Book Marketing Audit
You published the book and waited for Amazon to do the rest. The sales didn't come or they came and then stopped. Something isn't connecting. This audit tells you exactly what:
When book sales are flat, the instinct is to do more more posts, more ads, more outreach. Doing more of the wrong things doesn't fix anything. It costs more money and takes more time.
The real problem is almost never effort. It is that something specific is broken and no one has identified what it is.
Amazon will not surface a book it cannot properly index. A buyer may never find your book even if they are searching for exactly what you wrote. A listing that does not convert will waste every dollar you spend driving traffic to it.
These are not effort problems. They are diagnosis problems.
Most authors never get a real diagnosis. They get opinions. They get checklists that apply to every book. They get agencies that propose new campaigns before they have looked at why the current listing is not converting.
This audit is a diagnosis. It looks at your specific book, your specific listing, your specific channels and it tells you what is actually broken.
You do not want a generic marketing plan. You want someone to look at your actual book, your actual listing, your actual channels and tell you what is broken and what to do about it.
You may have run ads that did not convert. You may have posted consistently and gotten engagement without sales. You may have hired someone and gotten a report full of suggestions that did not move anything.
The fear is not only that the book isn't selling. It is that you may have written something worth reading and let it disappear without anyone knowing it existed.
This audit is for the author who will not let that be the end of the story.
One requirement: your book must already be published on Amazon.
This is not for you, if:
There is a sequence that has to work before outside marketing can pay off.
If your Amazon listing is not optimized — wrong keywords, wrong categories, missing A+ Content, no Author Central page, a description that opens with your credentials instead of the buyer's outcome — every dollar you spend driving traffic to it is partially wasted.
If the listing is working but your outside path has a leak — an ad that goes to the wrong page, a social post with no purchase link, a boosted post driving to a bio instead of a book page — the traffic arrives and disappears.
Turn on Amazon Ads or run more social posts on top of a broken listing and the ceiling stays exactly where it is. You are not spending your way past it. You are funding it.
The audit finds the leak. You fix the leak. Then the marketing you are already doing starts to work.
A weak keyword limits how many buyers find you.
A wrong category buries the book before they ever see it.
A weak description loses the buyer after the click.
A missing Author Central profile leaves trust on the table at the moment of decision.
A broken social path means traffic is arriving and disappearing with nowhere to go.
The audit tells you which problem matters most so your first fix is not random. It is the one most likely to move the next buyer closer to purchase.
Amazon Listing
Outside Marketing Path
Every element gets a status. Where action is needed, you get a specific recommendation not a suggestion to "improve your keywords."
| Element | Status | Finding & Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Keywords | Needs Work | Backend fields 4–7 are empty. Fields 1–3 duplicate the title; those slots are wasted. Recommend 7 distinct buyer-intent phrases. |
| Category Placement | Opportunity | Primary category is accurate but too competitive at your review count. A lower-competition adjacent category would move you onto a visible bestseller list immediately. |
| Verified Reviews | Needs Work | 6 verified reviews at 4–5 stars. Below the threshold where Amazon surfaces the book to cold buyers organically. Reach 10 before running any paid traffic. |
| Author Central | Needs Work | Profile claimed. Editorial Reviews section empty. Highest-visibility section on the page costs nothing to fill. Add 2–3 quotes. |
| A+ Content | ✓ Current | Live and well-formatted. No changes needed. |
| Book Description | Opportunity | Opens with credentials. First sentence should answer: is this book for me? Rewrite to lead with buyer outcome. |
While this sample shows the primary checklist items, your actual report delivers a forensic audit of every active digital asset standing between your book and its buyers.
You complete the purchase. We send the intake checklist immediately. Screen captures only — no passwords, no account access.
We audit your Amazon listing against all seven discoverability factors. We review your outside marketing path social channels, website, email setup. We map where buyers are entering, converting, and leaving without purchasing.
Every element gets a status and a specific recommendation. Prioritized by impact the highest-leverage fixes come first.
You review the report at your own pace. Then we schedule your 45-minute consultation to walk through findings, answer questions, and confirm next steps together.
Melissa Burch is a co-founder of A&A Publishing and Marketing, a 2x Amazon #1 bestselling author, and a former war journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, CBS News, and BBC.
She runs the diagnostic work behind A&A's major client engagements. When you receive your report and get on the call, you are speaking with the person who reviewed your book page, pulled your competitors, and wrote every line of that report.
Not a template. Not a junior associate running a checklist. The person who actually did the work.
Full Amazon listing review + full outside marketing review.
Written report + 45-minute consultation. Delivered in 7 business days.
No retainer. No recurring charges. One audit, one fee.
The book exists.
The buyers exist.
The break is somewhere between them.
We find the break.