A really cool way to figure out if your book is fitting in with others in your genre is using a site called Yasiv.  You put in the ASIN of your book, and it will pop up books that are related to yours–if readers of that genre have been buying your book.

If your book is not connected to others in your genre, then the right people (your audience!) are not reading your book.

I’ll show you what I mean:

This is Stuart Bache’s book about making book covers, The Author’s Guide to Cover Design. He’s a popular cover designer and wrote a book about cover design. He did an interview on Joanna Penn’s podcast a bit ago if you want to listen to it.

Anyway, it’s a good selling non-fiction book, and if you look at the books his is connected to, he’s found a good foothold in the non-fiction for indie authors arena.

This is also a great way to find other books you’re interested in. There are a few in this graphic that I wouldn’t mind reading. But I also see a ton of books that I have read as well.

Let’s try with a fiction book.

Don’t Run Away is on the outskirts of all these romance books.

Though my book is low in the rankings right now because I don’t promote it, at least steamy contemporary romance readers are reading it.

What else can you get from using Yasiv?

You can see if your cover is cutting it with others in your genre. This is a great tool to use as research to make sure your cover is going to meet reader expectations of your genre.

What can you do to get readers reading your book?

Buy a promotion. You need to get your book in front of readers (and not your friends!) and buying a promo is the best way to do that. Use a free day if you’re in KU and set up a Freebooksy promo in your genre. It may cost a little bit to give your book away, but it’s better money spent than wasting money on ads if you don’t know what you’re doing. (Plus I always see a little bump in KU page reads so you may not completely lose out on your promo fee.) I lost 70 dollars on ads for The Years Between Us. That money may have been better spent on a promo instead.

Freebooksy has lots of genre categories, and you can look here for the complete list.

Another popular one is E-reader News Today. I haven’t tried this service, but I have a release coming up and this is a service I’ll try.

Anyway, this is a fun little tool to help you find where your book is fitting in, and also finding books to read that are connected to your favorites.

Other articles about Yasiv that you can take a look at:

Using YASIV to understand your market and improve your marketing

Finding Readers with Yasiv

Tell me what you think!