He made the cut-off. His book would be available on Amazon.com when millions of people around the world were unwrapping their Kindle devices, eager to fill them up. At $2.99, he was competitively priced for books in his category: Mystery > Private Investigators. He emailed all his friends to tell them about it.
Here's how he met the checklist of Kindle Direct Publishing's Tips for Merchandising
Create a compelling cover:
One of the characters in the book is described as follows:
He hadn’t really looked at Laurel since that first night at the Guild Theatre. Then she had reminded him of some actress caught without her makeup. What he hadn’t considered was that actresses, unlike mere mortals, were capable of looking a hell of a lot better. Laurel’s hair wasn’t pulled and tied behind her head. Loosened and styled, it framed and softened her face, falling to her shoulders. Forbes understood the transformative powers of a little eye makeup, mascara. His wife used them on occasion. But she wasn’t starting with Laurel’s eyes. Below the hem of her vintage coat, he could see the difference between heels and hosiery and running shoes and cargo pants.
Laurel Gray is in love with the movies, particularly film noir, so the author found black & white photo of a model wearing make-up. You can be the judge whether it's compelling.
The book was edited and formatted competently. He didn't have time to jump into the social media world, but sent out emails to friends and family to get the word out.
This was the description:
Every heart holds a secret. Some secrets can prove deadly. In this twenty-first century detective noir, Portland, Oregon-based Walter Forbes doesn’t think of himself as hard-boiled. A private eye in a post-private age, he knows how to hack your smartphone, your computer, security cameras, and more. He watches former screenwriter turned ad man Tom Kahane as he completes a campaign for a long-time client who thinks he may have executive potential. All seems routine until Kahane first lays eyes on commercial director Madeleine Barton. Their attraction is both immediate and mysterious. They’re certain that they know each other but can’t remember where or when they met. As Forbes pieces together the ad man’s sketchy past, he begins to think they’ve met as well. But given an assignment laced with references to films noir, neo noir, and Hitchcock, a working knowledge of James M. Cain might prove more useful than surveillance acumen in solving the puzzle before the attraction turns fatal.
He took a breather for a week, and came back to see how many sales he made to people through exposure on the Amazon.com website.
