I stumbled across an absolutely fascinating report today. It was put together by BookBub and includes some interesting details on what they learned doing A/B testing of copy on author websites.
For those of you who don’t know, A/B testing refers to dividing site visitors into two random groups, each experiencing the site with one difference. For example, half of the people who arrive on a site would see the text in black (group A) and the other half would see it in red (group B). The testing then measures how the two groups behave differently, ultimately determining whether you get a better response from the group seeing the text in black or the one seeing the text in red. In the case of authors, a good response = a book sale.
This study focused primarily on what authors were featuring in the copy on their websites, how they worded book descriptions, how they included reviews and more.
This really is a must-read for authors. You can view the full report yourself here, but I’ve taken the liberty of including some key takeaways…
What Sells Books
- When including reviews….
- Mention authors, not publications. When the site quoted the actual author (not the publication) that gave the book a rave review, there was a 30.4 percent higher click-through rate.
- Include the number of reviews. When a book had at least 150 five-star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, mentioning the exact number of five-star reviews in the copy increased clicks an average of 14.1 percent.
- When writing book promo copy…
- Mention your genre up front. The example in the test compared “If you love thrillers, don’t miss this action-packed read!” to just “An action-packed read!” The one that clearly mentioned “thrillers” got 15.8 percent more clicks.
- Cite the time period (when applicable). In the case of historical fiction, the site that clearly cited the time period had increased clicks at an average of 25.1 percent.
- When promoting yourself…
- Don’t forget awards! If you have won any writing awards in the past — either for this book or other writings — mentioning it would increase clicks an average of 6.7 percent.
What Doesn’t Sell Books
The report also includes a list of things included in author copy that made no difference at all in the A/B testing. Examples included:
- Mentioning if the book is a bestseller (surprisingly, people didn’t care)
- Writing the book promo as a question (i.e. “Will Sandy find her daughter?” vs. “Sandy searches for her daughter.”
- Citing the ages of the characters in the book
- Mentioning if it is a debut novel
The report goes on to explain various ways that you can try A/B testing on your own site to find out what is working best in terms of selling books.
I don’t know about you, but I find this information absolutely fascinating. It certainly is going to help me better guide authors that I work with on the dos and don’ts of author website copy going forward.