How to drive book sales across every retailer, not just Amazon.

Readers know where they want to buy. Shimmr drives purchasers to your books across a range of retailers – not just Amazon – because catering to that preference is how you capture the most sales. This guide covers the channels we send to, why breadth matters, the sales split you should expect, how to optimize each product page, and where to find the data to check it is working.

The retailers Shimmr sends traffic to

Shimmr drives purchasers to your books on the following e-commerce platforms in the US and UK. Other markets – Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia – are similar, though with market-specific nuances.

Why promoting across multiple platforms matters

People have different preferences when it comes to online book shopping. By targeting multiple e-commerce channels, we increase your book’s visibility and cater to diverse customer preferences. Focusing solely on one platform means missed sales.

It is also good for your rankings on each site. The more traffic that reaches a sales page, the better the algorithms treat the book, because they read traffic as interest. That can produce higher rankings in search results, reorders, and outperformance against competing titles – which in turn drives organic sales on top of the paid activity.

The sales split you should expect

Distribution varies by title, but we generally see the following pattern:

• Amazon – roughly 25–50%. Usually the single largest destination, but rarely the majority.
• Barnes & Noble and Waterstones – roughly 20–35% combined. Many titles show equal preference between these and Amazon.
• Bookshop.org – roughly 15–25%. A consistently popular choice.
• Rakuten Kobo – roughly 10–15%. Smaller, but reliably in the mix.

If you only measure Amazon, you are measuring somewhere between a quarter and a half of what your advertising actually produced.

How to optimize your book pages to convert

Shimmr drives high-intent purchasers to your retail pages. From there, it is up to those pages to close. Four things matter most:

1. High-quality images

Make the most of your imagery, both at the top of the listing and in your A+ Content. More imagery is treated better by the platform and is more engaging for the buyer.

2. An engaging description

Write a compelling, informative, well-formatted book description that includes relevant keywords. Formatting matters as much as wording – a wall of text converts poorly.

3. Reviews

Encourage satisfied readers to leave reviews. Positive social proof influences potential buyers and signals quality to the ranking algorithm.

4. An updated author bio

Include an engaging author biography that showcases credentials and expertise. It is a conversion element, not an afterthought.

Where to find your sales data

Track sales on each platform, not just Amazon. Useful sources include the Amazon Dashboard, KDP Dashboard, Waterstones Mezzanine, the Bookshop.org platform, and the Barnes & Noble Dashboard.

You can also look at where your books are being ordered – depending on distribution, that might be Ingram Spark or BookBaby. Note that these are orders rather than sales. If a retailer is selling through existing stock generated by Shimmr activity, it may not show immediately in orders, because they only reorder once stock runs out.

Finally, if you have access to Nielsen BookScan or Bowker, you can look at uplift in total sales – particularly useful for backlist, where the impact of advertising is easiest to isolate. Be aware that these do not capture 100% of book sales.

The short version

By directing high-intent purchasers to multiple e-commerce platforms and optimizing your book pages to convert them, you maximize discoverability, credibility and sales. Monitoring sales data across all of those platforms – rather than one – is how you evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising and get the most from it.