from our sponsor, before then examining that big Amazon news. In partnership with Jotform​ New book by Aytekin Tank ― Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff ​ Say goodbye to manual work and save your brain for the big stuff. In the book, Automate Your Busywork, SaaS CEO and no-code enthusiast Aytekin Tank provides a guide on how to finally have the time to accomplish your most important work. Order today! ​Order!​ Your Take on Re-Intros I got a whole range of opinions from you guys on the practice of re-introducing yourself to your subscribers at the top of your newsletters, which can be generally categorized as follows: 1. Most of you felt these reminders were superfluous, and a surprising number referred to them quite pejoratively, using words like "annoying," "impersonal," or "corporate." All that is very good to know, but the picture is nuanced so don't grab onto that as your one takeaway. 2. A passionate minority liked or even loved the idea of reminders, and it was notable how many of those in favor said a reminder prevents them from hitting unsubscribe (or even marking as spam, in some cases). A small number of these respondents said that a small reminder at the bottom of the email was sufficient. 3. Plenty in the middle said that while they appreciate reminders in some cases, they were unnecessary in my case because I'm amazing (I might be editorializing a touch). Many of these respondents made the specific distinction about the frequency of the newsletter – i.e. a reminder might be more warranted if the newsletter is less frequent or the author has been on what we will euphemistically call "sabbatical." Hey, we've all been there. How do we square this triangle? In theory, you could give everyone what they want with dynamic content blocks – a neat feature of some email marketing services where you can basically have certain paragraphs of your email only show to certain subscribers. But you would need to know people's preferences in advance and having that information is highly unlikely. There's a sensible middle ground here. Takeaway alert! If your newsletter is frequent, reminders seem unnecessary for almost all subscribers. That is, aside from during the onboarding process (or a reengagement campaign, perhaps), where I think it's a good idea to introduce yourself more than once. But if your newsletter is infrequent, then something to remind everyone who you are might be useful. However, this doesn't need lame, cold, or impersonal – or textual, even. As a few of you suggested in your replies, a nice branded graphic could do the trick, especially if it features you and your books. Doesn't that just tie the last several newsletter topics into a neat little bow? Amazon Category Changes Amazon has made some pretty significant changes to the category system – both on the author side, and on the reader side. In fact, those changes have been taking effect for months now. Since last September, Amazon has been conducting a private beta on the new category selection system – which you will have seen if you tried to publish anything or change your categories recently. I recommend following Alex from K-lytics on Facebook as he has been posting some very interesting stuff on this all week. I've been playing catch-up on this but the short version is that, on the author side of the equation, gone is the industry standard BISAC system which we used to select our categories from – which is good because it didn't match how the Kindle Store was broken down and led to a giant mess of confusion. Now the selection more closely maps what you actually see in the Kindle Store – but we'll dive into that aspect more next time as I wasn't part of the private beta so I'm still playing around with the new system. The ability to add more categories via KDP is now gone also (the Author Central backdoor was axed a while ago). Authors will be limited to three categories when publishing new books, and for existing books which have yet to go through the new category selection system, Amazon isn't just going to let you avoid this limitation by not making any changes – all books will be restricted to three categories, and it seems that this kind of "shadow restriction" has been in place in some form for several months now. Probably the usual split testing we see from Amazon when they are working on new features or changes to the store. (This explains a lot of weirdness we saw with categories for several months now.) The initial reaction might be negative, but I think this will ultimately work out to be positive – for almost every category of author. My hot take is basically quite similar to that of Alex from K-lytics – in that I think this will mostly benefit the midlist, and perhaps newer authors to an extent. The very biggest sellers will lose some visibility for sure – and visibility on Amazon equals sales, of course. The great throbbing midlist of authors should celebrate though as they seem to be the primary beneficiaries – for once. Although all authors and publishers, aside from the top 0.1% perhaps, should be happy that category pollution should finally improve after years of growing problems. Indeed, I think that's a big part of the reason why Amazon has acted here. I strongly suspect that categories – and their associated Best Seller lists and Hot New Release lists – were valuable discovery tools for readers. But the growing trend of books being placed in categories which were wholly unsuitable, but easy to rank in, meant that books from all sorts of genres were popping up in all sorts of places – rendering the categories/charts much less valuable as discovery tools. Which was bad for readers, authors/publishers, and Amazon. And especially bad for self-publishers who used Amazon visibility and category charts to bootstrap themselves to a higher level of sales. So, yes, the biggest sellers will cede some valuable visibility to the midlist (who will in turn cede some slightly less valuable visibility to those trying to get sales going). Books will be corralled into a smaller number of categories but almost all authors/publishers should benefit from cleaner, more accurate categories. Because that makes them much better discovery tools for readers. Speaking from a personal perspective, reader-me had simply stopped perusing certain charts because I knew they were going to be filled with irrelevant books I had no interest in. (And while I see romance authors always getting blamed for squatting in irrelevant categories, authors of all kinds can engage in that nonsense, I assure you.) While we're busting myths, the biggest culprits here, for overall metadata messing, is not romance authors, or self-publishers, or even scammers, in my experience. But UK trade publishers. So there ya go. More next time (and more on burst marketing too – as requested!). Dave P.S. Writing music this week is the sound of my laptop dying again I swear I'm going to--- OK it's Sébastien Tellier with L'amour et la violence. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​