Your novel is polished to perfection, you have a phenomenal cover and spectacular blurb; now what?

Select the appropriate genre. Sounds simple enough, but there are some things you need to consider before choosing the obvious one. During the set-up process, you are allowed up to seven search keywords.

These are extremely important because customers searching by keywords vs. a specific genre will be able to find your novel.

• Who is your target audience? Gender and age are factors, but choosing the best sub-genre is as important as selecting the main genre.

• Encompass the widest possible audience. One way to discover the most popular sub-genres is to check out categories on sites like Amazon. In the Kindle Store, each genre has its own set of sub-genres.

• Pull up the top 100 freebie listings in your genre to see how they are categorizing their novels. Not only does this enable you to determine which sub-genres will suit your novel, but it also gives you ideas for new or different categories to consider.

Keywords are incredibly important if you want your book to be found.

Think about how you search for ebooks online - chances are you're using keywords. Here are a couple of things you should consider when picking your own keywords:

• Avoid repeating title and main category/genre words, as these are already in use within your listing.

• Choose keywords frequently used in a search, vs. words specific to your novel. Let's take a romance with elements of suspense, set in Santa Cruz, California, for example. Prime keywords would be: Mystery & Suspense, Women’s Fiction, Genre Fiction, Action & Adventure, Literary Fiction.

• For the last few keywords, use a broad category like 'detective', 'crime', or, 'thriller'. Avoid using words specific to the novel, like 'Santa Cruz', 'beach', or, 'California', because most customers will not hone down their search that tight.

• Keywords are counted based on commas: 'Action & Adventure', 'Mystery & Suspense', 'Horror' ~ you've used five words, but actually these only count as three keywords.

Now you get to price your novel. Easy, right?

You spent a gazillion hours writing and editing and finding the perfect cover, so you should charge accordingly. About $150 an ebook should cover it, minus the pain and suffering which goes with the territory, of course. One small problem; no one will buy it at that price. And there is the conundrum all Indie writers run in to: If I price it too high, no one will buy. If I price it too low, people will think it’s substandard and not buy.

• Research! Find out the average price of ebooks in your genre. Genre makes a huge difference. The market is flooded with romance novels, meaning supply is high & cost is lower.

• Consider the size of your novel. A 120,000 word novel should be priced higher than a 60,000 word one.

• Experiment! If you price your novel at $3.99 and it’s not selling, lower the price to $2.99 and see what happens.

• Sale volume often makes up for price difference. Do be patient before deciding to adjust the pricing though; it may take a while for your sales to pick up momentum.

WEbook Ebook Giveaway!

This month we're going to be giving away copies of Kimberley Reeves' Broken
Read an excerpt...

In order to be in with a chance of winning this month's prize, all you need to do is answer this question:

What is the name of the town in India where, 'Songs from the Laughing Tree', is set?